Britney Spears - Toxic

Artist: Britney Spears

Track: Toxic

Year: 2003

Director: Joseph Kahn

Genre: Pop

Main Audience: 14-20, teenagers, male (male gaze)

Type: Half performance, half narrative

The song Toxic reached the top 5 in 15 different countries, topping the charts in Australia, Canada, Hungary, Norway and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it became her first single to peak inside the top ten in almost four years. The song was originally offered to Kylie Minogue. The music video took 3 days to film. Britney came up with the whole concept of air stewardess etc, and even hire a fat man so 'common men' can be represented. They cleared the set for the naked shoots (when she is in the diamond suit) so it was just Kahn and Britney present, this usually what happens as it gives the star more privacy and keeps it confidential. Britney also shot scenes in which she had to dance through a hallway of imaginary lasers in front of a green screen, something that Kahn deemed as "incredible to watch". It is Britney's most expensive video to date costing $1,000,000

Joseph Kahn used his friends to create the cast for the video, this is uncommon today as the cast is usually hired via a agency. The fat man is played by his assistent, the ex boyfriend is played by Martin Henderson who has previously worked for Joseph Kahn in Torque.

When Janet Jackson's breast was exposed on live television, "Toxic" along with other five music videos would be moved from daytime to late-night programming from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. It failed to win any awards at the time but in 2009 it was voted the most sexiest video of all time by a music video website. The T.V series Glee did a whole hour episode dedicated to Britney Spears, in which she guest starred in, Toxic was among the songs that was covered.

The video references to Blade Runner, The Seven Year Itch and the films of John Woo. It portrays Spears as a secret agent in the search of a vial of green liquid. After she steals it, she enters an apartment and poisons her unfaithful boyfriend. The video also includes interspersed scenes of Spears naked with diamonds over her body. After Janet Jackson's Superbowl incident, the video was considered too racy for MTV and was moved to late-night programming. "Toxic" is known for showing Spears for the first time as a confident adult woman, comfortable with her own sexuality.

"Toxic" features varied instrumentation, such as drums, synthesizers and surf guitar. It is accompanied by high-pitched strings and breathy vocals. Its lyrics refer to being addicted to a lover. The song was well received by critics, who deemed it as the strongest track of In the Zone, while praising its hook and chorus.

The music video begins with an open shot of an airplane flying surrounded by many doves, referencing the works of Hong Kong director John Woo.[46] Spears appears with blond hair dressed as a flight attendant, receiving a phone call. After serving some of the passengers, she leads a bald overweight man to the bathroom and seduces him.[52] She takes off the man's mask to reveal an attractive man (Matthew Felker) and steals a black pass from his pocket.[46][53] Spears is then dropped into the back of a Ducati 999, driven by a shirtless male (Tyson Beckford) in a futuristic Paris, that was compared to the 1982 film Blade Runner.[46] She wears a tight black catsuit and sports red hair, inspired by the character of Sydney Bristow from television series Alias.[49] They pass a woman and lift up her dress, a homage to the iconic Marilyn Monroe scene in the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch.[46] They also pass two women frolicking in a store window.[52]

Throughout the video, there are scenes of Spears naked covered in diamonds.[46] The look was compared to that of Kate Bush in the music video for her 1978 single, "The Man with the Child in His Eyes".[54] Spears then enters Toxic Industries, and gains access to a vault from which she steals a vial of green poison. She accidentally triggers a laser trap when she leaves that she evades with elaborate dance moves, including a back handspring. This is followed by scenes of Spears wearing a black superheroine outfit and black hair. She scales a building and enters an apartment, where her unfaithful boyfriend (Henderson) is waiting. She kisses him just before pouring the poison into his mouth, killing him. Spears kisses him again and jumps out of the window. She lands back on the plane sporting her flight attendant outfit, and winks at the camera. The video closes with a shot of the airplane flying surrounded by doves like the beginning.[46]

 
Wikipedia 2011

The special effects in the video include the plane in the sky followed by some birds, it doesn't look that realistic considering the 1 million budget. Also she jumps off the building and 'flies' and climbs up the walls. The famous diamante body suit is in this video, it's very revealing and is very sexual, this is for the male gaze (Laura Mulvey) and also be a remorable, iconic costume. There are also nude men with there tops off for the woman gaze and to show that even though their big and strong and Britney is little and petite she can still have her way with them. Spears is always looking at the camera seductively and making everything she does sexual in some way or another. Her costumes are very risque, for example the diamond suit and the air hostess uniform which again is revealing but also short and nothing like the real version. There are lots of kisses and sexual actions which all adds to the risqueness. The motorbike and her red hair has an intertextual reference as stated above. When she spills the drink on the male passenger, and starts to clean him up, this is very sexual and again very risque.

There is a relationship bewteen the lyrics and the visuals, the lyrics are both naughty and sexual and so are the visuals. 'I'm addicted to you don't you know that your toxic', she is grabbing the male and showing she can't be without him. She is also saying 'toxic' and their is a green sunstance to represent this. Their is a relationship between the visuals and the music, the music is very upbeat and fast, so is the cuts and clips, everything is at the same speed.

Iron Maiden - Run To The Hills

 

Artist: Iron Maiden
Track: Run to the hills

Year: 1980's

Director: Tim Kirkby

Genre: Heavy Metal

Main Audience:

Type: Mainly performance but does include narrative

Run to the Hills was Iron Maiden's sixth single and the first single from their 1982 album The Number of the Beast. The lyrics show the violence that happened to the native Americans back in the 19th century. Different lines appear to address the Sioux Wars, a conflict between the Lakota people and the United States in the Dakotas.

"Run to the Hills" was released as a video in the early 1980s, which was later remade in the late 90s/early 2000s. The first video consisted of the band performing, interspersed with comical footage featuring Indians from the 1923 James Parrott film Uncovered Wagon. The later video removed all the old film footage and replaced it with Flash animation of Cyborg Eddie (from the "Stranger in a Strange Land" cover) in a sci-fi Wild West setting, animated by Camp Chaos.'

Wikipedia 2011

The genre characteristics relate to the genre of heavy metal as their is the typical headbanging, low and high angles of guitars, dark colour, mysterious and foggy lighting and performance based. There are several references to the Sioux Wars in the lyrics such as 'Run to the hills, run for your lives' and 'Chasing the redskins back to their holes' to name a few.

There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, as Iron Maiden's lyrics are about the Sioux Wars, the visuals also show old clips from that time period. The old clips aren't fully serious as some of them mock it, for example the part when 4 men are on a 4 man bike, this obviously wouldn't happen back then, they have also speeded it up to keep in time with the music and it's flow. The relationship between the visuals and the music is spot on too, the genre is heavy metal so a performance based video is expected, also they are on a stage which again signifies the genre. Also the video is very fast paced and dark lighting, again signfiy the genre.

The effects used are straight cuts (not the type of genre to have fade ins, everything is harshly done), close ups, high angles, low angles of the protagonists guitars and the rest of the bands (typical for this genre). Also there are lots of close ups of Bruce Dickinson, his long hair sets the time period (early 80's) and his costume is very rocky with the wrist glove, leather jackets and studs.

Eminem - When I'm Gone

Artist: Eminem
Track: When I'm Gone

Year: 2005

Director: Anthony Mandler

Genre: Rap

Main Audience: 16-24

Type: Performance/Narrative

Eminem is well known for his outrageous lyrics and out there videos. He has had several top ten hits and number ones, he has also won many awards. The album that the song comes from was going to be his last, but after having a break he came back with more hits including Not Afraid and Love The Way You Lie (Featuring Rihanna).

'The music video starts with Eminem (as Marshall Mathers) rapping about his life. He's at an open house and he raps on a podium and on a black backdrop with fog. The video features his daughter Hailie Jade Mathers. his wife Kimberly ( to whom Eminem was divorced when the song was released)and his niece Laney whom he raised like a daughter. It ends with Hailie and Marshall and his wife outside and Hailie swinging. Eminem also appears in the video as his alter ego Slim Shady.'

Wikipedia 2011

The song is about how Eminem’s fame of Slim Shady, his alter ego came between him and his family and almost separated them. The video starts with a help group, two people start to speak about their lives, and then Eminem (Marshall) slowly walks to the stand, tension is builds as he makes his way forward. He then starts rapping about his past life, you can see the emotion in his eyes and the soft tone in the background makes it more emotional. Using his own family as the characters in the music video makes it more realistic and again puts more emotion in it. The video is performance based but the narrative is the visuals of his life.

The video shows his chaotic lifestyle, so their is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, as each part he raps the visuals show it stage by stage ('When Hailie is piling boxes in front of the door trying to block it' the visuals are doing the exact same as the lyrics). It is the perfect video for the lyrics, starting off with the help group, it really does capture what his life used to be like and shows his reflection now he looks back on it. The relationship between the music and video is spot on, the tempo and tones of the music is quite dull and the visuals are dull as well, black and grey colours with not much lighting. Also the whole point of the music is to show the emotion so Anthony Mandler has achieved well with this video.

The Village People - Y.M.C.A

Artist: The Village People

Track: Y.M.C.A

Year: 1979

Genre: Dance

Main Audience: All ages

Type: Performance

Y.M.C.A was released in Jan 1979 and went straight to number one in UK and went to number 2 in USA. It was the groups biggest hit, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide and became an ultimate dance party anthem. "Y.M.C.A." is number 7 on VH1's list of The 100 Greatest Dance Songs of the 20th Century. It's played at almost every occasion and usually gets people up and dancing with its rememorable dance routine.

'Taken at face value, its lyrics extol the virtues of the Young Men's Christian Association. In gay culture from which the group sprang, the song was implicitly understood as celebrating the YMCA's reputation as a popular cruising and hookup spot, particularly for the younger gay men to whom it was addressed.^[1] However, Victor Willis, Village People lead singer and writer of the lyrics, insists that he did not write YMCA as a gay anthem (Willis is heterosexual). Rather, Willis said he wrote the song as a reflection of young urban black youth fun at the YMCA such as basketball and swimming, etc. That said, Willis has often acknowledged his fondness for double entendre. Willis also revealed that he wrote the song in Vancouver, British Columbia. ^'

                      

^{Wikipedia 2011}

^{The video is performance based and shows the group dancing around various places, in the streets and by rivers. There all dressed in their ridiculous iconic costumes, they are trying to make a statement and bring fun into the video. The begining part of the film starts with a unsteady camera showing the YMCA sign, this signifies the time period as they haven't got the suitable equipment and steady tripod's that we have today. It's a stereotype of the gay community, the dress sense, facial hair, dance moves and how they present themselves.}

^{The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals are pretty much the same. There is a constant reminder of the songs name (YMCA) through out the video, the group point at the building several times, the dance routine spells out the letters YMCA and at the start of each chorus the camera goes back to the YMCA sign. There is a good relationship between the visuals and the music, because it's a dance song the video of course had to include a ance routine. The music tempo is upbeat and the dance moves are in time with it.}

Rihanna - Umbrella

Artist: Rihanna (Feat Jay-Z)

Track: Umbrella

Year: 2007

Director: Chris Applebaum

Genre: R 'n' B/Hip Hop

Main Audience: 14-20's

Type: Mainly performance but there are some narrative bits

The song Umbrella was realised in the summer of '07 when it was raining all the way through Britain and flooding, the song therefore stormed through the charts and became number one, it stayed at the top for ten consectutive weeks. It then became a worldwide hit and one video of the year at the MTV video music awards, amongst other awards inlcluding best song. This song effectively made Rihanna where she is today.

The video is very relevant to the lyrics, as there is either rain or umbrellas involved in almost each scene. It's about how it doesn't matter whats happened she's sticking with that person (the umbrella is to help them stick together through the 'rain' within their relationship). Jay-Z features at the begining of the song, like the Katy Perry and Snoop Dog video, Chris Applebaum has challenged the typical fish eye lense for the rap bits, he is also surrounded by females which is a typical aspect.

The longest scene is about 5 seconds, this signifies that it is a fast pace video and their are lots of straight cuts and fade ins. There are a few close ups of the star, mainly when she is hitting a high note and holding a note on. The special effects used are the illusion of rain on the screen (1:15) and lights falling as if they were rain droplets. Smoke is used at the begining to show the outline of Rihanna's body and to make her mysterious. The costume and dancing are very provocative and have a sexual aspect to them, it also has a hint of the the Male Gaze theory(Laura Mulvey). For example at 2:32 Rihanna is see painted silver and is not wearing any clothes, she covers her self up by her movements but some say it was very risque.

There is a great relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The main lyrics of her song is 'umbrella' and 'rain', so Chris Applebaum went with a simple idea of using a umbrella in multiple scenes, this therefore relates highly to the lyrics. As said before the special effects include the illusion of rain and lights falling down to create a rain effect, Rihanna and her dancers are also dancing in rain towards the end with the lights falling down.

The relationship between the music and the visuals relates as well, the genre is hip-hop so it typically involves dancing and beats, this video is a perfect example of this. Usually R 'n' B and hip hop are more risque and sexual as that is the nature of the music.

There are many problems that face this kind of video when in the making, for example the choreography, getting Rihanna, her dancers and the set perfect and in sync otherwise it could look tacky and not well rehersed. Mise-en-scene has to be perfect too, because as said before you don't want the set looking cheap, it will give the video a bad name, and at the end of the day all they want to do is sell it. Making this type of video would be hard for me to achieve due to the fact that my budget is minimal, I don't have access to all these special effects and getting someone to basically wear no clothes would be hard. Also finding that many dancers would be hard because time is limited and costume like this would be very expensive.  

Spandau Ballet - True

Artist: Spandau Ballet

Track: True
Year: 1983
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Genre: Ballad
Main Audience: Female
Type: Performance

The music video is all performance based, this is to get the feel for the lyrics and the soft tones in the music. The start of the video is all shadows behind a paper wall, then it pans into the protagonist. At 1.18 there is a close up of  the protagonist Tony Hadley, He looks straight down the camera, you can see his emotion for the song in his eyes. Through out the whole video Tony Hadley is staring towards the camera, the way he moves and sings its as if he's singing on a karaoke machine. The camera holds the frame for a long time, usually music videos are fast pace, this is slower because it is showing the slowness of the song. The special effects are very soft, it's mainly fade ins and layering of each different member of the band, there is also split screening showing the guitar and microphone (2:11) . The lighting creates shadows and not full colour images, very pastel and skin tone.

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is that the lighting compliments the lyrics. The protagonist is telling the audience what he knows and loves, you can see this by his eye contact to the camera. It's a performance based video which means that the 'heart and soul' from the song is incorporated into the movements and looks of Tony Hadley. There is a great relationship between the visuals and music as mentioned before it is a ballad which usually comes with a performance based video. The suit in which Tony is wearing signifies that it is this genre and that both the characters in the video and music/lyrics moves the viewers.

The main target audience is female, this is because of the Female gaze theory and women can relate to the lyrics and proberly wish it was themselves that the protagonist was singing about.

Spice Girls - Wannabe

Artist: Spice Girls

Track: Wannabe

Year: 1996

Director: Jhoan Camitz

Genre: Pop

Main Audience:12-20

Type: Mainly Performance

The video is about the group of girls (Geri Halliwell- Ginger Spice, Emma Bunton-Baby Spice, Victoria Beckham-Posh Spice, Mel C-Sporty Spice and Mel B - Scary Spice) creating chaos in the London Hotel St. Pancras. They go around singing whilest disturbing guests staying there, the audience knows from the begining that they aren't allowed in the vicinity but run in knocking guards and workers out of the way. The video was all in one take, so the girls had to learn the dance routine and perform it in one take, a steadycam was used to film it. There was some controversy caused by the video as they filmed it on a very cold night which made some of the costumes didn't cover up the issue, Virgin went a head with the video after the girls re-fused to re-film it. They won a Brit award in 1997 for the single and are a very famous British group worldwide.

There isn't much of a relationship between visuals and lyrics because 'If you wanna get with me, better make it fast', the lyrics have nothing to do with the setting and dance moves. They refer to themselves in the song (rap bit) which is the only thing that goes with the theme. The relationship between visuals and the music is that the music has an aspect of attitude in it, which is shown in the video when they walk around jeering at the camera and basically saying 'look at me'. The opening title sequence is very dated, not many special effects are used becuase it was produced in 1996, It doesn't have capital letters so you can tell no much thought has gone into it.

Spice Girls were the first female group to challenge the norm of all members shoulld wear the same, same hair styles, basically clones of each other. They set the trend for future girl groups by dressing how they want and in there cases the way they dressed made them get nick names for each other, this is individuality.

The Darkness - I Believe In A Thing Called Love

Artist: The Darkness

Track: I believe in a thing called love

Year: 2003

Director: Alex Smith

Genre: Rock

Main Audience:

Type: Mainly performance but there is an aspect of narrative

The video is about the lead protagonist Justin Hawkins, who is in a weird space world in a spaceship, and is waking up to realise this. He does the actions along with the song - 'Touching you'. One by one the band is revealed and it turns into a performance. As it was set in 2003 the special effects aren't as good, for example the blue flames towards the end of the clip (2:42).

The song comes from there album Permission To Land, which has a theme of space and spaceships, you can see this from the front cover.

There is an aspect of nudity, with naked dummies in the background and when he gets out of the bath there is nudity shown but blurred out.

There isn't a link between the visual and lyrics as Justin is singing about love and feelings, the visuals do not display this, except the part when he touches himself along with the lyrics. The stereotypical video for those lyrics is usually involving a girl. However the relationship between the visuals and music is related as the peice of music is rock, there is a rock theme through out the video, flames, guitars and headbanging. The typical rock video is usually performance based which is the case with this particular video.

Britney Re-make Video

This is our Britney Spears Remake of Hit Me Baby One  More Time.

Katy Perry - California Gurls

Artist: Katy Perry ( Feat Snoop Dog) 

Track: California Gurls


Year:2010

Director:Matthew Cullen

Genre: Electricpop


Main Audience:15-24, teen/tween and males for the Male Gaze

Type: Narrative

 

 

 

 

The video is about a dream candy land called Candyfornia. It has lots of different sweet items which are filled with people and are animated (e.g the gummy bear). Everything is made out of candy, the floor, trees and costumes. Snoop Dog features in this music video, he is displayed as a evil ruler of the land, he also fits into the candy theme by his multi coloured suit. This isn't the stereotypical way in which rap artists present themselves as they ususally use fish eye lense and take themselves more seriously.

There is a sexual aspect of the video, as all the costumes are skimpy and revealing, Katy Perry also lays on candy floss clouds with the illusion of her being naked. There is a rememorable scene where she squirts cream from cans with are located in her bust area, this again suggest there is a sexual aspect.

Through out the music video there are lots of shots of the candy based products and close ups of Katy Perry (0.16). There isn't much of a link between the lyrics and visuals as Katy Perry is just describing what California is about - 'I know a place, where the grass is really greener, warm, wet and wild, there must be something in the water', there isn't a reference in the song to do with candy or sweet products. On the other hand, there is a link between the music and visuals, the music is fun, upbeat and poppy which is all shown in the video, the director has captured the fun aspect of the song and turned it into a dream land of fun, which works really well for the target audience.

Through the video Katy Perry is mainly looking towards the camera, this is when she is mostly miming.

In the pop industry now, many females such as Rihanna and Katy Perry herself get criticised for being to sexual. But in my opininon being the same age range and gender for there target audience (teenage female) I don't find it offence, I think it's just a bit of fun and to be honest still sells records so it shouldn't matter.

Gym Group Vodcast

Britney Denotation

150-220

My first impressions of final cut

I had a 15 minute session with John Cockshaw, he showed me the basics of final cut. I had experienced it for last years 2 minute opening, as John cropped down a shot for us but this is the first time we have used it ourselves.

Initially it looks so much better than last years software, it enables you to do a lot more with your shots and add many different effects. This will help me so much next year with our music video, it allows you to get a wider range of effects and shots (for example having 4 different shots on screen at the same time)

Britney Spears Re-make

As part of a school project we have to re-make the Britney video, this will give us practice for future projects. The location is within school so it goes with the original theme of the Britney video. The problems we might face are that people might forget their correct costume, the location doesn't match the original video (we are trying to get it as close to the video as possible), that some forgets the blonde wig which is crucial for the video and we also need to make it look realistic (verisimilitude). A big part for our scene is the dance routines, and if no-one has even looked at the video or practice then this could create problems, it will make the day run less smoothly and you might get one or two people dancing out of sync etc. The biggest problem we could face is definately lip syncing, it only takes one person to get one word out of sync and it looking unrealistic and very fake.


Me and my group were focusing on the gym scene towards the end of the video. We had to think about props, how many people were needed for each shot, setting, location, costume etc. The role I took on was starring in the all the dance numbers and generally helping our project manager (Harriot Harding), this included showing the other group who had been doing the short classroom scene what the dance moves were. 

During the duration of the task, time management lacked. We didn't have enough time to film everything within the time scheldule, this therefore mean't we needed to film after lunch, putting us behind on starting on the editing and vodcast. 

When I come to do something like this again I will definitely ensure that everything is organised and the lyrics are all planned out. To make sure that the lip syncing is up to what I want, I will re-take the song in multiple scenes, going through the whole song to make sure I wasn't short on footage. I will also make sure that the cast that I choose will be wearing relevant clothing and know exactly what they need to bring. Another thing I will make sure is that the cast know the dance routine before we start filming, I would give them the song to practice with a couple of nights before, this will ensure people know what there doing on the day. Obviously creating the Britney video was to a tight schedule (all in one morning) and I wouldn't have such a short time limit when doing another music video, but I think setting short deadlines helps speed up the filming because people know they have to get on rather than mess around for a bit. 

This is Britney's original video



Mini - Vid Exercise

In my group (Gina, Jem, Ben and Conor) we have decided to use the song I feel free by Cream because, it's an easy rhythm and pace to make a video with, there aren't many lyrics during the song and we had many ideas for this song.

Our main idea is to have a barber shop cortet effect at the begining (so the men will just click and hum along to the beat) and then the main singer will come forward through the crowd  and begin to sing. He will then go through grass and look at blue skies (because it's a very free image).


This task got us to grips with using the HD cameras, this was a big step up from AS because the technology was a lot better and gave us a better quality result. Once we had practiced with them, there were therefore easier to use and prepared us for next years music video task. This was a good task because it showed us how fast pace a music video should be and how tightly cut the editing should be. It was our first time using Final Cut to create something like this which again helped us to get familiar with the software and play around with different effects.


This is the original video for the song




This is our re-make