#1 More than Just a Music Video – Video as Technological Development

Arcade Fire – Black Mirror:

The music video was Co-Directed by Tracy Maurice, Olivier Groulex and Vincent Morriset. In this online interactive music video, the interactivity consists of the audience being able to control what they hear – which I find kind of found really annoying, I mean that point of music videos is to hear the song, not to create your own version.

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible:

The music video for ‘Neon Bible’ is also an online interactive music video that lets you control what you see in front of you. For example it lets you turn over the hands of the actor so that you can see what he is holding on the underside. I didn’t like the video, in fact I don’t like this ‘new’ style of music video, I think that the whole production just takes the audience’s attention away from the music.

Vincent Morriset:

Vincent morriset is a director, programmer and inventor that was born in Montreal, Canada. He describes work as ‘cinematic activity’, and he says he also likes to push mediums’ boundaries. Morriset’s short films have been shown worldwide and since the release of the Funeral album he has been responsible for all of arcade fires web projects. He is also always looking for new ways to tell stories.  

#2 Video Which Reflects the Image of the Group/Artist/Act

Haushka – Morgenrot:

‘Haushka’ is the stage name of Volker Bertleman, a German experimental pianist. He is known for reworking and manipulating the ‘complex inner workings’ of the instruments he uses, in order to create new and unusual sounds.

The music video for his track Morgenrot is created by Jeff Desom, a young filmmaker who was born and raised in Luxemburg. Jeff explains the track as being “about a composer who is plagued by writers block that physically manifests itself as a bone growing from his skull” This video is rather similar to the earlier discussed ‘Black Mirror’ music video, that was directed by Olivier Groulex, because of the use of the sepia images of 20^th century New York. Even this video appears

to me to contain actual forage of a piano falling, Jeff reveals that “The finished animation is mostly made from early 20^th century photographs that I found whilst browsing through the vast

collection of the U.S. Library of Congress. I would only zoom into a tiny proportion of the picture and utilize that as my frame.”

The Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Zephyr Song:

The couple Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Faris directed this video in December 2002. The band wanted to create a psychedelic image for themselves throughout several music videos. They asked for the video to ‘The Zephyr Song’ to appear like a kaleidoscope. The directors had this to say about the video: “John and Flea wanted something incredibly, just kind of obscure and psychedelic. Finding true psychedelia in this day and age is really hard to do, because everyone wants to rely on computers and all the stuff that really doesn't know how to find the core of psychedelia. So I had my reservations, but, uh, there are some moments in this video where I think it's captured”

I don’t really know mush information about Volker or his style of music, but from what I can gather from comments on YouTube and other opinions of this video by other viewers, is that it has managed to perfectly represent his ‘style, character and personality’.  http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/1125/-jeff-desom-and-haushka  12/10/11

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zephyr_Song#Music_video 12/10/11

 

Grizzly Bear – While We Wait for the Others:

“The band employs traditional and electronic instruments. Their sound is often categorized as psychedelic pop, folk rock and experimental.” The video directed by Sean Pecknold (Grandchildren Studio) managed to create a video that represents the main characteristics of the band, such as their ‘psychedelic’ and ‘experimental sides’ were shown in the way that the video looks as like it was conducted as an experiment and there was obviously a very trippy feel to the video. Another thing that I noticed, is that all the colours that were used in the video were all really mellow, maybe this was intentional, to try to match the melodic song and the ‘acoustic’ instruments.

#3 Video Directors as ‘Auteur’

James Houston:

James is an artist and filmmaker that were born in Scotland. His main identification throughout his videos is his unique use of colourful retro aesthetics. I found this really awesome interview with James on this site http://inksie.com/journal/james-houston/ . It contains a lot of information about his processes of video making and particularly about his video ‘Big Ideas (don’t get any)’.

Official Secrets act – So Tomorrow:

James Houston quotes: “The most recent project I was involved in was to create a promo video for ‘So Tomorrow’ by Official Secrets Act. They knew my work from seeing my graduation video for Radiohead ‘Big Ideas (don’t get any)’ video online, and asked me to create something for them. This was my result”:

“I made this video with the shortest turnaround I’ve ever had on a project – DV footage was shot of the band performing in London and then transported to me in Glasgow for my magic to begin. The frames around the video are based on old arcade cabinet bezels, and were used to bump up the resolution”.

Grizzly Bear – Knife:

This video was directed by Ghost Robots Encyclopedia Pictura. “This music video is rich in colour, intriguing and the plainly bizarre.” Encyclopedia Pictura is a congealed version of Isaiah Saxon and Sean Hellfritsch. Both of these people have been alive since 1983. Since then they have mostly been growing taller in the town of Santa Cruz and then working hard and tough in the town of San Francisco. They are interested in Virtual Reality, Psychokinetic Energy, Anarcho-Primitivism, Clowning, Cryptozoology, Natural Geometry, Psychedelic Shamanism, and Fruit Sandwiches. They also take part in the group Mangello Tipperary, along with artist Daren Rabinovitch. Their next project is a stereoscopic jungle musical for Devendra Banhart.”

“It doesn’t make sense; it doesn’t want to make sense.” Personally I didnt really like this video, I just found the song and the video difficult to connect with, I found that it didnt really draw the audiance in, even tho it was kinda an exciting video, I guess I can't really explain why.

Radiohead (Nude) cover – Big Ideas (don’t get any):

From an interview James quotes: “It was never intended to be a Radiohead project. Dr. Roland Shregle from Ganjatron.net wrote a tutorial back in the dark ages of the Internet on how to replace a default sound file that’s inside every HP scanner. The original file is Fur Elise and was intended as an Easter egg for early technology enthusiasts. I couldn’t help but notice the excellent bass sound and so the next logical step was to find other instruments that would accompany my bassist. Look Around You probably inspired the final treatment.”

He continues to explain: “I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they’re trying their best to do something that they’re not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.”

#4 Video as Parody, Reference or Homage

Parody = A parody or a ‘spoof’ of a video means to imitate a previously made video in order to mock, belittle or to comment on it in a comical manner. They are created with the purpose of making fun or taking the mick of the original video or film.

Foo Fighters – Everlong:

Everlong is yet another music video made by the genius that is Michel Gondry. He is responsible for directing Dave Grohl and crew, in this revamp parody of the Horror film The Evil Dead from 1995.

Reference = A reference of something or someone is to mention them. If a band was to make a reference to another band in a video, it means that they would do something, an action for example, that the audience would recognise as relating to the band that was referenced. Another way would be for the other band to actually be featured in the video, by way of photographs or clips. For example: Maroon 5s video ‘Moves like Jagger’, which could also be counted as a homage.

Kasabian – Vlad the Impaler:

Directed by Richard Ayoade, the Kasabians music video for ‘Vlad the Impaler’ is a parody of (as the title tells us) Vlad the Impaler – or as some people know him, Dracula.  It features comedian Noel Fielding (The Mighty Boosh’s Vince Noir) playing the character of Vlad, in the video he appears stalking people, walking around a lot carrying a large sharpened stick and then towards the end ‘impaling’ people with that stick.

Queen - Radio Gaga:

David Mallet directed the brilliant ‘Metropolis’ referencing music video ‘Radio Gaga’. The film contains several clips and reconstructions from the 1927 science fiction film that was directed by Fritz Lang. Because of the varsity of the classic Metropolis film, it would have been virtually impossible to be allowed to use clips of it in a music video. However,  Queen were granted rights to the films footage, due to the fact that a solo song of Freddie’s ‘Love Kills’ was featured in the revamped version of the classic by Giorgio Moroder.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Ga_Ga#Video 25/10/11

Homage = Homage is an act of respect and admiration. I terms of music videos, people often copy an original video with their own spin on it, and they would end up with a near identical piece of work as a music video to their own song. Videos that pay homage are usually created for the purpose of paying tribute to the original video or band.

M. Ward – Chinese Translation: Directed by Eric Johnson and Joel Trussell. This is an animated video that is reminiscent of the short story ‘The Three Questions’, written by the Late Leo Tolstoy. I think it is playing homage to the story.  The book told the story of a king that wanted to find the answers to what he considered to be the three most important questions of his life. The questions that the book was based around were “What is the best time to do each thing? Who are the most important people to work with? What is the most important thing to do at all time? The three questions in the song/video are “What do you do with pieces of a broken heart? How can a man like me stay in the light? If life is really as short as they say, then why is the night so long? The way that the video switches the story is that “In the Tolstoy story, the king "finds the answers" when he unknowingly helps a person who is trying to hurt him. In this song, the old man simply tells the younger man he is a "young fool who is afraid to do the things he has to do."  

 http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=7893  25/10/11

Lone Wolf – Keep Your Eyes on the Road:

The music video for Paul Marshalls new ‘Keep Your Eyes on the Road’ is homage to Peter Gabriel’s song ‘Sledgehammer’.  It is made up of mostly stop-motion animations, the same as the video by Peter. The original was made by Aardman Animations of Bristol, and involved Gabriel lying under a pane of glass for sixteen hours for the frame-by-frame stop motion to be completed. The scene with the two oven-ready turkeys was animated by Oscar winner Nick Park, some of his first screened animation - long before Wallace and Gromit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sledgehammer_(song)#Music_video  25/10/11

#5 Abstract Representations of Music Score

Nobody Beats the Drum - Grindin

Grindin' is a song released by the Dutch electro group 'Nobody Beats the Drum' to which a stop-motion video was created by one of the group’s visual artists, Rogier Van Der Zwaag. The video consisted of a series of painted wooden blocks bouncing, sliding, disappearing and appearing in time with the beats and changes of pitch in the song.

The video was set out in a square symmetrical pattern. It is suggested that the team built only a small section of the overall image such as a vertical straight or corner. The actions and movements of the blocks would have been performed in this area and they ‘mirrored’ the production by using editing software such as Premier.

The video was created from 4085 photos and they were taken from the different positions of over 400 blocks that were being used. They were positioned on a plain black background, which enhanced the colours of the blocks and created a good base colour to fill the screen when the music and visual action paused in-between bars.

Towards the end of the song, it started to speed up and there was a sequence in the video where it repeated all of the previously used movements in a series of quick breakdown flashes.

Cajun Dance Party - Colourful Life

Russell Weeks created the music video of Colourful Life, a song released by ‘Cajun Dance Party’. It consisted of a long scene of watching a car drive along a series of busy roads. The camera was positioned so that the backlights of the car were the main focus of the frame throughout the video. The element that made the video interesting was the fact that there were heart shaped auras positioned around each light that came into the frame on the cars journey.  It is suggested that Russell used some sought of filter on the camera he used, to create the heart around the lights. Otherwise he may have used a tracking effect to position the hearts during the editing stage. The video didn’t exactly match the song in the same way that ‘Grindin’ had done, such as the stop-motion in time with the score. However it matched in the way of the feeling that the sound and the visual both gave the audience. The colours of the hearts were ‘mellow’ pastels such as yellows, oranges and blues. The gentle colours matched the gentle rhythm and lyrics of the song. The video took the everyday occurrence of driving and turned it into a slightly more interesting activity from the help of the effects on the lights.

The Chemical Brothers – Star Guitar:

From ‘The making of Star Guitar’ video you can get a real sense of how difficult it really was for Michel Gondry to direct this video. The video shows that he worked out the timing of the beats in different stages – mapping out the different dynamics on graph paper in layers, and then adding more and more layers. It looked a very complex process, and it started quite difficult to see how it could actually work in the end, but as he built up layer upon layer of beats and symbols with the examples of the song playing whilst he tapped on the corresponding sign, the video layout really started to take shape. After mapping out all the positions, he assembled a mini try-out of his set up, by using objects such as forks, drinking glasses, video tapes and oranges. He then recorded this set up as he moved along one side (the recording looked to smooth for him to have walking – perhaps he used a skateboard or something similar) He then played this recording back with the track played over.  

You can find 'The Making of Star Guitar' if you follow this link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/706820/chemical_brothers_the_making_of_star_guitar/ 

#6 Video Which Includes Band/Artists in A Creative Way

It isn’t very uncommon to find music videos that don’t feature the band members themselves in one way or another. However, the majority of bands nowadays do only have a video that is a plain recording of them performing, there aren’t many to be found that actually involve the band doing productive.

Caribou – She’s the One:

Directed by Daniel Eskils, this music video combines both live action and animation. The animated parts consist of what looks like little cardboard cut-outs of the band members and their instruments that appear at the corners of the screen. There is also a little bird cut-out that flies around the scene occasionally. I think that this bird takes significant status in the video, from the title you presume that the song is about a girl, but the video begins to suggest that the song is about the relationship between a man and his bird (some breed of Parrot I think).

Fanfarlo – Harold T. Wilkins:

The video to this track is by Stachemou, the duo of Klaas Diersmann and Dan Sutherland. . There is also another video for this track that can be found on YouTube that is called ‘How to wait for a Long Time’. In the Vimeo video, the members of Fanfarlo are examined for their ‘paranormal potential’, in a lab, by two scientists – Harold and T, Wilkins – hence the song title. To veiw the video please follow this link: http://vimeo.com/2966431

Blur – Country House:

The video for ‘Country House’ is what I would call a perfect example of this music video genre. It features the band members competing in a giant game of ‘Escape the Rat Race’. Damien (The lead singer) is looking into the camera and miming the lyrics for the majority of the video, whilst the other band members and characters run around frantically in the background. The video follows a suited character around the board and other locations that are featured in the actual song. As we follow him around, his actions match up with the lyrics, as well as some lyrics being written on pieces on the board. From 2:20 – 2:40 the video turns into a bit of a ‘parody’ of the video Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, with the four band members standing together in the same position and an opaque copy of them, rotating in the outside of the screen.

#7 Video Which Paints a Snapshot of a Life/World in Three Minutes

To try to describe this genre of music video, the best way would be to say that, the director would have created a strong image of this surrealistic imaginary world in his mind prior to producing a video. Everyone know how detailed and complex thoughts and ideas are, it is one of the hardest processes in media and film making to try to draw this world to the mind satisfaction in a way that comes across clearly to an audience. It is even harder, to create a detailed plot that is to be acted out in a detailed landscape, to fit into the space of a three minute something music track. The director has to find a way to literally ‘paint a snapshot’ of his world, by picking out the key points and events that are to happen.

Beach House – Used To Be:

‘Used to be’ has an awesome animated music video, produced by Grandchildren – Sean Pecknold in 2010. The video consists of two stories running side by side – one about a freaky manikin type model with bright red eyes miming the lyrics into the camera and the other following a young girl model manikin as she undertakes some sort of a journey on a cloud like floating cone. In an interview, Sean was asked if he was worried about managing to create a music video that is as beautiful as the original track, this was his reply: “You can’t sike yourself out by worrying about that. You just have to close your eyes, let all the fear in, count to ten then open your eyes and go and make something cool.”  http://kjphotos.tumblr.com/post/2126984196/portraits-of-seattle-2-sean-pecknold

M. Ward – Requiem:

The music video ‘Requiem’ was directed by Santi G. Aguado, with Jose Luis Pulido responsible for the cinematography. This video includes different mediums, such as a form of Stop-Motion animation and live action. Santi recorded the footage for this video in Barcelona (2007). It features an older man, walking round several different ‘deserted’ locations. With his actions occasionally matching the lyrics that we hear, such as at the beginning, when we are shown feet as we hear feet. This video very cleverly gives us little clues into the background of the character that we are following, showing us certain objects or places at the same time that we hear lyrics, that while being connected create little mini stories, helping to build up the story of the life of the character – and therefore creating the world as we watch. An example is the point at 0:52 were we see the medal lying next to the books and at the same time we hear Ward sing ‘In war he was a tiger’.

Talking Heads – Once In a Lifetime:

The music Video for ‘Once in a Lifetime’ consists of the bands lead Singer David Byrne standing against a white screen whilst dancing a bit like a puppet or a ‘Marionette’. Occasionally, photographs of people from all around the world appear on the screen behind of him. He also performs a range of different dances that are significant in some countries. In several sections of the video, they use a copycat style of production; with ‘mini’ David’s dancing the same routine in the background as the ‘big’ David is dancing in the foreground.  It is said, that certain aspects of the dance (such as eye twitches, sudden arm flicks and sharp intakes of breathe) are influenced by epilepsy attacks on sufferers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_in_a_Lifetime_(Talking_Heads_song)

Warpaint – Warpaint:

I must say, I am completely in love with this song and video! I really do think it is just awesome. ‘Warpaint’ is a relatively new release from the band that is also called Warpaint. Their video features an underwater world refreshing and recovering the dead lives of four unhappy women (acted by Warpaint girls).

The video begins by setting up the background for the actors, revealing their stories and showing us how they come to be underwater. This beginning sequence is all in black and white, and then, as soon as the girls reach the water, they literally come to life, as the entire underwater sequence is presented in very bright colours. Then video then ends with the girls pulling up to the surface, and having once left the sea, the world is restored back unto colour. The bands opinion on the video is as followed: “We’ve always had the idea to do a video underwater, and were excited when our friend Ted Newsome sent us a treatment, which involved just that. It was an opportunity to create a fantastical world where oxygen, time and style were simply not an issue. Turned out to be far more challenging than we had initially expected, but we pulled through.”  http://newmusicmichael.com/wordpress/2011/07/warpaint-warpaint-video/ 

#8 Linear Narrative – The Journey of Something/Someone

A narrative is the way that a story is told and in which order it is shown. A linear narrative is when a video tells a story in a chronological order. A plot to a video is very important, it controls what events happen in a story and without a strong linear plot a music video could turn out unintentionally confusing. The theory of the linear narrative belongs to Todorov, in films he believed that there are five stages in the narrative however, in music videos he believed there were only three.

http://www.slideshare.net/samuelhudson/how-narrative-is-used-in-music-videos

The Chemical Brother ft The Flaming Lips – The Golden Path:

Chris Milk directed the video for the bands in 2003. It involves a very complex plot that follows the hallucinogenic experience of a depressed and bored office worker. The video is about expressing the feelings that get bottled up because of the mundane routine of work. We watch as the man (Fran Kranz) starts off his day so unhappy that he barely checks for cars before crossing a road. Even though there is only 59seconds until his first ‘vision’ Chris manages to create a real sense of slowing passing time, you can really feel the day dragging before it has even began.  We watch as he escapes for little pockets of time from his work to what we can only presume are fantasies, seeing that on his return to reality he acts less supressed and starts to break free from his return. The video continues along these lines until the end, when he disappears into his shirt and seems to have been freed into this new ‘hippy’ lifestyle of his.

Gnarles Barkley – Who’s Gonna Save My Soul:

This music video is also directed by Chris Milk, which is actually noticeable, not because it shows similar style (because I don’t think it does) but because they videos by Chris are out of the ordinary and have very strong story lines.  This video consists of a woman dumping her boyfriend, he then goes on to rip out his heart and hand it to her on a plate, the heart then grows legs, arms, a moth and starts singing into a broccoli at the climax of the song. I think that this is a slightly disgusting but awesome video that works brilliantly as a film but I don’t think it works at all as a music video. Seeing as the point of music videos (apart to just make money) are to advertise the bands and their music then this video just doesn’t cut it. Because of the elaborate storyline and scripts, the song itself just fits in as a backing track, being mostly ignored. However, it is very true that because of the severity of the video people would be pushed into talking about it with their friends and publicising it on social network sights such as Facebook, this may lead to a slight increase in interest in the band, but more than likely it will be passed off as ‘the heart song’ or something similar rather than people saying ‘have you heard Gnarls Barkley’s new track?’ .All the above aside, it is very common for bands have extreme or shocking videos in order to capture the public’s attention, the more that they get talked about and spread out among friends, the more publicity the band and video will get,  this process is called viral advertising. Now back to this video, Chris must have done a pretty good job on it as it managed to get several achievements. These include: a rating as a ‘Must See’ from the Entertainment Weekly. A rating as a ‘Hot Video’ from the Rolling Stone magazine.  A nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video, and last of all, a win of the Yellow Pencil Award for Music Video Animation.

Info obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who's_Gonna_Save_My_Soul 

Stereophonics - Innocent:
This is one of my all time favourite tracks with an awesome video. I no that it's not a perfect example as it features the band performing, but it does have a side story that tells the visual of the lyrics.

#9 Non-Linear Narrative-Experimental Storytelling

In the world of media, a non-linear storyline has many meanings and takes different forms. Falling into the category is the possibility of a film or video game having more than one possible ending. Also fitting, is the heavy use of flashbacks and/or side story’s or ‘visions’. Of course those stated are mainly examples for the use in film; however flashback sequences or side stories are sometimes also used in music videos, like in Eminem video for his song ‘Not Afraid’ it switches between different shots of the character at different locations and undergoing different activities, but the video doesn’t really lead anywhere, it doesn’t have a beginning, a middle and an end that would be present if it were an example of a video with a linear narrative.

Cibo Matto – Sugar Water:

‘Sugar Water’ is a music video that is directed by Michele Gondry. It features a split screen sequence that explores the use of ‘one-shot’ video, mixed with a story being told out of ordinary chronological order. It follows two girls as they undertake random tasks throughout the day. Split screen is used to show the girls actions in two different time frames, meaning that the screen on the left follows one girls day backwards as the screen on the right plays the other girls day normally, then half way through the video the screens swap, so that they watch the girls carry on their business in a different order in both screens.

To veiw the video please follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9auBn6Jys&ob=av2e 

SJ Esau – The Wrong Order:

Russell Weekes is responsible for the creation of the music video to SJ Esau’s –The Wrong Order. With a very low budget and a song with (if I may say so) very confusing lyrics, Russell decided to make a video that gave a new use and sight to ordinary objects. Russell quotes “I thought I’d try to be ambitious so I set out to make a video recreating the seven days of creation.”  Russell also quotes “The aim was to come up with lots of little ideas making light, people and planets etc., and then find different ways to connect them all together.” This video comes across as more of a stop-motion production than anything else, and this helps to create/back up the biblical theme (as in my mind he is helping to demonstrate how some people consider the bible and the ‘seven days of creation’ as being fake). 

Information and quotes obtained from: http://www.promonews.tv/2008/12/02/bug10-sj-esau%E2%80%99s-the-wrong-order-by-russell-weekes/ 

To veiw the video please follow this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4iaNSGY3s0

Russell Weekes – Greatest Hits:

“Greatest Hits” is a music video directed and produced by Russell Weekes. The video lasts 35 seconds and consists of a series of clips from different videos that had been made by Weekes whilst he was at college. Because of the way that the video is made up with clips from other videos, it doesn’t tell a story or have a ‘linear’ narrative.

To veiw the video please follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhijfi3sUac

#10 One Shot Music Video

A ‘one shot’ video is a piece of footage that has been filmed from beginning to end on a single camera without any cuts, pauses, stops or final editing. A one shot film can be quite restricted in terms of location, actions and props. The location of the filming is restricted to only one place, but is possible that some scenes are filmed in different locations prior to the final shoot, which can then be played back on a TV screen for example in front of the camera during the shoot.

The director and production team has to be extremely organised to film a one shot video. The camera operator has to know the exact path to follow and the angles etc. with which to film with. The actor also has to be extremely focused during the shoot, he has to be capable of following the plan exactly, knowing for example where and for how long to pause or stop.  The team behind the camera also has to be quick with their positioning of props etc.

There are many music videos that have been made using this ‘long take’ method. Michel Gondry is a director who specialises in making one shot videos. (Please see separate ‘character profile’ post)

The following videos are all examples of a one shot music video:

Snow Patrol – Open Your Eyes:

The band’s music video is an excerpt from the French film C'était un rendez-vous, directed by French filmmaker Claude Lelouch. It was filmed in Paris on an early august morning in 1976, by a gyro-stabilized camera that was attached to the front bumper of Lelouch’s 450SEL 6.9L Mercedes. The camera then recorded the 10.42km (6.5 mi) route driven at a speed of 85mph. The route started at the Porte Dauphine (a Paris Metro Station) progressed through the yard of the Louvre (one of the world’s largest museums) and then ended near to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur (a Roman Catholic Church). Even though Lelouch travelled around Paris at a breakneck speed, he was unable to obtain a permit for any of the roads to be closed, so instead he took the risk to drive around the route with other drivers and pedestrians still present on the roads. He did however take precautions; he had several assistants positioned at blind spots on the course so that they could warn Lelouch if any of the roads were blocked. After the shoot, Lelouch replaced the original soundtrack with the engine noises of a Ferrari to give the impression that the car was travelling at a greater speed.  In order to make the video fit to Snow Patrols track, they only used 5m 15s of the footage, missing out the first 2m 45 of the original video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDXFvtVlYcM and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169173/trivia

Green Day – Macy’s Day Parade:

This video was filmed at a secret location somewhere in East California. It is a one shot video that consists of Billie Joe Armstrong arriving in a Jeep and then walking around some sort of scrap yard whilst being followed by the camera. In the middle of the video Billie walks around to the rest of the band performing, before navigating his way back towards his vehicle and driving away from the camera.

Green Day – Redundant:

‘Redundant’ is another example of a one shot video, it is very cleverly a visual representation of the songs meaning and lyrics. The song is about the deterioration of the marriage between Billie and his wife Adrienne. The video is showing how their relationship had fallen into a repetitive pattern and the words ‘I Love You’ had lost all affection and were being said merely as routine. (Info from Warning CD booklet) The first time I watched this video I found the background actions very confusing but after watching the video a couple of times I worked out these repeated routines:

·         A newspaper is thrown into the living room from off-screen.

·         A woman stretches her arms and yawns, collects the paper and leaves past the camera.

·         Someone takes a painting off of a wall and replaces it with a new one; then someone else comes in and replaces that painting with the one that's just been replaced.

·         An old lady walks in and looking confused tries to find her way back out.

·         A young girl walks from the left side of the screen, places a box on the coffee table, and then climbs out of a window.

·         A man in a green jacket walks around, picks up the box from the coffee table and then leaves.

·         An old man in a cowboy hat walks around.

·         A woman in a red dress removes her dress and then walks past the camera in her bra and underwear.

·         A woman with a large pot and a plant walks around.

·         A man and a girl walk towards a couch and begin making out, they then leave the scene through which appears to be a bedroom door.

·         A man is vacuuming.

·         A young girl in a skirt comes in through a window, looks around, and leaves.

U2 – Sweetest Thing:

U2’s music video for their song ‘Sweetest Thing’ (directed by Kevin Godley in 1998) is a perfect example of a video that is seen as being one shot but actually isn’t.  The video consists of three clips, that have been sliced together and hidden by lens flares e.g. at 0.48.

Stereophonics - Traffic:

This song is another example of a video that appears to be one shot. It actually contains several edits and different clips in different locations, but because of the way that its edited, such as the camera zooming into an object of a certain colour and then zooming back out of an object of the same colour and apperaing in a different location with different people,  the mind is tricked into seeing it as one continuos shot. Another clever way they edit itis to speed up the end of a clip and the begining of the next clip, and having switched clips somewhere in the middle, the eye doesnt notice the change.

Green Day – The History of the Band

1.      ‘Green Day’ is a Canadian punk rock band. It consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, backing vocalist and bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tre Cool.

2.      In 1987, when Billie and Mike were just 15, they formed the band ‘Sweet Children’.  Under this name they became part of the punk scene at one of Americas most successful and longest running all ages’ punk performance venues – The Gilman (924 Gilman Street).

Billie and Mike performing at The Gilman

3.      In 1988 John Kiffmeyer (also known as Al Sobrante) joined as the bands drummer. Later that year, the trio were spotted performing at a low key gig by Larry Livemore from Lookout! Records, who was impressed with what he saw and signed the band to his label.

John Kiffmeyer

4.      At this time, Larry advised the band that they have a name change, due to the fact that ‘Sweet Children’ was too similar to other band names of that time. From this advice, Green Day was born.

5.      The 1990s was an important year for Green Day. To start with, they recorded and released their first studio album under the title ’39 Smooth’. Then later on in the year, they took their first nationwide tour which took off as a great success to their band image and career.

The band on tour - 1990

 6.      Unfortunately, not long on after returning from their tour, the bands drummer, John, sadly had to leave the band because of college commitments in another state. The position was shortly filled by former ‘The Lookouts’ drummer Tre Cool. 

Tre Cool

7.      With the arrival of 1994 came the bands most successful year of their career so far. On mutual terms, they split they’re contract with Lookout! Records, and joined with Reprise Records. Even though through doing this, they lost many of their ‘punk’ fans saying they were ‘sell-outs’, although they also managed to gain respect and a new genre of fans. In February of this year, the band recorded and released the album ‘Dookie’ which immediately became a roaring success (winning a Grammy for ‘Best Alternative Album) and setting the bands career on fire!

8.      Between 1994 and today, the band has released five very successful studio albums:

Insomniac - 1995

Nimrod - 1997

Warning - 2000

American Idiot - 2004 

21st Century Breakdown - 2009

As well as releasing albums containing recordings of their live performances from tours and gigs.

9.      Over the years Green Day has managed to sell 65 million records worldwide – 24,639 of those were sold in the US alone.

10.  As well as the award for Dookie, the band have  achieved four other  Grammy Awards, these include:

·         Best Rock Album – American Idiot

·         Record of the year – Boulevard of Broken Dreams

·         2nd Best Rock Album

·         Best Musical Show Album: American Idiot – The original Broadway cast recording.

The Band (From Left) - Tre Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt

Some of the imformation above was obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Day on 12/10/2011.