For this project we had to learn how to syncornize visual and audio to so it looks like that a song is being sung. firstly we given a song to mime to, my group Me, Gareth and Fraser were given Mandy by Barry Manilow to sing after got the song on to Fraser's mobile phone, the video camera and tripod we went to park behind the College.
When we arrived at the park we discussed what visuals we were going film for the project, we decided we were going to parody a boy band by having one person cover one verse of the song and have the three of us singing the chorus. For the verse we one person behind the camera filming the squence, one person playing the song so we know when to sing what lyric when and one person pertending to sing the song.
After we filmed all the footage needed we edited all together using Final Cut Pro firstly we linked the camera and Mac together to capture all the footage we recorded and then batch captured it so it will become data instead of tape after we batch captured all the footage we but the song we needed to sync the footage to the first audio track and locked the track so we didn't accidentally delete it by mistake, then put the visuals on top to to try make it look like we where singing instead of miming to it.
When we finished editing it we exported it and put it a memory stick so we could put it on Youtube we couldn't use the Mac as the one we used didn't have an internet connection meaning we couldn't get onto Youtube after we got lip sync onto my user area. I signed onto Youtube using my Youtube account and uploaded the finished lip-sync onto Youtube and then used the embed code to embed onto this page.
If I was to make this lip sync again I would plan what we are going to shoot more carefully and know where we're shooting and most importantly learn lyric instead reading while we're being filmed,
Spike Jonze was born 22nd October 1969 in Rockville, Maryland. He is progressed from being co founder and one of the orginal editors of Dirt magazine, to becoming an established director. This career started off in music videos in 1992 with a video for Chainsaw Kittens. He has gone on to work with a wider range of artists including Tenacious D, Kanye West, Beastie Boys and R.E.M.
His works with the style of the song to come up with the mood of the pop promo: an example of this is "Oh so quiet" by Bjork. This is because the song begins with a slow pace with the video imitating this with subdued lighting and slow movements , then increasing in pace with the music, with brighter lighting, quicker movement and dance, then reverting back as the song slows down again. Reaction to the promo is mixed with some loving it and others hating it, but much of Spike Jonze work appeals to a limited audience, with people having strong views either way.
Another example of some of Spike Jonze's work is the music video's he did with Fatboy Slim First he did Praise You where Spike Jonze starred as his alter ego Richard Koufey with the fictional dance group the Torrance Community Dance Group. The music video was shot in a guerilla filmmaking style (home video) without permission so at one point in the music video they capture one of the staff stops the music and takes the boombox that is playing the song. The video reportedly cost only US$800 to produce, with most of that money going towards a replacement boombox and food for the cast and crew. The music video won three awards a MTV Video Music Awards.
This music video is one of Spike Jonze's most popular music videos with loads of postive comments like "THIS VIDEO IS PURE EPIC!!!!!! These pple are the shiz!!!", "I love this Video xD" and "Nice!!! :D"
Spike Jonze also did a music video for Weapon of Choice which starred Christopher Walken who a trained as a dancer before becoming an actor. In the music video Walken is filmed dancing around an empty hotel and flying in the end. This resulted in a new generation of Walken fans discovering his dancing talent, therefore promoting not only the song but Walken himself. This won six awards at the MTV awards and being listed in the top 100 music videos of all time. This also had a good responce on YouTube for Christopher Walken and the music video like "I love Chris Walken. He is my hero. He is a great Actor!", "This is my favorite Music Video of all time." and "Everything in this video is great."
Mindless Self Indulgence - Shut Me Up - Jhonen Vasquez
Watching this video I thought the setting of the scenes where interesting especially that they set in the checkout of a supermarket. The clothes worn in this music video were the kind of clothes people normally when going shopping and the main character/singer is wearing a suitable staff uniform.
The shots used are good using wide shots for the beginning and end of the music video and there are also a variety of close-ups and mid-shots that show a lot of emotion and body language.
There is a interesting mix of visual effects and editing particularly the black box with white text appearing over the lead singer's mouth during the chorus. The director's use of lazer effects to build up to the last chorus was effective and there is a restricted colour palette to give it a cartoony feel as the music video has similar feel to it. Editing was snappy and accurate to the beat of the song.
The lyrics are sung in the music video by the lead singer and the customers in a humourous fashion increasing the music video's appeal because of this.
The music and visuals are brilliantly linked to produce a well timed rhythm that emphasized the action in the video.
There is little intertextuality except a puppet appears in a comic book that appears twice in the video.
Characteristics of the music style where aggressive, angry, upbeat and funny.
The music video is a mixture of Concept, Performance and a basic Narrative.
The video promotes the band as being edgy, energetic, punky and comedic. I enjoyed the liveliness of the band.
I feel that the intended audience are rockers and alternative. The fans have responded like "weird vid...you Gotta Love It!!!", "i love this song" and "im going to marry this song and video"
Aha - Take On Me - Steve Barron
I thought that this music video had really interesting mise-en-scene as it's a mixture of hand drawn comic book and real world cafe and bedroom. The band is dressed in fashionable clothes of the 80's and the main character is dressed in casual clothes under a coat.
There are a lot of close up of the main character and the band to show there emotions on there face also mid shot of the band members playing there instruments and the character body lanuage.
This music video is very interesting as there mixture of comic book pictures and live action scenes which is unique and interesting as there are not a lot music video done like this for example the girl dragged into comic world by the lead singer of the band.
The song are sung the band in the music video and sometimes the song is sung over scenes of the song.
In the beginning of the when it's at the motorbike races the pictures change on the beats which makes the music and visual well timed and linked.
There no obvious intertextuality.
The genre of this music is pop. Pop music videos needed to be interesting and grab the viewers attention because in the eighties videos were one of the few ways bands could promote their work visually.
The music video is a mix of concept, performance and narrative, but the narrative is the stronger element of the video. The format is basically 'boy meets girl' but is presented in a Sci Fi genre, with the storyline breaking the laws of science. There are band performances within the video and the concept is the comic book setting.
It is really effective at promoting the band as they are visually portrayed in both animation and live action. What is interesting is that they are still within the comic book setting, even though they switch from animated to their actual selves.
The video is aimed at fans of eighties pop music, particularly females (with the romance element in the story line). However, the appeal is far more widespread as people who wouldn't normally listen to that type of music would be attracted by the visual elements of the video. Viewers on Youtube have described this music video as being "One of the best music videos ever." and "A-ha are.... lyrically and musically one of THE most creative groups ever."
Music video started in the mid 60's when musicians like The Beatles were in such demand that they were unable to be in all the places they were needed.They made music videos that they sent to music shows like Top of the Pops so they didn't need to appear on the show in person but could show the music video instead: an example of this is Strawberry Fields Forever . Artists who also did this were bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Animals and The Small Faces.
In the 70's the idea of making music videos became increasingly popular with more and more artist having music videos made for them: for example Queen, David Bowie, The Jackson Five, Roxy Music and Abba.
In the 80's music videos became a core part of the music industry. As artists could advertise themselves and their music to the consumers, not just with their music with but with visual represention of their band. In 1981 MTV come on air a music video channel that played music videos 24-7 the first music video played on MTV was Video Killed The Radio Star-The Buggles with this there was a need for artists to make music videos this cause a massive 'Brit Invasion' of the US charts in the 80's as it was mainly British artists making music videos these included Duran Duran, Adam and the Ant, The Cure, Michael Jackson and Aha.
Promotional Benefits
Music videos represent the track, so it can be an opportunity for the artist and their music to be remembered. It gives the record company more control over how they would like the artist to be represented.
Extension of Income
Music videos are a good way of getting the public interested in the artist, keeping them in the public eye so that people keep buying their album, sometimes even renewing interest in an older album. Thriller-Michael Jackson is a good example of renewing public interest by using a music video this because the Thriller album was already successful but Michael wanted to make a music video for the song Thriller but the record company didn't him to make one but he still the record let Michael make one but the music video had to funded by him The music video to Thriller which was a short film lasting about 13 minutes, the musc video itself is often referred to as the greatest music video ever, Thriller proved to have a profound effect on pop culture, and was named "a watershed moment for the [music] industry" for its unprecedented merging of filmmaking and music. Guinness World Records listed it in 2006 as the "most successful music video", selling over 9 million units.In 2009, the video was inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, the first music video to ever receive this honor, for being “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant and will be preserved for all time.
Most music video have clip from film appear in them as a part of the narrative especially if the song is apart of the film's soundtrack and if they have appeared in a show like the X-factor they may have tv clips and some music videos have celebrities appear in there music videos sometimes artists appear in another artists music video for example Tenacous D sometimes appears Foo Fighters' music videos.
