One Day Lip-Sync Project

This is the video we did for our one day lip-sync project. We were first set into groups and then given a song to lip-sync too. My group got 'Vanilla Ice - Ice Ice Baby'. So we put it on a phone as a way to listen to it mobile. And we printed of the lyrics to the song to learn. We divided up parts of the song to lip-sync to. So after we got our camera we went to find a location to do our lip-sync video, we found a place which was perfect behind an old building with graffiti on walls so it matched with the music really. We set the camera on a tripod stand recorded what we did, so we could get in time with the song and lyrics we had the music playing on the phone so we could hear it and lip-sync at the right moments. We did several takes of doing it so we had more shots we could edit. We did just a med shot for the first takes we did in that location where you could see from waist up of the person lip-syncing. For the chorus we each recorded ourselfs lip-syncing the chorus so we could edit the video so each of us did a line of the chorus. In another location we went to a field. For the camera we had someone hold it following the person who was lip-syncing like you see in some rap videos. so it was looking down(High shot) on the camera almost. Then for our last location we just stood under some equipment at a park. Had the camera so it was a long shot so you could see us from just about the knees. For the last verse we just stood against a wall had a med-close up from shoulders up. So we all did the last one together. For the 20 seconds of just the music we filmed ourselfs walking around the field and we edited it by decreasing the colour and speeding up the shot to 250% so it would go quicker this worked well. So after we got all the shots we needed we edited what we had on the macs using final cut pro. We used the shots we had from 3 different locations and cut them so we took parts from each of them and used them for our verses, we did the same for all 3. So in the end I think the lip-sync project went well we were in time with the song and the video fits to the genre of the music.

TASK 3 Director research

Marc klasfeld is an american music video director who has also written and directed independent films and documentaries. He has many award-winning and breakthrough videos for artists such as Jay-Z, Foo Fighters, Nelly, Sum 41, Avril Lavigne, Beyonce, Taking Back Sunday, Gnarls Barkley, Eminem, Backstreet Boys, Enrique Iglesias, Bon Jovi, N'Sync, and Jewel. His videos have dominated MTV playlists and established him as a diverse director with a very unique voice. The L.A. Riot Spectacular" was Marc's feature film directorial debut which he wrote, co-produced and directed. It takes a satirical look at the '92 LA Riots and stars Snoop Dogg.
His second film is a documentary entitled "Bears", which is about a subculture within the homosexual community, where big, hairy gay men compete in beauty pageants and show off their unorthodox beauty.
Marc graduated from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and is the founder of Rockhard Films.
His target auidience is varied as he makes music videos,films and documentaries. His music videos target a younger audience of teenagers as most his music videos are for songs mostly teenagers listen to. And his Films/documentaries are aimed at adults around 30-40 because the film 92 L.A. RIOTS people who are under 20 years old are not really going to know much about it because it may not have effected them, so this could be targeted at an older generation of people who would have experianced it. Someone has said this about him. 'His work displays a completely different tone than anyone else working in the business. His unique mix of humor and visuals makes each video he produces something that has not been seen before'. I have found some responses to his work 'The L.A. Riot Spectacular' . 'here's a movie that has that rare blend of outrageous comedy, biting satire, art with substance and spot-on social criticism' ' I have to see this movies again. The second I left the theater I wanted to watch it all over again'. It seems that people do enjoy this piece of work we have some good examples of positive feedback. But there is also negative feedback to. 'It's weak and obvious, with only modest production values, a ham-handed script, and labored humor'. There is a mixed opinion with this piece of work then. Here is some feedback for his music video he directed Bat country avenged sevenfold. 'THIS VIDEO WILL NEVER GET OLD!' 'this video is insane good. ' I got these comments of youtube. It looks like he is succesful in making both movies and music videos that people do enjoy. There are some people who dislike what he produces though aswell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9UdiLRxu5k
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388193/usercomments

TASK 3 Director Research

I will be analysing the video 'The hell song' By the band Sum 41.
The video was directed by Marc Klasfeld. Its in the genre of punk rock and the video has many charecteristics of most punk rock videos, which are very fast paced shots and lots of close ups of the band.

There is very interesting use's of Mise-en-scene. As the whole video is of the band as dolls which is a very clever idea for a video, there is also alot of other dolls such as Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson and Jesus. The location just looks like they shot the video inside there house, but the video is made to look like a real life concert. For the band they had dolls and just printed out passport size photos of their faces with different expressions on them. So When theres a close-up of the band singing there facial expressions on the dolls make it look like there singing and the people holding the dolls shake them with the singing so there moving to make it look real life. All the dolls are handheld and you can clearly see peoples hands holding the dolls moving them around which is done on purpose, as it makes the video seem abit more punk as its all done with no special effects. There not trying to hide that there moving them with there hands. The cinematography is lots of close-ups of all the dolls especially of the band when the chorus in the song comes. And on all of dolls of famous people there is close-ups of most of them shown. But most the time the shot is a longshot where you can see the whole body of the dolls. The video is very fast paced it cuts between alot of different shots throughout the video you hardly ever see the same scene twice in the video. Theres alot of action going on in the video which fits very well as its a punk rock song so its a constant movement to go with the fast punk-rock music.
The song lyrics are about one of the band members friends finding out they where HIV positive. The video doesnt really relate to the lyrics much. As the video shows a big concert with drinking drugs and sex. The way there friend contracted HIV is through sex so this could be realting to the lryics of the song. Apart from that I cant see much else in relation from the lyrics to the song. The video doesnt cut to the beat of the music. It cuts to the band soon as the chorus comes in apart from that it doesnt do it to the beat. Theres one long solo instrument part in the song which is shown by a doll of Angus Young coming joing the band on the stage doing a guitar solo the guitarist's doll doing a guitar solo to. The dolls dont do guitar solo's there expressions are changed and there moved around to show that they are doing a guitar solo though. The video only changes the pace when the chorus kicks in the dolls of the band are moved fastly to show they are singing and the crowd of dolls watching is all moved around quickly aswell in the chorus.

The director shows the bands name in the song on a lite brite board with sum 41 written on it. Other than that there isnt any other advertising. The image shown of the band is as dolls. Im not sure if this is meant to represent there dolls of there record label and the record label plays around witht hem like dolls theres no suggestion of it. But the dolls of the band are shown partying, drinking, sex so the classic sex drugs rock and roll image is shown but in dolls. This video relates to alot of there previous videos, as none of there previous videos contain serious shots or any amazing special effects in there videos. So 'The hell song' video fits very well with there style of videos. There style music video's are meant to be funny. Alot of them are just a big concert and people partying to there songs. So they have done the same but used dolls instead of people for this video. Which works just as effectivly as it would with people.

The artist is on sexual display in the video but as there dolls its not real. But there crotch's are still blurred out anyway to make it seem real and as a comedic extra. Other dolls in the video are shown doing sexual activities with the band. The only way this relates to film and tv is that it has dolls of famous people from TV and films in the video. They arrive on a red carpet on the video coming into there concert to make the band seem more famous than they are.

The target audience is teenagers aged about 14 - 21. As mostly all the crowds and partys they have in their music videos are teenagers aged 14-21 so they are the type of people who listen to it. Some responses ive found online for the video ' LOVE SUM 41
they are sooo orignial with their music videos' 'best video clip ear
yeah' so it looks like they were successful in making a video people like

The promo promotes the band quite well as there is shown alot of dolls of famous people arriving to watch the band play. Making the band look very popular as all these celebrities are going to see them. I feel it will fulfil the expectations of the audience who are fans of Sum 41 good. As this video is alot like other videos that they have done before. So in conclusion this video is very original idea as I havnt seen it been done anywhere else. It works very well even if they are using dolls. Its an interesting music video to watch and it is very unlike other videos out there. So overall I like this video and it is very well done and produced.

TASK 1 - Purpose Of Music Videos

Pop promos are made to help advertise and promote the band, and sales of albums. If bands have a good music video and a consumer see's it. The producers are going to want them to promote as much as possible the band. So that they sell more an more albums. Michael Jacksons music video 'Thriller it boosted the sales of the album Thriller to estimated sales between 57-110 million copies worldwide. It was made a record breaker as 'The most successful music video' . So music videos are a great way to boost sales of albums and to make the band/artist alot more popular. This is shown quite clearly in this example that they are succesful in their task. Music videos are made to sometimes show what the band/artist are like. So if the artist is thought to be abit of a ganster in there videos there going to be shown driving round with the crew lots of money and bling. Surrounded by half naked women this promotes who they are. So some people could relate to them and be persuaded to buy the album or single.

The use of music videos came into popular use in the 1980's. When MTV was made around music videos back then there wasnt many videos avaliable to watch but now there thousands of music videos playing on MTV. The Beatles were one of the first popular bands to make a music video in 1964 'A hards days night'. Music videos go back to as early as 1926 with the arrival of sound films so many musical short films where done. So music videos havnt been around that long. So not to many music videos have been released. But 29 years into the future the amount of music videos being produced is outstanding.

Music video directors dont just direct music videos some go on a produce independant films and documentaries. Such as Marc Klasfeld for an example he went on and made 'the L.A. Riot Spectacular' it was his feauture directional debut. We can tell if music videos are successful quite easily, we can look at album sales before and after the video was released. We can also look online sites like youtube. Many music videos get millions of hits, Michael Jacksons 'Thriller' video on youtube has 72,764,944 views and increasing. So its a very clear way to know if it has been successful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video
http://www.allmichaeljackson.com/lyrics/thriller.html
http://www.rhfilms.com/marc-klasfeld/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_videos

TASK 2 - Contemporary Music Video Reasearch

I will be analysing the video 'Saku' by the band Dir En Grey. The video was directed by Hiroyuki Kondo. The genre is J-Rock. The video doesnt really fit into any charecteristics of the genre.

There are some very interesting uses of Mise-en-scene. The lighting is very flashy, lots of strobes and lighting from TV'S which are scatterd around the band. They have wierd styled clothes on and the lead singer has contacts to make his eyes more scary looking and also grills to give him a scary appearance, maybe trying to show that the band is seen as a sort of scary looking band not to be messed with. Throughout the video theres shots of strange disturbing images that flash up only for a spilt second though so you dont have a chance to look at them in detail. The pace of the video is very fast nothing stays on view for no more than 3 seconds. As it transitions it looks like its being fast foward between them.

The lyrics are quite angry and the video is violent so that goes well. The lyrics sound like some boy fed up with people or angry at them, in the video he is shown to be killing his parents with a golf club.
UNDER THE SUN
'To be revealed as if you were to be
ridiculed, the disclosure
of the flow of the red river'
In the video theres a shot of blood running down a bath plug hole this could be linked to the lyrics in the song 'The flow of the red river.

The music and visuals goes well as the musics fast and it cuts to the beat so it cuts between shots very quickly. the video does change as some parts of the music are slow so the action in the video slows down to with it. During the chorus the music is very fast and so the visuals go very quick and cuts fast.

The image of the band in the video is quite frightening there represented as looking abit wierd being a little crazy almost. This video is alot like there others as there previous videos are a little disturbing and creepy.

The band are shown to be on tv alot being watched by the teenager who kills his family. The shots where the band is playing there surrounded by Tvs on the walls and they are all flashing. This is an interesting idea for a shot.

The video is narrative-base as this video is a follow on from a previous video about a baby who got aborted and left in a dumpster.

The target auidence is teenagers who probably have an open mind to music, as the band is japanese and they sing in japanese, you cant understand the lyrics. I have been to a concert with them playing and the majority of the crowd was teenagers 15-18 years old. I looked online for the lyrics to the song to quote on here. But you can tell by the way the lead singer sings if its angry, sad or happy song. This song is angry though.

The video promotes the band well and also the song. The audience who enjoy Dir En Grey will enjoy this video as well as previous ones the video isnt that popular on youtube but comments show that people how ever do like it here are some examples 'amazing!!!!!!!!! holy shit amazing!' 'fing awesome video
i love this song' . In conclusion this video is very strange and disturbing its quick paced with lots of visuals for the eyes some which flash up only for a split second. This is very like the bands videos they have done before and its good and promotes well.

TASK 2 - Contemporary Music Video Research

I will be analysing the video 'Bat Country' By the band Avanged Sevenfold. The Director is Marc klasfeld. The genre of the music is rock. It has charecterists of rock it shows various close-ups of the lead singer and the band playing, its also very fast and jumpy which is similar to most rock videos.

Use of mise-en-scene is interesting, the band is shown driving through a big long road on a desert and it goes back and forth between them driving along desert and inside a hotel room. The lighting outside is very bright and it creates an yellow glow on everything. Inside the hotel room its shady and dark theres alot of shadows and sometimes single colours shining on the band. The use on cinematography is through the video theres alot of shots from weird angles showing only body parts of the band like from the wasit down. The camera movements are wierd as its jumpy and doesnt stay still it moves alot going from side to side. The pace of the video is very fast it cuts from shot to shot continuously especially when the chorus comes in. It goes from each member of the band constantly during the chorus. The transitions between shots somtimes fade out or double over onto the next shot. The special effects used are wierd but interesting CGI is used to make loads of bats fly around the band and the car when they are driving down the highway and the band members are shown trying to fight of the bands with fly squatters this fits with the song name 'Bat country'. There car sprouts bat wings as its driving down the highway aswell. When the guitarist does a solo in the background there are loads of bats flying out from behind the building he's infront of. About halfway through the song the people in the music video they start going disfigured like your looking at them while on drugs point of view. As there eyeballs go really wide and there smiles wide. And at a point one of the casino workers has a lizard head.

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is great. Here is some examples of it. The lyrics 'Caught here in a fiery blaze, won't lose my will to stay
I tri-ie-ied to drive all through the night,
The heat stroke ridden weather, the barren empty sights.
No oasis here to see, the sand is singing deathless words to me.'
This is shown in the video of them driving down the barron stretch of the desert highway as its going to be extremely hot and no water around this is shown in the video. 'Too many doses and I'm starting to get an attraction' This goes back to what I said earlier from the drugs point of view. The lyrics suggest they have been taking drugs making them see people with lizard heads and tounges( you can see this at 3:34 in the video) and also eyes bobbing out ( at 2:35 ). The visuals go very well with the lyrics. The visuals do cut to the beat of the music. The instrument solo's are illustrated in the video, on the main guitar solo the guitarist is shown standing outside a hotel playing guitar, while in the background bats fly out from behind the building. The video does change pace on the speed of the music that is playing especially during the chorus it goes particulary with the visuals cutting between each of the band members and various shots. The band image is shown as a bunch of guys who have gone to vegas and taken alot of drugs. It show the rock and roll image that the band is trying to show. This video is close to some of the other videos that they have done. As most of the bands video's are rather dark and gloomy and showing the band perform. There are girls used on sexual display on the video, the band members with the half naked girls in bed getting drunk and doing drugs with them showing them in a strip club as theres poledancers.

Ive found some postive responses to this video. 'It's like a psychedelic drug that I can overdose everyday and still not get tired' 'I could watch this over an over an still love it!' Ive found some negative responses to the video also. 'the songs good but the videos just a rip of' 'videos boring as hell!' There are mixed opinions of the music video. But overall i found there is more positive than negative comments. So I believe this is a succesfull music video.

This whole video is based on the movie 'Fear and loathing in vegas'(originally from a book) The beggining quote 'He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man Dr. JOHNSON' this same quote is used at the begginging of the movie Fear And Loathing in vegas. Where two guys drive a car alot like the one in video with loads of drugs. The drugs effect them and making them see bats attacking their car so they fend of the bats with fly squatters. And also in the casino's they start seeing lizard people who look like there trying to eat them. There are alot of references to the movie in the video. Heres a trailer for the movie I couldnt find the specific parts so this has abit of everything in it. Lots of the scenes are similar to the music video.