Alter Bridge Image

This image is from the music video 'Broken Wings' by Alter Bridge. From this shot, we liked the way in which the silhouette of the natural light is behind the two guitarists, and therefore representing how the lyrics work with the video.

'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'

Micahel Jackson Vs Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal!

During class we analysised the different features that we found in the two videos, what was similar and what was different, and how that affected how the audience percieved it.

In this task we looked at:
Intertextual References - references to different videos
Homage - a respectful tribute
Tempo - the pace of the video and whether it fits
Balance - was the balance between narrative and performance correct?  

Michael Jackson

-          More narrative than performance (other than the dancing)

-          Whole cast was dancing with the band in the background, like a musical

-          Not a solo performance

-          Speakeasy location – bar/den

-          Switches between story and musical

-          Michael Jackson has power through out, from the moment he walks in

-          References back to old 1920s gangster movies

-          Tempo fits with the video + dancing fits

Alien Ant Farm

-          Relates to Thiller, Dirty Dianna, Billie Jean, The way you make me feel

-          More of a parody than a music video or homage

-          Uses a house party scene

-          Monkey from Michael Jackson’s family; called Bubbles

-          When left with instrumental they use split screen; referring back to Billie Jean

-          Little boy dancing is another intertextual reference

-          Mum and dad’s back garden shows it is rebellious; making it wrong but right

-          Tempo didn’t pick up when music picked up

My Immortal - Evanescence

From this video many people have different views as to what it is really representing, but the main meaning that i found through my research was about the lyrics of the song. Songs are like poems and give off several different meaning to a range of audiences, these song lyrics show a sense of loosing ones own identity and self worth due to the loss of a loved one -this could even be that the person has been betrayed.


These specific lyrics;


"I'm so tired of being here
Suppressed by all my childish fears"

Made me think that she feels drained and paralyzed by the fear of being alone, from this i had alot of different ideas as to why i could use this song as my music video - i have many images of a girl being alone in a ballet studio dancing, and looking as though she is trying to find herself again - her own identity needs to be revealed. To portray this i would use black and white footage of her in the studio, and then when it flashes back to when she is with her friends/boyfriend i would use colour. I did not include family as i have a feel that they might have been an influence on the person she is now, over the person she used to be, as though they have made her change, or they didn't give her the faith, support and belief that she needed.

Unplugged Music

I found this song was too heavy to use as an original, but i feel that it is more suited to our ideas from the unplugged acoustic album. Some ideas that we came up with for this video were, having a boy and girl montage of old memories, and how they have faded away...losing her love.



After researching the heavy version we feel that we would have to use mainly performance over narrative, as the acoustic version would allow for more of a meaning and relation back to the lyrics. We have also decided that overall we want to create a music video which has a balance of narrative and performance, over just using one genre.

Analysis of Two Videos

This video represents a range of performance aspects from the very beginning of the sequence; using the whole band in the shot, whereas compared to 'my Immortal' they started the video with simple shots of the band - who were all separated in different shots connoting a disruption has happened and an equilibrium needs to happen for the band to resolve into one shot again!


The 'my immortal' video is mainly all performance, with narrative tied in with the way that the lyrics fit with the shots of the band playing their instruments. Compared to 'Famous Last Words' which is all performance, with no narrative at all other than it has followed on from their video before which was 'Welcome to the Black Parade.


Due to My Chemical Romance using the same costumes, settings and lighting from their video 'Welcome to the Black Parade' they are using the cultural code, as fans of that band will recognize these factors of their earlier videos.

Two Video Analysis

I am planning to analyse My Chemical Romance's Famous Last Words and Evanescence's My Immortal to see what are similar and what are different. By doing this I will see if I can recognise a pattern in that specific genre, to see if there are camera angles or ideas for a location that I could use in my own music video.

Take this life - in flames

The girl in this video was laying in a bath and then she let her head go under the water - in thought of suicide due to a problem. But I thought the camera angle was very effective as it showed her laying back but also a close up of her face showing real emotion: especially through her eyes. Also later in the music video they relate back to that moment and then close to the end she gasps for air, connoting she came to her senses that life isn't worth wasting! Because I was able to get a strong message from this type of music video, I thought the narrative was particularly effect, sending many different messages but also it contradicted the song title!


The shot of the girl coming out of the water is at 3:33 - 3:35

Red Hot Chili Peppers!

One of our ideas for our music video is I Could Die For You by Red Hot Chili Peppers, it helps us as this song does not have a video already, so we can use all of our original ideas and not need to worry about linking it back to the original video. One of our ideas was linking the video to the lyrics and making a narrative our of the lyrics. From this we came up with the idea of using a soldier that has been away at war for a long period of time, and during the video it shows a range of different memories that he shared with his girlfriend or his family - using a flashback technique; and then he comes home to his girlfriend (who he had to leave to go to war) and she is still waiting for him.

Different Band/Artist Ideas

My partner and I have many different ideas of what bands or artists we could use for our music video, but we have not settled on one specific genre yet as we are still looking at the different options that we have.


Korn

The only song that we have thought about from this band would be Word up, this is because this song is more rhythmic over 'Screamo' music, which means that our video would look more realistic with the lead singing lip syncing this song. During the video there is not a real narrative being followed it is all quite abstract, without any real meaning or path to follow. I found this creative how they used the bands faces on the dogs, over just using performance as a whole.