Album cover
Album cover
Album cover
Emily Lee
Music video
In terms of motion pictures, the first known production of moving images is accredited to Eadward Muybridge's proto-movie: "Sallie Gardner at a gallop" (1877) which used a number of images taken in series down a racetrack, compiled inside a spinning cylinder with slits in the side, allowing the viewer to witness the process of the galloping horse as the cylinder spins. From here film developed with the earliest surviving motion picture "Roundhay Garden Scene" (by Louis Le Prince - 1888), a two second clip comprised of a sequence of photographs played in quick succession to show movement. Growing further, moving images advanced and the silent film era was born. These motion pictures had no synchronised sound, and it was not until the late 1920s that audio could be added to the films (which were nicknamed 'talkies'). Films such as Disney's Silly Symphony (1929-39) and Fantasia (1940) were based around the music and thus may be considered some of the first 'music videos', though not in the way that we recognise today. Following the breakthrough of audio synchronisation and the invention of digital photography, motion pictures further advanced, spanning into television programmes as well as movies.
There is much debate surrounding the 'first true music video'. Tony Bennett's "Stranger in paradise" from 1953 is perhaps the earliest 'music video' (despite not being available online today), however the title could also be accredited to Avon Productions' "Jailhouse rock". Though this was a film, Presley's song "Jailhouse rock" was played within in and featured a sequence of choreography matched to the music. The next suggestion is the creations of the Beatles in 1965 which are considered to be the first instances of 'music videos' as we think of today. However, the most widely known instance of music video is that of Queen with the representation of their song 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. This song was to be performed on the television show 'Top of the Pops', however due to the many layers of vocals, a live performance was impossible (despite the strict lip-syncing only policy on TOTPs). The song was also quite lengthy and therefore to ensure the maintenance of public interest in the melody, Bruce Gowers helped Queen to produce a music video. The use of video here was groundbreaking at the time, leaping out from the ordinary and opening up an entire new realm of exploration for the music industry. Because it was new, it was shocking, and because it was shocking it drummed up a large deal of interest in the song and the artists, hence boosting record sales. Consequently music videos have been leaned on as an advertising tool to maximise sales. However the Bohemian Rhapsody video served also to highlight the possibilities of storyline and structure in relation to the song. It was clear that the video could entirely change the perception of the song and thus there became more artistic opportunities within the music industry.
"Sallie Gardner at a gallop" by Edward Muybridge - 1877
"Roundhay Garden Scene" by Louis Le Prince - 1888
"Fantasia" by Walt Disney - 1940
"Silly Symphony" by Walt Disney - 1929-39
The Beatles filming "Help!" on Salisbury Plain - 1965
"Jailhouse Rock" (Elvis Presley)
by Avon Productions - 1957
"Stranger in paradise" (Tony Bennett)
- 1953
"Bohemian Rhapsody" (Queen)
Producer: Bruce Gowers
- 1975
In 1979, a television channel called MTV (Music Television) was launched providing a centre for the nonstop display of the new expansion of the music industry: music videos. The first video to be shown on this channel (rather ironically) was the song "video killed the radio star" by the Buggles and directed by Russell Mulcahy. The creation of such a channel provided a space for artists to have their work broadcast, but primarily it gave them an advertising space to take advantage of to essentials make more money. Record labels did their utmost to make more shocking and captivating videos to increase their capital. Videos such as Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" of 1986 (directed by Stephen R. Johnson) that involves stop frame animation to produce a surrealistic, almost nonsensical film were the forerunners of the current generation of music videos, and despite the techniques appearing now to be almost archaic, they were revolutionary at the time. "Sledgehammer" was a huge hit, the whimsical nature combined with the unusual technique making the video memorable. It is this idea of memorability that has carried through to modern videos, with many still making use of surrealistic and shocking scenes.
MTV logo at launch in 1979
"Video killed the radio star" (The Buggles)
Director: Russell Mulcahy
- 1979
"Sledgehammer" (Peter Gabriel)
Director: Stephen R. Johnson
- 1986
Spike Jonze (Adam Speigel)
Beginning his career as a teenager photographing skateboarders and BMX riders for Freestylin' Magazine and Transworld Skateboarding. Jonze progressed into filming, producing street skateboarding films, the style of which causing his work to catch the eye of many artists and agencies, making him a highly sought after director for much of the 90s.
Being John Malkovich (1999) was Jonze's first feature film, sparking a new section of his career, and in 2003 he co-founded "Directors Label" (a series of DVDs devoted to notable film directors) with Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry.
Fat Boy Slim ''Weapon of choice'' music video by Spike Jonze - 2000
In a collaboration with Fatboy Slim in 2001, Spike Jonze directed a surrealistic music video for the song "Weapon of choice". This video focused on the actor Christopher Walken beginning in a seemingly ordinary environment, then dancing through a deserted hotel lobby, before being lifted off his feet entirely and flying towards the end of the video.
Initially, Walken sits in a chair in the lobby of the hotel, the dull muted colours and the slouched body position suggesting a sense of boredom. A cut to a b-roll shot of a cleaner's trolley furthers this atmosphere due to the connotations of cleaning being a generally menial task. As the music begins to rise, Walken moves his head subtly to the beats. This motion foreshadows the following events, whilst still in keeping with the standard expectations of the situation. Walken then slowly stands and begins to walk away from the chair. Stopping after a few steps, Walken sways in synch with the music as it builds to a crescendo and Walken jumps to a pose on the beat. This sudden movement is a contrast from the previous lull in action and thus creates a juxtaposition. This juxtaposition is furthered by the action that continues
with Walken dancing through the deserted lobby, moving his body in such a way that we are unaccustomed to seeing in such a setting.
Later in the video the surrealistic feature become more evident as Walken dives off of the mezzanine and proceeds to fly rather than dance around the lobby. Approaching a large painting on the wall, Walken pauses mid-flight and we are greeted by an image that is reminiscent of the work of surrealist painter René Magritte.
Finally, for the ending of the video Walken returns to the ground on the final beat, continuing back to his original seat where we cut back to the shot of him slouched, chin tilted slightly down. The return to the initial shot produces a cyclical structure, however is also creates a sense of confusion as Walken acts as if nothing prior happened. We as viewers therefore question if what we saw was perhaps our imagination.
"Golconda" by René Magritte - 1953
Despite there being a few minor technical issues with the film, such as being able to see the camera rolling along on the left hand side in the mirror scene and a some less than smooth transitions, the general technique and style of the video is impressive. There is a strong link to the work of René Magritte and therefore I feel that this video is a great example of surrealism used in film.
I hope to use this concept of creating a juxtaposition in ordinary scene by adding things that would not normally be seen there in order to make the scene conflicting and overall nonsensical.
After receiving criticism for his mistake with the mirror scene in the "Weapon of choice" music video, Jonze went on to produce this perfume advert 16 years on which contains a 15 second choreographed sequence with wall to wall mirrors. This was an incredible comeback with the extensive mirrors making it near impossible to avoid reflections thus showing Jonze's astonishing technical skill.
The inspiration for this video appears to be drawn almost exclusively from Jonze's previous work with Fatboy Slim in the "Weapon of choice" video. Starting with the same sense of normality, the character proceeds to explode into an abstract dance routine. There are also key features transposed from the original video, for instance: the mirror scene, the aerial cartwheel stunt, and the use of levitation at the end.
Michel Gondry
Gondry is a French screenwriter, director, and producer who is well known for his specialism in the surreal. Being heavily influenced by pop music from a young age (as a result of his parents) led Gondry to enter and art school in Paris in the 80s where he developed his graphic skills. It was at this school that he met friends with whom he started a pop-rock band by the name of "Oui-Oui" and thus his interest in music grew further. Combined with his graphic skill, he began producing music videos for the band, thus beginning his career as a director.
Foo Fighters 'Everlong' music video by Michel Gondry - 2009
In the video to the Foo Fighters' "Everlong" Gondry explores the subconscious mind via the idea of the dream-world. "Everlong" (written by Dave Grohl) is a love song, an ode to the young love between himself and his first wife Jennifer Youngblood. Grohl explained that the song was about "being connected to someone so much that not only do you love them physically and spiritually, but when you sing along with them you harmonize perfectly."
The video begins in a seemingly familiar setting with a pair of figures emerging from the bushes into a street scene. Though there is a slightly ominous atmosphere at this point with the figures surfacing from the foliage under the cover of darkness, a suspicious action that holds connotations of malice. We then cut to a bedroom where a Grohl sleeps next to his girlfriend in the darkness. The contrast between the two scenes creates tension and the anticipation of an act of wicked intentions. Via the use of a watery transition, we are transported into Grohl's dream in which we again meet the two mischievous characters from the initial scene. The pair appear to be harassing Grohl's girlfriend which triggers his hands to swell to an
abnormal size in preparation for his confrontation of the characters where he battles to protect her. We are next transposed back through to the real world and then immediately into the dreams of the girlfriend. In her dream, Grohl's girlfriend experiences an intrusion by the two men into her woodland cabin. The rapid cuts to different angles inspire a sense of panic that allows us to empathise with the girlfriend in her frantic efforts to defend her home. Upon waking and observing the distress of his girlfriend, Grohl then wills himself into her dream in order to rescue her. This part of the narrative is indicative of the song's true nature, showing the incredible love felt by Grohl for his girlfriend.
After saving and waking his girlfriend however, the two are greeted by the unfriendly sight of their two tormentors looming over the end of their bed with a menacing gleam in their eyes. We cut to a close up of the intruders and witness as the men open their mouths and two more men emerge through the gaping hole. The emerging men are revealed to be the other two members of the band, thus adding a twist to the narrative that throws the whole storyline into disarray making it almost nonsensical and therefore surrealistic.
This video is a clear show of Gondry’s surrealistic expertise, with the feature of the abnormally large hands stemming from a reoccurring dream from his youth. The surrealistic qualities and exploration into the dream-world throughout the video make for a rather strange end product that makes the song memorable and thus aids advertising and thus boosts sales.
I would like to take forward Gondry’s explorations into the subconscious mind, though into the imagination rather than into the dream-world.
My idea
In my mind map, I have briefly outlined three ideas that I could follow to produce my music video. I looked at the concept of the imagination, moving from a normal scene/a blank scene to a more surreal landscape to show the insides of the subconcious mind. I also considered the dream-world with the idea to use inceptive dreams, with a constant flow of one dream into the next to create a sense of confusion regarding the true nature of reality. And finally, I considered just creating an entirely surreal world via the use of pop art-esque features such as bright colours that seem out of place in an everyday environment to make the scene appear surreal.
For my final idea, I decided to delve into the imagination.
The concept of this piece stemming primarily from the work of Spike Jonze in his abstract dance videos, I planned to begin my music video with a boring, ordinary scene before launching into an unconventional choreography sequence. The 'boring' first scene in this instance was a minimalistic shot of a boy sat or stood with his back to the camera, staring at a plain white wall. I planned to use a tracking shot to move around to face the boy before cutting in to a tight crop of his face. The boy would then blink and fall backward out of shot to initiate the surreal. Having two people run on from the front to the back conducting the first unusual movements, they would then circle back and run to the front as the boy begins to join in with a somersault as his first motion. This abrupt change from the prior ordinary scene is representative of how starkly different the realms of reality and surreality are. I planned next for a confused mess of people running on and off from opposite corners, performing pieces of dance that are echoed by the boy. This chaos will create a sense of bewilderment which allows for the viewer to be transported from real life into the surreal. To finish the piece, I planned for the boy to execute a second somersault, however upon the landing of this one all of the people (crowded in at this point) will drop to the floor, creating an abrupt halt to the action. This abrupt halt is supported by a sudden cut to another close up of the boy's face, before a moving shot, zooming out to show the boy's surroundings blank once more. Returning to a similar shot at the end allows for a cyclical structure, producing a coherent video, yet also this return makes us question if the prior events ever happened. We are thus led to the conclusion that what we witnessed was imaginary and thus the video is an illustration of the surreal.
Behind the scenes
This shoot was incredibly challenging in that I had to direct a larger group of people and create a large enough setting to accommodate the scenes of the video with incredibly limited resources. For the basis of my video I needed an entirely blank setting so that the focus would be centralised on the action rather than the surroundings. In order to achieve minimal distraction I decided to use a plain white scene, however due to my limited resources I was only able to produce a “room” with two blank walls an a floor via the use of the already white wall of the hall, a large white sheet and a few tablecloths draped over a pile of landing modules (crashmats). This provided limited - but enough - space to shoot my video.
Filming the first scene of the boy stood alone in the room, I began at an ISO of 200 and an aperture of F5.6. However I felt that this was too dark and therefore I experimented by adding a continuous light source to better light the subject. I found this light unsuitable to use though, as it produced a great deal of light fall off from the subject and thus the background became too dark, meaning that there would be reduced continuity in the lighting throughout the video. I consequently opted for the simple raise of the ISO to 8000, which did result in some slight clipping, however this clipping most affected the detail of the bricks in the back wall, making the background seem smoother which was actually beneficial to me.
I managed to stick mostly to the shots I had planned on my storyboard, but unfortunately due to a lack of four walls in my “room” I was unable to complete panning shot 360 degrees around the head of the boy. Other than this - plus a few minor adaptations in the choreography - I successfully filmed all of the shots that I had intended.
First cut
Sticking closely to my original plan, I began to construct my first cut of the music video. Combining the use of a slower part of the song for the opening of the video with minimal action in the frame allowed me to create a contrast between the mundane first scenes and the chaotic middle section to show the transition into the imagination and how incredibly different it can be to the environment.
In order to fit the footage to the music in the opening, I had to cut the clip and alter the speeds of each section. Unfortunately when I did this, I decided to also crop down the frame so that it was more tightly centralised on the eyes (as this is where the action was taking place) meaning that the frame jumps throughout the shot, affecting the continuity and causing the video to appear more jagged overall. Additionally the middle section consisted entirely of a single shot from a single angle, making it a rather flat perspective. The single angle produced a voyeuristic effect which is relevant in regards to the intentions of the video being a look into a person’s imagination. However, I decided that I wanted to chop up the scene a little in order to make it more chaotic so that the cinematography reflected the mood of the scene.
Final cut
For my final cut, I adapted a number of things in order to produce a more seamless video. I first looked at the opening scene of the facial close up and adjusted the crop of each cut in order that it was the same throughput and the scene flowed smoothly. I next altered the “imagination section” cutting in parts filmed with a tighter crop in order to create a sense of chaos. This chaos juxtaposes the prior normality thus expressing the power of the imagination. I also added in a cut of the close up eye shot at the end in order to produce a cyclical structure and make the overall storyline more coherent despite the discordant centre.
For the music, I decided to alter the volume at the beginning and end to echo the scene being internalised within the model with a sudden increase when we enter the imagination, showing how hectic it is.
Unfortunately I noticed that in my closeup scene that the focus was off. The autofocus of my camera picked up the end of the nose as the focal point rather than the eyes and therefore the scene was not as pin-sharp as I would have liked. Therefore I would like to have taken more cuts of this specific scene so that I had more choice of cuts to use in my final video.