In our media lesson on Thursday 5th September we watched two A2 media music videos. Our teacher, Mr Buckmaster, put both the videos on the smart board and without commenting we watched both. After seeing both videos, the first being ‘The Kill’ by Hollie Jenkinson and the second ‘Friend (Lover)’ by Euan Baker, we compared the two.
Hollie Jenkins chose a very well-known, post-hard core/alternative rock song for her A2 Media coursework. She used a combination of lip synching, dancing and acting to portray her storyline, in which I believed was about abusive partners and leaving one another.
She depicted a variety of couples showing domestic abuse and arguing. Jenkins used the lyrics in the song to prompt her imagery, for example at 0.21 the lyrics say ‘what if I fell to the floor?’ at that moment the trio of dancers fall. She also used the lyrics in the song to reflect the abuse for example ‘you’re killing me’, ‘come break me down’, ‘bury me’ and ‘I am finished with you’.
However, it was fairly hard to follow the storyline in the video as we were introduced to so many different characters and locations. One moment the (what seemed to be) female protagonist in school, the start and ending shot, and then she is running through a forest, at home, in the bath etc. It seems very unclear why she is in all these locations as it jumps to them all, although I did like the cycle of starting and finishing the video in the same location with similar shots.
Again by having so many characters (particularly women), who are lip syncing and caught in arguments, it is hard to follow anyone. One man appears to be with three women at the same time making it hard for the audience to see any kind of relationship between the ‘couples’. We cannot make a connection to any of the women as there is too many, all seen for only short spaces of time, to enable to feel sympathetic towards them.
The choice of locations, casting and costume all seem badly thought out and chosen for convenience, not because they were appropriate. For example the school location is never revisited until the end in reverse. Also the fight in the street at 0.43 seems very unlikely and running through a forest at 0.31. Furthermore the three dancers are wearing different costumes, as they were dancing in, what looked like, a drama studio with black walls and were edited in black and white; I think all dancers should have worn matching white clothing.
There is also very little/continuous colour treatment, aside from the black and white effect on the dancers. There is the odd shot with over exposure (0.26) but none on the majority of shots (e.g. 1.34).
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Euan Baker, however, focused much more on his cast, location, costume and imagery. Baker chose a song called ‘Friend (Lover)’ by Evenings, an unsigned, ambient indie project. The track uses repetition along with an intricacy to the shifting drum patterns, which Baker uses to his advantage.
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Baker’s imagery is moulded around the beats of the music; he changes camera angles, lengths and movement to fit alongside the complexity of small-scale manipulation. For example at 0.59, the change of shot position along with the black wipe completely works with new drum beat, also at 1.27, where the male protagonist’s face appears as another sound is introduced.
Like Hollie’s video he uses black and white, however, this is continuous through the video. This works well to create the dreamlike/ surreal effect. The dreamlike sensation is mirrored in the music, which begins very ‘airy’ and light, with the high pitched singer/rhythm. I also love the way Euan uses blurred and disjointed images to again reflect the unconscious state.
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The casting of the male protagonist works as we can imagine the character composing this song, the clothing he wears works perfectly to him giving his a sharp edge. This is juxtaposed with the rural setting of the forest, making him stand out and again reflecting his unconscious state. As the male falls backwards into the lake he is topless and shoeless creating the feel of purity, nakedness and vulnerability. However, we never see him being in danger. We can tell the character is not committing suicide of in danger from his very neutral facial expressions. He does not appear happy or sad but instead thinking. This again could reflect him imagining the dream. As he falls his arms are stretched out in a cross position giving the video religious connotations.
Euan’s video also appears as a cycle by portraying him waking up at the end.
His video has very inspired me to do a song with none or very little lyrics, for example using Bonobo. I liked the idea of using his song ‘Sapphire’.
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