Nabil Elderkin Nabil has worked on famous music videos such as:
Alt-J - Hunger Of The Pine
Foals - Bad Habit
Arctic Monkeys - Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?
Nabil's work on music videos tend to portray a storyline. In both Hunger Of The Pine and Bad Habit Nabil portrays a storyline in the form of an analogy. However in Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High it is still a narrative based video. The storyline in these videos may not be so clear to see, this is done so large audiences can relate to the story as it leaves them to guess the storyline and adjust it to suit themselves, therefore giving interest to the video.
An example of this is 'Feel Good Inc.' by The Gorillaz:
The Gorillaz are uniquely recognised for consisting of 4 animated characters, 2D, Murdoc Niccals, Noodle, and Russel Hoobs. Therefore all their music videos are animated to show their virtual characters.
In this screenshot we can see characters lying on the floor, this represents all the people that have already been 'dumbed down', whilst only the band members have been awakened.
Even in animation music videos there is still lip syncing and playing of instruments. In this screenshot we can see one of the Gorillaz characters playing his guitar.
Here 2D is yelling at the people that are sleeping through a megaphone in an urge to awaken them.
There are still several varieties of camera angles used in animation videos to keep the audience entertained. In this screenshot we can see 2D shouting at the sleeping people in a different angle to the previous screenshot.
We can now understand 2D is trapped in this windmill in which he cannot escape from.
Here we can see 2D trapped in this viewing room in which he can only see this omnipotent image surrounding him in the room. This drives him into a hypnotic frenzy in which he tries to resist the urge to become 'dumbed down'.
He then begins to repeat 'feel good' to stop himself becoming 'dumbed down'.
Even though this is an animation which seems to be pointless, there is a story to it as well, which shows animation can also involve a narrative.
or
'Heartless' by Kanye West:
'Heartless' by Kanye West is great demonstration of an animation music video as it includes a lot of quick transitions, camera angles, and costume changes.
In these two screenshots we see the director and artist of Heartless, Hype Williams and Kanye West.
Various camera angles are used in this video, such as a close up shown from this screenshot, even though the video is animated the director still uses a variety of camera angles.
This video isn't purely lip syncing from Kanye, it contains other scenes, such as the one shown from this screenshot, to keep the audience entertained.
Even though this video is animation, it is very realistic as the smoke effect from the cigarette looks realistic as well as the costume choice as it represents Kanye's image.
Animations include a variety of costume changes and scene changes as we can see from this screenshot.
Concept videos are based around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual and obscure, even surreal for the audience. This unusual content is an attraction to many consumers, which draws them in. An example of this is 'Chandelier' by Sia:
These screenshots demonstrate the unusualness in choreography and video.
Throughout the video, the child, Maddie Ziegler, is displayed wearing a light blonde wig. This represents Sia as on her album she is shown with this wig and the audience recognises her by the wig. This demonstrates a concept video as there is no real storyline involved.
Cameo music videos is when the main focus of the music video is not the artist but an actor or other celebrity, and the artist features in the music video for segments of lip syncing. This can also be similar to a narrative music video as it tends to have a story to it.
An example of this is 'Love The Way You Lie' by Eminem and Rihanna, in which the main focus is on Dominic Monaghan and Megan Fox:
The primary storyline is demonstrated by the actors instead of the artists.
Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan
The storyline highlights an issue on domestic violence and shows the audience this couple going through phases of bad and good.
This is a cameo music video and from this screenshot we can see Rihanna singing parts of her verse.
Here Eminem is shown singing his verse.
The storyline is concluded by the relationship breaking up, which is represented by the house burning down to signify how the relationship burnt down.
This shows how several varieties of music videos can be used in one, such as performance, cameo and narrative are used in this music video.
A narrative music video is a video that has a story to it that is easy to follow and normally relevant to the lyrics/music.
An example of this is 'No Love' by Eminem and Lil Wayne:
I used this video by Lil Wayne and Eminem to demonstrate a narrative video, as it tells a story about a boy who is getting bullied and then stands up to his fears.
In this shot we can see the boy sitting down being surrounded by the bullies. As this scene is in black and white it symbolises the pain and misery of the scene.
The video uses quick transitions to switch between the artists, Eminem and Lil Wayne, lip syncing and the narrative video of the boy.
Again this scene is in black and white to symbolise the boys' fear.
A variety of camera shots is used throughout the music video including whilst filming the artists lip syncing.
In this screenshot we can see more into the narrative story of how the boy has to see his parents whilst beaten and bruised from his school bullies.
In the end of the video the boy retaliates and stands up to his bullies. This ends the music video and concludes the storyline of the video.
No Love by Eminem and Lil Wayne includes extracts from this video 'What Is Love' by Haddaway. The lyrics go 'what is love, baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more' which is illustrated from the 'No Love' music video as the boy that is getting bullied wants it to come to a stop.
Performance music videos mainly focus on the band or artist of the song, and show them playing in front of a crowd or on their own. These videos will normally show no, or little narrative and use a wide variety of camera angles.
An example of this is 'The Pretender' by Foo Fighters:
I used this video by Foo Fighters as it displays all conventions of a performance video.
It contains a variety of different camera shots and quick transitions to keep the audience entertained throughout the video.
It shows the band lip syncing and playing their instruments to the camera.
or
'Cousins' by Vampire Weekend:
This video by Vampire Weekend only contains one camera angle and displays the band, mainly Ezra Koenig, the lead singer, lip syncing and playing their instruments.
I used this music video as an example to a performance video as it contains no story line and mainly displays them preforming to the camera.
However, this music video differs to many other performance videos as it contains few different camera angles.
By definition a music video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. The origins of music videos date back much further, however they gained popularity in the 1980's when MTV began to display them.
Music videos have several categories in which they can be styled. These include:
Performance
Narrative
Cameo
Concept
Animation
The first music video broadcasted on MTV in 1981 was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by The Buggles.
