Inspirational Music Videos

Inspirational Music Videos

Bjork – Mutual Core

This music video inspires our group a lot because it is directed by Andrew Thomas Huang – who also directed the original video for Sigur Ros – Brennisteinn. The video consists of a lot of volcanic and earth stuff; which inspires our theme and idea of combining nature and portraiture.

The song is a metaphor between two people converging and the earths crust which when working together, make sense as a whole. The video consists of a lot of CG pictures as well as real nature elements gathered from Iceland, which is a coincidence as the band we are choosing (Sigur Ros) are in fact Icelandic. The editing in the video is really interesting as a lot of the nature elements are animated which have been done in post production. This influences our initial ideas of having multiple exposures and juxtaposed shots – a lot of this is going to come from our editing techniques in post-production. There is a scene in the video where Bjork’s face appears to melt into the rocks, at this point the song is at its peak and the images reach an explosive conclusion. This inspires me and my group to create a similar effect in our video, for example at the peak of the song such as the chorus, having something change dramatically in the video to shock and surprise the audience.

Overall the video is quite strange but nevertheless cleverly done. It fits in with our genre of alternative/post-rock as it meets the audience’s expectations for this particular genre. The stylistic elements in the video accompany this, for example the strange costume that Bjork is wearing in the video. Like other initial research we have done this video has the same location throughout but it is constantly changing which makes it entertaining. When researching the Radiohead video for Lotus Flower I found that the same technique was used there.

Sigur Rós - Fjögur píanó

This music video follows the particular arty, imaginative style that many other Sigur Ros videos follow. This music video was directed by Alma Har'el and features “a couple trapped in a perpetual cycle of addiction and abuse, set to a somber piano melody that at times hints at some light at the end of the tunnel.” (Wikipedia).

On YouTube the video is extremely popular with over 1.5 million views. It features very provocative elements that can be expressed as art, which results in it being dramatically compelling. The video was inspired by relationships which builds up the narrative in the video which contains raw, thought provoking scenes. In terms of the mise-en-scene in this music video I believe costume and performance is vitally important for the success of this video. There are many colourful, different textiles which reflect the stylistic elements of the genre. The performance of the two actors in the video is dramatic and believable which shapes the narrative of the video. I noticed that many graphic matches are used in the video that show the couple together in a location and then again in the same posture or position but in less clothing in a different location.

There is a scene in the video where the music calms and the scene changes to a room with lots of butterflies on the walls. This is a significant moment in the video as it is where the butterflies symbolize beautiful, perfect things that die fast. Again the crossovers with nature elements inspires our group to combine them into our own music video where we use nature to symbolize emotions and force the audience to link connotations with it. Again the genre can easily be distinguished from the video as the style of it is interesting and beautiful. It cannot really be explained, because the video is about things that are unspoken but it is about feelings experienced when the music is heard.