From the album cover below, 'Invincible' we can see the use of the space theme that i mentioned when analysing 'Absolution'. It also has a clear romantic image which is used, yet the colour scheme is strange yet effective and gives the space sort of image I have been describing. 'Knights of Cydonia' which is one of the videos i have previously analysed, I have noticed that this cover is taken from a scene of this video.
After analysis of these album covers and further research it is clear that Muse like to include the theme of space in their music, and this concludes as to why there is some elements of space in some of their videos of which I have analysed. As it is a strange and mysterious topic, it strangely ties in with their unique style which they are associated with in alot of their products.
After researching more about Muse, I found that they use the theme of space as an influence in some of their music. I can see this clearly from the album cover shown above. It shows a man holding what looks like a gass mask staring into the sky, and around him we see shadows what appear to be human like. It shows the world from an abjective view, and the man seems to be looking up in confusion almost at what is above him. This gives us the idea of something that is superhuman or possibly extraterristrial, and the fact that he has a gass mask in his hand gives us the impression he is protecting himself from something. As we saw in the video 'Time is Running Out' which is actually from this album, there is the use of cold colours again particulaly blue.
After analysing the videos previously, I have come to a conclusion of how alternative rock videos are presented. However, I have realised alternative rock is a complicated genre, and bands classed as this are usually mixed with other genres as you can see in the videos previously. Muse on the other hand have hints of proggressive rock, whereas the other two bands i analysed would be more likely to be classed as pop punk. Dispite this, they are all classed as 'alternative rock' as they all in a way have a similar sort of sound.
Firstly I noticed in all videos that a live performance of the band is used, along with a story line and it continously switches between the two throughout the video. The performance of the band usually matches the sort of song it is, for example there would be a good, energetic performance if the song was more upbeat. The song we are using, 'Time Is Running Out' is a catchy, upbeat song so in our video we have decided to use the convention of shots of a live band with a story line. The performance of the band will be energetic to match the style of the song and will have to include props such as guitars or a drum kit.
The style of the band, which would usually be seen as 'indie' includes the bands wearing suits, that are usually not so formal but tidy. The members of the band usually have messy or styled medium length hair. This gives them a distinctive alternative look. For our music video, me and people in our group already have a few friends that could match this image therefore using them as part of our 'band'.
I noticed that the storyline tends to be very distinctive and follows a certain theme. This would include location, outfits and props. We have already sort of come up with an idea which i will explain later once we get our ideas together. Even so, we will follow all these conventions, which i belive will make our video memorable, such as the other alternative rock videos we have looked at. There is no particular story line that these sort of videos have, but tend to reflect the meaning of the song. Yet with Muse, the meaning of the video always tends to be slightly unclear due to the individual look and sound they take on.
The meaning the song determines not only the story line but reflects the colour scheme and styles used. For a catchy upbeat song, it may show a love story with alot of bright colours and high key lighting and for a more relaxed song shows more dark and mysterious conventions. However, not too over the top.
This video is set in a natural history museum. There is a tour of the museum going on, and there are many young people following it, almost as if it is for a school trip or something. All the young people all appear to be 'alternative', you can tell they are most probably into rock music by their image such are dark clothes and eye makeup, however it isn't too over the top so still fits with the genre of music. Black suits are worn by the band, this of which is common of many alternative rock bands.
The story line is fairly obvious in this one. On the tour, a boy and a girl notice each other and continue to look gaze and smile at each other. During the tour, they enter a room saying 'no entry', where they just sit confortably. After nearly been caught, they join the tour again and continue to smile at each other. Alltogether, it just shows the chemistry between two young people and how they like each other, and at the same time maybe are too shy to fully show it.
There are random clips throughout the video of the band performing in random exhibits at the museum, surrounded by animals and dinosaur skeletons. The performance is relaxed and plesant to match the style of the video and song.
Bright colours and a high key lighting have been used throughout which give a possitive, happy feeling. Matching the meaning of the song.
Band: Mayday Parade Song: Jamie All Over
This video is set in a Las Vegas style casino. There are many people gambling on things that you would associate with a casino and there are many people wearing expensive looking formal suits that fit the image of a casino.
The video basically shows the band members going around the casino, each having extremely good luck as they continue to win things. It seems as if the storyline is to do with 'getting lucky in life' somehow, and matches to the song as it is possitive and upbeat. This reflects on how the band performs which is energetic.
The style is very flashy as expected from a casino and many bright lights, colours and props are used.
Invincible This video is set on a childrens' rollercoaster in a themepark. I note 'childrens'' as it shows various cardboard cut-outs popping out from the scenery including animals, people and other pleasant images.
The band are on the rollercoaster and the performance is very relaxed as if they are just calmly enjoying the cruise through this small world. It seems to match the sound of the music; calm and pleasant.
However, as the song progresses we are more aware of the storyline and meaning of the song as the images around the band begin to change, the pleasant images turn into evil creatures and begin to destroy the 'world' around them. It is almost as if the most innocent of things can turn into something bad, however this doesn't at all appear shocking, it still has the childish element of it as even when the characters turn 'evil' they still have the cute look about them and everything still seems fairly pleasant. This however gives meaning to the song meaning they may want to bring across something quite deep. This again fits in with the political element, with people destroying the world. The childish figures however just give a more individual touch, even so it represents something much darker yet they may be trying to bring it across in a less shocking way, as Muse aren't the type of band to show disturbing images.
There is use of bright colours which fits in with it's childish, plesant theme however a low key lighting is used, this of which is commonly used on these sort of rollercoasters.
Knights of Cydonia This video is set out like a typical style cowboy western film. It is almost film like with the credits rolling at the end, and the names of the 'actors' that are starring in the film that are shown at the begining.
The western style is shown throughtout with the use of fonts, and the quality of the video has been matched with other typcial western films. There seems to be alot of action throughout the video, with alot of fade in-fade out shots used in the fight scenes that add tension.
There appears to be a main character, which i would label an 'anti-hero' bascially doing bad things but for the right reason. The costumes are those that would be seen in a western, such as the boots and the hats etc. Throughout the video we follow this 'anti-hero' on his journey tracking down the 'bad guys'.
What appears to be holographic images are shown in random places throughout the video are snippets of muse performing, this completely goes against the western film and appears to be sci-fi or space like. This of which could have been done deliberatly to give its individual look. Again with the sci-fi element, in the fight scene it appears that when shooting at each other they are firing lazers, not bullets. This also goes against the western theme as this shows much more modern technology. It is mysterious as to why there appears to be elements of space in this video.
After analysing the previous Muse videos, it is clear that they like to clearly distinguish one video from another, as they all appear to have their distinctive story lines and images. It also seems as if they like to make their videos appear much more individual as they tend to do strange topics for their videos, I guess this would help the video be more memorable to the viewer and be more interesting to watch.
This video appears to be set in a dark room. There is a round table and what appears to be people dressed in formal and millitary suits sat around the table. This of which gives us the idea that it is set in an underground bunker, a nuclear war one for example. There is continuous flashing lights throughout the video which give it an individual look.
The people appear to be having a meeting, and it seems almost as if it is political due to the suits and the setting. This gives us the impression of the storyline they are trying to drag across to us and give us ideas of the meaning of the song.
In the middle of the table there is the band, of which seem to be giving a very good, energetic performance. As rock music videos tend to always have a live performance in their video, we decided to include this in ours as it fits with the ideal genre. Muse also appear to be wearing black formal suits, which ties in with the fact what seems to be a political meeting going on.
The style is obviously formal, yet dark and mysterious at the same time. This could be due to the seriousness of the song and shows meaning. The stict colour sceme of cold colours, black and blue give us this feeling as well as the low key lighting. These of which are also associated with most rock music videos.
After been put into groups we have finally chosen a song and come up with some ideas for our music video. We decided to do the song 'Time Is Running Out' by Muse, I myself am not a huge fan, but after listening and looking at the other videos they have produced we quickly came up with an idea of what we were going to do.
We also decided that Muse would be a good band to choose as they have alot of background information due to them been around for around 11 years and have become fairly mainstream within that time. The genre of the band is alternative rock, this of which is mainly listened to by teenagers and adults. They also have a fairly individual style which makes them different from alot of other rock music bands which they show mainly throught their videos rather than their actual image.
We have come up with the idea of a love sort of story with a twist. Later on I will explain this idea.
I am Jade Aikman, I'm 18 and am currently in my second year at York College studying my A levels. Media of which is one of the subjects I am studying and for our next project we will be producing a music video, digi-pak and poster for one particular band. In groups we will have to come to an agreement of what song we will choose, plan our ideas, work together and produce our final piece. I will continue to use this blog to update on what I am doing and discuss plans me and my group have made.
There will also be alot of planning and filming to be done to make sure we get the right shots we need, and finally getting round to editing and evaluating, putting in all those final touches.
I am doing this because I am interested in media, I have done it for GCSE and have completed a first diploma at merit level. I would say it was one of my stronger points. I have had much experiance with making music videos, both filming and directing and staring in them. In my opinion most things I work on media related tend to turn out okay.
After researching more about Muse, I found that they use the theme of space as an influence in some of their music. I can see this clearly from the album cover shown above. It shows a man holding what looks like a gass mask staring into the sky, and around him we see shadows what appear to be human like. It shows the world from an abjective view, and the man seems to be looking up in confusion almost at what is above him. This gives us the idea of something that is superhuman or possibly extraterristrial, and the fact that he has a gass mask in his hand gives us the impression he is protecting himself from something. As we saw in the video 'Time is Running Out' which is actually from this album, there is the use of cold colours again particulaly blue.
