Nero Horror Mashup

What did we learn?
how to edit to the beat
how to be abstract
how different speeds makes it more interesting
using different effects
we learnt that we work really well as a team

What did we find challenging?
the amount of shots we had to use and time them on to the beat
keeping a story/concept

Everything, Everything-Photoshop Handsome

"Everything, Everything-Photoshop Handsome" music video
In lesson we were made to listen to a song and plan a music video just from listening to the audio. We wrote down things that we associated with the music and mentally placed it into a genre in order to plan the music video that we -as a group- would make for this song. Me, Zara and Alex imagined the music video to involve a house party because of the upbeat and indie nature of the song, involving some performance aspects from the band to highlight the importance of their instruments and the fact that the band would hold performing live as a key aspect to their nature. We also imagined there to be a carnival/circus incorporated within this to add a more abstract level to the video with stereotypically retro objects placed within it. We then listened to Matt's juxtaposing ideas of the music video being animated and involving a video game nature to it -an idea which he came up with from listening closely to the lyrics- and decided to incorporate his ideas into our final plan and merge the two together.
Our final idea was that the music video would take place in a house party and that someone there (most likely a band member) would be playing on a retro game station and that each video game character would relate to a person at the house party and their actions would be linked too. For instance the lyric 'dorsal fin' could be interpreted as sharks which could be placed in the video game and represent a group of boyish lads at the party, and if someone were to punch someone in the game, it would also happen in real life at the party. The band would also be performing in an animated way in the game and also in real life to give the performance aspect of the video. Bright colours would be injected into it, with flashing images and cuts and movements matched to the beat of the song. The retro and colourful aspects of our music video would be genre related as they are stereotypical elements that are usually associated with indie music-which was what you could classify the song as.
Every other group in our class came up with similar ideas of the music video being a video game, and after watching the original video, we saw that all of our ideas were completely different to what it actually was (a series of photoshopped and green screen images of the band members) though ofcourse, we felt that our ideas were a lot better than the original :).
-Annaliese

Video Concept: Pounding-The Doves

We were given the task to create a concept for a music video for the song 'Pounding' by The Doves. We decided to film us explaining our ideas for the different areas: the concept, the mood, mise en scene, camera work and editing. The video explains all of our main ideas and a short animation to describe our ideas.
We learn a lot from this task, for example to make all of our ideas come together and to think about the different areas especially camera work and editing.

Our idea for 'Pounding' The Doves

Official video for 'Pounding' The Doves

Elephant Gun- Beirut

We were set the task to come up with an idea for a potential music video for Elephant Gun. We were given the lyrics and then listened to the song and were told to write down anything we associated with it.

We then discussed our thoughts and came up with a collective idea for the video, which featured a mixture of narrative and performance and incorporated the lyrics, including the title 'elephant gun'.

We then elaborated on the idea and came up with a detailed narrative. The video would begin on a dark street, with mid shots and close ups of a homeless man walking along the pavement and drinking. He then falls over at the lyrics 'we drink to die'. There is then a pov looking at the man, and a close up of the mans face as he looks up, surprised. A close up of a trunk is then seen, revealing the presence of an elephant. There is then a mid shot of the man and elephant, and a pov from inside the mans pocket as he pulls out his 'elephant gun'. It zooms out and on the lyrics 'take the big king down', the homeless man shoots the elephant with his elephant-shaped gun. The man then morphs into an elephant. An aerial shot then zooms out to show that the whole street is filled with elephants all sitting by tents with campfires. The two elephants then join trunks and walk off into the distance.

After storyboarding this idea, we were shown the real video and saw many comparisons between our ideas and the real video, including the use of elephants.

Interestingly, our concept for My Little Haunting takes some inspiration from the use of masks, incorporated performance and bright mise en scene of this video.

Michel Gondry Essay

Michel Gondry is a visual artist that focuses on creative visions rather than the need of the music video to promote and sell the artist.

In most of Gondry’s videos he doesn’t even involve the artist in the video. Even when he does there isn’t much performance shown. His videos are very dream like and take a strange and different approach to what the song may be about. He makes the concept of his videos more by the sound of the song rather than associating it with the lyrics or the meaning of the song.

Firstly, Gondry doesn’t show the artist in a good or bad light. For example in the video for around the world by Daft Punk, they are not seen in it. Gondry said he “separated each instrument in my mind” so this shows that Gondry made this video based on the sounds he heard, he imagined the bas line as athletes with small heads and the vocoder as robots because of the electronic sound. This video has been created to give a visual representation of the song and not to make Daft Punk look good. In the White stripes video for The Hardest Button to Button he does show some performance aspect of the song, however he uses it to show the breakdown of the sounds in the song. Gondry said that in the chorus the song gets louder so “Jacks amplifier will grow bigger” Even though there is performance in this video which could promote the bands performance he has only used it to convey the creative visions he had of the sounds of the song growing.

Secondly, in the Foo Fighters video for Everlong Gondry said he felt the song was “a great mix of adolescent energy & romanticism” so it shows how Gondry hears a song and can pinpoint the feel or mood of the song rather than thinking how he could promote the band. The Foo Fighter’s are seen in this video, but rather than playing, they are part of the narrative, there is barely any performance in this video. This goes against the tradition rock genre video of which the focus is usually on the performance and instruments of a band. However, in this video Dave Grohl is seen beating the bad guys and saving his ‘wife’, this could be perceived as band promotion as it makes it look like Foo Fighters are heroes and save the day. This video is based on the dreams of Dave and his ‘wife’ so it is more visual than just watching the band play. The audience of the video has to focus on what is happening to understand the dream like state and the dreams story. This shows that although some may see this video as promotion it is mainly focusing on the visuals than the actual band. The is the same for Daft Punk, White Stripes and The Chemical Brothers video let forever be where there are many visual effects of a woman who appears to multiply and then condense in to one person.

Overall I feel that Gondry does focus mainly on making his videos visually creative and interesting rather than promoting the band. The main reason being that the videos he makes are like visual representations of the sound or mood of the song rather than just showing a band play or telling the main message of a song. Gondry shows creativity through his effects and they all come from visions in his mind. However, it is possible that as an effect of his videos and visions bands could appear to be promoted.

Michael Gondry's Work

Michael Gondry is a visual artist that focuses on his creative vision rather than the need of a music video to promote and sell the artist.

Michael Gondry is a French music video director and is recognised by his unusual visions and unique use of mise en scene.  He is a renowned director and has worked with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Daft Punk, and The White Stripes. He tends to focus on a vision that he has rather than a need to promote the artist.

Gondry said in an interview that much of his inspiration came from the film La voyage en ballon and said “when I watch this movie, I dream I’m flying and then I do stories where people are flying. I think it’s directly influencing”. Gondry is strongly influenced by a vision that he has for the song or artist rather than the emphasis being promoting them or making them ‘look good’. One of his videos, around the world by Daft Punk was a vision that consisted of him thinking of the music as the main focus rather than Daft Punk themselves. His concept was abstract but clear, as he thought of different people being different parts of the song for example skeletons as the ‘itchy’ guitars and the androids representing the robotic voice. Instead of thinking about what he saw he created a video based on what he heard, this was also a chance for Gondry to bring organised dancing to his videos  as he said before that “ [he] was sick to see choreography being mistreated in videos like filler with fast cutting and fast editing, really shallow. I don't think choreography should be shot in close-ups”.

 Another example of his creative visions is shown in the video for The White Stripes was the third of four videos directed by Gondry for the band. This video again follows the same concept of around the world as it is based on the sounds of the music rather than the artist. Gondry said that "When I heard the song, it was so incredible; I knew I had to do the video. It's the shape of the song that gave me the idea”. The video was tough ordeal taking three 16-hour days to complete, all in the daylight. However it has shown to be worth it Jack White [the white stripes] said “I think it's one of the greatest videos ever made. Michel Gondry is so brilliant and such a child at the same time. He's so perfect and I love the way he works and nobody gets in his way”. Thus was nominated for best direction, breakthrough video, best special effects, best editing and finally best video.

Most artists and record labels use music videos as a tool for self promotion and most directors therefore take the approach to make the artists centre of attention, however Gondry has challenged this and has taken a different approach which has caught the eye of many artists, he still contains the artists and had a level of promotion for them however when thinking up his concepts he does not take this into account.

Music video directors: Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry is a French film-maker and alongside the music videos that he has directed, for artists such as Beck and Foo Fighters, he has also directed various commercials and films, including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which featured the same obscure manipulation of mise en scene seen in Gondry's music videos. After researching Gondry, we were told to think about the following question: Michel Gondry is a visual artist that focuses on his creative vision rather than the need of a music video to promote and sell the artist. Discuss. Michel Gondry is a French film-maker, famous for his innovative input into the rapidly emerging concept of the music video. Gondry, arguably, creates music videos, of which he has produced for artists from Bjork and The Rolling Stones to Beck and The Vines, as a way of expressing his imaginative, emotional and creative side in cinematic form. However, Gondry could also be seen to create music videos in order to help to market the artists and their music to audiences: helping to promote the single and create an image to represent the artist.      

         Michel Gondry does focus on his own creative vision whilst making music videos and this is demonstrated by his reputation. Gondry is well-known for his inventive manipulation of mise en scene, in particular, taking influence from dreams and flying, which helps to mould his iconic, surreal style. For example, the video for Daft Punks' song, 'Around The World', allowed Gondry to focus on imaginative lighting and costume in order to create his ideal atmosphere in correspondence to the music. He stated that 'I separated each instrument in my mind', and from this, Gondry devised various 'people' to coincide with the 'patterns' of music. Also, Gondry emphasises that he does not conform to genre conventions, as although 'Around The World' features a dance sequence, he said that 'I would do it my way: no expression, no fast editing, no close ups', as he only wishes to express his own vision, and not a stereotypical dance video.

Also, in Gondrys' videos, the artist or band are not usually featured in the video, or at times they are seen very little, and instead the focus is on the concept, as in 'Mad World' by Gary Jules, in which Jules is only visible briefly as the camera pans to him, but then returns back to an aerial shot of the main action. Moreover, it could be argued that there is little focus on the song, including lyrics and music, and instead the audience is drawn in to the particular notion presented by Gondry. Foo Fighters' 'Everlong', although it features the band members acting in the video, and a short performance section, the majority of the video focuses on a narrative that Gondry described as his 'ultimate fantasy', again being influenced by the concept of dreams. The lyrics and beat are relatively detached from the concept, and thus the video was made as Gondry felt he 'had to do the video' as when he heard the song, his 'brain exploded with ideas', rather than on the basis of promoting the Foo Fighters.

However, many videos that Gondry has directed help to promote the artist, as many artists and bands feature in the video. The White Stripes' 'The Hardest Button To Button' follows Meg and Jack and their respective instruments solely, emphasising the beat of the music by repeating the images of the drums, amp and microphone, which not only promotes the song, but also helps to sell the band.

Despite this, the extent to the focus on the artist is arguable, as Gondrys' style does not often concentrate on performance or a pre-conceived image of the band or artist; rather the video is seen as another form of artwork in itself, and this can help the band to gain a certain image or reputation in using Gondrys' stylistic visuals to present their music, which could be seen as a marketing tool in itself as many of his videos gain instant popularity.