Wednesday, 26 September 2012

Group: Chosen Track

Talk Show Host - Radiohead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU7sUENatUU


  •  We have decided to choose 'Talk show Host' as our track to create a music video for
  • It is a psychedelic rock track with mysterious lyrics and sounds
  • It would suit an artisitc or creative video, rather than a commercial one, because it adds to the meta-narrative of the band who haved a history of making successful enigmatic songs and videos
  • It is a track that starts slow but builds tempo, which could be useful when we aim to build apprehension in our video        





Tuesday, 25 September 2012

EN: Festival Poster And Reflective Questions


Festival Poster And Reflective Questions





2. Reflect on your use of Photoshop.  How does it enable creativity?  What were the challenges?  How did you overcome them?
I found Photoshop was a great tool for enhancing any creative ideas I had when creating print work. This was because it had so many easy to use tools which allowed me to drastically alter existing art and photos to what I wanted to use them for. A great example of this is the name logo’s for the bands I wanted to use on my festival poster, as although they were used in original album artwork I could use the magic wand tool to isolate the text I wanted and could utilize the rubber tool to then make it crisp and clear.
However I felt there were a few problems that I had to overcome when dealing with Photoshop such as the layering system which at sometimes was confusing as I would realise I have layered several images onto one layer. I overcome this problem by importing images instead from open projects. Another challenge was the cropping images neatly with no excess remains of the background. Although the magic wand was a great tool it often left elements of the background especially if the contrast of colour was unclear. However I over came this by zooming in more to get a more precise cut of the image and by using the rubber tool to clean up any unwanted bits. 
 
3. List the techniques used in Photoshop.  To what effect?
There were many techniques in Photoshop that I have began to experiment with and use, they include:
  • The rubber tool in which you could erase any parts of an image
  • Brush tool, which could be used to free hand draw onto your work
  • Using the eye drop tool to select any colour of your project to be used by other tools
  • The Bucket tool filled in areas with a different colour
  • The move tool is the main tool in Photoshop and is great for selecting images and layers to move and adjust the in size and rotation
  • Magic Wand tool which is used to select a certain part of an image to isolate it or remove it
  • To add text onto of your project use the text button which creates a adjustable text box layer
  • The blur tool allows you to blur, sharpen and smudge an image using its sub categories located in the top left of the control bar
  • Finally the sponge tool has two main selectable sub-categories burn and dodge tool. Burn helps create adjust the image to make it darker from its original colour while dodge does the opposite, making the original colour lighter
Although I found all of the techniques useful I found that the most helpful were that of the rubber, move and magic wand as this allowed me to import and move images clearly.

4. Evaluate your finished product in terms of the brief.  How successful were you?
I feel that I was successful in creating a visually engaging festival poster that would attract people to stop and look and take notice. This was because I tried to make the text clear cut and easy to read, while still creating a visually enticing images. I believed I managed to achieve this although I would of liked the sub titles to stand out more as the days could be confused as bands at first glance. 

5. Moving on to print production for the digipak and advert.  What advice would you give yourself?
Moving onto making the digipak and advert I would give myself a few pointers of advice. The first would be to try and not clutter up the page aesthetically as it can often be confusing and detrimental to the final product. Secondly I would suggest not using an over complex background because then by adding text it can become unclear and messy, and the message you want to convey will become lost. Finally I would say to myself to make the most important themes of the advert to really stand out, using techniques such as sharpening, text effects and placement.


Sunday, 23 September 2012

JS: Music Video Analysis


Genre and Representation – Oh Love – Green Day





This music video has multiple features that you would expect from a music video, according to Andrew Goodwin’s model in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (1992, Routledge). This single contains ‘Green Day’ conforming to genre characteristics by doing a performance in the video that is bold and charismatic, both of which reflect characteristics you would expect from a rock band such as ‘Green Day’. The relationship between the visuals and lyrics are contradicting, as the lyrics are emotive and have connotations of poignancy and heartbreak ‘I’m wearing my heart on a noose’. However, the visuals feature the band smiling, symbolising joy. Conversely, the music and the visuals correlate to an extent; the tempo starts at a slow pace, which amplifies the song’s themes which are dark and depressive, although the song’s tempo increases during the track, which highlights a contradiction between the music and visuals.  As a dominant purpose of music videos is to promote the single and the artist, a multitude of close-up shots are evident, and these boost the band’s star image. This is shown in this music video, with lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong having many close-ups throughout. Finally, this video and single is instantly recognisable given to the aural and visual motifs the band have. This is the distinct grain of voice Armstrong has as well as the band logo, whose font is unique to them. 


The band are represented as reckless, rebellious rockers which adds to their star persona. ‘Green Day’ in the video are prevalent and all three musicians are shown clearly through the use of close-ups and mid-shots, which consequently boosts the star image of the band. ‘Green Day’ are a band with immense pedigree and success, so they are used to playing in front of thousands of people in the world’s biggest music venues. For this reason, they are shown as proud and flamboyant  in their performance-based video, in which the members have colourful guitars and an authoritative style, representing ‘Green Day’ as a ‘major’ rock band. Their costume and make-up used makes them appear more youthful, so they appeal more to the younger generation of music fans too.



Furthermore, females have been portrayed in a negative manner. According to Laura Mulvey’s essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative cinema’, this video contains heteronormative discourse and features of ‘The Male Gaze’. This is where the audience are forced to adopt the perspective of a heterosexual man, and this is due to the representation of the women in the video. Many ‘meat shots’ are shown, with close ups and extreme close ups on parts of the female body, such as the lips, eyes and backside. This relegates the women to the status of ‘objects for consumption’, as it also denies the females agency. In addition, studies by Erving Goffman et al about the image of women in popular culture are important when considering this music video. The women have an artificial look, as they are thin, tall and long legged, which is not a true reflection of women in reality. This reinforces the residual ideology that all women in the media have to appear as an archetypal ‘perfect’ woman. The women in the video are also shown in a decorated role, as the male members of ‘Green Day’ are the prevalent people in the video. Commodification is highlighted in the video, when the members of ‘Green Day’ are shown groping some of the women inappropriately. This fails to challenge new beliefs that women are equal to men in modern-day society, as they are portrayed as pleasure objects, instead of equals to men, which they are and should be in the twenty-first century.





Institution and Audience - Uprising - Muse





This music video would most likely be consumed in a variety of different methods world-wide. It has been distributed to ‘iTunes’, where customers can buy the music video, and also on the video site ‘Youtube’, where the public can view it for free. As the record label want to maximise their capital, they would be willing to provide a large budget for a band with the global appeal ‘Muse’ have.  As the band’s reputation sees them as enigmatic and creative, they have released numerous videos with artistic elements to them. This video also has some creative parts to it, with the featuring of a teddy bear uprising. This is enigmatic and thus encourages repeatability of the video, which is what the band and the record label would have aimed to do. The use of narrative fuzz adds to this, as the story is quite unclear to the audience. However, this is mainly a performance-based video, made for commercial purposes – to make money and to boost the band’s star image.


The audience would have a focused viewing of this instead of an ambient one, as the music made and the performance are the dominant things in the video. As well as online, the video would also be distributed to music channels, for example, MTV. This would help make the channel as well as the artist profits, while the band’s name and reputation will also become more well-known than it already is, due to the promotion and hype that will spread as a result of this video being released ahead of the new album. Hype would spread through word-of-mouth, as consumers would talk to each other about the new single. This would also occur online, where on social messaging sites such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘MySpace’, people would talk about the video.





Narrative and Media Language - Street-Spirit (Fade Out) - Radiohead





This music video can be considered an art form. In ‘The End of Celluloid’ (Hanson, 2004) Matt Hanson states that ‘music video is a perfectly formed, contemporary moving image form’ and ‘music video is a place where the moving image avant-garde comes alive’. This suggests that music videos in the present today are not all commercial and creativity can still be achieved, such as in this video. This video is an expression of the kind of band ‘Radiohead’  are – enigmatic, adventurous, and uniquely intriguing. The video is post-modern in the sense that it draws on themes such as escaping reality. There is a link between the sounds from the instruments and the visuals shown, demonstrating amplification. The music is melancholy and slow, while the visuals show some depressing shots, such as the lead singer Thom Yorke appearingly unconscious on a car. However, the relationship between lyrics and visuals is disjunctive, for example, ‘cracked eggs, dead birds, scream as they fight for life’. This has no link to the shots we see in the video and instead, the lyrics probably have a social message within them, rather than showing this message clearly in the video.



In ‘Street Spirit (Fade Out)’, the band’s image is being clearly constructed. This is one of the first Radiohead singles to become immensely popular, as it was released on just their second album. They are shown as mysterious and fascinating, as if they are independent from any other band there was at the time. This enigma and attitude to their music has persisted for two decades and the band still continue to surprise and force consumers to think about their artistic work. The use of camera work adds to this. The video uses special effects such as slow-motion to captivate the consumer and to encourage repeatability. The use of fade ins, fade outs, and varying camera angles such as high, low and canted, disorientate the viewer, creating the illusion of the post-modern world they have portrayed in the video. The editing was done with a slow-cutting rate, to maximise the effect of the slow-motion, and also to aim to evoke an emotive response from the consumer, for example, in the shot of the vicious dog trying to break free from his chain to attack a child. This symbolises the dangers, fears and limitations of the world and makes the audience feel saddened. In contrast, for the mise-en-scene, the clothing used by the band in the video is regarded normal in modern society. The use of a regular shirt and jeans characterises the band as normal, despite the strange on goings in the environment they are in. The video is shot in black and white, to further show a difference between the world made in the video and reality. The use of a storm in the video ensures the low-key lighting adds to the tension and drama of the opening to the video, while the storm symbolises danger and darkness. This immediately puts the audience in a state of disequilibrium from the start, while the continuing enigmatic shots add to the audience’s emotions of apprehension and uncertainty. Also, the setting is dark and remote, adding to the horror feel of the music video. Additionally, the use of non-verbal language again makes the video appear dark and mysterious, as the lead singer Yorke shows an expression of concern throughout the video, suggesting something is not right in the new reality the band find themselves in.




The video does not feature any references to popular culture, to which you can infer that they are independent from society. The use of postmodernism provides the feeling that the video is ‘ahead of its time’ so there would be no reference to culture in the modern day. The video is pastiche in the sense that it re-works ideas about what the future may hold or the possibilities the future may bring. 






Friday, 21 September 2012

EN: How To Deconstruct A Music Video



Representation

·       The band The Verve is mainly represented as “normal” people in their music video for Bitter Sweet Symphony. This is because of the many visual techniques used such as the location of a suburbial, generic town high street and through the mise-en-scene of the protagonist/lead singer, as his scruffy appearance and casual clothing connotes to the audience that he is a typical young male. This adds to meta-narrative of a relatable down-to-earth band that young adults can aspire to, consequently engaging in their target audience and selling more records. However while he is portrait through visuals as a typical person, the lead singer of the verve is given complete prevalence in the video and through his non –verbal language is seen as special to others. This attitude helps build on their star persona; one of the classic “rock and roll” image of rebellion and an anti-conformeristic approach to life.


·       There are many different social groups represented in The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony music video. The most clear social groups are that of the band and the general public. In the video the lead singer is seen as disconnected and different than everyone else, through his non-verbal dialogue of pushing his way through them and ignoring everyone around him.  The band is seen as quite confrontational and apathetic to the feelings of others. Normally this would have a very negative connotation of an egotistical persona, but because of its genre status of a classic rock band this only strengthens the rock star image. Although there are many different social groups show within it, the public are represented as one entity and all seem to have the same response to the main character’s hostility despite age, gender or race. The general public are represented in both negatively and positively in the music video. As we feel almost empathetic towards them through the almost taunting behaviour of the verve, we as a viewer are placed in the shoes of the lead singer, and feel as if they cannot possibly know the feelings of the individual with their judging behaviour. Consequently the band is represented as outsiders to normal society.

 

 
Media Language

 
·       The overriding themes of “We Are All Made Of Stars” by Moby are the creation of man, its culture and its future. Through these themes, visual motifs and the lyrics of the song there a several social messages conveyed. One message is the promotion of individuality that we are all “special” as Moby gives the audience a philosophical and approach to life that we are created through the matter of stars. This representation is formed by seeing people contemplating about life and through amplification of lyrics such as “no one can stop us now”. Another social message is that mankind must unite to make a better future than the society we live in now, through juxtaposing lyrics of “people must come together” and scenes of materialism and greed, such as the strip club being show in a negative and unnatural viewpoint.

 
·       The music video to “We Are All Made of Stars” is loaded we references to popular culture and social groups, all of which are meant to give references to the materialistic, capitalist culture the target audience experience every day. The video forms this representation with a humoristic slant, investing in the stereotypes of each social scenes and the exaggeration of their traits. For example the “rock star” image is shown repeatedly as a character with tattoo’s, sun glasses and either in a pool or party location; as this is an exaggeration on this stereotype. The music video could also be seen as a parody, this is because of the play on words and double barrelled meaning to the song. While Moby sings about being “made of stars”, as in matter from galaxies, his video focuses on the other mean of the word stars, as in a famous pop culture individual; as a connotation to the anti- materialistic message portrayed. This is shown through the juxtaposition of the artist’s space suit and the people around him who fit the stereotypical celebrity image.

 



Narrative

 
·       Because of its relation between the visuals and lyrics, with sometimes a literal representation between them being shown, Moby’s music video mainly takes the form of a Illustrative piece.

 
·       “We Are All Made of Stars” is a music video that could be considered as art. This is because of its anti-conformity messages of rejecting a capitalist life style and that there is more to life than material objects. Consequently this reinforces alternative postmodern philosophies through the use of expression; and therefore can be seen as art. However it could be argued that this rebellious attitude is playing up to the genre expectations of the psychedelic rock category, as artists are expected to be against the grain or have abstract views of life. In some ways the fact that the music video for Moby’s “We Are Made of Stars” is of an artistic nature is a commercial selling point to the target audience of the genre; and therefore can be seen as both.

 

 
Audience

 
·       Massive Attack’s music video for their song “Angel” is one which would normally be consumed with focus viewing. This is because it is not in the form performance or montage piece which the viewer drifts in out of but instead a in the format of an engaging narrative with no narrative fuzz. As well as this it has a strong enigmatic undercurrent that ensures a repeatability value and its un-formulaic structure makes it stand out from other videos. However despite “Angel” being engaging to the viewer, because of its psychedelic genre of the music, it would have a limited target audience as it would not feature on mainstream music channels or radio stations. Instead a more independent method would be taken to market “Angel”. One method we be using free web 2.0 applications such as YouTube and My Space, as well as accessing their existent fan base through social networking sites such as Facebook.

 

 

 
Institution

 
·       Psychedelic bands often collect a certain fan base by having a certain visual and artistic style; the work they produce is often very personal and unmanufactured. Therefore there would be less of an institutional role from the record label to decided what the music video is going to be about, as this would make the themes generic and unfamiliar to the meta-narrative for the band. Instead the band would put forward an idea and this would be checked and verified by the label as a commercial viable idea. On top this a certain director maybe employed that has worked on the artists previous work to provide continuity between the pieces.   




 

 


Sunday, 16 September 2012

Group: Institutional Context


What role do New Media Technologies (NMTs) now play in promoting artists? How has this changed traditional practice? To what extent is this an example of ‘we media’?

  • NMTs play a significant role in promoting artists in the modern era. 
  • With the development of the internet in the mid-1990s, musicians have been able to advertise their material more easily, for example, consumers can listen to their songs on ‘Spotify’, which digitally streams music.
  •  More traditional methods of advertising new works from bands and solo artists, included advertising in music magazines or having their songs played on the radio.
  • NMTs promoting artists is an example of ‘we media’ to a great extent, as blogging or use of social media sites such as ‘Facebook’ or ‘MySpace’ help create word of mouth, which promotes the artists and involves ‘we media’.


What role does the music industry press play in promoting artists in a digital media age? Are they still relevant? Give Specific examples from the UK press.

  • The music industry press still plays an important role in promoting artists, even in the digital media age we are in.
  •  For example, NME magazine is still popular and relevant today in the UK, promoting bands in their articles, which include supplying dates of when bands are touring. 
  • New upcoming bands have their songs played regularly on the NME radio station, while NME create a yearly tour, for the UK’s most successful rising new bands. 
  • NME even have their own website, which today still attracts 7 million users per month. These consumers read the latest news on the latest bands, which promotes the artist’s star image.




JS: Three Tracks With Comments and Ideas


A Certain Romance – Arctic Monkeys


  •         Talks about life on an estate, describing the environment and the lack of love in the area
  •          Emotional lyrics captivated me
  •          Sounds personal and original, its believability is what fascinates me about the song





Bide Your Time – The Courteeners


  •         Lyrics suggest he is talking about his experience at a music festival
  •          This reminds you of joyous thoughts, making the listener feel happy
  •          This is significant to our group because a song such as this would be suitable if we chose the ‘indie rock’ genre of music, which is a possibility for us


ID – Kasabian

  •          Singer describing experience of drugs, as suggested in the lyrics ‘I can’t get a sense of nothing’ and ‘Feeling like I’ve lost control to another force’.
  •          Struggle to stay in touch with reality
  •          Music is electronic and psychedelic, thus it creates enigma which is a possible aim we are trying to achieve in making our music video

JS: Are Music Videos Commercials, Art or Porn?


  • The main purpose of creating music videos is for financial benefits, as they can be profitable and boost a musician’s star image.
  •  Music auteur Adam Levite said ‘Once the industry becomes involved, labels, artists and such, then everything can get pushed towards sameness and mediocrity unless you fight really hard.’ This opinion suggests that most music videos in modern times are made purely to make capital.
  •  However, another auteur Cruz once stated ‘Just as music is a visionary soul, so should its visual expression be’. This view represents somebody who believes that all music videos should be artistic and innovative, rather than commercial. 
  • This essay will debate whether music videos are commercial, porn or art.


Adam Levite believes music videos in the modern day are made
for commercial purposes and as a result are boring and repetitive 


  • Some people believe that music videos are porn. This involves music videos sexualising the male or female protagonist in the video, representing them as objects for consumption
  • Laura Mulvey wrote an essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ which introduced the concept of the ‘male gaze’. This is where the audience are forced to view the text in the perspective of a heterosexual man.
  •  The text would for example feature close ups and extreme close ups of a woman, such as her eyes or lips, as seen in Rihanna’s music video for her single ‘Where Have You Been?’
  •  This denies the woman agency and also presents her as an object
  • This theory can also be reversed for the female gaze, where the audience are forced to assume the role of a heterosexual woman.
  •  Furthermore, a theory devised by Erving Goffman et al focuses on the representation of women in popular culture, which includes music videos.
  •  This outlines that women have an artificial look in the videos e.g. they are slim, long legged and airbrushed.
  •  Function ranking is also a part of the theory, where women tend to be in a more decorated role than men. Other parts of the theory include dismemberment, commodification, the feminine touch, relative size and ritualization of subordination.


An example of soft porn in Rihanna's single 'Where Have You Been?', which encourages repeatability


  • A multitude of modern music videos are made for commercial purposes.
  •  Andrew Goodwin in 1992 highlighted the main features of music videos, with one being the need of having many close-ups of the artists, to boost the musicians’ star image. 
  • In addition, the inclusion of visual motifs, such as a band’s unique logo in the video is also a frequent feature, which again is used for commercial gains
  • Another reason why videos are considered to be commercial is because of the use of narrative fuzz, instead of a clearly presented narrative. Having narrative fuzz encourages repeatability of the video. 
  • Repeatability is also enhanced through cutting to the band performing the song in the video, as this adds to the entertainment provided by music videos; while again, the band’s star image will also increase.


Close-up of Muse's Matt Bellamy from their new single 'Madness', this is
commercial and boosts the band's star image as a result of the camera work


It has also been argued that music videos can be artistic. Matt Hanson once quoted ‘music video is a perfectly formed, contemporary moving image form’ which suggests he believes that they are creative, complex and clever. Hanson went on to say that music videos ‘provide a place where visual and narrative experiments can be distilled into a populist short form’ which further suggests that you can be as innovative as you like when you are a music video director. Art is an expression of creativity and many music auteurs such as Jonathan Glazer and Jamie Thraves present their videos in such a way. Many of their videos are emotive and are inventive as they experiment with new film-making techniques, such as in Glazer’s music video of Radiohead’s single ‘Street-Spirit (Fade Out)’. This video created repeatability due to the mystery it made within it. The video also reflected the style of Radiohead, who are an artistic and enigmatic band too.

Artistic camera techniques in Radiohead's single 'Street-Spirit
(Fade Out)' create enigma and intrigues the consumer watching the video

In conclusion, music videos are mainly commercial in the modern era. Only one in ten acts put out by the industry actually makes any money, so the importance of commercialism is more significant than ever, especially at a time where music piracy is high and people are spending less because of economic insecurity. Some music videos still feature soft porn to boost sales, while the number of artistic videos made is in decline, despite many music auteurs such as Spike Jonze having successful directing careers due to his involvement in making artistic music videos.

JS: Can Music Videos be seen as an Art Form?


Can music videos be seen as an art form?

  • In my opinion, music videos can be viewed as an art form. Art involves creativity and expression; therefore music videos have the ability to be an art form. 
  • Matt Hanson once stated that ‘Music video is a perfectly formed, contemporary moving image form’. This suggests that he views music videos from artists as something more than ‘soft porn’ or something commercial.
  •  A multitude of bands communicate their beliefs and ideologies through their videos, and often communicate moral messages through as well. These often provide characteristics of the band, for example, if they are enigmatic.
  •  Art is open to many different interpretations and is subjective, and what is art to some may not be viewed as art by others, so this means that some people would view music videos as art, while others would think differently.

Matt Hanson - a director who firmly
 believes that music videos are art forms

  • Modern music videos tend to be more commercial than artistic, with the focus on selling the artist’s image, albums and singles rather than demonstrating artistic talent. 
  • Jonas Odell once said ‘the industry has the power to choose which direction music videos are going’ and Adam Levite also said ‘Once the industry becomes involved, labels, artists and such, then everything can be pushed towards sameness’. 
  • This suggests that the businessmen are aiming to incorporate reliable and used methods to sell their artist, such as using soft porn for repeatability.
An example of 'soft porn' in Green Day's latest single 'Oh Love',
used for repeatability and demonstrates no artistic approach
Green Day lead singer Billie-Joe Armstrong involved in
the video, promoting his and his band's star image

  • To conclude, I believe that music videos should be considered as art. 
  • Many bands and solo artists release music videos that are both conceptual and original and are used without the sole intention being to make money.
  •  Boosting sales and making profit has been the sole purpose of some music videos in the present day, as music piracy continues to rise, but this does not mean that music videos can not be creative and avant-garde

JS: Auteur Analysis


Massive Attack – Angel – Directed by Walter Stern




  • This video is artistic and narrative based
  • It features a man who is being followed, before being chased by a mob of people, until at the video’s climax the protagonist stops and starts chasing the mob of people
  • It is artistic and therefore reflects the band’s enigmatic nature with their music and visual style
  • The mise-en-scene with the dark clothing and the non-verbal language on the faces of the individuals involved connote desperation and panic. This accompanied with the pitch black environment with a lack of lighting further connotes a sense of mystery and a dark theme to the video





 The Verve – Bittersweet Symphony - Directed by Walter Stern



  • This video is narrative based
  • The video portrays a man who is walking down a busy street without a care for others, walking into traffic, bumping into various people
  • The cutting rate of the video is slow, which reflects the uncaring nature of the protagonist in the video
  • The camera shots include mid-shots and close-ups of the band’s lead singer, to which you can infer that the video is commercial, as it is trying to make the band and Richard Ashcroft more famous and recognisable


Bloc Party – Octopus – Directed by Nova Dando





  • This is a promotional video made with the purpose of increasing sales for the single and promoting the band's image
  • The video features a multitude of colours to which you can infer that the song was designed to be light-hearted and fun
  • Close ups and extreme close ups of the band’s lead singer Kele are consistently used to promote his and the band’s star image





Foo Fighters – The Pretender – Directed by Sam Brown




  • This is a promotional video intended to represent the band as rebellious, promoting the band’s image as rock stars without a care for anyone or anything
  • The video shows two clear binary opposites, the band presented as the heroes of the piece, while the police are seen as the antagonists
  • The video features mid-shots of the band regularly, as well as close ups of lead singer Dave Grohl, which further suggests the video is made with the purpose to promote




The Chemical Brothers – The Boxer – Michel Gondry





 
  •       The video is creative and features very skilled camera work, following the basketball around different locations
  •          Visuals are in correlation to the music, for example, when the basketball hits a wall, a beat is made on the drums
  •          It is a fun video to view and when the ball pops at the end, the lighting darkens which connotes sadness




Coldplay – The Scientist – Directed by Jamie Thraves





  • Thraves made this video artistic, as it featured Chris Martin walking backwards, before entering a car that reverses. This is again enigmatic, as the audience question why he is going backwards, as they infer what they believe to be the moral message the video is trying to put across
  • The mid-shots of the man on his own in open locations connote a sense of loneliness
  • As for mise-en-scene, the protagonist does not have an obvious expression on his face throughout the video, so the audience can not detect his emotions through non-verbal language.





Radiohead – Just – Directed by Jamie Thraves





In the video for ‘Just’ by Radiohead (Thraves, 1995), the director uses an artistic approach to a narrative based video. The video contains a man within a capitalist society who decides to lie down in the street, then when persistently asked why he is lying down by a group of people, the others lye down with him when they are told. The audience never find out what was said to make everybody in the video lye down. This creates an enigmatic effect as the audience is eager to know what was said.

The clothing features suits and formal uniform that have connotations of working life. However the members of the band are wearing alternative clothes, such as lead singer Thom Yorke who is wearing a leather jacket. This suggests a sense of rebellion from the band, as they are independent from society.

As the video is artistic and creative, the video has the purpose of promoting the band’s mystifying approach to music. This has since been reflected in recent years where Radiohead have become one of the most unique, enigmatic bands of all time.






Kasabian – Switchblade Smiles – Directed by Aitor Throup








The music video ‘Switchblade Smiles’ (Throup, 2011) is a creative and performance based promotional video, made with the intention of selling the band’s star image as a modern avant-garde rock band, as well as the album ‘Velociraptor!’ and the single itself. It achieves this through having a mysterious opening where the band is standing still in a mid-shot, before the camera positions them standing upside down. There was also a montage evident that correlated to the fast paced rhythm of the song. Other interesting camera techniques include the flashes of the colour red, along with the word ‘move’ written backwards flashing up on the screen at different stages of the song. This adds to the feeling that the viewer does not know what to expect so the entertainment value is increased, which consequently increases the video’s repeatability.

The band has been presented as rebellious and authoritative. The image of guitarist Serge Pizzorno smashing his instrument is symbolic as it connotes feelings of anger and frustration. This representation again serves the purpose of boosting the band’s star image.