Friday, 1 July 2011

Eminem - Stan (Short Version) ft. Dido





This video is called 'Stan' by Eminem and it is from the genre of Hip Hop. The dark colour scheme with murky greens and grays is a typical characteristic of a Hip Hop music video, reflecting the serious meaning behind the music.

In the video we see 'Stan' writing a letter and we see and hear him rap it at the same time, thus matching the lyrics. Through the song Stan's words become more harsh and he becomes frustrated, this is also shown in the visuals as we see his face screw up.


Also more specifically there is a line where we see Stan with his little brother standing outsidein the snow waiting for Eminem to come out from his concert and we hear the lyrics, 'That's my little brother man, he's only six years old, We waited in the blistering cold for you, four hours and you just said, "No."' Another example is when we hear the line, 'I seen this one shit on the news a couple weeks ago that made me sick' and the visuals match these lyrics by showing a cut off the news.

There is no obvious relationship between the music and the visuals, like the cuts aren't necessarily on the beat and the pace of the editing doesn't change much. Arguably some would say that the pace of the editing picks up in the last scenes as Stan is driving his car, the pace of the music in this section is still the same pace as the rest however. To add drama to these violent scenes strobe lighting is put in, making it appear even more edgy.


Although what is noticeable is that we see Eminem when it's his part in the song and Dido when its the chorus and she sings. As the viewer we are encouraged to sympathise with Dido because she is the one who has to suffer with Stan's obsession with Eminem. To support this the colour schemes surrounding Dido in the video are all dominated by warm colours like yellow and orange. On the other hand Stan is often under low key lighting surrounded by grey and black colours, suggesting that he is the unfavourable character in the relationship.


Although Eminem doesn't feature in the video much himself the whole song is about a fan who is obsessed by him. This is how the record company are looking to sell the track, all listeners of the track are going to remember it for the video with the obsessed fan in. Eminem isn't actually filmed in the video until the end but his face features in it throughout, with posters of him on walls and clips of him playing at concerts.
I believe that the artist in this video is trying to send out a message to his fans, that he cares about his fans but that he doesn't support obsessive fans like Stan. This is expressed through the line, 'And what's this shit about us meant to be together? That type of shit'll make me not want us to meet each other'. I feel that he's trying to portray himself in a positive light as a star who has such a busy life but still makes time to contact his fans.




Thursday, 30 June 2011

Coldplay - The Scientist



I haven't just chose this video because it's one of my favorite songs, the time and effort put into the video is incredible. The idea for the video revolves around the line in the song 'I'm going back to the start'. In the video we see Chris Martin (the lead vocalist in Coldplay) have a car crash and the aftermath of it, however the twist is is that it is all done backwards. But there is another twist still, although his actions are all in reverse, he sings the correct way. It took him months to learn how to lip sync his song backwards.

Monday, 27 June 2011

Michael Jackson - Thriller



Some say that Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' from 1982 was more of a film than a music video, it was directed by the film director John Landis. It's duration is more than double the usual durations of other music videos and it seems to have more of a story line to it compared to other music videos.

This is one of my favorite music videos because I believe it changed music videos forever. Other artists became inspired by this video to make their videos more dramatic and film-like.

Thursday, 23 June 2011

History of MTV

MTV
MTV's launch date was on August 1st 1981 and it played a range of songs such as:
'Video Killed The Radiostar - The Buggles'
'In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins'
'Fashion - David Bowie'
'She Won't Dance With Me - Rod Stewart'

On August 1st 1981 launched with the words 'Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll' from John Lack and played over footage of the first Space Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia and of the launch of Apollo 11, this happened earlier in the year and was therefore massive then. Then in come he MTV theme music with footage of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, MTV used this as conceit to portray it as the most famous moment in television history. The first video was 'Video Killed The Radiostar' by the Buggles and then in between each video the viewers would see a blank black screen while an employee at MTV would insert the next video.

The impact of MTV was almost immediate. This was shown after a couple of months when records stores were selling tracks which weren't being played on radio stations.


Slogans such as "I want my MTV" and "MTV is here" in the eighties became embedded in public thought and so MTV grew in popularity. MTV has been referenced countless times in popular culture by musicians, other TV channels and television programmes, films, and books.

Today however MTV is more popular for it's reality TV shows like 'Jersey Shore' and '16 and Pregnant'. MTV has smaller sister channels today to promote music videos like MTV Base, MTV Dance, MTV Rocks and MTV Classic.

Thursday, 16 June 2011

Brief

Briefs

1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

  • a website homepage for the band;
  • a cover for its release as part of the digipak (CD/DVD package);
  • a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

  • a website homepage for the film;
  • a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
  • a poster for the film.
3. The first level of a new computer game, together with two of the following three options:
  • the cover for the game's package;
  • a magazine advertisement for the game;
  • a radio advertisement for the game.

NOTE: All material for all tasks are to be produced by you yourself with the exception of acknowledged non-original sound or image material used in a limited way in video / radio work.

Formats - Video work must be in DVD format; audio work must be in CD format. No print item should be larger than A3 size. Games should be either in Flash format or playable on an exiting console.

REMEMBER:

  • Maintain a consistent house style throughout all 3 platforms i.e. same colour schemes, page layouts, mode of address etc.
  • Maintain a tangible link between all 3 media products e.g. use still frames from a video sequence within a poster or DVD cover and or embed clips of video within a webpage.
  • Create a logo that will brand the product across all 3 platforms.
  • Incorporate the expectations of your audience into your product.