Research Analysis Task 2 - Music Videos

The Orwells - The Righteous One (Official Music Video)

I chose this music video to analyse because of its unique style. The video is directed by Eddie O'Keefe, who often makes music videos for bands of the indie-rock genre. This video has no narrative whatsoever. This is nice simple idea that I may consider using for my own music video. The whole video is in black and white, which relates to the serious mood and message of the song. The video begins with a still of the bands name and name of the song (The Orwells - The Righteous One) which is a nice way to start the video as the viewer will know what the band call themselves and they will now also be able to search their name for more music if they enjoyed this particular video. The video features close ups of the bands instruments while they are playing them, an effective technique used in many videos. It also has many close ups of the band's faces, especially the lead singer who sings directly to the camera, which is effective as it makes it seem as though he is addressing the audience directly and trying to give the viewer a message of some kind. Whats interesting about this video is they merge a lot of footage of the band mates together as they are playing for example:

This is a simple but extremely effective technique which looks really good and fits well with the music. To cut in between shots, the fading effect is used, what this does is makes the video flow a bit more than if the cuts were just straight to the next. Also, the fade effect looks really good with the merged images. At one point in the video two different videos of the lead singer are put together on the screen. This creates a nice effect which looks like two people are singing at you, reinforcing the message of the song. The lighting is this video has obviously been well thought about. The placement of the lights have made it so you can only see the band members and their instruments, this will also be down to the black background. The effect this has is that it makes them look isolated, like it is just the band and their instruments. I like this style of video because it's such a simple idea, but it comes across looking really professional. The good thing about creating a video like this would be that it would not be economically straining, and would not take as much time to film.

Mac Demarco - Ode to Viceroy (Official Music Video)

The next video I have chosen to analyse is Ode to Viceroy by Mac Demarco:

This music video is directed by Jasper Baydala who has an extremely unique style of filming music videos. The video is shot using an old retro camcorder, which is rare for a music video but if done in the right way looks extremely effective and fits nicely into the 'indie' look. At the beginning of the music video, the song name 'Viceroy' is in the centre of the screen, so people know the name of the song. Throughout the whole video a fish-eye lens is used on the camera. What this does is add to the indie-retro effect, and sets it apart from other videos, keeping the watcher interested as they may have never seen a video like this before. Within the music video, there are cutaways to different objects. For example a packet of 'Viceroy' cigarettes, which is what this song is about, showing cohesion between the lyrics and the video itself.

The video features random footage of the singer Mac in his everyday routine, for example him driving around and going to his local shops. This is a nice twist to a music video, as it's a narrative, but of Mac Demarco's actual life. This would be good for Demarco's fans, as they get a real insight into his life. This video is also focused a lot on the editing, for example they're are a few times in the video where videos have been edited onto a picture frame to make it look as if the pictures are moving. This adds to the whole bizarreness of the video, and again keeps it a lot more interesting to watch. Between cuts, a lot of the time fade in and outs are used, this makes the video look a lot nicer to look at as it is more pleasing to the eye than just straight cuts. On the whole, this video succeeds in giving off the retro-indie look, and really goes along nicely with the song itself.

Nirvana - Slither (Official Music Video)

The next video I'm going to analyse is Slither by Nirvana:

This music video is performance based only, and features all the Nirvana members rocking out in a bedroom. The whole video is shot using the technique of a shaky handheld camera, this is effective as it fits perfectly with the song and it's genre which is extremely anarchic. The video includes lots of out of focus, uneasy close ups of Kurt Cobain singing into the camera. What this does is it makes you feel like he is singing directly to you, which makes the video a lot more interesting to view. A couple of times in the video high angle shots are also used on Kurt Cobain. Usually they are used to make the person in shot look vulnerable and powerless, but I think that Cobain gives off the opposite effect. Instead, he looks like he doesn't care about the people looking down on him, which is one of the main things grunge is about, not caring. There are cutaways to random objects for instance posters and statues, which will be filmed in close up then quickly zoomed out, which adds to the messy feel of this video. The lighting in the video is very white and natural, it looks like there is just light coming through the bedroom window, giving off the effect that the band are just playing music in a bedroom, not in a studio. The camera also cuts to close ups of the guitar and drums, which is typical for a rock music video and is something I will use in my music video. There is also points in the video where the camera cuts away to a baby dancing and crawling around, which adds to the weird, random side of this video because it seems out of place. Towards the end of the video, the cuts get faster, which is accompanied by the band messing up the room, showing the destructiveness of grunge music. The video seems to get more wild as it goes along, like a snowball rolling down a hill. Then finally the screen goes black at the end, hitting you in the face and leaving you wondering about what just happened. Overall this video goes extremely well with the song and the grunge genre.