Similarities to Betty

When listening to Betty there is one band that comes to the forefront of my mind in similarity. This band is the Canadian band, Crystal Castles. They follow the same techno style as Betty, using the same electronic theme. An example of this is their song 'Black Panther' compared with the Betty song 'Love is Tough' (found on their MySpace).

Here is the Crystal Castles song Black Panther, unfortunately this is the only video i can find of it, so you'll just have to ignore the video of Tron.

The band's website

The band's MySpace is at this web address:

http://www.myspace.com/theressomethingaboutbetty

The band's availibility

There are only two members in the band Betty. This is going to make them a lot easier to organize when it comes to the time when we need to film. This is an advantage too, simply the ability to feature the actual band in our music video will add a new depth to the video. Doing a famous band or one we weren't acquainted with would mean we wouldn't have the ability to do this. Also having a bigger band would mean that it would be harder to organize them.

As a band they are also quite keen to let us make this video meaning that they'll be far more willing to help us out and collaborate our schedule.

Slits on Your Wrists Lyrics

You dressed up emo to his gig,

stole some vodka took a swig.

And as it burned your throat you looked at him,

and wondered if he thought you were thin.

Can't wait to recall the night to the toffs at school,

yeah his band's song is cool.

Have to say he's no james blunt,

and when you talk to him you found he was a cunt!

His girlfriend, is giving you a dirty stare!

His girlfriend, is giving you a dirty stare!

He doesn't care how you dress to his gig,

if you steal vodka take a swig.

It slips down your throat you look at him,

you realize he doesn't give a shit if you're fat

or if you're thin...

So you recall the night to the toffs at school

now you look uncool,

and off your ipod you delete james blunt.

Because you think it makes you look like a cunt,

it doesn't.

I think the shit is hitting the fan,

I've been putting up with behavior so uneven its giving me a streaky tan.

One minute you're so loud the next you're not there,

the toffs ignore you the emos don't care.

As you sprinkle your sadness everywhere,

I wonder why I hand my life out to share.

He's got a girlfriend and he blocked you on MSN,

he doesn't spare a thought.

he resisted 'cause the facade was a shit idea

now your caught.

Despite your best efforts you never kissed,

now all you've got is slits on your wrists.

His girlfriend, is giving you a dirty stare!

His girlfriend, is giving you a dirty stare!

Student Made Music Video

This is a video we were shown in class. It is a student made video for the song 'Hot n' Cold' by Katie Perry. It was made by A-Level students in an all girls school in London.

This video looks very professional and it is clear that a good location scout has been around looking for areas to film. That is one of the features that work best for the video. All of the locations look realistic and don't have the feeling that they were just some classroom found at the last minute that looked 'okay', but that it had been thought about carefully.

Careful attention has also been used to make sure that the characters look the part. The costumes are brilliant. Especially the scenes with the girl in the mental hospital. The attention to detail is flawless and the make-up is a brilliant touch.

The video is kept interesting by the constantly changing camera angles and locations. It is quickly cut and keeping to the rhythm. There are in total nine different camera angles shot over five locations, this adds a great depth to the video. Also, all of the locations (apart from, in my opinion the classroom) have exceptional lighting.

The video is also greatly helped by the fact that the video itself has an amazing actress to play the part of the main singer. She doesn't hold back which makes the lip synching look professional which is really the finishing touch.

In some ways the video is similar to the real video in the way that it has taken place over several locations with many different outfits and both contain a seemingly love-struck girl.

The real video can be found here (I would embed it but embedding is disabled for this video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lkaf9PdlNM

Storyboard

As of yet we have a small storyboard that Sam and I have been working on together that shows some of the events in the video. I will upload these as soon as I get the photographs of them.

Mini Pitch

Sam and I had the idea that we were going to have a girl obsessed with the band in the video. This is because the lyrics are about obsession and teenage stupidity. In the video there is a girl who in her love for the band keeps doing naïve, childish, dangerous and stupid things to get the band to notice her. The video will keep cutting to the band themselves playing in front of an audience, and we will also have lone pictures of her, dressing up in an 'emo' style. The shots of her will be to represent her isolation, in comparison to the fame, friends and success that the band possesses.

The video isn't really planned to be light hearted, but it won't be too heavy. The end of the video won't end in tragedy. Between shots of the band and the isolated girl will be scenes where the girl performs acts to try and get the members to notice her, failing every time.

Collaboration with band

Due to Sam knowing the band personally we were able to meet up with one of the band members to discuss locations/the video. We were originally considering hiring the Soultree for a day to film in, but due to not knowing how we're going to be able to fund it we aren't sure that that is the best of ideas. We discussed other things also such as the depiction of characters.

The video will show the band, and another storyline for the music video that will be of Sam and my own creation.

Final song decision

I finally decided to work with Sam on a project with a band called Betty. They are going to be working collaboratively with us and will feature in the video itself.

The reason for my decision over other possibilities is that Betty is less well known, and does not have many music videos out currently. This means that we will be able to portray them how we like (with their coordination).

The song we are doing is called 'Slits On Your Wrist'. We have also been looking at other songs from the same band though.

Spike Jonze Music Video

This is the video for California by WAX. I chose it because it interested me as a video. It is very unlike most of his videos, but has an edge to it that I quite enjoyed.

The video basically consists of a man running down the street on fire. Yes, that's it. The video starts by just showing his lower legs and he runs. It is all in very slow motion. The flame is clear and makes for powerful imagery. The strangeness and willingness to find out more about this curious burning man keeps the viewer watching.

The camera shot in itself is brilliant. It tracks perfectly to the running feet as they run on what looks like pavement.

After a while the camera pans back to slowly reveal the rest of the man, who is actually completely on fire. This is quite shocking to see but is an amazingly vivid scene. He begins to run past people who all seem to be completely undisturbed by his presence.

The camera tracks the man to the end of the block where he turns right and runs away behind a bus, still in slow motion, by this time the song is almost over and the audience is left with a feeling of wishing they knew what the video was about.

The camera then pans back to reveal a girl sitting in a car. It is possible that everything seen was supposed to be from her perspective which leaves the viewer wondering what the video was about.

The main point of this is to state to myself that vivid imagery is good. Create an image that sticks in the viewers mind.

Music Video Analysis

Well, after looking into Michael Gondry's style I decided to do an analysis on his video for The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl.

This video uses hundreds of lego stills put into succession in a sequence to create a moving image. It is done very cleverly and is really a lot of the time simple to show the audience what he can do. The video in itself is interesting to watch simply because the amount of effort gone into it is impressive, and the vibrant colours make for good viewing for the audience.

The video does use clever techniques to slip live action footage in too, however. If you look at the video between 1:21 and 1:26 you can see that the footage there isn't actually done with lego. Two people have been filmed and then effects have been layered to give the impression that they are lego.

As for the video itself if it wasn't lego then all the imagery and scenes would be pretty ordinary and frankly, boring. Most of the video is just one band member at a time playing their instrument from a medium distance without and change from the camera. This isn't a problem when using lego, because the moving colourful blocks keep the audience entertained, but when filming live action footage, simply having this, along with people climbing stairs repeatedly and jumping into a swimming pool every now and then isn't going to cut it as a 'good' music video.

The video repeatedly uses the imagery of someone being chased/followed in a playful manner. This is to coincide with the lyrics of the song about a boy 'chasing' (to put it metaphorically) the heart of a girl, whilst she follows him down towards the river side. This imagery appears a lot in the video, and the video (when not showing the band members) depicts these two interacting with each other.

Email Requests

I sent emails (individually and at different times) to each of the bands I mentioned below. I kept them short so that I didn't drone on about nothing, and so that their interest wouldn't fade at the prospect of having to read an essay about what it is that I am doing.

The email consisted simply of my name, my course, the project I'm doing, and then the request to use their song. At the end when I had got the point across I would post a small bit about how I would in no way intent to sell my video and anything so that there weren't any copyright issues, and similar information such as it will solely be used for an educational purpose.

I used a clear subject title for each so that the band knew what they would be reading before they read it.

So far I have had no replies from any of the bands - Great!

Other inspirations:

Other ideas I had for music videos included having a set out story-line that I would follow. I had considered doing this to the song Untrust Us that I mentioned in the last post. I am considering doing in the style of a short video I am directing at the moment.

This video is set out to fit in with music (called 'Grounds For Divorce' by 'Elbow'). It is a simple concept that I created, directed and featured in. There is not very much to the video and I merely made it to have a look at different visual effects and styles.

The video can be found here:

All of the footage is just test footage and uncut material and the video itself only takes place between 0:47 and 3:52.

The video itself is rather let down by bad acting and it came to the point where I decided the only choice was to re-shoot some of the footage and start editing again due to the abysmal quality of a couple of my friends' acting. This is a problem that I can't have happen with my music video. The chances are I will get only one shot at filming, and if it goes wrong then that will be it. It is very important that I get a good performance out of my band, and if I'm not filming with the real band, my actors/actresses.

The name of the video has no relevance and is simply a result of our warped sense of humour.

Bands I would like to do a video for...

A couple of weeks ago my original estimates for the bands I would like to do songs for looked like this:

Radio Head - Just/You

Crystal Castles - Untrust Us/Crimewave/Black Panther

Gorillaz - 19-2000/19-2000 (soulchild remix)

Bloc Party - Helicopter/Hunting For Witches

The Cat Empire - Sly/Party Started/Hello

Foo Fighters - Up In Arms/All My Life

Kimya Dawson - Loose Lips/I Like Giants

However, after more careful thought I decided that this wouldn't be the best of ideas. The reason for this was because these bands/artists are so well known that everyone would know that my video was out of place and not right to fit with the themes of the band.

For example, if you look at the band Gorillaz; they're very famous and have a theme of these cartoon monkeys which are always used to portray them. If I used any other way if depicting the band it would simply irritate fans, and simply be wrong.

The more likely candidates were the less known bands/artists such as Crystal Castles, Kimya Dawson and The Cat Empire. I am still considering these three as a possibility.

Spike Jonze Research

Spike Jonze is a music video/television advert/film director (and producer for films). His most famous work for films was that of his direction for 'Being John Malkovich'. anyone who watches that film will see that his style is notably a bit abstract and bizzare. Along with being quite dark at times.

He has directed (as well as often other things as well) seven films, and produced and featured in both of the Jackass films. His most recent direction of a feature length film was 'Where the Wild Things Are' that came out this year and he even more recently directed a short called 'We Were Once A Fairytale'.

He has directed many music videos such as (multiple) videos for the 'Beastie Boys' and, like Gondry, a video for Björk. - For her song 'It's Oh So Quiet'. Again, he has also worked with The Chemical Brothers, like Gondry.

He also directed the video for the song 'Crushed with Eyeliner' by REM. His style can be seen as bizzare and thoughtful, like Gondry, but with a bit of his skater past rubbed off onto it too.

Britney Spears Video Remake Animatic

This is a show of the animatic of the music videos we made of the Britney Spears' video. The animatic was edited by Hayden. Here it is:

Michel Gondry Research

Michel Gondry started out his career by creating music videos for the French rock band 'Oui Oui'. In his time as a director he has directed such films as 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', and the recent hit 'Be Kind, Rewind'. Among these he has also directed 'Human Nature' and 'The Science of Sleep'.

He also has directed music videos for Kanye West, The White Stripes, Björk and my favourite of his videos - Star Guitar by the Chemical Brothers. Whilst not being a big fan of the song or band the Star Guitar video is very impressive and intriguing to watch. It features what appears to be a train journey, but with different objects (such as light-posts, buildings) representing an individual sound in the song.

The video for the song can be found here:

I think this is a very clever idea for a music video and have considered using elements from it in my video. However, I would like to add more than just a video like that as I believe that the video gets rather boring after a while.

Progress Report

I haven't done enough on my music video blog yet. I have planned my next posts though so I know what I want to write about. I didn't do much in terms of posts over the holidays which was my own fault, and since I've been back I have had a lot to do in terms of work experience (being away at the weekend and working to 10/11 pretty much every night I've been home). I want to do more work, but I'm hoping to do more soon.

Britney Spears Video

James and Joe managed to get into college early the morning of the shoot. Joe had come through and had brought the costumes that were needed. The only real difficulties of the day were that the director and one of the dancers seemed to enjoy disagreeing with each other.

Britney Spears Music Video Reconstruction

As a class we were given the task to create a reconstruction of the Britney Spears music video 'Hit Me Baby One More Time'. We were told that we had to create the first sixty shots of the video as closely as possible to the original using our own actors and props.

The role I took up for this project was a cameraman, backing dancer and extra. When the day came not everyone turned up which left us with a bit of equipment missing. This was troublesome but we still managed to pull through with all the props we needed.

As a cameraman I was responsible for setting up the shots to look like the original video, liaising with the director so I can correctly follow his insight into how it should be filmed. I had to be able to operate the camera and tripod correctly, efficiently and be able organize people so I can get everybody in the shot correctly.

As a backing dancer I had to follow the instructions of the director and act in the manner that he wanted me to. I also had to learn some dance moves on set as some of the dancers were off, but as I had so many other roles this wasn't a big problem for me as it wasn't my main job. The main dancers who had to learn everything on set had a worse time.

Goodwin's Six Points

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

Video Feedback

We showed the class a video of the song 'Slam' by Pendulum. We showed a bit of the video where a man in a business suit is walking down the street looking confused/disorientated. The camera shots used vary dramatically. It is a good depiction of a man who doesn't really know what is going on.

One shot we particularly liked was a shot where as he walks, the camera tracks in front of him, showing his face. This shot is also  used in the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to show disorientation and defeat.

Lip Synchronizing Exercise Two

We were then given a set of video clips and another set of songs. We were told to choose a song, and then arrange the video clips over the song so that it formed a music video. This was possible because the video clips we were given were all of people in animal suits, so that you can't see the mouths of the singers.

It was surprising how well the video clips went with the music.

Lip Synchronization Exercise One

Our first exercise started by Pete showing us how to use Final Cut to edit sound and video clips together. It was fairly straight-forward and involved using markers to align the video with the audio to create a sequence that looks fitting.

We were given separate video tracks to a song called 'You Wanna What?'. The music video had a the music playing in the background in low quality. We needed to use this to align the good quality audio (of the same song in the video) to the video.

We then muted the video so that the only sound was the good quality music. Therefore creating the appearance of the music video.

From this exercise we learned that it made the video look more professional if you cut quickly, and in time to the music. As well as the Final Cut techniques.