Special effect are very creative in a music video because it attracts the public and makes the video more exciting and sticks into your head.
The music video 'Earthquake'- by Labrinth has loads of special effects that makes you attracted to the song as well as the actual video and it also makes you think how did they do that because it looks so creative/imaginative.
In this music video the song starts off with special effects at 0.10 which lasts for a few seconds but already I think has an impact on the video itself which is also an advantage because it makes the audience/viewer more intrigue to want to carry on watching the video to see what more is going to happen throughout the music video.
At 0.20 in this shot the camera is focused on Labrinth and the car that he came out from and then it transfers into a variety of speakers spelling out the artist name. This type of special effects has been created so well that its so imaginative and creative to think of something like is to make the viewers wowed and impressed.
Throughout the music video every time the shot cuts the beat, the special effects of the speakers changes its position with a gust of power of the bass from the speakers to the screen which I think makes the video more effective.
The start of 2.20 to 3.00 has the most effected special effects I think, because there's a hologram in the middle of where 'labrinth' is starting and then seconds later he moulds into the effect and becomes part of the equipment which is such a creative thing to do that it starts to look almost impossible. I definitely think that this technique was very successful because its creative and looks complex which is what you want because it makes the viewers want to see more of the artist work.
This music video especially with the special effects definitely represents the artist, because Labrinth is a creative, loud, bubbly, and enthusiastic with music and it does show in this music video of how he can work in an imaginative way.
Unfortunately the bad thing about Labrinth using all these different special effects is maybe a bit too much for a music video, if he had used a few seconds worth of special effects in the video then that would've been perfectly fine on the audience eye but instead the whole music video had special effects involved which I think slightly ruined the music video.
Special effects and Green screen:
With this music video 'Blue- da ba dee' the special effects aren't as effective as 'earthquake-labrinth'. Blue da ba dee was released in 1999 and technology then isn't as good as the technology we have now. The video looks fuzzy and unfocused which also doesn't bring out/ stand out the special effects that have been created for the music video.
At the beginning of the music video there's special effects used 0.02 of different televisions moving in the atmosphere and the artist in the screen talking to the audience, I think that this special effects has been used quite well especially for this type of music video which is all about space, craziness,aliens etc.
0.30 special effects and green screen has been used where the group is on set with their equipment telling the story, then the special effects takes in and shows the viewers the aliens taking the vocalist. I think that this type of special effects has worked well especially with the green screen because they are trying to make it look realistic of space interacting with earth. But I do think that this is also a bad technique that they have used mainly with the special effects, I think that they should have kept that shot as green screen only.
2.04 is where they used green screen again for this shot but again it wasn't a good technique that they decided to use because it looks very unrealistic, now you can tell that its been done on green screen because it doesn't look real or even effective enough for us to think otherwise.
Cutting to the beat- maintains the link between the tempo and visuals of the lyrics. It's where the beat of the music is repeated over and over again so there's a cut at least every 4 seconds usually.
Nicki Minaj recently released a single called' Starships' which is a creative video that has quite a lot of effects used. In this video you can tell by the music that there's cutting to the beat because the beat every 2 seconds is the same beat for the entire song. If you play it from the beginning and tap your hand every 2 seconds you will be able to understand and hear the repeat.
1.04 the shot is of Nicki Minaj and then at 1.06 the shot changes to girls walking down the catwalk and then at 1.08 the shot changes again back to Nicki Minaj but in a different scene. I think that they have used this technique very well because the viewers don't want to see the same shot for a long time because they will start to lose interest in the music video which is something that the artist and company does not want to happen. So because the shot cut to the beat every 2 seconds that means the shot changes to either the artists, scenery or other people involved.
But at the same time I think that this technique is also a bad thing especially with how the cut to the beat with 2 seconds is way too quick for the viewers to focus on what they are being shown, because by the time they see the shot, it then changes to another shot.
With this type of technique for this particular music video it does represent Nicki Minaj as a creative artist because in every shot she is doing something different or something in the shot has changed, which some artist find difficult to do because they don't have enough props or equipment to use.
Varied camera language- using a variety of camera language is a good thing because you change up the position of the video which makes it more enjoyable to watch, if the camera is just in one place all the time then it will make the video seem dull and plain because there isn't any techniques used.
'Simply amazing'- by Trey songz, the music video has many different camera language used at 0.20 the shot is a birds eye view angle of them two, then at 0.30 the angle changes to a mid shot of the side of their body where we see the main vocalist laying on top of the guest. This allows the viewers to focus on a different side of the artist and not just looking at his front features.
(close up 0.40, mid shots 0.58, the camera moves in a circular motion). The different camera language in this music video lets the audience know what's happening in each angle whether its the background scene, the person or an object. Its also an interesting type of movement to use and grabs the audience attention more because you are using different angles.
At 1.15 the movement of the camera is panning from the view of the sea to then Trey Songz walking towards the camera.
'Somebody that I used to know' by Gotye, the music video uses a few camera languages ( close up 2.10, mid shot 2.30) most of the video is in the same angle which is just facing the two people that are in the video, I think that there could be other angles that they could've done (shot reverse shot, extreme close up). If there was more camera language used the video would be more creative.
Another improvement that they could make is the location, maybe have the location change throughout the music video so that it gives the viewers more to look at. For example change the image to in an art gallery where people are viewing them as a piece of art, then it kind of ties in with the body paint and different shapes. Then they could've used a long shot of the crowd of people surrounding the art and close ups of their faces for the viewers to see their reactions and body language.
Green screen- Most music videos now are used with green screen to get the best creative video possible.
Green light- by Beyonce, the music video is filmed using the green screen for the entire video but objects/equipment has been brought onto the set to add more of an effect to the music video. The way that the video has been filmed looks effective even though its on a green screen and there isn't much of a background. 0:25 The background is still white, but an object of glass stairs are now on set with the vocalist laying across it, I think this shot in particular is quite strong because this type of artist is big and is showing that she can give off a good performance and video by just using the simplest things, that we never thought of using. 0:31 Graphics have now been used with the green screen, to give more of an effect to the music video so that it doesn't look plain throughout. 2:49 Again another object has been used where the vocalist is dancing around it/on it, she's being creative with her limited objects for the green screen.
This music video is a poor use of the green screen, you can tell that its unrealistic and not much effort/ understanding has gone into making this video. The person just seems to stand out of the background which makes the video seem dull/poor quality. It's definitely not up to professional standards which will be a problem especially when looking for viewers.
Lip syncing- most music artist will lip sync when performing live because if they have to do a dance then they will be to out of breathe to sing the song as well properly to make the whole performance look good and make the audience impressed. Lip syncing is one of the hardest techniques because no matter how hard to try and practise, you will always be out of sync whether its by a second or longer. Most of the time people won't notice and you can get away with it but some artist seem too confident with their performance that sometimes they mess up and go out of sync which then ruins the show.
Mariah Carey is known for her live performances to always be lip-synched, the reason for this is because the same technique in the studio can not be used with a live performance which throws most artist off their game. 1:59 If you listen very closely her voice is mixed with her voice on the tape, you can notice that from the different tones of pitch with the note.
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