British Director - Jonathan Glazer - Auteur

Jonathan Glazer

Jonathan Glazer is a British who's directing work includes  music videos, feature films and advertisements.

Music Videos

Glazer has done several music videos, including;

• "Karmacoma" -Massive Attack (1995)
• "The Universal" -Blur (1995)
• "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" - Radiohead (1996)
• "Virtual Insanity" - Jamiroquai (1996)
• "Cosmic Girl" (version 2) -Jamiroquai (1997)
• "Into My Arms" -Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (1997)
• "Karma Police" - Radiohead (1997)
• "Rabbit in Your Headlights" - UNKLE ft. Thom Yorke (1998)
• "A Song for the Lovers" - Richard Ashcroft (2000)
• "Live with Me" - Massive Attack (2006)
• "Treat Me Like Your Mother" -The Dead Weather (2009)

Existing Music Video - Live with Me- Massive Attack (2006)

  

The video features a young woman drinking heavily, to the point of excess. It features a young (mid twenties) professional-looking woman drinking herself into oblivion on her own in her flat. The setting of the video clip and of the off licence store featuring in it is an area in London.

Why I chose to analyse this video

I chose to analyse this video because it had an interesting storyline which was continued with throughout the whole video. This idea of having a continuous 'story' of an individual gives me a lot of inspiration for my own music video. Although 'Live with Me' is not a 'House' music genre, I believe that I could apply this type of video to house music. 
The initial story of the young girl whom is evidently suffering with being an alcoholic, inspires me to also make a music video which explains an individuals life in one day. I could also adapt to this and make a video of a group of people following the same sort of issues. 
My film Return Me in my AS studies was a gritty and emotional story that I applied to an action film- I would like to adapt to the theme of current affairs in the world today but to an upbeat music video. 

Skrillex

Skrillex

Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), better known by his stage name Skrillex, is an electronic dance music producer, DJ, and singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California.

Skrillex is a DJ of the following genres;

• Dubstep
• Electro House
• Post-harcore

Why I am researching Skrillex

Although Skrillex's music is a lot more upbeat and 'hardcore' however in his music video's uses interesting links between the video and the song. For example; the music will match the video such as when the beat 'drops' something will happen in the video to reflect this.

SKRILLEX - Bangarang feat. Sirah

Eric Prydz

Eric Prydz

Eric Prydz is a Sweedish house DJ based in Los Angeles, California. He is a DJ for the following genres;

• House
• techno
• progressive house
• tech house

Why I am researching Eric Prydz

Eric Prydz is a house artist similar to my own artist- PandamanUK.  I have decided to use him as a research artist due to his popularity and succes over the past few years. I believe that listening to his songs and watching his music video's will give me inspiration for my own video as the songs follow the same idea's. I believe that I can draw information from his video's that'll either make me want to move away from the type of music video's for house music, or bring me closer.

I will be looking at Prydz's most famous song- 

Call On Me (2004)

The music video for "Call on Me", directed by Huse Monfaradi, features an aerobics class of women wearing 1980s styled aerobics outfits performing sexually suggestive gym routines led by dancer and choreographer Deanne Berry, much to the enjoyment of the sole man in the group, played by Juan Pablo Di Pace.

Fundamentally, this song does not neccesarly match the lyrics, a trait that I do not want to use in my video. However I like the idea fact that the video encorporates two 'main' characters whom we follow a story of throughout the music video. I would like to have a main chracter in my music video so that the audiece can understand the video and the lyrics much better. However I would like to use other actors in my video, like Call On Me has so that the video does not look empty.

House Music

What is 'house music'?

House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s. Early house music commercial success in Europe saw songs such as "Pump Up The Volume" by MARRS (1987), "House Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of House (1987), "Theme from S'Express" by S'Express (1988) and "Doctorin' the House" by Coldcut (1988) in the pop charts. Since the early to mid-1990s, house music has been infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.

Early house music was generally dance-based music characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats, rhythms mainly provided by drum machines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, it was more electronic and minimalistic and the repetitive rhythm of house was more important than the song itself.  House music has also fused with several other genres such as euro house, tech house, electro house and jump house.

House music proved to be a commercially successful genre and a more mainstream pop-based variation grew increasingly popular. Artists and groups such as Madonna, Janet Jackson,Björk and Daft Punk were incorporating the genre into their work. 

Music Video Timeline

Nickelodeon (movie theater) 1905

A nickelodeon was the first  indoor exhibition space  showing projected films/motions. They were usually small and simple theaters which would charge five cents for admission. The name 'Nickelodeon' was inspired by the name of the U.S five-cent coin with the addition of a Greek word odeion, a roofed-over theater. Nickelodeons changed the way films were exhibited to the American public, they were distinctively known for showing continuous performance of short films. Nickelodeons in general was a cheap form of entertainment, especially for those who could not afford it.

Soundies 1940

Soundies were three-minute musical films, produced in New York City, Chicago, and Hollywood, between 1940 and 1946, often including short dance sequences, similar to later music videos - WIKIPEDIA. The films were usually played on a Panoram (a coin-operated  jukebox) in nightclubs, bars or restaurants.

Scopitone 1955

Scopitones were developed Panorams which origianlly played Soundies. Scopitones were first developed in France, in which eventually spread acorss Europe and evenutally reached the USA during the 1960's. Like Soundies, scopitones were intiially made to play inside nightclubs and bars, however many artists failed to release music onto scopitone films.

Golden Age 1920-1960 Musical Films

Musical Films (otherwise known as 'Musicals') were created due to the development of Sound Music Technology. This development therefore allowed the room for more performers, set and location in Musical Film production. One of the most famous musical films to date is Moulin Rougue, produced in 1928.

Top Of The Pops 1964

Top of the Pops was a British music chart television programmer, broad-casted by the BBC. Traditionally, TOTP was broad-casted every Thursday evening on BBC1. Each weekly programme consisted of performances from some of that week's best-selling popular music artists, with a rundown of that week's singles chart.  The show's audience was mainly aimed at teenagers to young adults who were interested in music. Famous performers include Kylie Minouge and Meatloaf.

Concert Films 1964

A  concert movie, or concert film, is a type of documentary film, which includes live performance or concert by a musician. Originally introduced in the 1960's, concert films became increasingly popular, especially for individuals who wanted to see their favorite artist without having to pay for a ticket. Concert Films could therefore be produced onto music videos which enabled those who was not available to view the artist live, could watch them in the comfort of their own home. 

MTV 1981

MTV (or otherwise known as Music Television) is an American  television channel owned by the MTV Networks Music & Logo Group. The channel is now head quartered in Los Angeles. MTV was first launched on August 1, 1981 where the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos to their main target audience who at the time were young adults, but today, MTV's programming is primarily targeted at adolescents and teenagers. The first ever video to be played on MTV was 'The Buggles- Video Killed The Radio Star'. 

YouTube 2005

YouTube is now the world's largest and most popular internet space to share videos varying from all types. YouTube is now the most common place to view music videos from all genres. Many artists today will release their videos onto YouTube via large corporations such as Vevo. YouTube is still free for all many years on and is the hub for all new music content.

Ed Sheeran research

ED SHEERAN

Born as Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Hebden Bridge, raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he moved to London in 2008 to pursue a musical career. Ed Sheeran began recording music in 2008, where he only played at small venues to build up his career. After being organised for his talent, Ed Sheeran eventually reached the highlight of his career as a music singer-songwriter and was signed to a music label. Ed Sheeran is now a hit in not only the UK but also in the US too.

MUSIC VIDEOS

Ed Sheeran- Give Me Love-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOjdXSrtUxA

In the video, it features a young woman- shown below- whom is shown to very lonely and desiring to be 'loved' hence the lyrics 'give me love'. The video features her essentially 'pulling' out her wings from her body which give the look of an angel. She embarks on journeys with a bow and arrow that she created, where she 'shoots' to any two people who she believes should 'love' each other. However, her desperation to be loved herself unfortunately overrides her power and she unfortunately ends up 'shooting' herself which therefore concludes the video with her being surrounded by paramedics.

How this can help me with my own video

After watching a video like this from Ed Sheeran,  this video has given me a lot of inspiration for my music video. Although this music has video effects that I may not be able to achieve due to the time I have to film and also my facilities at school, it has inspired me to film something unusual and that doesn't always mimic everything the lyrics are saying. This video especially by Ed Sheeran is unique in the fact that it does not follow what a 'typical' love story is, and infact embarks on a journey of an individual who helps other's to love each other, although desperate to be loved herself. The idea behind the angel/cupid theme is inspiring in the fact that it is a unique and symbolic idea of love and expresses the emotions of love in a different way which is interesting to watch for the audience.

A2 Music Video- The Search and The Brief

Searching for a singer

Initially, when I had to begin my search for an artist, I didn't really know where to start. Even though I knew a few singers, finding out whether they had their own recorded tracks was proving to be difficult. I started to look through my social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to see if any of my friends/mutual friends had high interests in singing. 

To start of with it was quite hard to find somebody who had a passion for singing, as a lot of people simply just did it as a bobbie and did not have the time to help me out. However after searching for a while I came down to a few names of people who were easy to get in contact with, were not a signed artist and were also very passionate about singing and wanted to make a career out of it. 

Encounting problems

I did have a few problems with finding an aritst along the way. I orignally found somebody who's style of music was mellow and suited what I 'wanted' to do more, however after a while it was clear that we would have problems recording the song's he had written to a professional standard that would actually come across as 'powerful' on my video.
Unfortunatly, I had to let go of my singer and I decided to attempt a new style of music.

Originally I rejected using an upbeat song, as I found that after filming my AS film openeing 'Return Me' I definitly preffered slow editing with quite 'gritty' themes. However after research, I did find that it would be possible to record the same way I like, with an upbeat song!

Using a DJ

I decided to use an up and coming DJ named as 'Pandaman UK' who has up to 700 followers on the infamous music sharing site Soundcloud. After listening to a few of his tracks, I found one that intriguied me and also included lyrics that can be lip synced in my video. I did not hestitate to contact him. He instantly agreed and was very happy to give me the 'go ahead' to download. 

His bio reads;

PandaMan is an 18 year old Vocal/Deep/G-House Producer and DJ. His music career may have started in the deep underground, playing Drum and Bass in warehouses with a safety level of a prison on the Mexican Coast however after the colossal transformation to House, he realised all importance with the dreams to be the headlining name on your favourite dance fest!

Combining the punchy Deep/G House style with future vocals, Panda’s aims are to make girls with straw hats jump on the muscular shirtless man next to them and throw out their sun burnt arms horizontally screaming as if anyone can hear them over 150K worth of sound on a beach in the middle of nowhere.

I hope you enjoy my style, leave feedback its all welcome!

I then decided to ask him a few other questions, just to get the best background information I could. In which he responded;

"I have always loved dance music. For years House music has been one of the only types of music I listened to, and after a while I believed that I could have a chance in being just as good as my favorite artists. I started up my soundcloud account and simply thought 'why not' and started posting instantly. My follow up has been great and I get tons of support from not only my friends but other aritsts too. Its a great feeling after finishing a track and I hope in the future I can be extremely succesful with my passion"