Ragdoll Mood board

when i hear the song these images come to mind. 

All My Life - Foo Fighters

This music video by Foo Fighters is very heavily performance based. The opening shots of the music video show the outside of a theatre, and immediately give the name of the band to the audience within the first few seconds of the video, and the camera tilts down to show a big stadium. This then cuts to the band walking in slow motion with their instruments towards the camera, and the music begins to play as they are approaching the stage - because Dave Grohl is such a recognizable and famous face, showing him early in the video again demonstrates that this is a song by Foo Fighters. The camera fades to black as the band walk up to the stage, and this gives the cuts of the camera a very smooth feel, as the blackness is used to help remove some of the lead up to the stage, so we don't see the whole thing. This also works in time with the music, the fading out and walking match up in time with the sound coming from the guitar that plays on its own at the start of the video.

Dave Grohl actually only begins to sing in time with the music at about 18 seconds into the video, and this is one of the only entropic features of the video - the fact that the music is playing before it shows them playing. An arial zoom shows the singer beginning to sing, and he is the only thing lit up on an otherwise dark stage. The camera revolves around Grohl for the intro, giving close up and mid shots, as well as an angle showing the neck of his guitar (the other musicians are visible, but not the main focus of any of these intro shots).

The music kicks in and the pace of the video increases to match the sound, so the shots have gone from being slow and staying on one member of the band for a long time to being very short and quick shots and going to each member. A wide veriety of shots are used, such as low angles at the guitarist's feet, showing him playing the music, and another ariel shot as the banner that shows the logo for the new Foo Fighters album drop from the ceiling, and then a extreme long shot showing the full band with their logo in the background, to promote their music. As the music kicks in the singer jolts backwards and out of shot from the side on camera view, and the lighting increases quickly, also in time with the music. A fish eye shot is used quite a few times in the video, and is frequently used in Foo Fighters videos when they are playing to cameras, like it is a signature shot that they use in most of their performance based videos. The fast paced shots continue like this for the rest of the video when the music is playing quickly, and during the gaps in the quick music, the shot and the length of how long the camera stays on Dave Grohl revert back to how they were used in the intro of the song. Slow motion is used during a break in the song, again when the song goes back to how it was played at the start of the video. This time, however, the whole band is shown playing as if the song was still being played at the fast tempo, just slowed down (as opposed to just the lead singer being shown).

As the music begins to increase again in pace, the type of shot changes to one that hasn't been used so far, where the stage is lit from the floor and the shots are changing extremely quickly. This type of shot illuminates the musicians directly and gives a feel of speeding up and suspense, as the rest of the stage is darkness. The band is then shown silhouetted in front of a red background as the music begins to kick in again. As the stage lights up again the lyrics are shown on the background to the stage, and the shots continue to jump around the stage showing the music.

I feel this video is extremely redundant because it is mostly performance based, however the band and director do try and make it more entropic by using strange shots such as the fish eye and the silhouettes, as well as a wide use of lighting techniques (from the floor, behind them, etc). In relation to other videos by Foo Fighters, where they may dress in drag or involve other famous musicians and actors, such as Jack Black, this music video is much more redundant.

KARMA POLICE ANALYSIS

Opening shot of the a car's backseats, before panning the camera across the inside of car so that the camera is looking out of the car's windscreen - across the hood of the car, looking at a dark road. This short stays through out the intro, until the drums kick in and the lights in the car turn on, and the car begins to travel down the road. The camera stays this way throughout most of the video, looking out of the window at the front and every so often panning back to the backseat of the car.

The video is concept based - as it features a man running away from a car as the main element and focus point of the video. There is some performance features in the video - Thom Yorke (the band's singer) sat in the back seat of the car, who lip syncs to  the song as it is played.

The video is very entropic - it doesn't use techniques that are usually found in music videos. The video doesn't give information at any point as to what is happening and why, but it does put the audience in the driver's seat of the car - which makes the audience feel like they have something to do with what is going on in the video, and curious as to what will happen next. The video is redundant in the way that it has the band's singer in the video. Although this seems redundant, half way through singing he stops moving his mouth and just sits there, however his voice continues playing in the video and the camera pans back to the front of the car.

The camera changes unexpectedly later in the video, to an extreme close up of the man that is running away, but this time showing him from the front so the audience can see his expression. This allows the audience watching the video to feel a stronger connection with the man being chased, as you can see how he looks and also how scared he is. From here the shot changes back to the safety of inside the car, to back on the road as the man collapses.

Once the man stand's up he turns to face the car for the first time in the video, at which point the car reverses away from the man (giving suspense - are the people in the car retreating or getting a run up to run him over). Close up shots of both the man's face and the front of the car from his view give the feel of a Western stand off, about to "draw their guns". The camera tracks down a line of petrol that has been left on the road by the car, and tracks down from the man's point of view. Another extreme close up is shown, but this time of the man's hand and him lighting a match.

The view goes back to the inside of the car, to the driver's seat. It shows the man in front of them setting fire to the line, and the car reversing quickly as the fire chases them. This shows a change in roles in the video, this time the car being chased. The camera pans again to the back of the car, as it has done throughout the video. The continuous panning back says to me that the driver (you) are looking for reassurance, and are getting it from the person in the back of the car, who is there when everything is going okay for him... however, when the tables have turned and the driver goes to look at the back, the man is no longer there. As the car sets alight, the camera struggles against it, showing that the camera angle all along has been a first-person view of a driver.

Intro

For my A2 coursework I am making promotional materials for a music video. Digi packs, music video... etc. I will be working with Ed, Will and Jake.
The band we are using in The Novocaines.
Song - Ragdoll.

Stay safe,
Sam.