Another Lesson Learned

In my last blog I talked about some major lessons I learned filming my senior thesis music video. Now I want to elaborate on some more important lessons about music video and film in general. We always hear the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words," that is especially true in framing. Sometimes we loose focus on how powerful we can make every shot just by aligning everything in the foreground and the background RIGHT. Take my music video for example, sometimes we had to rush the shot that the framing was not exactly what it should have been. Especially in the beginning of the video. In the script its supposed to be such a shitty day so that it would contrast his time in Miami. Most of the time, the framing looks really nice. Things are put together in the scene, but it wasnt supposed to be that way. Its amazing how a story can be told from just one shot. Check out this dope video talking about pictures that immediately tell a detailed story.

Ryan Playground

It amazes me how many times I go into a project, and how many lessons I take away from it in the end.  Because I have fallen in love with music videos, and want to pursue it as a career I am trying to collect the ones I love the most. This video by Ryan Playground catches everything I wish I did in Miami and more.

Here are some:

1. Take way way way more shots of random things (B Roll) 

2. Slow the fram rate down (60 fps) for slomo 

3. Utilize the artist whenever he/she is not singing. Just shoot them walking around. It will come out nice in the long run

With every video I watch, I learn that there is always a certain style that I can take away from it.

Music Videos Lack Soul

One aspect of music videos that I would sincerely love to change is the lack of artistry and meaning. Because the music our general population listens to is trash, the videos we create from the music no longer are sincere. We are teaching the newer generation that you can get rich and famous by simply wearing nice clothes, driving a nice car, or waiving dollar bills in your hand.

It amazes me that we have so many quick and easy tools to create art, but we still dont make content that is harmonious to great music. Maybe its music no longer tells a story like it used to, or maybe its because the stories we tell to music dont make sense. Either way the music video industry is dying and somebody needs to do something about it 

SAVE DAT MONEY

As production students, we all attempt the best method to either raising or avoiding costs for our films. Last year, my fiction 2 film was a complete disaster in terms of money. 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-pee-wee/x/6776249#/

This film was called "The Pee-Wee" which is a story about fathers who gamble on their kids hockey games. It was a good story, and over $4,000 was spent on the project, but I simply had the wrong team. It just goes to show that although money is a quick problem solver, it can really bite you in the ass in the long run. 

As I begin my journey into creating my final Ithaca College video, I am devoting hours upon hours trying to save dat money. And I think it is only fitting that because I am doing a music video for my thesis, I talk about Lil Dicky's "SAVE DAT MONEY" 

This video is a huge inspiration to me because Lil Dicky did it without spending a cent. At the end of the video the even do a behind the scenes on how they got away with it. And lastly, I think as television/film students we all have a lot to learn fro Lil Dicky.

Visual Accompaniment

Sonny Moore, more commonly known as Skrillex, has a catalogue of records unlike any other. With many of those is an accompaniment of spectacular visuals that puts the average music video to shame. Some have clear stories, while others are completely ambiguous. Regardless, they are amongst some of the most viewed music videos of their kind... I think I'll let them do the talking

The Pentatonix and Todrick Halls' "Wizard of Ahhhs"

The Pentatonix are an amazing a cappella group that became famous by winning the third season of The Sing-Off. They combined in 2013 with Todrick Hall, a semi-finalist on American Idol and a YouTube star to create a music video based off the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz. In a sensational way they managed to use modern songs to tell a six minute version of this movie. They of course included the films most renowned song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, at the end of the video. The lighting was a mixture of flat and natural elements that brought out different feelings throughout the length of the video. For example, it was very bright during the Munchkin City sequence since it was supposed to be happier, and used a lot of darker and green lighting when they met the Wizard of Oz since it was supposed to appear more sinister. One thing that definitely stood out was the coloring. In the beginning, the colors were very desaturated and a sepia tone to go along with the theme of being on a farm during that specific time period. It very closely followed the coloring of the original movie. When it transforms from the drab farm to the land of Oz, the colors become very bright and saturated and make it seem more mystical and dreamlike. The editing of this video consisted of a lot of dissolves into the dreamlike state and cuts when the actions were supposed to be portrayed as more chaotic. They used a lot of closeups of the different characters which really enhanced their presence. Obviously, the main part of this video is sound, and a lot of it is diegetic. It is seen on screen because everything that you hear is coming out of the mouths of the singers and beat boxer. The sound that is created is the motivator for all of the actions on screen and the music describes what they are doing in a creative and different way.

Timeflies-Let it Go

My most recent artist obsession has become Timeflies Tuesday. They are unique and I love listening to their music. Recently they came out with a youtube video called "Let it Go," it is a cover of the song from Frozen, however has it's own spin on it. Cal, the lead singer pulls a Disney movie out of a hat and has to incorporate it into the song. It is smart, creative and super catchy. Not only was the song very well done, but so were some of the camera shots. There were extreme close ups of guitars and drums that were sick!  They were perfectly in focus and you could see the string vibrate while some powder fell off of the strings. The editing was awesome and flowed. The combination of the amazing song and the camera shots made this music video very much worth watching. I recommend taking a look(especially my fellow Frozen fans out there)

Music Videos

     Music videos were created as a way to promote an artist and their music. Although music videos have existed for much longer they were not really popular until the 1980's with the advent of MTV. Music videos use a variety techniques such as live action, animation, and non-narrative. Most music videos are based on the lyrics of the song and create a story that coincides. Others are simply the band playing their music.

     In 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas and various performers to promote sales of their song "The Little Lost Child". Using a magic lantern, Thomas projected a series of still images on a screen simultaneous to live performances. This would become a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the first step toward music video.

Stop Motion Animation

Kina Grannis' first album, Stairwells, came out in 2010, and though she's not quite on the popularity level of A-list artists like Justin Timberlake, her YouTube channel has over 830,000 subscribers and her next album is due out this May. Kina is known for her YouTube covers, her beautiful original music, and her unique and creative videos. One of her most well-known videos is a music video for her original song, "In Your Arms," with over 10.2 millions views since it's release in November of 2011. Here's the music video:

This music video is far from ordinary. It was made using stop motion animation, a very detail-oriented and time-consuming method of animation, but one with an amazing result when executed well. In stop motion animation, objects that appear to move on their own are actually physically manipulated, placed frame by frame and photographed. The photographs are then made into a video, and it appears that these objects are moving fluidly and by themselves.

Kina Grannis and Greg Jardin, the director of the "In Your Arms" music video, took stop motion animation a step further and used jelly bean art. There are entire paintings made out of jelly beans that look incredibly accurate and interesting.

In the "In Your Arms" video, each and every frame was made of jelly beans, individually and precisely placed, to create the scenes you see her in during the video. Once the jelly beans were perfectly placed, a sheet of glass was placed over the box they were in and Kina lied on top of it, maneuvering herself into whatever position the director told her she was in in that exact frame, and then a picture was taken and the process began again. Each frame could take several hours, and there were approximately 2300 frames to shoot, so the video, in its entirety, took over a year to shoot. The end result was worth it, and as such a young and new artist, she created one of the most unique and interesting music videos the world has ever seen.

The "Making of..." video shows just how they went about making this video and how much and how many people went into it. 

"Dark Horse" Music VIdeo

Today one of my friends ran up to me and told me that he just watched the new music video, Dark Horse by Katy Perry and was going to have an aneurism after watching because it was so good. I decided to check it out because obviously it had to be SO amazing since he was going to have a freaking aneurism! I love Katy Perry and I am a fan of that song, however I can honestly say I have no idea what I just saw. The cinematic techniques used were very well done, however I found the story incredibly odd. It takes place in Egypt and Katy Perry is some queen of some sort. These Egyptian men constantly are bringing her new gifts to woo her and she is not accepting any of them. Instead she turns the men into some kind of powder..? I honestly could not explain the story to you if I tried. Ultimately the theme of the video is about the power she has over all these men.

This being said, the way this music video was shot was very well done. The lighting is very bright and really sets the mood. The color techniques are incredible along with the special effects. The camera movements are very smooth and work with the entire video as a whole. There are a variety of close ups and wide angle shots. One really well done shot was when Juicy J comes into the song. There is an egyptian statue and when it opens up, Juicy J's face is framed perfectly. Overall I thought the music video was very well done in terms of the way it was shot and produced.

This music video also reminded me of an intriguing conversation I once had with my friend who is very interested in culture. She told me that when adopting specific elements of one culture and appreciating it is called cultural assimilation. However, she said that cultural appropriation is taking elements from a culture and using it in the wrong context. One example she used was when Katy Perry (ironically enough) performed on the VMA's. She dressed up as a geisha, however that culture was completely misrepresented. Katy wanted it to seem as though she was appreciating other cultures, however it came across the wrong way. Dressing up as a geisha does not mean you are representing the Japanese culture. Very similar in this music video, she dresses up as an Egyptian and maybe not intentionally, but she makes Egyptians seem selfish and materialistic. When creating any music video, film, television show, etc it is important to keep in mind how one represents a certain culture.

Needless to say, I found the production of this video interesting, however I did NOT have an aneurism

The One-Take Music Video

The idea of a one-take music video fascinates me. The amount of time, planning, and skill that must go into the production and direction of such a video is astounding. In some videos, the camera may not move at all. If that is the case, the set and choreography are very important. If you are producing a one-take music video, there should be a reason for this creative choice. The movement on camera should be planned and it should be interesting. OK Go produced a one-take music video for their hit song, "Here It Goes Again," in 2006, and it gained over 50 million views in four years. The promotion of the video on YouTube was both somewhat revolutionary at the time and beneficial for the popularity of the band, the song, and the video in particular.

In other cases, the camera moves throughout the entire video. In these videos, the set design and the placement of every object and person in the space is critical. If the camera is moving, there needs to be a specific path for it, and everything needs to be exactly where it belongs and timed to perfection so that things happen when they are in the shot. OK Go produced another one-take music video for their song, "This Too Shall Pass." In this video, they used a Rube Goldberg Machine, and the video followed the machine throughout the warehouse they filmed in. The video also employed the use of bright colors on a background of white and off white. The colors were found throughout the machine and they added to the interest level of the video. While the previous video is interesting to watch because of the detailed choreography, this video is more appealing to me because of the level of skill and planning that had to go into it.

Music videos are one of my favorite types of video to watch and to produce, so the concept of the one-take music video is incredible. I hope other bands follow in OK Go's footsteps, and I hope I can be a part of that in my career.

Music Video Creates Feelings Without Dialogue

Music videos have a unique way of telling stories. I have found that not all music videos are of women dressed in skimpy outfits and dancing or of singers showing off what they have. There are some videos that actually have artistic merit to them. I was lucky to come across a music video that not only reflects the mood of the songs, but also tells a story of it's own. The video that I found just came out today and it is for the song "Instant Crush" by Daft Punk featuring the voice of Julien Casablancas, the lead singer of The Strokes.  Here's the video directed by Warren Fu:

This music video involves Julien Casablancas singing on a small stage and two wax figures in a museum. One wax figure is dressed up as an 18th century soldier and he has a strong resemblance to Casablancas. The other figure is a beautiful milk maid who catches the attention of the soldier. The video tells the story of the two inanimate objects growing affection for each other. They do not speak throughout the video but they still have a strong connection. They are eventually separated, but in the end they are reunited during a fire in a warehouse. The fire subsequently melts their wax bodies, but they are together.

This video is very touching even though the story is about a love between two inanimate objects. The way the shots are frames gives the appearance of longing between the characters. There are many close-up shots of their faces and you can tell that they have the same feelings for each other, even though their faces don't actually move. Overall I really thought this video was well done.

MōVI STARTS MOVING

Earlier in the year a couple students, including myself, posted about the new MŌVI... a hybrid type of steadicam that can provide very smooth shots in versatile situations. The device is already being used in a couple productions, but one production team has actually worked with MŌVI technicians to mount a RED Epic camera onto this flagship device. Their creation is pretty cool looking... a mechanical dance routine on an artistically lit backstreet, all with the MŌVI flowing around the scene:

When interviewing GAREN, the producer of the music video, he stated:

Did using the MōVI make my job as a producer easier? No. Did we come across difficulties because of its learning curve? Yes. Did it cause us to lose some time? Yes. But these things are all to be expected when embracing new technologies.

His answer seems very logical and brings forth the point that the MŌVI is not yet meant for anyone to pick up and start making their very own backyard video. It's a technical piece of equipment and it will take the industry a little bit of time to discover its full potential. 

Of course what would any of this be without a handy behind the scenes video?

Read more about this on nofilmschool.com

Lily Allen's "Hard Out Here"

This Tuesday, Lily Allen released her new single “Hard Out Here.” It’s her first release in three years, so it’s been long awaited. The music video is a satire on pop culture, and more specifically, on Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines.” If you are not familiar with his song or music video, I’d recommend watching that first.

When "Blurred Lines" first came out, there was a lot of talk about whether or not the song was sexist and degrading to women. In response, Thicke said it wasn't since he acted respected women and that instead, it was just ironic. Lily Allen is known for singing songs that make a statement about society by telling it how it is. So it only seemed fitting that her first new song in years is a clear satire on the pop culture of today. Her music video directly mocks "Blurred Lines." Please note that the video contains explicit content.

The style of the music video clearly mimics "Blurred Lines" through lighting and color choices and even with certain choreography. I think one of the more genius stabs at Thicke's video is her rendition of the balloons. The lyrics also point towards Thicke's song, with her line "Have you thought about your butt? Who's gonna tear it in two?" being a play off of a line from T.I.'s verse: "I'll give you something big enough to tear your *** in two." And while there are other references in the video to other current pop culture media, like Miley Cyrus' twerking, it is obvious that Robin Thicke was the focus of her parody to show how objectifying women is in our culture.

Despite her attempts at portraying the struggle of female artists in a society that constantly is demeaning towards women, Lily Allen received a lot of criticism for her video. Many complained it was racist. While she satirically sang about the objectification of women, some believe she later in the video raises herself to be a superior figure while black female dancers twerk and pop bottles of champagne around her.

After receiving the negative feedback, Lily Allen released a twitter statement to rebuttal the racist claims: "1. If anyone thinks for a second that I requested specific ethnicities for the video, they're wrong. 2. If anyone thinks that after asking the girls to audition, I was going to send any of them away because of the colour of their skin, they're wrong. 3. The message is clear. Whilst I don't want to offend anyone. I do strive to provoke thought and conversation. The video is meant to be a lighthearted satirical video that deals with objectification of women within modern pop culture. It has nothing to do with race, at all. 4. If I could dance like the ladies can, it would have been my arse on your screens; I actually rehearsed for two weeks trying to perfect my twerk, but failed miserably. If I was a little braver, I would have been wearing a bikini too, but I do not and I have chronic cellulite, which nobody wants to see. What I'm trying to say is that me being covered up has nothing to do with me wanting to disassociate myself from the girls, it has more to do with my own insecurities and I just wanted to feel as comfortable as possible on the shoot day. 5. I'm not going to apologise because I think that would imply that I'm guilty of something, but I promise you this, in no way do I feel superior to anyone, except paedophiles, rapists murderers etc., and I would not only be surprised but deeply saddened if I thought anyone came away from that video feeling taken advantage of,or compromised in any way. 6. Ask the ladies yourselves @shalaeuroasia @monique_Lawz @ceodancers @TempleArtist@SelizaShowtime @melycrisp."


As a huge Lily Allen fan, I completely stand by her video and don't think it is racist. In fact, her twitter response to those critics proves the very nature of her being. Celebrities don't tweet about their "chronic cellulite." On the contrary, if a media source wrote about a female celebrity having cellulite, that would be a big deal. Meanwhile, Lily Allen just puts it out there, because she doesn't really care.  In my opinion, it was pretty disappointing to see the media focus on the color of the dancers' skin as opposed to the message Lily Allen is trying to send. Like she said, the song should be provoking people to think and that is what the media should be writing about. Even so, I think it definitely acts as a female empowering single. Lily Allen always brings awesome satirical songs, so we should've seen this coming.

Arcade Fire's Live Music Video

While I was relaxing during my down time between classes, I stumbled upon news from the YouTube Music Awards. I had heard ads about this event, but I never got around to watching it. I discovered, to my surprise, that Arcade Fire had recorded a live music video of their new song "Afterlife". This music video was directed by Spike Jonze, director of films like "Being John Malcovich", "Adaptation.", and "Where the Wild Things Are". 

This music video was a low-budget production that happened right on stage as the band was performing. The video stars Greta Gerwig who plays a woman who has just dealt with a bad breakup. It involves her running through a forest on stage doing a choreographed dance and in the end dancing with a bunch of younger girls. This sounds pretty lame when I describe it so check out the video for more. 

Even though the dancing comes off as mildly cheesy, the video in whole just puts a smile on your face. You are taken into this world within the contents of the video framing, leaving the viewer almost completely unaware of the stage and audience that is just a few feet away. This video is a totally new concept for how music awards can run. A production is made on stage and it is live. It is high-stakes, but it could be the opportunity to create something really special. 

Mylo Xyloto

As I was stumbling through my favorited videos on YouTube, I came across a music video that I had almost completely forgot about. This music video was for the Coldplay song "Hurts Like Heaven". This video came out on October 8, 2012 and the song was from the Coldplay album, Mylo Xyloto. This video was directed by Mark Osborne with illustrations by Alejandro Fuentes. The story in this music video is about a dystopian society who's ruler (Major Minus) is hellbent on keeping the world colorless and without music. This does not suit many of the people and they form a street writing team who bring color into the world.

The music  video for this follows a comic book style of video with speech bubbles and an almost frame-by-frame movement throughout the video. At the end you find out that this video is just the start of a whole series of 6 comics entitled "Mylo Xyloto". What Coldplay has done is take their album and put it onto multiple platforms. There is this music video for the song "Hurts Like Heaven" and now there is a whole series of comics that tell the tale of Mylo Xyloto. This is a very clever thing because it provides a whole transmedia experience to the viewers. You are able to listen to the music, watch the video, and read the comic. This allows for a more immersive experience for the people participating in it.

The art direction of this video also captivated me. The use of bright colors reflected the colors that Coldplay used on their stage during their shows. It also flows with the album artwork because there are bright multicolor swishes and swoops of color. Everything that was produced from the Mylo Xyloto album flows together to create a cohesive work of art.

Stay

One thing that I enjoy and wish wasn't just stuck to "Intro to Field" are music videos.  I love taking music and interpreting it into a visual story.  I also really enjoy watching music videos.

I've heard Rhianna's new song "Stay" ft. Mikky Ekko on the radio a few times.  It's a very beautiful song, but a very sad song.  I had heard from people, mostly my fellow Tumblr users "you need to see the music video", "it's so depressing", "it's so well done".

Well.  I wouldn't say I "had to see it".  I wouldn't say it was "so well done".  But it definitely was depressing.

It enters in on Rhianna, bare and in a bathtub full of water with a hue.  It was a very powerful entrance. But that's where Rhianna was seen for the entirety of the music video.  The DP nailed every shot, but I would have liked to see her in more than one place.  However, Rhianna's performance in the music video was definitely spot on.  I definitely felt sad after watching her.

I have the same critiques for Mikky Ekko's portion of the music video.  Great shots, great performance, but not a lot of variety.  One thing that jumped out at me was the beautiful lighting job.  Look at it, it's gorgeous....

The contrast from the white of his shirt definitely creates a focal point, and as the light falls off it creates a beautiful dark background.  

Overall, there were really nice parts of this video, but it was just too boring and depressing for my tastes. 

Looking to the future

In the last hour, I've made two decent-sized leaps at nudging myself into the future: I set the foundations of starting a summer internship, and began the rough drafts of pre-producing a music video for an up-and-coming band over winter break.  Now I'm hoping that you guys will have some input.

First, the internship.  Over the summer, Andrew Jenks will be holding an annual film festival in New York City, which has been running for a decade now and has brought in keynote speakers like James Earl Jones (if that guy could narrate my life, I'd be one happy girl).  Though it's geared more towards high school age filmmakers, the opportunity to work as even a production assistant on something with Jenks is a step in the right direction.  He's been at this since a very young age and has made quite a name for himself (check out the linked bio, or just Google him), so I'm looking forward to this chance.  Also, he's looking for people to keep up a blog regarding the festival I believe; looks like Arturo knows what he's doing in making us write these every week.  If you want more information, let me know and I'll help you get in contact with the right people for a shot at this.

Next, the music video.  I've always had a love for music, especially because of the way it always sparks a montage in my mind as I listen.  Thus, I was asked to create More Than True's first music video of their career, and have already begun pre-production.  At the moment, I'm quite thankful for the links on this blog to necessary documents (ex: talent release forms), and I'd be interested to hear what anyone has to say about things to think of for production.  I'm also making an attempt at covering the majority of positions myself on this one, but I do have an entire week to shoot and more time to edit, so any and all advice is more than welcome.

Music Videos

Today I stumbled across a video on youtube of one of my favorite bands, The Killers. They released a new album titled "Battle Born" last month and today they released a tour music video for one of their songs, Miss Atomic Bomb. It is not a traditional music video in the sense that it tells some form of a story. The video is compiled using entirely B roll footage from performances and behind the scenes of their tour.

I really love what they did, combining live performances of the song with behind the scenes and a ton of other performance footage. I believe that it tells more about the band than a video with some shirt back story in it does. This shows them on the road and how they go about life while on tour as well as some of the most exciting moments that they go through while performing. This is achieved with plenty of slow motion shots of instruments, each of the band members, and crowds going wild. It must have been a lot of fun to put it together. I know if I had the chance to combine B roll and put it to a real song that I would jump at the chance.

Bro's Music video/end of the world!

Just so everyone can share in my agony.... my hard drive just crashed... WOOOOOO. Yup you guessed it... our project's on it!!! The good people of master control are keeping it overnight to salvage my files... pray for us people, pray!

On to other things... my step-brother Tony and his band InAshton released a music video a few weeks ago that I thought I'd share with you all (he's the lead guitar)...

I love the song and thought the video came out great! The actress kinda looks like Zoe Saldana... but she's not haha my step-bro promises! I really liked the special effects like the fire and broken glass... it definitely took the video to the next level. I wonder what we could do with it if given the raw footage.... hmmm maybe I'll ask him for it one day!