Comparison of Michael Buble and Tom Jones video

In class, we were asked to compare two music videos either in terms of genre or in terms of form (in this case, performance). The two videos that I have chosen to compare are similar in terms of genre (both videos have themes of jazz and pop) and form (both are performance). The genre and form of these two videos are somewhat similar to those of which we plan to do for our final task. When comparing the videos, I noticed a number of similarities, despite the gap in which the two songs were recorded.

- Both singers have similar costume (white shirt and suit)
- Both have the similar stances (they are the focal point in the frame)
- The background to both videos is simplistic (lighting in the 'Cry me a River' video is the only notable difference).
- There is only really a variety of shots in the 'Cry me a River' video.
- There are no accompanying instruments.
- There is no evidence of narrative in either video

Both of these videos are all performance in terms of their form, which is why they were useful to compare as that is the form of which we have made the decision to choose for our final task. I think that while they were both all performance, the 'Cry me a River' video was perhaps more similar to the type of video of which we were want to produce (as it used a variety of shots). In addition, I liked the idea of the lighting in the 'Cry me a River' video as although it was simplistic, I feel that it gave the video and the singer a sense of professionalism that perhaps the Tom Jones video, from the 1970's, lacked.  

Research - Comparing Media Texts




 

POV Shot from ‘Halloween’ (1978)

 

•On the right, is a famous Point of View shot used in the opening of the famous horror film ‘Halloween’. I chose to use this type of shot in my opening as I think it gives a sense of ambiguity and intrigue to the audience.

•In the case of the film ‘Halloween’, it is not even clear as to whose eyes we are looking through, adding to the mystery and making us wonder what the aim of this character is. 

I think that due to the fact that the Point of View shot in my film opening was similar in terms of its lighting and setting, it was able to create the same atmosphere of tension that we expect to be created in films from the horror genre. POV Shot from my film opening (left).elow).

The Vixens Video Analysis

In class we looked at student-made music video for the song 'Voodoo Child' by the band 'The Vixens'. We looked at the four micro-elements and picked out reasons as to why each element was successful.



The main pros of this were:

Editing 

Lip Syncing - this was really in time. There were only a few instances where the timing was not in sync.

The timing of the music - this was done very well with the music fitting the tempo of the editing. For example, the cuts were faster when the sped up in the chorus.

Match on Action - this was part of the editing that was smooth. The match on action with the locket was a quick transition as it was not noticeable that it took place, given the smoothness of the transition.

Mise-en-scene 


Mannequin - this was one of the props that they chose to use. I thought that it was interesting as it fit the style and the quirky nature of the song.

Costume - It was obvious from the video that they put a lot of emphasis on costume. It was clear that they had planned what type of costume and colours they were going to use. They used mainly primary colours for the costumes and I believe this fitted well with the image they were trying to create.

The lighting was simplistic and symmetrical. Even though the lighting was not the most extravagant, it was a simplicity that I feel worked.

Camerawork


The camera was steady almost all of the time. They were only a few instances where the camera shook and even this was minimal.

They were a range of shots used, particularly in the narrative part of the video, with very little repetition. Some of these shots that I thought were interesting were the match on action shots, as I feel they were done streamlessly.

Decision on Michael Buble

While we had been thinking about the possibility of doing an unplugged song, we also thought it would be interesting to explore other types of songs. We have had the idea for a while for the narrative of our video to feature the theme of a relationship, and so we looked for songs that would suit this narrative. While we had dismissed using many of the songs that we had previously looked at, we found that they led us onto other genres with conventions that fitted better with the ideas we had in mind. One of the artists we had researched is Michael Buble. Out of his selection of songs, we thought that his song 'Crazy Love' was most relevant to our ideas. One of these reasons behind the choice of this song was due to our ideas of how we could interpret the lyrics.

And when I'm returning from so far away 
She give me some sweet loving, brighten up my day 
Yes it makes me righteous, it makes me feel whole 
And it makes me mellow down to my soul 

Alter Bridge Shot

Above is a shot from the music video 'Broken Wings' by the band 'Alter Bridge'. This is one shot that we particularly liked. The effect of the shining light has on the shot not only enhances the feel and visuals of the video, but it also goes very well with the lyrics from the song. 

On broken wings I'm falling
And it won't be long
The skin on me is burning
By the fires of the sun
On skinned knees
I'm bleeding
And it won't be long
I've got to find that meaning
I'll search for so long'

We think that we may consider using this type of lighting effect in the future when it comes to filming our own video. 

Song Research - Different versions of Korn

Although we are narrowing down our choices in terms of what type of song we would want to do - we still  have some important factors about the song to discuss. The song 'Love song' by Korn was one song that we have strongly considered doing - although we are undecided as to whether to unplugged version or whether it could be potentially beneficial to do a heavier version, which is more conventional of the typical songs Korn do. As a result we have chose to compare the two videos.



When comparing the atmosphere of the song with the heavy version, a different mood came across due to the choice of different instruments. The instruments used in the unplugged version, eg. acoustic guitars led me to believe that the song would be more suited to our style in this format. For this, we thought that the idea of a relationship storyline would be ideal, as it would suit the unplugged version, which is far less heavy than the version below. We felt that in the case of the heavy version, it would be far more suited to performance than narrative, as we thought that we could picture the below version being played at a concert with an energetic crowd, which is certainly not the case for the unplugged version.

Research - Evanescence

I have the initial idea of having slow-motion shots which connote the mood of loss of identity. The woman in the video is seen as being sad, particularly near the end, where, unlike most other music videos, there is no equilibrium established. Sarah has lots of images of a solo ballet dancer in a studio, which we felt would match the lyrics, which explain the loss of identity throughout.

Analysis of Two Videos

For my research, I have looked into two different within the same style of music. I have chosen to compare 'My Immortal' by Evanescence and 'Famous Last Words' by My Chemical Romance in order to understand the different shots used, and to consider if I want to use any of these shots in my own video. In looking at the video for 'My Immortal', the music video can be classed as mainly performance, although there are come elements of narrative included it in as well.



In comparison to 'Famous Last Words', where the video is all performance, with no narrative taking place. 'Famous Last Words' shows evidence of the cultural code through its use of costume, lighting and setting, as fans of the that band will recongnise these aspects of the band's previous video 'Welcome to the Black Parade'.

Analysis of a live performance

In order to get an insight into the camerawork in a performance, we thought it would be a good idea to look at an example of a concert video. The example we chose to look at was the song 'I will follow' by U2. In this instance, the song is being performed at Glastonbury. When analysing the video, there were a number of things that became apparent. From the beginning, it was obvious that the camera interchanged between all four band members. This allowed for the audience watching at home to be introduced to all four band members before the vocals began, at which time the camera would focus more on Bono.




When it comes to shots of each of the individual band members, high angle shots were used for the lead guitarist to give him an imposing nature, as well as the zooming in of the camera onto Bono to give him importance. In addition, there were frequent shots of the crowd to remind the audience watching at home of the enormity of the occasion and to try and replicate that atmosphere in their living room. However, the main factor that I concluded form analysing this video was that the camera was never stationary and so as a result the atmosphere was maintained even for the people who were watching at home.

Research - Korn

As we are still at the very early stages of our research, me and my partner have not yet chosen one particular genre for our song. However, we have begun to look at a few songs in order to get an insight into the different styles and conventions and to try and narrow down our choice of song.


One of the songs that we have looked at for our video is the song 'Word Up' by the band Korn. We thought that it was a unique and interesting music video given the fact that the song strays away from Korn's typically heavy nature. Because of this, it could be seen as a very unconventional song for a metal band such as Korn due to it being far more rhythmic than their other songs.