Woodkid by Iron

This video is for the band Iron which Yoann Lemoine is a member of and the song is Woodkid. Like the previous video’s I have looked at, the video is shot in black & white however this time with a much darker tone. There is also slow motion used in the video (similar that that used in the Take Care video using animals) which fits the tone of the song.

The video has a real cinematic feel to it, I mainly think because it builds as the song does to a grander ending. The video repeats lots of key images such as animals (mainly wolves or dogs) and keys so it has a constant theme running throughout it and all the people in the video have a similar style to them. 

The video almost looks like the people in it are going to battle and has a creepy edge to it because of the old-fashioned weapons in it and also the darker black 7 white colour of the entire video. I think this is very powerful for audiences as it creates an atmosphere for the song which they might relate to at certain times and will remember it on the feeling they got when they watched it which is a powerful tool with music. 

All of the effects used in the video also make it seem cinematic – such as the crashing clouds of black which come down from the sky onto the people. Clearly, it would be difficult for me and Kirsty to recreate something like this however what is important is that this video is run on powerful imagery and a powerful narrative which might make viewers think after watching it. 

 What most appeals to me about this music video is that it is very different in its style and construction to most music videos you might see on the music channels which makes it stand out and makes audiences remember it. Obviously, me and Kirsty want out music video to fit conventions but we also want there to be something different about our music video which would make audiences curious and want to see it again for another reason because it is so memorable and unique.  

Take Care Drake ft Rihanna

This music video is another one directed by Yoann Lemoine who directed Lana Del Rey's Blue Jeans video seen in my earlier entry.

The entire video is shot in black & white but its not dark it has a bright quality to it. Lemoine uses slow motion on some parts: e.g. to show the bird flying which gives the video a dramatic effect and the feeling to the viewer that it is trying to express a deeper message. there are also a lot of animals used in the video.


Animals and natural scenery are also in the video to break it up from the singers Drake and Rihanna which make the video look more impressive. Again, slow motion is used which give them deeper meaning.




Lemoine use a variety of camera angels in the video also to capture different sides of the artists. He switches between them very quickly so you feel as the audience you are moving around the artist as they perform and you get to see the best expression or position of the body for what they are singing about at that moment. This is similar to how a camera moves when someone is dancing so you can see the shape they are creating with their body at the best position.






The camera also zooms in and out a lot during this video getting closer to the artist and moving away again. This could reflect the lyrics of the video about having someone close to you and worried they will leave you. 


Also, although we have been taught never to look directly into the camera, in the video Rihanna looks straight at the camera as if she is looking to the audience which gives them immediate connection to her and what she is singing about. 





The main focus of the video is the two artists which puts more emphasis on what the lyrics are saying which i think is an effective way to shoot a music video for a slower song with more meaning than say a dance track. The camera always cuts back to them as a pair and shows the facial expressions of each one so the audience feel they can sense the emotions of each artist. This video isn't driven by a narrative and is clearly shot in a studio which instantly makes it look very professional. Although some of the things in the video, such as the animals and using a studio, may be very difficult for me and Kirsty to do i like how the emotions are portrayed in this video and I also like how it is a very simple idea but well executed.

Which Song Should We Choose?

We have found two great covers of two Lana Del Rey tracks which we are undecided on which to use for our final music video. The songs, lyrically, are very different but have the same sombre tone to them. Blue Jeans has a video made for it while Dark Paradise does not. Here are the two tracks we are choosing between:


Blue Jeans 

Dark Paradise

Personally, I like the Dark Paradise cover more as its slightly different to the original so we could change things from a usual Lana Del Rey-type music video to make it our own.

Some Ideas...To Develop

Me and Kirsty have been looking at ideas on how to make our video stylish, current and artistic as well as tell some kind of story or message. For inspiration we began looking at video's on Vimeo and we came across this video of a girl dancing. Lots of current 'chart' music video's have dancing in them (although not quite like the dancing in this video!) but dance is also a great way to express emotion and tell a story. We really liked the idea of having someone dancing in our video, maybe not having the whole video of just someone dancing but breaking it up with other things. Here is the video we found which inspired us:

Obviously, we may not be able to create this professional standard of dancing however it helped us begin thinking of other ways we could make our music video look and different ways to tell a story then by a basic narrative which may not come across. 


Last year when creating Science Boys we had to re-shoot because our idea was strong enough so to show we have progressed hopefully this year and this project we will have done enough research and investigation to come up with a clear & strong idea so we are fully prepared.


Power of Dance


Personally, I have a real passion for dance because you can tell a story without words and make some beautiful shapes and lines. We don't know any professional dancers that may be able to help us with our music video but we may still be able to find a way to include dance in some way. Although previous Lana Del Rey videos don't have dance routines in them (many of the videos we've looked at don't), we don't just want to create a low-budget version of one of her previous videos. A captivating piece of dance can be very memorable and this may encourage audiences to view the video again, which all makes money for the artist which is what a music video is all about. It also might open Lana Del Rey's music up to a wider audience as it is great contemporary dance music but may be undiscovered as this hasn't been expanded on before in her videos.

Preliminary Video = Not Great!

For our preliminary video, me and Kirsty stuck to a very simple idea: we followed one character through corridors and then saw him come out of a room with an envelope then pass it on to another person. We learnt from last year that it is very hard to pull off a complex idea with the equipment we have available to us and also the time we have.

            However, the video is definitely not one of our best pieces. As the idea was so basic, it isn’t very exciting and there isn’t a wide enough range of shots. Also, we still hadn’t decided what song we were definitely going to do for our music video so we just chose one and stuck it over the video once we had edited meaning we didn’t edit to the music. Clearly, the result we had did not look like a professional music video! However, the whole point of doing the preliminary video is to make sure we don’t make these mistakes for our actual final piece. Therefore, I have learnt that for a music video we need to be more exciting and challenge ourselves with what we can produce. Also, we need to have clearly chose which song we are going to do so we tailor the video precisely to that song and then when editing, edit to the track.

            The idea for our preliminary video came from wanting some mystery in the video so audiences would want to watch it again and this idea I still like and want to incorporate into our final piece. What I feel is the most important part of creating a music video is to capture the mood of the song and try and portray the thoughts of the artist as they wrote it. This is why I really like Lana Del Rey’s music as I think it fits a particular mood and has strong imagery in her lyrics. Also, by looking at her previous music videos she has an ‘old-school’ retro-movie feel to her songs and videos which I think would be exciting for me and Kirsty to re-create in our own way.

            So, we haven’t posted our preliminary video because a) we didn’t finish editing it in time before we broke up for summer b) it isn’t an exciting piece of film making and c) it’s not one of our best pieces. However, we will be posting it later on so look out! 

Yoann Lemoine

As me and Kirsty plan on making a music video for a Lana Del Rey song, we decided to look much deeper into the work of director Yoann Lemoine who directed her videos for Born to Die, Blue Jeans and her new single National Anthem. We hope that by looking at the particular style of videos he creates for Lana Del Rey we can capture some of that in our video to be consistant with her work. Nowadays, music videos help build up an image for an artist and that is very prevelant with lots of Lana Del Rey's work.

Born to Die Video

 "It's a controversial video." is what Lana Del Rey said about the work; she came up with the concept for the video and worked with Lemoine in creating it. At the beginning of the videe, there is an American flag in the background which was an animated version of the flag on the cover of the Born to Die album. Leomoine studied animation and graphic design as well as being a photographer and that is obvious in the video with the shots he creates. When the video was leaked out, Lemoine commented "Generally, I'm a man of few words, but I will say that this video is the most beautiful thing I've ever done."


Ironically, unlike her video for Blue Jeans the video for Born to Die ends up with Lana and the man who plays her boyfriend in the video walking away alive. This helps keep up the unexpected nature of her videos. The video is very stylish and has very beautiful settings; it has a very good picture quality making it look almost cinematic.






Blue Jeans video
If you've seen my previous post you will see the Blue Jeans video and a break-down of the video. This video definatly has an old movie style to it shot in black & white with a crisp image. Unlike the video for Born to Die only one location is used and more of a narrative is used. However, the same male actor who played Del Rey's boyfrined in the Born to Die video also appears in Blue Jeans as if her songs tell stories about this relationship.
Both videos, and both songs, have a moody sense to them which Lemoine always captures in the video's he creates.




I'm going to be looking at more Yoann Lemoine music video's in future blogs and breaking them down - not just ones he has created for Lana Del Rey.

Blue Jeans by Lana Del Rey

This video was directed by Yoann Lemoine (who has worked with Lana Del Rey on numerous videos). The entire video is black and white giving it a old film-like quality adding to the old-style glamour of Lana Del Rey.

The video begins with rippling water with Lana's face also rippling in the water to the beat of the song. Immediately because the video is shot in black & white it gives it a classy look and reflects the serious and sombre mood of the song. 

The tropical setting of the video also helps make it look expensive and give it that old-style Hollywood style to the video. This all works with Lana's make-up and outfit in the video as well. There are shots into the palm trees showing light trying to get through which are really beautiful and reflect the beautiful side to the song. Also, the surrounding shows that this is a love song. There are also lots of close-up on Lana's face as she sings showing her emotions to the song which helps get the message of the song to the viewers. 

Even though the video is in black & white, the light and shade working together in the video makes the video more moody and interesting.

The video ends with Lana being drowned in the pool which does show the sombre tone to the song and to the video. It is very serious and not like usual cheesy pop videos you see more frequently. It is stylish and deeper than most videos destined to make an impact on the audience.

Artist & Director Research: Music Video Conventions

Me and Kirsty are working together in our project to create a music video. We haven’t yet decided on the song we are going to create the video for, however we do know we would like to do either a Lana Del Rey song or a Delilah song. Therefore, we have researched into some of their videos and then looked at the directors of their videos to gain inspiration and see the conventions of their music videos instead of looking at a specific genre. This is because the genre for these artists is varied in how it is classified, some calling it indie pop others chamber pop or pop, electronica or even ambient.

Lana Del Rey…

…is an American singer-songwriter known for the critical acclaim her debut album Born to Die received. She has released music videos for her tracks Born to Die, Video Games, Blue Jeans, Summertime Sadness, Carmen and is soon to be releasing the video for her new release National Anthem. She has described herself as "self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra".

Delilah…

…is a British singer-songwriter who is due to release her album From the Roots Up in the summer of 2012. She collaborated with Chase & Status for the track Time which had a very deep video showing domestic violence from the point-of-view of the teenage daughter of the couple. She has videos for songs Love You So, Go and Breathe.

Yoann Lemoine…

…is a French director who has directed many music videos, as well as being a musician himself. We discovered him by beginning looking at the Lana Del Rey video Born to Die which he directed. He also directed music videos for:

• Take Care – Drake ft Rihanna
• Blue Jeans – Lana Del Rey
• Mistake  – Moby
• National Anthem – Lana Del Rey
• Iron – Woodkind (the band he is a member of)

We will be analysing some of his videos in later blog entries to look at the codes & conventions of our music video and gaining inspiration.

Emil Nava…

...is also a music video director. While looking at interesting videos, we looked at Paloma Faith’s video for her new song Picking Up the Pieces which was directed by Nava. Also by Nava:

• Love You So – Delilah
• Do It Like A Dude – Jesse J
• Nobody’s Perfect – Jesse J
• Yeah Right – Dionne Bromfield
• Lego House – Ed Sheeran
• Finish Line – Yasmin
• Who’s Laughing Now – Jesse J
• You Need Me I Don’t Need You – Ed Sheeran

We will be analysing some of Nava’s music videos in later blog entries also.

These are going to be the two directors we focus on to gain the codes and conventions for our music video as well as looking at the style of the videos they create and gaining inspiration.

NOTE: you can type either directors name into Vimeo.com to gain access to their work if you would like to see any of these videos.

Record Breaking Music Video's

These music videos have been recognised for their record breaking status. You can watch them all on YouTube (although some have age requirements to watch!)

The most expensive music video to create cost $7,000,000 to make! It was for Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson’s video Scream released in 1995. The second most expensive video to make was made by Madonna for her James Bond track, Die Another Day, costing $6,000,000 to make in 2002.

Also winning longest running music video is Michael Jackson with Ghost which is a sort of mini-movie which is 38 minutes and 52 seconds long. However, Thriller is the second longest running music video.

Justin Bieber’s music video for Baby is still the most popular and most viewed music video on YouTube. However, in less than a year Jennifer Lopez ft Pitbull’s song On the Floor has risen to 500 million views!

Group Eytan and The Embassy broke a record for having 18 costume changes in their video Everything Changes without any editing.

Some music videos have got recognition because of the restriction put on them. These music videos were banned from MTV before the watershed due to their content! Madonna’s Like a Prayer, Justify Your Love, Erotica and What It Feels Like For A Girl were all banned from MTV. Enrique Inglesias’ video for his 2000 song Sad Eyes was banned due to it showing sexual content. In 2012, M.I.A’s song Born Free was banned due to the violence shown in the video; this video was even temporarily removed from YouTube. More recently, Rihanna’s S&M required people to be over 18 to watch it on YouTube and most of the video cut and censored to be shown.

Music Video Inspiration: Madonna VS Monroe

The video for Madonna’s Material Girl was inspired by the song Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend from the Marilyn Monroe film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Madonna herself said in a 1987 interview about the video, "Well, my favourite scene in all of Monroe's movies is when she does that dance sequence for 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend'. And when it came time to do the video for the song [Material Girl], I said, I can just redo that whole scene?”

The video combines acting as well as a dance routine similar to that in Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend showing the story of a man trying to impress Madonna with flowers instead of diamonds. This combination of acting and dancing to create an overall performance is common in many pop videos even today and Material Girl was recorded in 1985.

Not only was Material Girl inspired by a film, it has also been in used in films such as the musical Moulin Rouge. Continuing the theme of being inspired by Marilyn Monroe, in 1991 Madonna copied Monroe’s poses for a Vanity Fair magazine shoot.

The song created a legacy for Madonna, helping her brand herself. Years after the songs release, Madonna was still nicknamed the ‘material girl’. Debates sparked off across the world about whether the song and video empowered women or did not.

This shows how videos can be inspired by other videos and then pass that inspiration on to things such as films. However, Material Girl also shows how a video can contribute towards the overall brand of an artist.

History of Music Video's: the 1960's

In 1961, a Canadian programme began called Singalong Jubilee which pre-recorded music then added film footage to it. This helped provide bands and musicians with coverage of their music and gain attention. For example, Jan & Dean’s song Surf City was one of the first music video’s in the Top 40 in 1963 and then reached number 1. Following this was the UK’s first music television programme called Ready Steady Go on ITV in 1963. Then, in 1964 Top of the Pops began on the BBC.

However, in 1964 the Beatles released their film A Hard Day’s Night which coincided with their album of the same name. It was shot in black-and-white as a documentary which included comedy, dialogue and of course music. Also, in 1965 the Beatles filmed Help! This has a story to it with the band being followed through different countries along with their songs included in it. The Beatles would in 1967 release TV promos for Penny Lane and also Strawberry Fields Forever. However, in 1966 the Monkees’ TV show began on NBC in America which also had dialogue along with songs by the Monkees.

To watch the trailer for A Hard Day's Night  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0eJEX5c1sM 

In December 1967, the Beatles made an hour long TV film broadcasted on Boxing Day on the BBC called Magical Mystery Tour. The band wrote and directed it and the sequences for songs Your Mother Should Know and I am the Walrus were then used as actual music videos in their own right. A year before that, Bob Dylan’s music video for Subterranean Homesick Blues which has Bob Dylan going through large cards with writing on was released. Then in 1968, the Kink’s made one of the first music video’s with a plot for their single Dead End Street which was like a miniature, comic film.

History of Music Video's: Origins

In the 1920's, Fischinger experimented with a mixture of sound and visuals. Then in 1927, the first sound film The Jazz Singer came out. Followed by, in the 1930's, with the soundies...

1927, The Jazz Singer film

Music was played by popular artists inbetween cartoons being shown on television. Warner Brothers and Disney produced short cartoons with music such as The Looney Tunes and Disney's Fantasia which visually interprets classical music.

Walt Disney's Fantasia
The animation was released in 1940 containing music from Leopold Stokowski. The film was originally designed to proivde a 'comeback' for Mickey mouse who had declined in popularity. To produce the sound, Disney used Fantasound. Although it initially didn't make a profit, it has been re-released numerous times and in 2012 grossed $76.4 million!
The idea of Fantasia is to visual show music and interpret music to make classical music more accsesible.