Inspirational music videos

Thirty Seconds to Mars - Up in the Air

Up In The Air by Thirty Seconds To Mars is an 8 minute long feature music video which involves many different objects and people doing all sorts of different things to the beat of the song. It is a dysjunctured video in the sense that the video has nothing really to do with the song on the surface – it is all very random, however this video is effective in this way because it keeps the audience captivated, and keeps them wondering what is really going on. Although the video doesn't show what the lyrics suggest, the lyrics of the song are also not very clear at what they are representing, which indirectly makes them fit the video perfectly. Some clips however match the lyrics to show running themes in the song, such as the words 'lust' and 'love' which are words also involved a lot throughout the audio. Some of the lyrics of the song, such as 'I've been up in the air, out of my head' and 'fucked up on life' imply a sense of messed up emotion and out of the ordinary thoughts, which relates to the video where everything is quite out of the ordinary and yet each clip is juxtapositioned well with other clips to look more impressive than ridiculous. To empasise the impressive aspect there is a lot of gymnastics/dancing involved and a variety of well edited effects such as slow motion, which is something we can consider for our video to make ours look impressive too. The lyrics of the song also imply some sort of dream world beyond the norm, or out of the normal aspects of the mind, which could also explain the amount of unrelated surreal things going on in this video, as well as the blank white area that it is being filmed in – an idea that inspires us because it goes against stereotypical themes of mainstream songs, almost more meaningful, yet is still successful. The use of things like fire, and the colliding paint powder, can also represent here the complex battle of these surreal thoughts in the mind. The amount of things involved here, including arwork, props, costume and the use of celebrity Dita Von Teese, show the amount of production and money put into this video, which suggests just how successful the band is as a way of presenting the band to the audience. Clips of the band are also used within the video, so the audience can associate themselves with the band and also for the alternative style video for the band to represent how the band are associated with a more alternative style of music. The syncronous cuts and transitions from clip to clip match the audio perfectly, making the video look very professional – a technique for us to consider. This for example means when the beat gets faster, the cutting speed is faster, or when there is a steady slower beat, the effective slow motion parts are used. The use of camera shots and angles is also very effective, such as the low angle shots of the band to make them look superior, wide angle shots to show how empty the location is, and a range of close-ups, mid-shots and long-shots to emphasise the objects and people used in the video. The colour scheme also plays a clever part in the video, where the colours have a massive contrast. The band are wearing dark colors, to contrast against the white background, to make them stand out, and also make them look mysterious (possibly another running theme of the video) but not stand out as much as the colourful objects in other clips which show how the objects play a more important role in the meaning of the song and to keep the audience's attention, such as Dita Von Teese's glittery costume and the bright butterfly wings. It also matches the colourful design of the album the song is released from, which acts as a promotion for that album as well as the song and the band themselves. The video is also very recent, which is relevant for an inspiration of ours because we are promoting music with a video from the present-day time.

Neon Trees - Animal

Neon Trees created two music videos for this song, but it is this one in particular that interests me. The video is very controversial and unusual to the usual music video themes, and quite surreal, which is a theme we are particularly interested in. The surrealism comes from the fact everyone's heads in the art gallery turn into animals, after they have passed out, to which they then rise and start dancing. This relates more to the title of the song 'Animal', but other than that it doesn't relate to the song at all. The song is actually about a girl who is holding back her feelings, but the guy is willing to give all his love to her (lyrics: 'what are you waiting for?' and 'say goodbye to my heart tonight'). The video uses a lot of colourful paint being thrown about (over the artwork), and powder paint being used as gas in the art gallery - which are two colourful elements that we have been inspired to use in our video, which is why this video appealed to us. The video in general is very colourful, which is iconic to the band and promotes the band themselves, when the name 'Neon' implies colourful. The editing speed and transitions are particularly useful to look at, where the editing speed increases as the beat does, and the majority of the transitions are simple cuts to clearly separate each clip from another to match the speed of the song. This makes the video look professional, and so is something we can consider. Also, a variety of shots are used, including mid shots, long shots and close ups of the band for the audience to associate with and identify the band with, but also a good variety of shots for the narrative to keep the audience engaged and entertained.

La Roux - Bulletproof

Bulletproof by La Roux is another music video that inspired me because of its surreal nature of the location and animation within the video. The video focuses on the central character - La Roux, throughout the video. This allows the audience to connect with the artist, and this acts as a promotion technique, especially with a lot of shots of the artist looking down the camera. The lyrics don't really link to the video at all, which is something that inspired me because surreal videos like this are ones we would like to experiment with. The video involves a lot of animation of random objects and shapes in a room that is almost dream-like, because of its lack of reality. The random objects look interesting and almost hypnotising, which keeps the audience engaged and interested to keep watching the video. This idea we also thought would be good to consider in our video. The cutting speeds and transitions work well and professionally, where they fit exactly in time to the beat. La Roux herself is very alternative, which is shown by her music style and appearance, such as the iconic hairstyle and strange make-up, which also keeps the audience hooked, whilst they are subconciously not accostumed to someone like La Roux compared to other icons in the media. It is this sort of concept that inspired us firther for our music video and the song choice for our video.

Lily Allen - The Fear

'The Fear' by Lily Allen is a song that represents the threat of society becoming more materialistic and obsessive, and the fact it is almost 'taking over' people and brainwashing them. This is a concept similar to our inspiration to create a surreal world for our music video. In the video, Lily starts off in a caravan - her home in the narrative, to which it becomes a big mansion full of butlers and maids, which represents everyone's ambition to be rich and famous, and ignore other human qualities, which people are in today's society, obsessed with - alike to the American Dream. This is also represented in the lyrics 'I want to be rich, and I want lots of money, I don't care about clever, I don't care about funny', meaning in this video, the lyrics perfectly match the song. There are giant dancing presents in the video, which firstly look obscene, to represent how that world isn't real, and also to represent how society is obsessed with wanting more and more. The gift-wrapped mansion at the end further represents the obsession of wanting that lifestyle, but given for free, like a gift, almost instantly. The use of colourful paint powder being thrown about as well as glitter and other brightly coloured unusual things further represents how the world in the video isn't real, even though it represents what society is materialising like, and these types of things we have been inspired to use in our video. The medium beat of the song allows gentle cutting speed and the use of dance routines, which works effectively throughout the video, and even when the beat of the song does speed up, the cutting speed also speeds up, and vice versa, to look professional, so it is something we can consider in our video. The camera angles are also used effectively, where in some parts low angle shots are used to make Lily Allen look superior with the lifestyle she is shown to have, and high angle shots are shown at first on the caravan to show inferiority, as if that's the lifestyle no-one wants to have, which pans to a straight-angled mid-shot to be on the same level as the audience, so they themselves can associate with her. The last shot of the video is a high angle shot of the rich and famous fantasy mansion world, to show that although it is what everyone wants, it is not the right way for society to be transformed, and dragged into 'the fear' and obsession, which is what the song is about. The use of a message that the audience can associate with, is a professional technique that keeps the audience hooked, which is something therefore we can consider.

P!nk - Funhouse

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The song 'Funhouse' by P!nk, isn't quite obvious in its meaning through the video, however the video is representative of the lyrics. The song can be interpreted in many ways. One way is drug addiction, where at first the drugs are pleasurable, (lyrics: this used to be a funhouse) but they become more of just a means of survival, which scares her (lyrics: but now its full of evil clowns) and how professional help (lyrics: I've called the movers, I've called the maids) has failed. Another way is about her relationship with her ex, where at first it was fun and wonderful, but then it turned bad and she wants to get rid of the memories (hence the lyrics: 'I'm guna burn it down' and 'we'll try to exorcise this place'), which is also shown by the picture frame of P!nk and her ex on the ground. Either way, on the surface the song is about something good that turned bad that she wants to get rid of. In the video she is walking around a desolate place which looks surreal, especially with the weird looking people ('the evil clowns'), to represent emotions and memories rather than a physical place, which is alike to the theme we want to create, where the run-down place and 'evil clowns' represents the bad things that used to be good, and fit with the idea she is 'burning it down' in the lyrics. There are close-ups and other shots of random household objects (where using clips of random objects is an inspiration to us), such as a toilet, a toaster and a sofa, where the effect of some of them on fire is also used, (an effect we are interested in experimenting with) to show how she is leaving the life she had in that house behind - assuming the run down place is her house that she shared with her ex - the 'funhouse' she is singing about. There are a lot of mid shots to reveal P!nk and her costume, which is white and contrasts with the dark mis-en-scene to make her stand out, as if she doesn't belong there, again making it look more surreal. These shots as well as close-ups make the audience associate with the artist, and make her the focal point of the video - a promotion technique. The transitions and cutting speed fit with the beat of the song, which is a professional technique that we need to consider in our video. The low angle shots make P!nk look superior and in control of the situation, (fitting with the lyrics 'I'm guna burn it down') despite its creepy abandoned look, which make her a powerful role model for her audience. 

Marylin Manson - The Beautiful People

Marylin Manson's The Beautiful People video is very different to the usual mainstream music videos. Marylin Manson firstly has his own very unique gothic and alternative style which he tries to project into his videos, which comes through in this particular video also. The filters he uses creates a dark underground effect, which perfectly fits with the genre of the song. There are a lot of fast cuts of random quite creepy looking objects, something we were considering, which fits with the beat of the song and creates quite a scary, mysterious effect for the audience. A lot of transitions and effects are used, like blurs and fades, to give the video a more surreal nightmare-like effect, which again fits the genre of the song. The location is quite desolate and strange, which also shows this. The video isn't as smooth as usual videos, it is quite disjointed, however due to the crazy nature of Marylin Manson, this is a technique used for the audience to associate more with Marylin Manson, and therefore promote him and his music style.