The song 'Zwerk' by Bitbin, Mathew Hodson, has inspired a project combining audio and visuals producing a music video. The music itself could be described as experimental, ambient and thought provoking. The initial drone produced from a synthesiser, gives a sense of an epic atmosphere, which slowly forms into note patters that begin to repeat, accompanied by electro drum beats that almost slide over each other in layers. 'Plonky' beats form the basis of the backing, while a zappy mechanic space-gun sound effect stirs the soundscape. The song is quite progressive in a sense that it builds and loops over itself, all notes are quite whole sounding, often uncertain, but not uneasy or distressing. The piece gives off feelings such as a sense of hope, rhythmic almost walking, pacing, even akin to heartbeats, which makes the song seem personified. The song also gives feelings of an alien or extra terrestrial element in beats and overall style which gives feelings of uncertainty, the unknown and confusion.
Following research it could be interesting to produce a contrapuntal effect, also known as using parallel sound, in order to contradict the auditory experience; when we are presented by juxtaposing videos our brain is being sent two different messages which can create some interesting effects. This could be implemented by showing a laugh when the music is unnerving or dramatic. The song produces euphoric ambience, with the technologic beats along and the pacing gives a sense of nature vs technology, which then stimulated ideas of using water to symbolise feelings of a warped reality or a dream like state. In order to capture this, the perception of time would be distorted and reversed which could also represent confusion, disillusionment and a detachment from reality. Another adjustment which would be effective is when the action is filmed really fast and then in editing the motion is slowed down, also when the camera zooms out at the same time as moving away creates unusual effects. The film will be non linear, unpredictable and down to audience to interpret individually. Mental disturbance was intriguing as it is a completely personal experience
Artists which are similar in style are Aphex Twin, Portishead, Massive Attack, The pixies - Where is my mind and The Postal Service, these fall into the genre Trip Hop, playful yet solemn in nature. Videos which influenced this project include Roni Size - Brown paper Bag, Portishead - Only you, Aphex Twin - Rubber LoverThe pixies - Where is my mind, Everything is everything - Lauryn Hill. The character of Sheila in Shameless inspired the main role as she has a personal bubble existence where she's living in her own world. Also the Grandma from Requiem For A Dream, through the clever use of time distortion where section are sped up to highlight her internal stress.
The first day of shooting was the 22nd May, a beautiful sunny Saturday, after driving down to Bognor, to find a more secluded pool, we managed to capture some good footage. A downfall of this shoot was actually getting under the water long enough to get some effective shots. A good point was the amount of filming we actually managed to capture, a total of 200 seconds, and some beautiful shots.
Then i edited the footage on sunday night i edited the footage, followed by some extra filming on Monday 24th May, where i acted in the first scene - the girl is having a bath and slips into her dream like state, then she observes the outside world, separated by the window. A good point of this shoot was the time of day it was shot produced a beautiful twilight effect at dusk. A bad point was that we over filmed, however it's always better to have too much than too little to work with.
I then met with Cecille the next day, who helped me cut down on the unneeded shots, and now it begins to flow much more fluidly, it's not good to change the amount and speed of frames as it confuses the viewer when it doesn't fit with the music.
Then on Saturday 29th May, i went to Hollingbury Park to shoot some more scenic shot which would compliment the swimming shots. A good part of this was the roundabout shot that i plan to overlay with a shot of the eyes to give the illusion that it the state in the character's head. A negative point was that it was hard to plan exactly what footage to shoot before i got there, however when in the location it was easy to place actions and content to the scene.
From then on i edited the footage together, changing and mixing up the footage to make the piece more seemless. I met with Cecille again on the 2nd June, who helped me by advising me of shots that weren't working.
For a full write up and evaluation see sketchbook...
This project combines our previous Photoshop skills with elements of Flash, using Final Cut Pro and Aftereffects I will create a music video to accompany some ambient experimental music produced by two lecturers at University of Brighton Stace Constantinou & Matthew Hodson, I have chosen a peice by Mathew Hodson, called 'Zwerk' as i think i will be most successful with this piece. It has a feeling of hope that would be interesting if i could capture that essence. The technological beats are reminiscent of pacing footsteps or heartbeats which makes the song personified, i also feel a sense that the nature is contradicting the technology, through the beats themselves and the reflective atmosphere the song embodies. I have looked at videos for inspiration such as...
This music video depicts two characters walking inside what seems to be an abandoned building; yet their whole bodies are floating, merging and melting... the sense of gravity is unusual, and every close up on their body parts are distorted. They have filmed part of the footage underwater using a green screen then superimposed images of a derelict warehouse to juxtapose the content of the footage, and create a surreal illusion. This video was a massive inspiration to me... as it is a beautiful piece of art and as i had half the facilities to try out their effect. It would take months to create something nearly half as good as this, so this would be an extraordinary task to take on, and way beyond my time scale. When the boy is jumping, it is supposed to look as if he is in a real life situation but the gravity gives it away, this gives the effect of an alternate reality or somewhere magical that defies the laws of physics. For one section of the footage, they have used a technique where they reverse the footage of piece of material moving which, again, produces some interesting images and captures the audiences attention as the movement is unnatural and intriguing. The song itself is quite dreamy, so works well with this surreal, wonderland experience. They use of lots of black spaces around character which i'm sure makes allowances for mistakes, while still creating room for mystery. One part that caught my eye was when the female vocalist is mouthing the lyrics, i believe the singing was filmed outside the water then the flowing hair was superimposed over the top to make their illusion as real as possible, that these people are in fact walking in a floating world.
Produced by: A&M/universal
The video uses a lot of close up imagery, starting with an animated heart which follows the context of the lyrics. They also use stop motion to animate the books moving without anyone touching them, followed by a time lapse of a fidgeting girl which is sped up to distort our idea of time. They also use some footage of blowing paper and reversed it, creating a trippy effect, that encourages the viewer to keep watching due to it's illogical nature. There are a lot of close ups on shadows, which are repeated throughout the song. Then in the chorus there are hundreds of photos of one girl, showing all her holiday spaps an image per frame, creating a montage in the viewer's mind due to the fast speed. The video then moves onto a aminated stop frame drawing - of a tree. We then see 360 of photos of the character while the hues and saturations change and warp. The video then moves back to the holiday snaps back to fit the chorus. Interjected with a new scene of stop motion with pieces of paper with lies written mirroring the lyrics, then at the end we see flashing old school desk lamp close up, followed by images of the character dressing in reverse which again appears unnatural as if she's possessed, the last frames are close ups of her smoking through lights and shadows - very mysterious.
I like the sense of character in this particular footage, but also the sense of it being quite personal, in addition to purposeful in nature. It also feels quite serious and pensive, until the drums kick in where we see an birds eye view of the traffic which has been edited to the music in a playful kind of way, these two extremes contradict each other, and where we see change we see action. I also appreciate the adjustments where a man is playing at a normal frame rate and the rest of the action continues around it faster and more sped up which creates a very interesting effect that i would be inclined to try out. This video is part of the Concours Festival d'Annecy 2010, a french stop motion animation that uses some clever visual illutions to trick the eye and create visual connections, the audience may never have thought of. It uses an intriguing way of connecting science and food to give new meaning to their cooking. I especially like the bit where the egg yolk is formed through a pipet onto a plate, making the whole plate look like an egg, which then moves into a bowl of white flour, decorated with cubes of butter around the outside like the sunshine, that suddenly melt, then fast still images transform the action into a ball of dough, after this the animation is extreemly sucessful, finally turning into a cake with rabbits on that starts to spin to give the effect of them running! This piece has helped me to see how visuals and imagery can be uses, alone, to show real inspiration and understanding into visual connections. I plan to take inspiration from their ideas of how shapes merge into each other to connect my sequences more fluidly.
In this video there are extrodinary visual effects, where the whole world appears to be on a record - which could relate to song title itself. The film makers have used very clever masking effects, combined with a strong use of close ups, people represented in this sequence appear to be quite painterly in effect, the colours are vibrant against the grey streets and buildings, especially Lauryn in the trees scenes. Even one of the very first scenes where a guy in making food in the microwave is visually associated with the record's movement, this allows a stronger connection to day to day life. In the diner scene, she appears to sing to herself alot which adds to the realism. There is a strong use of close ups which emphasises the shadows and light. The whole video experiments with a sense of perspective, especially when the large mixing hand drops into the world to mix the 'record', this creates dynamic illusions for the audience. There is another interesting shot where the clouds above the singer are playing at a different frame rate to Lauryn, in addition to at 2.45 the singer is running through a crowd of people, both sections shot seperately then pasted together post production, the effect creates a sense of time diplacement of that the actress is delusional, hopefully i will find a way to impliment these although to get the exact same shot with 2 difference actions in would be near impossible without a dolly for the camera to run on, i may have to improvise with a shopping trolly or a skateboard. There is another shot where shes running, then the camera zooms out very fast this is another thing i'd like to try. Using footage running at two difference paces sure looks cool but whether its practical in nature will be the deciding factor. Having THE smallest budget for a music video means i can only apply what i can, using trial and error. Another effect when Lauryn's running and the building's seem to move as they're towering over her is another clever way of using perspective.
I found this video which i thought would be interesting to investigate how someone else interpreted an ambient soundscape much the same as Zwerk/Closer by Bitbin. The video uses great graphics and animations to depict a cityscape. One effect that caught my eye was the cube dismantling itself, especially the shadows and lights that followed in the background. I supose when you use ambient, ambiguous music - fictional imagery such as this fits well. It gives the audience more a sense of a journey into another dimention. Although this is a cool visual technique for my idea in particular it would not be fitting, however i love the way the cubes form into snakes and explore the cityscape, it really fits with experimental electronic music. Another great bit at about 1.39 is where the train bridge is collapsing and bending like a squashed train itself bending and forming in a strange way which alters our perspective, at points you feel like you're on a space craft, hurteling through the architechture. Another part which grabbed me, was where the writing dicintigrated, i especially like 'conspiricy' as the action suits the context itself. Finally the road breaks up, followed by a view of a new city underneath this with the bricks coming down, discovering a new land, concluded by the word PROMIND. The technique of using words in my video appeals to me, yet in a much less obvious way, it could be some scribbled writing on a notepad or a billboard sign, it would be an interesting thing to consider.
The next video that inspired me was Massive Attack - Teardrop
Unfortunately the embed feature was disabled, but the video can be found at the above link.
This originally appealed to me due to the artist's similarity to Bitbin, through the ambient eclectic and soulful sounds. The video itself, shows a simulated foetus who sings the lyrics submerged in water. All the movements are calm and soft which echoes the track. The is a surreal sense due to the unusual content. There are close ups of the child blinking, which wouldn't have actually happened as you can't open your eyes in the womb. This makes the video unrealistic, yet intriguing and phantasmagorical. The lyric 'breath' presents controversy as a baby doesn't take it's first berate until the umbilical cord is cut from it's mother, after birth. It is a momentous song with fitting visual, that almost like a space oddesy. Near the end lights start to flash, and we are presented with the baby's distress as this goes to symbolise child birth. This video appealed to me due to its fantasy element, in addition to the umbilical swimming apparently shot underwater. There isn't much of a storyline in this piece however the image is strong enough and works with the music.
Rubber Johnny is a strange and deluded video, which leaves viewers feeling quite disturbed, it depicts a foetus type of being sometimes sitting in a wheelchair, it is unclear how Aphex Twin have actually produced this unusual figure. The video uses a lot of black spaces in a film noir - esc style, which constantly leaves the viewer guessing, wondering what are the bits we can't see. It's one of those videos that you want to know what's going on and coming next, but you don't want to look! When the technological beats kick in, the figure contorts and distorts into unnatural shapes and forms, using this disfigured image gives off feelings of unsettlement and the way it moves to the music is bizarre, the figure almost looks disabled which begs the question why would the band use this to accompany their music? I think they've used unorthodox content to spark interest and create fan hype, however this could just be their ideal visual accompaniment. For the second being they have used a real person with prosthetics attached to their head to make it appear as if they have a huge brain. Lights flash around the screen slightly reminiscent as a computer game, which is in keeping with their music as they use electronic beats and sounds. They have also layered images which further adds to the effect of delusion. The figure also reminds me of how our society sometimes depicts aliens, which could add to illusive nature. The way the figure merges and warps could be achieved in post production, using tools such as liquify in photoshop, for example. These images then become more intense when the face appears to squish against the screen, however they have used a piece of glass to contort the skin. This comes directly from Jenny Saville's Close contact images where she presses her skin against glass to disfigure and manipulate her skin, emphasising her negative body image.
Unfortunately, the images i produced were done at night time which then meant i had to use a flash which bounces off the glass flaring out some of the image, however this creates quite a cool effect as it makes the photos seem more congruent. In Saville's images she has been able to control the light a lot more easily, working in a studio, and with much larger surface area to shoot from. These images depict how we can disfigure ourselves naturally which creates some unusual effects, where we are unsure of the starting point. I think, this maybe what Aphex Twin were trying to get at when they made this video; A way to make the illusion more real and less reliant on software to aid them
"It's too bad she won't live; but then again, who does?"
The film Blade Runner inspired me in countless ways, mostly for it's cinematic brilliance, and revolutionary 'before - it's - time' concepts, in addition to, the song i have chosen sampled the 'zappy space gun' sound effect from the film itself. The opening scenes are visually dynamic, in a time, way before advanced special effects were created, Ridley Scott captures the fires of the city's pollution on the "Hades" landscape, in this eye; as beautiful as a painting, this iconic image has even inspired the opening scene in The Blues Brothers and many have used this image to symbolise the window to the soul. This particular scene took days to film due to the technique they used, where they would build extremely detailed 12ft miniatures of the skylines, which gave the illusion of 2-3 miles, fill them with smoke and light them from behind, they created a dynamic effect, an illusion that gave them a city scape out of one room! However, in order to capture the explosions in the first scene they would have to use stop motion project footage on 35mm of fire over the top of their miniatures made using an acid edge press to get a fine edge and for every explosion they would have to re-shoot from the first frame, often after this lengthy process they would find there was nothing on the film at all due to the constant winding back ripped the film to shreds. They soften edges by blurring off in their footage to give a more grainy effect so mistakes weren't visible. In the documentary 'Dangerous Day'- available on Youtube, the producers mentions techniques they've used such as optical deposits, matt painting, and Rotoscoping. Rotoscoping was used on the space crafts that fly over the top of this landscape which was one of the only parts of special effects animation that they used, as they wanted a more natural sci-fi, unlike one that heavily relies on such techniques such as star wars. They also used rotoscoping in the Tyrell corporation office, where the sun goes down behind the action.
"As with much of the cyberpunk genre, it owes a large debt to film noir, containing and exploring such conventions as the femme fatale, a Chandleresque first-person narration in the Theatrical Version, and the questionable moral outlook of the hero — extended here to include even the humanity of the hero, as well as the usual dark and shadowy cinematography." - wikipedia - 'Themes in Blade Runner'
The production is based loosely on the novel 'Do androids dream of electric sheep?' by Philip K Dick. The film is one of the most literal science fiction films, set in 2019, made in 1982, it depicts a future whose fictional distance from present reality has grown sharply smaller over time, however some ground breaking topics were explored. Such as, the traveling to off-world colonies clearly draws parrelels to the migrations to the Americas. In a land where we've destroyed earth and all the poor and uneducated are stuck dealing with the land we've abused and neglected. Tests were carried out to decifer whether they were 'replicants' or humans, however as the creatures infrastructure developed to incaptulate emotions and feelings it became harder to test, the replicants built in a fail safe of their life span lasting a mere 4 years so that this particular fault could not be identified. The film has many themes, it explored concepts of mortality, the replicants awareness of their the short life span motivates them to rebel, causing the viewer to stop and consider their own. The film also challenges our perception of reality, symbolised by Rachel discovering that her memories from the photographs were implanted, forcing the viewer question validity of their own identity. The God figure, Tyrell, draws parrales with many religious stories as the replicants challengened their creators and look to them for answers.... "If only you could see what i i've seen with your eyes"
This is an interesting piece that i stumbled across when i was trying to find a 'making of' video for Only You - Portishead... It is a final piece for A level Art, called 'Passions and Obsessions' By Nick Gott. He was influenced by exploring nightmares and also fascinated by the worlds obsession with the general election, and the relentless obsession with reporting on it everyday in the newspaper's. The video depicts a warped reality where the teacher has a Wangetchi Muto style face and the pupils all have tights on their heads while they're eating crisps, he uses a fish eye effect to distort our perception. The latter half of the video sees masked cabinet ministers debating across a table with empty packets of crisps, gambling with our cards, which i think is a genius satirical approach to address Gott's woes.
