bibliography

Here is my Bibliography, I've broken it down into sections, one each relating to the titles of the other blog title pages:


Chris Cunningham research

All the websites and other source places where I found information on Chris Cunningham.

http://www.bigchill.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/chriscunningham.jpg

This is where I found the Image of Chris Cunningham, I clicked on the link on 8th March at about 6pm.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386123/

This was the page where I found audince feedback for Chris Cunningham, I researched this web page on the 9th March at about 8pm.


http://www.director-file.com/cunningham/

information on chris cunningham current work up to date, I researched this web page on the 9th March at around 6pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Az_7U0-cK0


This is the youtube page for APHEX TWIN's come to daddy music video on this Site I Embedded the video and also borrowed the audience feedback, This was done on the 10th March at around 6pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNB1f9trSM&feature=PlayList&p=3EDA3041BF2A98CE&index=0&playnext=1

The youtube page for Madonna's frozen music video, I Embedded this video on the 10th March at around 6pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAoBKagWQA

The youtube page for Bjork's all is full of love, I embedded this video on the 10th March at around 7pm.

DVD - the work of director Chris Cunningham - released 2003


I borrowed quotes from the handout booklet that came with the DVD, the booklet isn't numbered, I did this on the 8th March, I also watched the DVD and viewed all his material to date. All of this researched I did from between 5-6pm.

Music videos research

This includes all the sites I found information on music video purposes as well as including the two music videos I analyised.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5798623101377514296#docid=6666637566522776701

This is the website I Embedded the lordi music video hard rock hallelujah from onto my blog for the Analysis. This was done on the 7th March at around 6pm.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiaFz07y7oc

This is the youtube page i found the music video Dead Memories by Slipknot for my Analysis. This was Done on the 7th March at around 6pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0-czS8PTBU

This is the Youtube page from where I embedded the Animals music video the house of the rising sun from. I embedded this video to go with my purpose of music videos blog page. I did this on the 12th March at around 6pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0SMyCN6pL0

This is the youtube page where I embedded the music video Bohemian rhapsody by Queen from. I embedded this video to go with my purpose of music video blog page. I did this on the 12th March at around 6pm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PonczpswC3s

This is the youtube page where I embedded the music video Stand and Deliver by Adam and the Ants from. I embedded this video to with my purpose of music video blog page. I did this on the 12th March at around 7pm.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvAYIJSSZY

This is the youtube page where I embedded the music video Somebody's watching me by Rockwell from. I embedded this video to go with the purpose of music video blog page. I did this on the 12th March at around 7pm.

http://www.nypress.com/article-16889-official-history-of-music-video.html

This is the website where I found information on Music Video History. I did this on the 12th March at around 5:30pm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video

This where I got more Information On music video history. As well as where I found information why we have music videos and how they make money.


Our Lip Sync work link from youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGavXvosK64

lip sync project

For our one day lip sync project we were given songs by Barry Manilow and in our groups we had to go and film us lip syncing to the song. In my group was James and Vic, and we were given the long version of "Could it be magic" which we were not looking forward too as none of us liked or knew and songs by Barry Manilow.

We decided to go to Christchurch park and film us lip syncing to the song. Once we arrived at the part we noticed something was wrong with the tripod we were given it was already broken, and it was too late now to head back to college so we did our best that we could with the broken tripod. We filmed both verses and the chorus within the park, before we decided to film any other extra stuff to fill time in our song which was over 6 minutes.

We got back to college and began to edit our work together when we noticed that black lines kept coming across our footage ruining most of the work we did. So we asked to take out another camera and tripod and we quickly refilmed what we could but it wasnt as good as what we filmed the first time round. Also we now short on time. We edited together what we could reuses the same video clips over and over beause we had no other option. We also downloaded a clip online and added that to our edit just to try and improve it further. But once we uploaded the footage to youtube we realised that we forgot to the sound of the extra footage ruining our final edit.

If we were to do another one day lip sync firstly we would double check that the kit we were given was ok and not broken, secondly we wouldnt travel so far away from college knowing that if anything went wrong we could just quickly head back and get another camera or tripod.

research into music video director

Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham made a name for himself in the early 90s working in the art and design department on many feature lengh films suchas Judge Dredd. He created many creatures and robots for a number of films and even got involved the film AI before Steven Speilberg took over the project. During 1995 Chris got to direct his first music video for Autechre with Second Bad Vibel. Throughout the next two years Chris directed further music videos from alternative british rock bands to further make a name for himself until 1997 when he met the artist APHEX TWIN who asked chris to direct a music video for them called come to daddy. This disturbing music video lanched Chris Cunningham's carrer greatly and his gone on to work with Madonna and Björk. Chris is now working on feature films after the success of his most recent short film rubber johnny made in 2005.

Mostly all of Chris Cunningham's music videos use a simuliar tonal palete where the colour has been drained out of the imagery. In his work with bands like APHEX TWIN he tends to be much more expressive as he as more creative freedom to do what ever he wishes in "come to daddy" the imagery used tends to be much more distrubing with APHEX TWIN's face being used over the top of school children to create a very dark and scary concept. the music video sort of follows the narrative Where a demon comes out of the television to seek revenge on an old lady whos dog did a piss on the television set at the start of music video, also school childrem who have all the same face (APHEX TWIN's face) begin to gaver around the television set in preparation for the deman to come out. His idea came from a bad childhood memory of being chased through the woods by a younger child who had a hammer in his hands.



Chris uses the same washed out syle for Madonna's frozen music video. The concept however is completely different from the disturbing and dark "come to daddy" music video, instead he keeps it quite simple with a plain desert background that leaves the audiences attention fully on Madonna herself, who throughout the music video is cloned many times over, she also transforms into a flock of crows and a wolf towards the middle of the video. Chris however wasn't pleased with the finished video as he says and I quote: "I didnt like any of the effects shots...I would rather have just had the shots of her singing in the desert dancing around with that cloak on". instead it was recond company who insisted oh him including the visual effects.



For Bjork's music video all is full of love, Chris originally had no interest in doing the music video as he didnt want to damage her reputation however once he heard the song he changed his mind because it mean't he could something alittle different. Bjork had asked for angelic theme for the song and for everything to be very soft or white. Chris came up with a robotic factory theme, where both the walls and the robits would pure white. Chris still uses a washed out look but unlike his earlier work the colour's used would be strickly white, with just a hint of dark and black for picking out details during the wide shots and close ups.





Audience reponse to chris cunninghams work













The feedback from youtube is mainly good and concerns the artist themselves, however because their watching and commenting the music video for that artist I argue that their also indirectly provide Chris cunningham with good feedback also, because they wouldnt leave good feedback if they hated the video and Chris directed the video so the audience for the song are also the audience for video.

On www.IMDB.com their is direct audience feedback from user Celluloid Rehab about the DVD "the work of director Chris Cunningham" Celluloid Rehab says "His style has more sexual ambiguity, much darker, more violent, more inclusive of technology and a general sense of strangeness and/or creepiness...My favorite video on the DVD is by far the Bjork video (all is full of love). I love the concept of robots making out. If they are made to simulate human movement, why not take it further...I highly recommend this DVD along with the others in the series." Celluloid Rehab is a perfect example that Chris Cunningham has an audience for his music videos and that he is popular because he has a totally different style of directing music videos. Afterall if one liked Chris Cunninghams work he wouldn't still be making short films and music videos today.

I like Chris Cunningham's music videos personally myself because each one is different and very visual to look at. Their all full of really interesting ideas and concepts that I like alot, I think that his ideas for his music videos are part of his own personality or interests. I like the fact that his music videos are alittle dark and disturbing because it makes them more visually interesting to look at, as a fan of horror films I relate more to his APHEX TWIN music video come to daddy because the look and feel of the video is that one of a typical horror film. Overall I find his video's both beautiful to look at and interesting to watch, as he always has a new and interesting idea that makes his videos so great to watch even if you dont personally like his work yourself, you can't say that he isnt a good director full of interesting ideas.

Analysis of two music videos

I'm going to Analyise the two music videos above the top video is Hard rock Hallelujah by Lordi and directed by Pete Riski and the other one is Dead Memories by Slipknot and directed by Paul Brown.

Mise-En-Scene

The mise-en-scene for hard rock hallelujah consists of an American high school. The central character in the music video is a teenage girl who is dressed in a black top with jeans and she carries a cassette player attached to her jeans. She presses play on the cassette player and then the song begins, the character then walks down a corridor full of other people who are pushing and shoving her the corridor is lined either side with lockers, she heads towards the gym where she stops and notices a group of cheerleaders practicing. The lighting is very low key and washed out throughtout the music video, next thing that takes place is that lighting gets even more low key almost black, and blue flashing appears as the band break down the door into the gym and take over the rest of performance. The cheerleaders then turn into zombie slaves and our heroine marches down the corridor leading her zombie slaves to get her own back on eeryone who pushed her earlier in music video. The band are all wearing masks and dressed to look like the undead. Their is intextuality used also within the mise-en-scene. The intextuality is that of a zombie film as the cheerleaders turn into zombies, the lighting becomes more violent like lighting and each of the band members dress like the undead anyway.

In dead memories however the mise-en-scene changes often from room to room as the lead singer moves through different rooms each with its own theme. Each theme differs greatly from the last one, but the one thing they all have in common is that one other member of the band is in the room with the lead singer, however as he moves from room to room they remain, almost like their trapped with a memory.

Cinematography

The Lordi music video uses a range of medium long shots, midium close ups and close ups. There is a tracking shot right at the start of the video following our lead character as she heads out of the corridor and into the gym. Also this tracking shot the camera is moving backwards as the character is walking towards the screen and so is facing the front. Throughout the whole video we never see the behind of the lead character or any members of the band. Nearly all of the close ups used are for the instruments that the band is playing, the rest of the shots are either of the band or the lead character being surrounded by the zombie cheerleaders.

In Slipknots video the camera shots are very interesting for one of the rooms the camera is set to monochrome. this is when the lead singer enters the room with guy who has spikes in his head the reason this has been filmed this way is because it makes the picture surreal and interesting to look at. In the first room one of the band members is crawling all over the walls while the lead singer walks normally along the floor.

Editing and Visual effects

Their is alot of lights flashing to represent lighting within the Lordi music video from the moment the band enteres. Before the band enter everything is in slow motion as our heroine walks down the corridor and enters the gym. After the band enter the editing quickens in pace and cuts to the beat of the music.

In slipknots video the editing varies from room to room but gathers pace towards the later rooms. All the editing is done in time with the music like the Lordi video however their are more visual effects used. The lead singer falling from the ceiling into the first room is done in time to the music beat. Also all the motion taking place is varied but mainly cut to the beat. The video also uses jump cuts and slow motion towards the end of the video, however the slow motion is used only to make the scene seem more dreamlike or surreal to continue the concept that each room is a different memory.

relationship between visuals and lyrics as well as the relationship between visuals and the music

In the Lordi video the visuals are cut to beat of the music and all the motion of the band is in time to the music, suchas the drummer druming in time to the songs drum beat, before the camera cuts to the guitar when the guitar kicks in during the music itself. The visuals have been edited together in a way that makes the lyrics seem like a speech or instruction directly from the band to our heroine in the video. All the zombie cheerleaders also dance and react in time to the beat, and before turning into zombies they clapse just before the lyrics say "all the true believers, they will be saved" represting that our heroine is the only one who gets to live as she is a true believer.

In slipknots video the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics is that each room is meant represent a different memory from the bands past. And the editing quickens in pace as the song grows more intense and each room becomes more surreal and visually busy on screen in time to the intensity of the music and lyrics. As the the lead singer moves quicker also through each room as the music builds intensity before becoming trapped by one the band members in a corridor shaped room, this takes place just as the song slows down again, however the editing now jump cuts intime to the beat making the band member come across as scary, powerful and violent. Again the visuals cut to a faster beat once the song regains it's pace.

Genre characteristics

Both the music videos feature the same genre characteristic for rock/metal music videos however they are used sightly differently. In the Lordi music video the band are clearly seen playing their instruments doing a performance within the video. This is very typical of rock/metal music videos. However Slipknot also appear in the music video however instead of doing a performance, they instead have become part of the concept of the video. Their still performing in the music video but in a completely different way to the normal performance characteristic that rock/metal music video feature.

Concept, narrative or performance

The Lordi music is both narrative and performance. The narrative is a spin on the high school acceptance storyline, where an unpopular kid tries and eventually becomes the most popular kid school. In this case our hero starts off as the unpopular kid in school, but then Lordi break into the school gym turn all the cheerleaders into zombie slaves while they do their performance. Heroine leads zombie slaves through the school corridors while everyone else runs in fear.

Slipknots video is only concept based, you could argue that because their part of the concept its could also be performance based, however they play any instruments in the video so I don't class it as a proper performance based music video. The concept is that the lead singer travels through different rooms each representing a memory or surreal event related to the band members.

How does the promo promote the band

Both music videos promote the band as dark and mysterious as both bands wear marks. It also shows that band members each have their own personia which is perhaps what the band members want to convey to their audience, and the Slipknot video in particular really shows off each of the band members personia's which promotes the bands identity and therefore the band themselves. The Lordi video also does this but instead by showing the audience which member plays which instrument so that the audience will know who does what before they even appear on stage.

Audience

The audience for both music videos would be 15-25 year olds who listen to alternative music mainly rock or metal music. The reason I think this is because rock and metal music feature lots of guitars and drum kits, and feature the band playing those instruments within the music videos for genre, And both Slipknot and Lordi feature all those factors in someform within these music videos which in turn appeals to this audience.

purpose of music videos

The purpose of music videos is to promote the band/artist. Music videos started becoming popular with artist in the 1960's. During the 60's if you were going to play your track live on tv you had to be physically there ready to go, which meant that the artist had to travel from studio to studio, which could be very draining on the artist themselves. Instead bands like the Animals and the Beatles instead recored music promos which they could send to the studio to be played instead, allowing the bands to travel less often.



During the late 60's and early 70's music promos became gradually more cinematic and creative, then top of the pops came along in the mid 70's a tv show where music videos could be shown and this meant alot of british artist began creating music videos just to be aired on top of the pops.



The 1980's brought real change to how music videos could be shown, before the 80's you could only see music videos on top of the pops and that was when the artist sent one to studio. Now their was a whole tv channel where you could watch music videos called MTV. MTV meant that music videos could be watched globally around the round, however not many bands made music videos in American or else where, so it meant British bands who had been making music videos since the 60's became really popular around the world and artist like Duran Duran and Adam and the Ants quickly went on to be global stardom. Also because their was now a place to music videos, music videos themselve became even more cinematic and expensive, with costumes and props now featuring in more music videos than before to create narratives and concepts that go along with the music.



Music videos are a way of promoting the artist/band's music, and it does this by following genre characteristics. For example a R&B artist always has lots of girls wearing bikini's, big expensive cars and the artist wearing lots of gold. However a rock band tends to just have the artists on a stage performing while a concept relating to song takes place every now again. Music videos are also a visual way of promoting the artist themeslves by representing how they look and act, as to create a personia for themselves. In R&B music videos the artist promotes themselves as a tough guy, who is rich and powerful who do what ever they like. However rock bands differ greatly as to how they representselves, some wear mask's to represent themselves as dark, scary and mysterious others wear jackets and jeans and headband alot to representselves as rebels or outcasts.

Music videos are now using alot of intertextuality within their music videos. Intertextuality is where you reference films, books, tv shows within your music video. A good example of intertextuality is Rockwell's I always feel like someones watching me. Within the music video Rockwell references the movie psycho within the lyrics and within the visuals shows reference to many Japanese horror films including the ring and the grudge as well as zombie films.



Music videos now have many outlets from which they can be viewed, one of these is tv. Their are now many Music TV stations each specialise on playing music videos of a certain genre. Scuzz and Kerrang play rock, indie and heavy metal music, whereas clubland tv plays disco and techno music etc. The downside to music tv stations is that you never know what music video will play next, it might be one you like, it could be one you can't stand.

Many websites including youtube, google player and realplayer have access to many music videos, however the downside to these websites is that are thousands of search results for each song so its not easy to find the right music video for the track your looking for, as you may find three or four fan made music videos before finding the correct video. However the benefit to youtube and google player is that is free to watch the music video and you can type in artist/band into the search bar instead of waiting for the video to be played on tv. Music videos can also be downloaded from i player and other music download sites. The benefit of to these sites is that you usually get the search right first time and dont have to worry about fan made material. However the downside is you have to pay to download and watch the music video. Also as you have to download the music video you have to wait for download to finish before you can view it.
















Record companies now set aside a fund for the music videos for each artist. They always release a music video to go alongside the CD release of a new album. Sometimes they release two or three more music videos from the same album. However the first music video is always the most expensive to make and then the second and third tend to be about the half cost of the first video. The reason record companies do this is because first music video aids the sales of the CD and is aired on tv and available online weeks before the CD release. They then release the other music videos some months after the CD release, to boost even more sales of the CD however because the CD has been released already record companies dont make as much return from the music video, which is why the second and third music video budject isnt as much as the first. The reason record companies do this is keep the artist/band within the public eye for as long as possible so that they make a reasonable return for the amount of the money it costs to make the music video.

link back to initial blog

http://snc0910-nd1binitial-markclowe.blogspot.com/