Blink 182 - I Miss You (Analysis)

Along with 'All The Small Things', this song is probably what made Blink 182 so famous and widely known. In my opinion, it is one of the most interesting music videos around, which is why it's amongst my favourites. The video features shots of the band playing, which is helpful in boosting their star status by making them recognisable to the audience. But the main factor of the video that interests me is the unusual, almost supernatural feel to it. It is based on the grounds of a scary looking mansion, which is the first shot we see when the music starts and the last when it stops. The next thing we see after this is a young, blonde woman. She is standing, and then begins to fade, taking on the composure of a ghost. This tells the audience straight away that the video is going to be based on strange, surreal things. The video is filmed in dim lighting which in some parts look black and white. This gives it the feeling of an old film, or silent movie. The clothes the band are dressed in takes this a step further. They're dressed in smart suits and the drummer is wearing braces. Also, the use of an old fashioned microphone adds to the old look of the video. The whole thing looks as though it was made in around the 50's, due to things like the shots of women dressed in clothes from that era.
During the first chorus, when they sing 'I miss you' for the first time, there is a shot of a woman walking out to a large pond on the mansion grounds, and drowning herself. This gives the audience the impression that the lyrics are about missing someone who has passed away. Just after this, whilst the words 'don't waste your time on me, you're already the voice inside my head' are being sung, we see the young woman who drowned herself, looking and acting like a ghost, implying that she could be haunting her lover, but that she doesn't need to because he won't forget about her just because shes dead.
Thrown into the equation are a couple of seemingly irrelevant subjects, such as a pair of women french kissing, spiders, a different woman crawling through the bushes in the garden, a Siamese cat, close ups of a random womans face, an Asian woman looking at numerous reflections of herself in a mirror and a crow.
These things all have an almost hallucinogenic or dream-like feeling to them. None of it is anything you would see from day to day - more like the kind of strange things you could expect to see in a Stephen King film.
Overall I think the video is successful as it isn't necessarily written in stone what the lyrics mean, and so people can interpret it in any way they like. Different people can get a different meaning from it, and we all see it in a slightly different light.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY&ob=av2e

Paolo Nutini - New Shoes (Analysis)

The most noticeable thing about the New Shoes music video is that it features Paolo Nutini himself. This gives the reader a chance to see what he looks like, making him recognisable and therefore helping him to achieve a celebrity status. As this was his first music video to be released, it was a clever technique to use him in it as it almost acted as a way of introducing him to the public. Also,I like the idea that he is acting out his lyrics, which helps the viewer to understand their meaning and context.
Point of view shots aren't used, but because the lyrics are talking about a normal, uneventful day of his, it feels, in a way, like we are watching the video through his eyes. The camera shots that are used, however, are quite interesting and unusual. The camera is in front of Nutini throughout, so the audience sees him like a mirror image. A good example of this is when he looks in the fridge and the camera is effectively at the back of the camera, cleverly placed. Another time when this is particularly effective is when he is walking down the street.
It is unusual nowadays for a music video to be so literal. Most of the time, videos have hidden meanings or are just completely unrelated to the music. With this one, however, we literally see Nutini go through his day as he normally would, for example by doing things like opening the fridge to look for food, looking in his wardrobe and so on. This makes the audience feel involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GAgm8sZ5mo

Comparing album covers - Busted and Fightstar.

Fightstar's target audience are probably aged between 15 and 30. This is shown by the colours that are used, which are calm, neutral and generally more mature than the primary colours, mainly red and blue, that are used in the Busted covers. This makes Busted seem less serious about music and possibly more about just having fun, which is an approach that would appeal to a younger demographic. The fact that the covers consist of artwork instead of pictures of the band implies that Fightstar are more focused on their music, and aren't using images of the band to increase their fame. Busted, on the other hand, include the band in all of their album covers, making it seem as though they want people to know their faces. The images used by Fightstar appear to have a lot more meaning to them, as though there was more thought put into it. Images such as a robot wearing a gas mask have a more adult theme to them.

Johnny Cash - Hurt (Nine Inch Nails cover)

There are a few distinct differences between the feelings created by the two videos. The original Nine Inch Nails version has a more sinister tone to it - almost as though the lyrics mean that the singer wants to intentionally hurt someone. In the Johnny Cash cover however, you get the impression that he has lived a full life that taught him a lot and shaped him as a person. He realises that his actions have sometimes been wrong, and indirectly hurt people close to him - almost as if he's warning people that if they get close to him they will end up being hurt. The general feeling of his video is that he is looking back on his life, and seeing where he went wrong and what he would have done differently if he had a chance to. But also, he accepts his mistakes and understands that he can't change the past. This is implied by the images of things such as a sign saying 'House of Cash Museum - Closed to the public' which, in a way, is symbolic of his life coming to an end. Cash knew he was nearing the end of his life, as he was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease, Shy-Drager syndrome, a form of Parkinson's. The diagnosis was later altered to autonomic neuropathy, associated with diabetes. He later suffered pneumonia, which damaged his lungs, and meant that he couldn't tour.
The imagery in the video has a certain level of spirituality, reflecting Cash's spiritual side, illustrated by his quote - "The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight with the love she had for me and the love I have for her. We connect somewhere between here and heaven. She came down for a short visit, I guess, from heaven to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration like she always has." Another thing that shows his spiritual side is that Cash spoke of meeting his older brother, who died tragically in 1944, in heaven. Religious thoughts are implied through lyrics in the video such as "I wear this crown of thorns, upon my liar's chair". Although the lyrics weren't written by Johnny Cash himself, it is obvious that he is attaching his own meaning to them and making them apply to him. There is a definite air of regret in the video, which isn't present in the original version- where the singer from Nine Inch Nails implies the idea that if people got hurt by him, it was their own fault. This is shown by things such as the clips of films that he has been in, in the past, which also add a sense of finality. This implies that although he is regretful, he is looking back on the positive things that happened in his life instead of just focusing on the bad. When he sings "everyone I love, goes away in the end", the camera zooms in to a picture on the wall of his late wife, June Carter, showing his love for her. Also, when he is sat alone at the table, surrounded by champagne and food he seems lonely, and is looking away from the camera as though he has a lot on his mind, just before tipping an entire glass of red wine over the table.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvJKVKglIRs&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSWTgLvxPYc&feature=fvsr

Hurt lyrics

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stains of time
The feelings disappear
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
goes away
In the end
And you could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way

Audience Feedback

After having the class watch our opening, we asked for their opinions.

Some included:

-Good use of sound
-Good contrast between the normal shots and the 'weird' ones
-Good establishment of tension by using the repetition of previous shots (sped up)
-Creates a good sense of mystery - Who/what's writing on the mirror? Is it a dream, reality or a premonition? Keeps the viewer hooked.
-Good variety of different shots, angles and effects.

-Could have done with an opening sequence (credits etc)
-Could have seen more 'normal' shots
-Would have liked to see some dialogue

I agree with all of these opinions, especially the ones about the good use of sound to build the contrast, and the fact that we should have done an opening sequence.

Evaluation-Transmission

After all the issues we've had with regards to editing, we've finally completed our piece, and named it 'Transmission'. I'm quite pleased with how it's turned out, but there are a couple of things that as a group we would of liked to have done differently. Most of the things we aren't very happy with is down to the limited amount of time we had to edit - 2 days, when we planned to have 3 weeks. Although this was obviously a problem, and worrying as we thought we might not get it done in time, we still managed to do it to a reasonable standard.
Credits at the beginning, and an opening sequence are something that we know is a feature of most films, however we didn't have the time to add desirable extras like this to our piece. Also, Phoebe was the only person acting in our opening so there would only be one name to write in credits. Something we could have done to improve the flow of the transitions between the getting ready shots and the 'scary' shots, is to add the flashes of the rose with blood on in between them, instead of just randomly scattered about. I think the sounds work especially well with the scary parts, in particular, the bit where it is sped up, and also the good mood music provides a really strong contrast which is exactly what we wanted. After watching our completed film we can see how the tension is sustained by the build up of the shots, and then the repetition of the first part of the film. Paired with the sounds, this works very well. In my opinion it's good that it doesn't necessarily make much sense to the audience, but our original plan of having Phoebe waking up at the end would have made it a lot better as it would have let the viewer know that it was a dream. Something I'm extremely pleased about is that our opening is very different to the others, which shows how much imagination we put into it.
Our product definitely shows influences from existing media films. Our film is somewhat reminiscent of the 1973 production, 'Don't Look Now', as it also has a scene at the end in which previous shots are shown again, at a faster pace. We also were influence a lot by our preliminary task, as we really liked the effect of just seeing Bex's hands, so we took this to another level, by doing most of the getting ready shots and some of the scary ones as close ups - which turned out to be very effective. We also were influenced by the opening to 'Shrooms' - the cutting of scary shots in between more normal ones, and the strong contrast between the two scenarios, established by the use of music.
Although we changed our idea quite a few times, once we actually came up with a final one, we stuck to it quite well. I'm quite an organised person so I like to get things straight in my head, by writing bullet pointed lists of what we need to do, and we also assigned time limits, which were met more often than not. We did a lot of planning for the sounds that we would include, and also, the idea of it being a dream, and different shots/editing effects we could include.
New media technologies played a big part in our project. We used the internet and YouTube to research real media products, the internet to write our blogs, the camera to film, and the Adobe Premiere Pro to edit. Most of it went smoothly, but we had quite a few problems with the technological side of it, as I've mentioned previously, we had A LOT of issues getting the recorded material onto the computer. It was stressful and annoying, but at least we got it to work in the end.