MuViBlog recreates

As part of our final assignment, we needed to make a video related to this blog. So we tried to recreate our favourite videos that we reviewed in our blog to varying degrees of success.



Have a look and make your own decisions on how we went, feel free to let us know on our Twitter - @MuViBlog100!

Radiohead - House of Cards

This video from English rock band Radiohead, is probably the most truly experimental video ever created.



Not only does it look nifty and fit the low-key mood of the song, it also was created using no cameras. Yes that's right, what you are seeing in this video is pure data. They used two pieces of technology in order to scan the 3D images they wanted to use. The first was used to capture small things in a very detailed sense, Thom Yorke's face would be one example. And the second was used to capture large scenes but in less detail. The rather bizarre way in which the data is represented gives the video an almost dream like quality, which is probably something they were attempting in the creation of this video technique. And the final point to be made here is that it makes the video watchable, if this video had just been filmed normally it would have made for very boring viewing. This gimmick, as some would call it, turns it into mesmerising viewing, and a template for videos in the future.

Plastiscines - Barcelona

I first saw the Plastiscines at a show in Boston in 2009 and I was beguiled by them from the very first chord. A all-girl French rock band from just outside of Paris, I remember their beauty and stage presence sucked me in completely, a welcome feminine distraction from the grimey punk band on just before.

Catchy, glam and full of power, the music video for Barcelona has a distinct French feel to it, made more accessible with rock music. A pretty simple video, the band playing in front of a white backdrop, it still works, the split screens, dress, the colours and the way the video is shot evokes feelings of the 60s and 70s and pretty girls definitely make it alot more enjoyable. Pretty French girls who play their musical instruments well and hold a great camera presence definitely help. Their full-length album, About Love has some gems in French and in English, like Camera and Bitch, more great catchy girl rock.

Random music video concepts

Every now and then there’s one of those music videos that has a completely random concept, like OK Go’s video for “Here It Goes Again”.

Released in 2006, it’s known as ‘The Treadmill Video’. The content of the video doesn’t really have anything to do with the lyrics of the song and there are no musical instruments or singing (apart from some lip-synching while they jump around on the treadmills), but the choreography and creativity managed to win it a swag of awards and millions of views on YouTube.

This music video got me thinking of two things: first, just how random a music video concept could be while still being entertaining and adding something to the song; and second, just how much you can do with 8 treadmills.

Cosmo Jarvis

Classically, when a child is at home playing in his dress-ups as a pirate, we don't ever even come close to linking the idea of a pirate with the concept of homosexuality, but in the mind of the front man for the increasingly popular British outfit, Cosmo Jarvis seems to have made that link. Cosmos' train of thought was that if "one in every ten men are gay" then, when pirates sailed the seas as we traditionally think, there must have been gay pirates and it would have been horrible to be on board a ship and to be in love with one of your fellow pirates. The song is cute, thats pretty much the only word i could think of to describe it. The film clip is even more creative, and i believe it has a strong link to the Shakespearean text "The Twelfth Night" where a pirate named Antonio is in love with a man named Sebastian. Have a watch of the video and see how you like it.  Regardless of your views on the topic, you have to admit its a damn catchy tune and the film clip seems to be a homage to a shakespearean play. Enjoy!

Rage Against The Machine - Renegades of Funk

'Renegades of Funk' is RATM's cover of hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa's original from 1983, the original video is included at the bottom of this post so you can watch it in all its 1980's glory!

Rage Against the Machine - Renegades of Funk

Rage's version, released in 2000, part of their covers album, Renegades, released after Zach De La Rocha's departure, prior to the Audioslave years with Chris Cornell. This powerful version is much more imposing than the original thanks to Tom Morello's massive guiter power-riff.

A fitting homage to early 'renegades' who many owe so much, featured in the video, like Sitting Bull, Martin Luther King Jr and other musical pironeers, themselves renegades of funk like George Clinton, Grandmaster Flash and others considered heroes to millions, Che Guevara, Cesar Chavez, Black Panthers, who stuck it to the man, that evil, evil oligarchy - the U.S. Government.

With more recent icons featured, like Public Enemy and De La Soul, leading up to a great infectious ending - Jam sucka, groove sucka, dance sucka, move sucka.

Coming from a different place geographically, musically, socially and in time, this video is great props to decades of great music.

Poppin', sockin', rockin' puttin' a side of hip-hop

Sigur Rós - Glósóli

While the last blog post I wrote featured one of my least favourite videos, this one will cover one of my favourite music videos. The song is written by Sigur Rós, a Post-Rock band from Iceland. This band is well known for creating interesting music videos, with their video for Viorar Vel Til Loftarasas generating much controversy in their home country. Nevertheless I believe Glósóli stands as the pinnacle of their music videos.

Personally I love music videos that tell a story, and I believe many of the best videos are ones that are made to be almost like mini theatrical films. This video is a prime example of that. The cinematography is something that stands out to me as being a defining characteristic of this video, I would even go as far to say it features better cinematography than many films.

Aside from the technical aspects, this video also succeeds in telling the story of the journey of a group of young children from what looks like a desolate wasteland, to their eventual arrival at the sea as they fly off into the clouds. This is a rather simple story, but I believe this works in its favour, as it makes the story easy to understand. One of my favourite parts of the video is when the children glimpse the coastline and the music picks up as they eventually run and jump into the air. This, to me, is an extremely powerful example of the emotional effect that the combination of music and visuals can create, and something that most videos do not even attempt to do.

All these aspects come together to make this one of the most powerful video clips I've ever seen.