Styles of video: Homage and Referencing

STYLES OF VIDEO: HOMAGE AND REFERENCING


Gnarls Barkley - Smiley Faces
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A homage is an artist's way of honouring a video they admire by recreating elements of it. Referencing does the same but does not honour the original video. Artists will usually pay a homage to artists that have inspired them and Gnarls Barkley's "Smiley Faces" does not pay homage to one artist but a whole range of artists from different eras.

The video has a lot of chroma key and digital effects to allow the artists of gnarls barkley to be placed in a video that has already been created. Some scenes however have been recreated from scratch, like the Michael Jackson "Thriller" scene just before the finish of the video. The overall technique of the video is very complex and would have taken a lot of time editing the artists into the different videos from the past. The storyline of the video is very interesting, as they create an illusion of a documentary (also known as mockumentary). There is a discussion through out the video if Gnarls Barkley is a real person who influenced all these great artists to create legendary music.

Styles of video: Pastiche and Parody

STYLES OF VIDEO: PASTICHE



A Pastiche music video is when the directors find inspirations from a different time period. An example of a pastiche is Christina Aguilera's "Candy Man".

The video is obviously inspired by the 1930s. In the video we see three girls in sailors outfits with red, blonde and brunette hair performing a dance routine and singing. This is obviously a homage to The Andrews Sisters, a singing group who were successful in the 30s. The pastiche of the 1930s works because the song is inspired by the music from that era, so having a video that matches the feel of the song creates a winning product overall.

STYLES OF VIDEO: PARODY


A parody is the lighter side of music video styles and it often makes fun of styles that have been previously used by other artists. Sometimes they might be light hearted parodies or sometimes they might be making fun because they dislike the style. An example of a parody is Blink 182's "All The Small Things".

The video parodies a lot of pop acts like Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. The video works because they have incorporated different aspects of their own which makes it unique. Sometimes parodies can be very dry and not funny but it is definitely not the case with this video. The video is also a good example of cutting to the beat as it cuts at the end of every guitar riff.

Styles of Video: Impressionist

STYLES OF VIDEO: IMPRESSIONIST


Impressionists music videos are very different from other styles of video. Impressionists videos are often created to take a person to a different place by creating a certain mood or feel to the video. An example of impressionist I am going to use is "Atmosphere" by Joy Division.

The video is very haunting to watch but that is what makes it work. The emotive delivery of lyric "don't walk away in silence" is prominent through out the song and having these haunting figures in black and white cloaks adds more to the depressing feel of the song. The video is also very poignant because the hooded figures are carrying pictures of Ian Curtis. Black hooded figures are often related to death and Ian Curtis had died eight years previous. There are not many techniques used in this video and in my opinion I do not think it was needed because it would have changed the feel of the video.

Styles of video: In concert or "as live"

STYLES OF VIDEO: IN CONCERT/AS LIVE



In concert or as live is a style of music video where the artists in the video are shown to be at a concert or performing live. When a music video is seen as "in concert" that means that the footage used in the video is from a concert of the band. As live is more of a broad term that means that the artists in the music video are seen as performing live but there have been numerous takes of the performance. My example of as live is Like a Movie by Midtown.

The video works because we get to see a glimpse of how the artist performs. This was the first music video for Midtown so as a new artist you want to give potential new fans a glimpse of how the band perform and what their energy is like. The use of cutting to the beat in this videos helps with the pace the band are trying to put forward to the masses.

CONVENTIONS
As live videos are extremely common within the Pop/Punk scene, especially if the video is your first. The conventions of Pop/Punk music videos other than as live performances include simple clothing (like jeans, tshirt etc), instruments present and a placing of drums at the back with the guitarists and bassists at the side of the drums then lead singer placed at the front. We usually see the band hanging with friends. Sometimes we might see a storyline cut between the as lives shots. A few examples of videos that contain the same conventions are
The Academy is...-Slow Down


Fall Out Boy- Saturday


Gym Class Heroes- Papercuts

Styles of video: Narrative

STYLES OF VIDEO: NARRATIVE



Narrative is a style of music video that has more of a constructed storyline, similar to film and TV. The storyline is usually inspired by the lyrics but sometimes this is not the case. The example I am using of a narrative music video is Stan by Eminem.

The video is a great example of how the storyline is inspired by the lyrics. Stan is a song about an interaction between a crazed fan and an artist. In the video we see the life of Stan and how his obsession with Eminem has affected his life and everyone around him. The video works because we see this character come to life and this character is not a nice one, he is obsessed with someone he has not met and would do anything to be with him. The video is set like a film, so it becomes more appealing. The lyrics are dialogue and we also see camera movement and angles you would only see in film. An example of this is around the 50 second mark when we see the camera tilting from one level of the house down to the basement. The camera is also in the same position when it placed in certain places, like when Stan is sitting at the desk there is a low angle medium shot.

Styles of music video: Animation

ANIMATION



Animation is a video style where inanimate drawings or objects are merged together to create the illusion of movement. The first popular animated music video was Dire Straits "Money for Nothing" and is considered a pioneering music video. A recent example of an animated video is "On The Lam" by Kele.

The video works because the animated video and the effects on the voice and putting the two together creates an illusion that the singer is trapped in this cartoon world. The video merges a lot of styles, especially the use of impressionist, animation as as live so the video is more creative and can appeal more to the masses. The video has many digital effects in (e.g. at 22 seconds, there is a pencil drawing of Kele's face) and there is also the use of chroma key, otherwise the animation that is present behind the singer through out could not be there. However the use of miming does not work as miming is supposed to give the illusion that the singer is singing, maybe if the video was fully animated miming would have worked.

The Development of Editing

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDITING

Editing is a technique that is over 100 years old, the technique is still being innovative and creative like it was when it was first established in 1900's. In the earliest examples of editing, editing was created all in-camera by simply switching off the camera and moving to the next subject or scene. The camera was also static and could not follow much action so the scenes were played out in one frame. George Melies "A Trip to the Moon" is one of the first examples of a narrative film and considering the only motion pictures that was around that time was The Lumiere brothers short films of workers, it was pioneering.



Edwin S. Porter is considered one of the first American film makers to use the editing technique. Heavily influenced by Georges Melies he created his own films that brought another milestone to film editing in a short space of time. The Life of an American Fireman was the first film he produced after being approached by Thomas Edison to make a film for his motion picture studio. As A Trip to the Moon is considered a science fiction film, The Life of an American Fireman is considered the first realistic film with continuity editing (Georges Melies used transitions like dissolve to edit his scenes from one to another). The film documents a last minute rescue of a mother and child in a fire. However we see this rescue from the point of view of the mother and the fireman, which is called overlapping action. This played with a different kind of narration and showed how film can create its own time and space.



Porter continued being the forefront of editing techniques with his second film "The Great Train Robbery". The film had more modern editing techniques than The Life of An American Fireman and is considered one of the first examples of minor camera movement, location shooting and using a less static camera placement. The film also shows two lines of action or events happening at the same time, also known as parallel editing. Parallel editing was a very new technique at the time so it is also another first example of a new technique. Porter also discovered while making The Great Train Robbery that shots could be filmed at different times and not necessarily in chronological order because when they were pieced together the narrative made sense to the audience.



D.W. Griffith was the next film maker to make an impression on the industry and it was not just for his controversial topics. The Birth of a Nation is still considered a controversial film for its glorifying of the Ku Klux Klan but it also considered one of the first films to use editing techniques that are still being used today. In The Birth of a Nation we see D.W. Griffith using a numerous number of shots at different angles for impact, parallel editing, using close ups to show expression plus using seamless editing.

In the early years of film making, all editing happened in camera but as a new technique was introduced in the 50's called linear editing. Linear editing, which is also know as tape-to-tape editing, is when you have to edit the tape from beginning to end in order. If you wanted to change this sequence, you would have to re-record everything you had just edited.

American programme "Rowan and Martin's laugh-in" is an example of linear video editing.

With the invention of computers, a different editing technique was introduced called non linear editing and that was made possible by digital video recordings. The technique allowed editors to upload their footage to a computer and edit film or video footage in any order they want. With non linear editing, if you wanted to add or remove something from your already editing sequence, you can unlike linear editing. Non linear editing is now the main

Digital video appeared around the 1980s. It is a recording system that uses digital video signal rather than analogue. Along with digital video came the discovery of CGI and digital video and CGI has become very important and is still used in film today. The first use of CGI was in the 1973 film "Westworld". CGI allows film makers to create content without actors, props or locations present