My music Video

For the final brief of the year i decided to make a music video for the track 'we are the warriors' by Stanton Warriors. As soon as i heard it was a self written brief i new i wanted to do something that involved music and moving image so the logical choice was a music video and i think it was a good entry point into using moving image. It meant that i didn't have to worry about sound at all when i was filming as i was just using the track as audio. The whole project meant that i could get to grips with using a camera and improve my skills on final cut. My main regret is that i didn't get my act in gear and use the HD cameras, mainly because i had already shot some footage using the normal cameras that i wanted to use and couldn't capture again. Personally im really happy with my final outcome and felt that it was a good project to bring the year to close and i received positive feedback after the exhibition. People said that my choice of locations and using black and white worked really well to create an atmosphere that worked with the music and they also thought the effects i applied to the lights that were applied in time with the music worked really well. People could also tell that Dan's was audio visuals that you would see at a club night and that mine was a music video. I'm really looking forward to working with moving image again as i now feel i am more competent with the cameras and using final cut. Also seeing James's and Andy's projects that were shot in HD in made me want to use the HD cameras even more.

Daniel Weiss is a 20-year-old photographer who wonders the streets of his native New York photographing the people he meets. His work is beautifully composed street photography and it’s the thought that he just walks around the city and photographs the streets and people he sees that I really engage with. I think he also manages to find the most weirdly photogenic people I've ever seen but maybe thats got something to do with him living in New York. I really admire street portrait photography because it's not easy to go up to someone and take their photograph. Ive only ever done it on a few occasions and it's definitely something i want to try and work on because i think you can get amazing images from just a couple of seconds with someone. Then you've also got the spontaneity factor that street photography gives you meaning your never sure what your gonna find on a days shooting.

Pieter Hugo

Pieter Hugo’s latest project is titled ‘The Hyena & Other Men’ and was also taken around Lagos and Nigeria (the same place as Andrew Esiebo who i've also commented on in this blog). I think that this collection of photographs is one of the most captivating I have seen all year. The subject matter is so alien it draws you straight in and the muted tones and strange positions the men and hyenas take up in the photographs add to the mystery of the images.

The Polaroid Kidd

Mike Brodie’s aka "The Polaroid Kidd”. Brodie is a somewhat accidental documentary photographer. By photographing his friends, their homes, and lifestyles, Brodie has captured a marginalized segment of the American population that's not so prevalent in mainstream society. He did this using a Polaroid SX-70 camera over a three-year period as he traveled America. I’m a massive Polaroid fan and I think his work is amazing and it goes to show what a great format it can be. It also shows that it is the photographers’ skill and not necessarily the camera they are using that creates a great photograph. Within my website for the comm tech brief I dedicated a page to some of my Polaroid’s and I think that it people like Brodie are helping to raise the profile of Polaroid and I’m already thinking about creating another website that is dedicated solely to Polaroid’s.

Andrew Esiebo

Andrew Esiebo who I first saw on The Photographers’ Gallery website and currently has an exhibition running at the gallery, which I am planning to attend when I am home. He is a Nigerian photographer currently residing in London and the large body of his work is photographing Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. I think he shows that if a camera is given to the right person they can really embrace photography and document everything around them. Ive really started to get into documentary photography and i really like it if its photography from another country so i can get an insight into a different part of the world. When i look at Andrew Esiebo's photographs i feel like im looking through his eyes and viewing Lagos as he does and i really like that connection.

Music Video Research - Royksopp and Thomas Hilland

Royksopp - Sparks



Royksopp - Eple

Both the music videos are for Royksopp and were created by Thomas Hilland. His much-acclaimed work for Royksopp saw him signed by Partizan for worldwide representation for commercials and promos, leading to being nominated as best young director in Cannes as well as being picked by Boards Magazine as one of the world’s top 10 directors in their First Boards Awards. I think that both videos he did for Royksopp have such contrasting styles that work so well with the different style of the tracks. I especially like the video for 'Sparks', it doesn't feel like there is much going on in the video but after i watch it i still feel like its taken me on a journey. I think this is down to the roaming camera that seems to float along with the dream like music. It's another video that captures the feel and mood of the music so well and as I've said before it is this aspect that i like in a music video.

Royksopp have a history of really good music videos another which is at the end of this post 'Remind Me', which takes its inspiration from information graphics. It was created by French motion graphics studio H5. Royksopp really embrace the music video and are contantly using different styles and helping to evolve the music video genre.



Roykopp - Remind Me

http://www.hilland.tv/index.html

What Are You Wearing Today? Video from Sidney Lo on Vimeo.

Cool video:
”From 1980 to 1981, performing artist Teching Hsieh punched a time clock every hour on the hour, twenty-four hours a day, for an entire year, to observe the passage of time. My series, entitled What Are You Wearing Today?, is an exercise in time and digital replication. I photographed myself everyday for an entire year, from March 10th, 2007 until March 10th, 2008. Like Teching Hsieh’s Time Piece, I illustrated the passage of time by shaving my head and letting it grow throughout the duration of my work. This subject of transience can also be observed by my jeans, which I have worn every single day to coincide with my growing hair. Both elements signify change and growth that conformed to my body throughout this year-long piece."

The guy has some cool clothes. I like the idea of keeping a visual track of your life and then condensing it into a small amount of time. Something that at the time doesn't appear to be that significant, but when grouped together it becomes more noticeable, so in this case just one photo everyday for a year can be transformed into a visually interesting video. It also means that you would be able to pick up on tiny changes that at the time you would over look.

Music Video Research

Shit Disco - OK from Jo Apps on Vimeo.

This is one of the cleverest music video ideas I've seen in a long time. I think that it is ruined by the performance section at the end and it should have just ended when it zoomed in on the band through the book. It goes to show that a good idea is a million times better than a big budget and wacking a load of effects in there and i think that its the idea that it probably was done on a tiny budget that i appreciate and like about it.

Music Video Research

Static - Dynamic from decay79 on Vimeo.


South Bank HD from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Both of these videos are taken from the website Vimeo and i think that they both demonstrate how the manipulation of speed within a music video can help to create a desired atmosphere. The first video is slowed down and is a 20 second movie stretched to 2 minutes. I think the lighting combined with both the haunting look on the womans face and the speed of the footage provide the viewer time to contemplate both the music and the footage. I think that its an example of music and moving image working very well together.

The second is a longer and the footage is both slowed down into slow motion as well as time lapsed. This piece caught my eye firstly because it reminded me of home but more importantly it was the timelaps stuff that i was interested in because i wanted to incorporate similar footage into my music video.