Music Video Assignment 3

The Director i have chosen to look at for Music Video Assignment 3 is Chris Cunningham. He is a British video director who mainly directs videos for ambients music.  He's style is often very dark and some people may find it very creepy, but some people see it as a work of art. He's directed videos for such artists as Aphex Twin, Bjork and Madonna ext.. . The three videos i am going to be looking are Aphex twin - Come To Daddy, Aphex Twin - Window licker and Bjork - All Is Full Of Love.

All the video's are disturbing in someway. In Come to Daddy it has a very dark feel to it and then it had dwarfs dressed in little schools girls uniform destroying stuff and causes terror, a lot people would find this disturbing and also taboo. In Window licker it starts out much brighter than Come to Daddy and you don't really see what they have in common but then 2 girls get into a limo with a man and suddenly turn into men dressed in womens clothing which some people may find disturbing. Bjork again looks different at the start to both the previous videos as it is robots not humans but towards the end of the video it gets its disturbing touch when the robot starts to make out with herself as another robot which some viewers may find disturbing.

Chris Cunningham uses very similar cinematography in all of his video's, He never really uses  moving camera when shooting music videos, It is normally just single camera he uses and he uses the movement off the camera e.g. tracking and panning to to show what is going on in the scene and make it interesting. In the 3 music videos i looked he used a lot of close ups of the main characters. In Come to Daddy at the start there was a lot of close ups of the old women and of the dog she was walking. In Window licker their was lots of close ups of the women/men in the limo and in All is full of love their are a lot of close ups of the robot. Chris uses certain camera shots to try and interest the audience for example if their is something disturbing going on or a creepy looking / wired thing in the scene he will also use a close up shot and never uses a long/wide shot to show this. In the Come To Daddy when the disturbing looking creature comes out of the Tv all the shots are either close ups or medium close ups. In Window licker again when one of the dancers turns into a creepy looking creature all the shots are either close ups of medium close ups and lastly in All Is Full Of Love when the robots start to make out and kissing all the shots apart from 1 or 2 are close ups of medium shots. One thing again they all have in common is at the start of all 3 music videos their is a long shot/ establish shot which sets the tone of the rest of the video. 

 Each of the videos has its serpent colour schemes and don't really have anything in common when is comes to colour. Come To Daddy has a very very dark colour scheme and hasn't really got much light at all, When it shows outside it is all natural light and the rest of the video is either in a alley way which is very dimly lit by broken street light and the scene where their are in a under ground car park it is again like the alley way very dimly lit, which fits into the dark theme of the video. In window licker nearly all of the video is filmed during the day time and is a very light video which fits in wight the humours side of the video. And finally the All Is Full Of Love video is both bright and dark lighting, as the room they are in and the machinery is dark in colour but the robots are very bright white which contradicts the dark colour in the video. So all three videos don't really have anything in common 

Again all these videos don't really have the same style of editing. The come to daddy video has very quick cuts especially when the midgets are all running round causing havoc and this is genuinely a very quick pace / edited video. The window licker video is a slow pace video as in the first 5 minutes of the video where they are in the car and talking to the girls, The video then starts to pick up a bit in speed when the girls are dancing but it still is slow pace and some shots are in slow motion. In the All Is Full Of Love the editing is mixed between the 2 as when it shows the machinery fixing the robot it cuts very quickly but half way through the video when the robots start to kiss it is very slow paced and it hardly cuts at all. 

Music videos are either Performance based, Conceptual or narrative or sometimes it is a mixture of them. Performance based is where it shows the band or singer performing the song. Narrative is where it followed the lyrics and tell a story a conceptual is were someone has come up with the idea for the video and normal has nothing to do with the song or the lyrics.  Come To Daddy is concept based as someone has come up with the idea and has nothing to do with the lyrics of the song. Window licker again is concept based as it doesn't really tell a story and someone again has come up with the idea and the same goes for All Is Full Of Love so it looks like most of Chris Cunningham's work is concept based.  

Their is not a lot of intertextuality in Chris Cunninghams work but their is one in the video for window licker where he is doing the dance it is referencing Michael Jackson apart from that their is not much at all . There isn't much Voyeurism either as the videos have a disturbing feel to them and show disturbing looking people/creatures. Their is also defiantly reputation of certain images, not so much the same looking images but defiantly the same disturbing themed images. 

There are many purpose to making music videos and having music videos. One purpose is for the industry, they make it to make many for their company, They released people liked to see the band perform the song, so they expose the band via music videos. Another purposes is for the audience, When people watch music videos it makes them feel more connected to the band and sometimes feel like they are their in your living room performing and also it causes entertainment and enjoyment for the people watching them. For Come to Daddy it is a different type of entertainment, personally when i think off entertainment i think of a fun jolly video but come to daddy is very dark but it still keeps me entertained with it's creepy atmosphere and tense video. Near the end of the video a monster comes out of the television may symbolise that the media turns people into monsters with their reports, especially on pedophilia which the media report as a bad thing but without it they would have nothing to report. Window Licker entertained in a different way, i think it entertains with humour used in the video but it also deals with the issue of sexism as it shows 2 stereotypical rappers who are confused and scared when they see a man dressed in womens clothing. All is full of love again raises awareness but this time it raises awareness about sexual equality as it shows 2 robots kissing each other it is trying to show it is your own choice what your sexuality is and its ok to be different.   

 It's also good for the film makers as it is away to express themselves and it also also good work to put in their portfolio and to get their name out there. and obviously it is also a job for them. In terms of Chris Cunnigham his music video are away of getting across very importing issues sometimes in a dark and sometimes in a humours way. Music videos can also be made to get a certain message out there, for example a political message or to raise awareness for example the song Do they know its christmas by Band Aid was sang to raise awareness about starvation in Africa. As I have already said these videos are about a number of issues to do with sexuality and equality.They are also made for the band themselves, it promotes them and gets their work out there, also if people watch the video they might like it and go and buy the song and also go to the bands gigs. 

In terms of Chris Cunninghams work i would say the target audience is between the ages of 16 - 25 and likes different music other than chart music, i don't think it is aimed at younger kids as some of his videos are very creepy and wouldn't be suitable for younger children. I would say its mainly aimed at males as the videos are dark and would not relate to women. 

In conclusion i enjoyed each of these music videos as they are different to what i normally see, some of them like Come To Daddy are creepy and disturbing but i like this and think it adds effect to the music video as your remember it, all these music videos entertained me and i didn't get board watching any of them. 

Appendis 

Come to daddy - Aphex Twin

This video starts out with a old women walking her dog around a estate. Her dogs then starts to bark at a tv which seems to be just dumped on the ground which suddenly comes to a life with a close up of a mans face which seem to be distorted. You then see a gang of midgets dressed in young school girls clothing. Through out the video you see them destroying stuff and terrorising people, at the end of the video and creature comes out of the TV screen and starts to grow in size it then starts screaming at the old lady who we saw at the start of the video, Then the creatures starts herding up the gang of midgets as the video ends.

Window Licker - Aphex Twin 

This video starts out with 2 black men in a car who are betrayed as 'wanna be gangsters', they then pull up to 2 girls who are standing at the side of the road hoping to get them into their care but instead they start arguing with them, suddenly a very long white limo pushed them out the way and stops at the girls, out steps a very weird looking white man in a white suit with sun glasses on a long hair. He then starts dancing in the middle of the road with reference to Michael jackson, the 2 girls suddenly turn into men but still dressed in the women dress and the womens hair. It then cuts to them in the taxi with the white guy in the middle touching the 2 men dressed in women's clothing. Then is shows the 2 black guys catch up to the limo now the men dressed as women are looking out the sunroof of the car, the guys still jealous and annoyed that they didn't get into their car. They stop and get out and the 2 black guys from the beginning of the video watch as the people in the limo start to dance. Suddenly one of the women dancers turns into a very creepy looking creature which scares the 2 guys. 

Bjork - All Is Full Of Love 

This video starts off with a robot who seems to be lifeless lying on a counter it suddenly starts moving its mouth and singing. The robot gradually starts to become alive due to the machines fixing it. Another robot then walks in and seems to be identical to the other robot. The 2nd robot starts to sing the backing vocals. The 2 identical robots starts to make out with each other.