The document summarizes and analyzes 3 music videos:
1) Hurts - Wonderful Life uses a monochrome color scheme and close-ups to depict a grieving man. Water and dancer movements symbolize the lyrics.
2) Muse - Knights of Cydonia draws on sci-fi, westerns and kung fu in its narrative about a protagonist in white versus an antagonist in black. It includes references to Planet of the Apes and Tarantino films.
3) Unkle - Heaven features real skateboarders in an urban setting with contrasting colors and slow motion shots building suspense for tricks. The video suits Unkle's experimental style.
2. Hurts – Wonderful lifehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIJXqOvXb1A&feature=channel Hurts’s Wonderful life follows some of Andrew Goodwin’s forms and convections; there is a relationship between the lyrics, the visuals and the music, but the music video isn’t a narrative. In the video there are many close ups of the two artists faces to exaggerate the image and add some emotion to the music as it has some sombre themes. The first close up of the lead singer he turns to the camera, making a link to the audience; he is leading us through the story. The director uses close up shots of the Dancers and characters in the video as well as the two artists , linking in with the music and lyrics. The video has a narrative of the grieving man and the women in the photograph. The video uses a monochrome palette; black, gray, and white colour scheme to link into the theme as well as the style of the band; modern, slick, stylish with. the video is stylish, photo shoot look in terms of lighting and shot composition. The location used is a “Modernist style” of building with a pool, with stream line walls and square shapes links back to the modern style of the video and music. The director has used female dancers but not in a voyeuristic way, they are used to bring more depth to the lyrics with they movement. The director has used different camera angles, giving the viewer different views of the dancers; the director also used big spaces in some shots, with the grieving man, the dancers, and the artists giving connotations of being alone. The director has used a dirty single shot to introduce the second member of the duo but reminds you that the singer is the lead. The dancers movements are image match, when they bring they hands to they head it cuts to the grieving man you is also doing the movement and then cuts back to the dancers; this action is repeat movements throughout the video. There is also another image match when the dancers have jump in the pool the actions are cut to show the other dancers on the balcony doing the same thing. The dancers movements are also match to the tempo and beat of the music Water seems to symbolic and link to the lyrics, with a photo being placed in the water, the dancers jumping into the pool and dancing underwater, and with the lead singer floating in the water face first and singing. Some shots are just of the reflection in the water. The water section is a intertextual reference to the opening scene of “Sunset Boulevard” by Billy Wilder. there are two women dressed in white, to contrast with the dancers, as angelic type characters looking out for the man; this also could be a intertextual reference to “wings of desire” by WimWenders.
3. Close ups of artist Stylised shots Intertextual reference Image match
4. Muse - Knights Of Cydoniahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Yc3HhSl1Q&feature=channel Muse’s knights of Cydonia also follows some of Andrew Goodwin’ s forms and conventions; first being that there is a relationship between the lyrics, music and the visuals, there are also some close ups of the artists. It opens with a western theme – spaghetti western. The video uses a narrative and intertexual references'; Planet of the apes, Tarantino’s kill bill with its kung fu and science fiction, and Shaolin monk movies of the 1970s as well as the robots, westerns, martial arts, and science fiction. It shows the artists iconography, apart of they image; Science fiction, abstracts, alternative, space. There is some voyeurism of women; the space women on a unicorn. The video if film and edited like a film production with the sets , locations, and costumes. The character would mime the words being said, acting them out. The video uses close ups of the band member, and playing live. It Plays on the ironic western genre, with the bar fights, and a man crashing through windows, and generic bar scene. Muse still feature playing as a band during the bar scene, and focuses on Matt Bellamy as the lead singer. There is a implied romance between the hero and the blonde lady, using a series of jump cuts to reinforced this and create a narrative. There is a direct link between the lyrics and the visuals, with the characters saying the actual lyrics “ nobodys going to take me alive”. There is a character dynamic between the protagonist in white and the antagonist in black which links back to the genre of the video’s narrative. Tongue in cheek humour; riding off into the sunset.
5. Intertexual reference Intertextual reference: 70s Shaolin monk movies And Planet of the apes Close up of the artists Planet of the apes Jump cuts voyeurism
6. Unkle – Heavenhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJTJR83wWfI Unkle’s heaven doesn’t follow almost any of Andrew Goodwin's forms and conventions; there is a relation ship between the music and the visuals as the skaters movements follow the music’s tempo. The video suits Unkles style and iconography; experimental, alternative. The location is an urban concrete area, suitably for the skateboarders. The colour contrast and hue has been used to make it brighter, making the whites whiter and the blacks blacker. I like the use of slow motion and cutting between skateboarders, building up suspense for the tricks and explosions. Its real, no stunt men. The video was directed by Spike Jonze who also is Wax’s California, and shares styles from it with slow motion.