Cinematography/Sound: Music Video

A good way to test your analytical abilities is to consider cinematic and sound techniques in music videos. Some, although not all, try to creatively challenge the viewer by 'breaking away' from the traditional format and exploring new possibilities in the medium. 

Watch the this video of 'A Song For The Lovers' by The Verve's Richard Ashcroft. 

It was premiered in May 2000 and was directed by Jonathan Glazer.

The video is of narrative style. It is shot in real-time with an element of diegetic sound unusual in most music videos. Diegetic sound was used previously by Glazer for "Rabbit in Your Headlights".

The video appears to take its cue from the first lines of the song:

I spend the night, yeah,

Looking for my insides in a hotel room,

Waiting for you.

It shows Richard Ashcroft shirtless in a hotel room, having apparently just showered. The hotel room is decorated with a large amount of Native American imagery, featuring framed photos of tribal chiefs and a large mural in the bedroom. Ashcroft turns on a stereo and "A Song for the Lovers" starts playing. He makes an enigmatic, mumbled phone call, ending with the complaint, "It's been half an hour."

The Evolution of Film in 3 Minutes

The following montage chronicles the evolution of film from its conception in 1878 by Edward J. Muybridge to the Lumiere brothers in 1895. Georges Melies a trip to the moon in 1902 was a total game changer and from there we go to the first theatrical releases starting in 1920-2014 ... this portion of the montage is chronological.

The Sound of Hunger Games: Catching Fire

In this exclusive SoundWorks Collection profile we talk with Director Francis Lawerence and Jeremy Peirson (Re-recording Mixer, Sound Designer, Supervising Sound Editor) about the sound teams work to create the second film in the blockbuster franchise based on Suzanne Collins’ hit novels.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a "Victor's Tour" of the districts. Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) - a competition that could change Panem forever.

Sound of Cinema: The Music that Made the Movies BBC4 (BBC iPlayer)

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Neil Brand explores how in the second half of the 20th century, composers and film-makers embraced jazz, pop and rock to bring fresh energy to film scores.

In this episode he shows how in the 1960s, films as diverse as the James Bond movies, Italy's spaghetti westerns and Disney's musicals drew on the talents of pop arrangers and composers like John Barry, Ennio Morricone and the Sherman Brothers to create unforgettable soundtracks. But the role of the film composer would subsequently be challenged by directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, who showed that a soundtrack consisting of carefully chosen pop songs could be as effective as a specially written one.

The Sound of Skyfall

SoundWorks Collection - The Sound of Skyfall from Michael Coleman on Vimeo.

The sound and music of 'The Dark Knight Rises'

The sound of 'Prometheus'