BSA 131 (Digital Filmmaking I) Week 2 : Music Video Comparison Exercise
In class we were asked to do an exercise in which we compare and analyse two music videos, one of them being a good music video and one being a bad video made for a good song.
Good Music Video
For the good music video I chose the song "La La La" by Naughty Boy, the reasoning behind this choice is that it's a song I never listen to and have hardly heard fully in my life but one that has a music video that has burrowed it's way into my mind.
Narrative/Concept:
This is probably one of, if not, the greatest reason for my appreciation of this video, and undoubtedly a large part of why it was such a popular song back in the day. The story follows a young boy who runs away from home and meets various strange individuals until he eventually ends up singing alone in a cave. The story is a lot like that of The Wizard of Oz, and the music video deliberately alludes to it, but in actual fact the story comes from an oral Bolivian legend from the 19th century. In the legend a deaf boy flees his abusive home, comes across a leper who tells of a demon cursing the ones who come near. The boy being unable to hear the cursed words approach the demon and with his scream convinces the demon to cease it's cursing.
This concept works well for a music video because it has enough imagery for the filmmakers to play with and the imagery is very engaging to the audience. It's one of the few music videos I've seen where I want to see it until the end, not for the song, but for the narrative. It works well because it's a typical journey story but one that many people have never heard of. It's allusions to existing material (Oz) makes the audience more curious about the unfolding events for the same reasons people enjoy reboots and remakes - they know the story and want to see how it's being done differently.
I remember when I first saw it, I tried figuring out if it was the Wizard of Oz, and searched for all the connections between the two. Until I heard about the Bolivian folk tale I always thought it was just a different interpretation.
I think this music video shows that coming up with a narrative can be easy and interesting if you take your inspiration from other stories. Not only do people like watching the same thing over and over again, they love to see that same thing presented in a different manner. By choosing an existing story you also allow yourself to play with interesting imagery - a large part of what makes an engaging music video. Finding ways to represent concepts like a demon on a budget or a deaf boy in a music video allows for interesting experimentation.
The actual performers are never on screen either, which puts the focus mainly on the narrative.
Cinematography:
As with all music videos there is quite a bit of slow motion on display, a technique that works really well when the music is slow as well. It's a good visual representation of the same sensation the listeners experience when hearing it. In this video it is used very well in the start, where the music is building up. We see the abusive father yelling at the boy in slow motion, an image that is striking and recognizable. This is used a lot in music videos - the act of someone screaming looks really great in slow motion because it gives the audience the chance to sit back and think about why they are screaming. It represents that feeling of cognitive dissonance where you sit back in an argument and forget why it even matters. This is used throughout the video and really helps to represent the idea of not listening.
Something that is interesting in this video is how the camera moves in relation to the shot types used. In the opening the camera slowly pans to a door, that opens to reveal a long shot of the abusive father sitting. He stands up and we move into a mid-shot, the camera movement continues in the same manner between the shot change from the father to the boy. We move into a close-up of the boy. This is a good way of slowly zooming in on the characters, what happens so often with amateur music videos, or even short films for that matter, is that too many close-up shots are used which never gives the audience a sense of space or establishes a setting. Moving in slowly allows the audience get accustomed to the setting and when we move into a close up it's more powerful.
Production Design/Art Direction:
Aside from the interesting costumes and locations, which are automatically interesting to look at, there are some subtle ways that the video highlights important elements. For example the fact that the father and boy wear red that removes them from the dull and dark backgrounds. I also like the way the themes are visually communicated, like when the boy finds the old man, he is grey and mixes with the blue walls of his setting, showing how he has become invisible and more of an object than an individual.
The entire video is very stylized which makes it very interesting to look at, this is something that is hard to do on a student budget and resources but I think it's possible. From the student music videos I've seen they hardly try to make it visually interesting in terms of production design. One of the cheaper ways to engage the audience is with interesting costuming, even if it is mismatched. It makes the video feel otherworldly and fantastical. It would be easy and inexpensive to get a couple of items from an op-shop for your actors to wear and it would improve the film by a lot.
Editing/Post-Production:
What I also really like about the introduction to the song is how the song interacts with what happens on screen. It's edited in a way that the visual and oral elements are linked. The song starts when the father bangs his hand on the table and the titular "la la la" vocalization comes in when t
he boy puts his fingers in his ear and start mouthing the words.
Bad Music Video
For the bad music video of a song I like I chose "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash. I hadn't seen this music video until a few years back but I'd heard the song a lot and it just didn't seem to fit for me.
Narrative/Concept:
There is no narrative here, instead the filmmakers chose to simply show off different celebrities and other artists as a way to show the appreciation for the Johnny Cash, so I guess it's more of a concept. I understand the concept and it could be done well, but a lot of these people seem to have nothing to do with Cash and their morals are obviously very different. When Kanye West is shot from a low angles with his arms up on both sides and a light shining above him or when I see Chris Rock or Owen Wilson suddenly appear then I'm really taken out of the song. It just doesn't feel appropriate.
The real reasoning behind the song is of course based in Christianity but the film maker obviously wanted to change the context to fit more with the greatness of celebrities and their eventual fall, but it it doesn't feel like it's part of the song or originally intended, instead an undesired addition by a third party.
Cinematography:
The video focuses on small and trivial things, usually about the currently featured celebrity. These are usually not in frame and the camera moves around. In short there is no sense of space or specific focus, it's more like it was shot with a montage in mind. At least the lack of colour fits the tone.
Production Design/Art Direction:
There is none, it's mainly just whatever the actors and musicians chose to wear.
Editing/Post-Production:
They do this weird frame dropping technique also seen in Peter Jackson's work and it just looks ugly. The amount of cuts also don't flow with the pace of the music as they obviously wanted to get as many shots in of each celebrity as they could. Combine the cuts, weird smudged look and a host of zooms and pans and you have a very unfocused and poorly paced music video.
At the end of the song they zoom out from the eye of all the featured celebrities, all very quickly, and yet the song is dying down. The cutting just doesn't fit with the tone the song is establishing and it feels like the music video should belong to something a bit more rythmic.
Good Music Video
For the good music video I chose the song "La La La" by Naughty Boy, the reasoning behind this choice is that it's a song I never listen to and have hardly heard fully in my life but one that has a music video that has burrowed it's way into my mind.
Narrative/Concept:
This is probably one of, if not, the greatest reason for my appreciation of this video, and undoubtedly a large part of why it was such a popular song back in the day. The story follows a young boy who runs away from home and meets various strange individuals until he eventually ends up singing alone in a cave. The story is a lot like that of The Wizard of Oz, and the music video deliberately alludes to it, but in actual fact the story comes from an oral Bolivian legend from the 19th century. In the legend a deaf boy flees his abusive home, comes across a leper who tells of a demon cursing the ones who come near. The boy being unable to hear the cursed words approach the demon and with his scream convinces the demon to cease it's cursing.
This concept works well for a music video because it has enough imagery for the filmmakers to play with and the imagery is very engaging to the audience. It's one of the few music videos I've seen where I want to see it until the end, not for the song, but for the narrative. It works well because it's a typical journey story but one that many people have never heard of. It's allusions to existing material (Oz) makes the audience more curious about the unfolding events for the same reasons people enjoy reboots and remakes - they know the story and want to see how it's being done differently.
I remember when I first saw it, I tried figuring out if it was the Wizard of Oz, and searched for all the connections between the two. Until I heard about the Bolivian folk tale I always thought it was just a different interpretation.
I think this music video shows that coming up with a narrative can be easy and interesting if you take your inspiration from other stories. Not only do people like watching the same thing over and over again, they love to see that same thing presented in a different manner. By choosing an existing story you also allow yourself to play with interesting imagery - a large part of what makes an engaging music video. Finding ways to represent concepts like a demon on a budget or a deaf boy in a music video allows for interesting experimentation.
The actual performers are never on screen either, which puts the focus mainly on the narrative.
Cinematography:
As with all music videos there is quite a bit of slow motion on display, a technique that works really well when the music is slow as well. It's a good visual representation of the same sensation the listeners experience when hearing it. In this video it is used very well in the start, where the music is building up. We see the abusive father yelling at the boy in slow motion, an image that is striking and recognizable. This is used a lot in music videos - the act of someone screaming looks really great in slow motion because it gives the audience the chance to sit back and think about why they are screaming. It represents that feeling of cognitive dissonance where you sit back in an argument and forget why it even matters. This is used throughout the video and really helps to represent the idea of not listening.
Something that is interesting in this video is how the camera moves in relation to the shot types used. In the opening the camera slowly pans to a door, that opens to reveal a long shot of the abusive father sitting. He stands up and we move into a mid-shot, the camera movement continues in the same manner between the shot change from the father to the boy. We move into a close-up of the boy. This is a good way of slowly zooming in on the characters, what happens so often with amateur music videos, or even short films for that matter, is that too many close-up shots are used which never gives the audience a sense of space or establishes a setting. Moving in slowly allows the audience get accustomed to the setting and when we move into a close up it's more powerful.
Production Design/Art Direction:
Aside from the interesting costumes and locations, which are automatically interesting to look at, there are some subtle ways that the video highlights important elements. For example the fact that the father and boy wear red that removes them from the dull and dark backgrounds. I also like the way the themes are visually communicated, like when the boy finds the old man, he is grey and mixes with the blue walls of his setting, showing how he has become invisible and more of an object than an individual.
The entire video is very stylized which makes it very interesting to look at, this is something that is hard to do on a student budget and resources but I think it's possible. From the student music videos I've seen they hardly try to make it visually interesting in terms of production design. One of the cheaper ways to engage the audience is with interesting costuming, even if it is mismatched. It makes the video feel otherworldly and fantastical. It would be easy and inexpensive to get a couple of items from an op-shop for your actors to wear and it would improve the film by a lot.
Editing/Post-Production:
What I also really like about the introduction to the song is how the song interacts with what happens on screen. It's edited in a way that the visual and oral elements are linked. The song starts when the father bangs his hand on the table and the titular "la la la" vocalization comes in when t
he boy puts his fingers in his ear and start mouthing the words.
Bad Music Video
For the bad music video of a song I like I chose "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash. I hadn't seen this music video until a few years back but I'd heard the song a lot and it just didn't seem to fit for me.
Narrative/Concept:
There is no narrative here, instead the filmmakers chose to simply show off different celebrities and other artists as a way to show the appreciation for the Johnny Cash, so I guess it's more of a concept. I understand the concept and it could be done well, but a lot of these people seem to have nothing to do with Cash and their morals are obviously very different. When Kanye West is shot from a low angles with his arms up on both sides and a light shining above him or when I see Chris Rock or Owen Wilson suddenly appear then I'm really taken out of the song. It just doesn't feel appropriate.
The real reasoning behind the song is of course based in Christianity but the film maker obviously wanted to change the context to fit more with the greatness of celebrities and their eventual fall, but it it doesn't feel like it's part of the song or originally intended, instead an undesired addition by a third party.
Cinematography:
The video focuses on small and trivial things, usually about the currently featured celebrity. These are usually not in frame and the camera moves around. In short there is no sense of space or specific focus, it's more like it was shot with a montage in mind. At least the lack of colour fits the tone.
Production Design/Art Direction:
There is none, it's mainly just whatever the actors and musicians chose to wear.
Editing/Post-Production:
They do this weird frame dropping technique also seen in Peter Jackson's work and it just looks ugly. The amount of cuts also don't flow with the pace of the music as they obviously wanted to get as many shots in of each celebrity as they could. Combine the cuts, weird smudged look and a host of zooms and pans and you have a very unfocused and poorly paced music video.
At the end of the song they zoom out from the eye of all the featured celebrities, all very quickly, and yet the song is dying down. The cutting just doesn't fit with the tone the song is establishing and it feels like the music video should belong to something a bit more rythmic.
Very good, Bo. Please note the predominance of Christian iconography (crosses etc) in the Johnny Cash video, as well as talent wearing a lot of black, so these are deliberate prod. design decisions. Thank you!
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