Lyricist Lounge feat. Nate Dogg, Mos Def & Pharoahe Monch - 'Oh No'

This music video is another example of type in motion but this time with the visual aid of the people saying the words. The typography is bold and often becomes a self-contained image or a snapshot within the video. The more successful and subtle use of film and typography in this music video is where the hip-hop artists rap into the camera and the lyrics flicker around them (often overlayed and possessing keyframed opacity to suggest movement in time - e.g. when something is said it is highy visible but as time progressess its presence fades).

The way in which the artists rap has also been taken into consideration, each rapper has a unique lyrical style - e.g. Pharoahe Monch is very intense to the point of shouting so the typography used to reflect his voice is bold visually and resonates on the screen whereas Mos Def speaks softer so the type glows and flickers.

Justice - 'D.A.N.C.E' dir. Jonas & Francois

This is a really nice video coming of the back of the recent 'new rave' fashion trend. The video shows T-shirt graphics animated onto two models as they walk towards and away from the camera. I especially like the fact that some of the animation has been timed to make it look as if the models are interacting with the T-shirt designs. I also like the fact that the focus of the camera is on the torso of the model and completely crops out the head of the model (making you focus on the T-shirts before anything else).

'Lucas With The Lid Off' - Lucas. Dir. Michel Gondry

This is possibly my favourite music video I have come across. It is, to me, one of Michel Gondry's best pieces of work. It involves a large studio set divided into several scenes. The main character, Lucas, performs whilst weaving through these scenes creating a continuous flow throughout the video. The best thing about this video is that it is one take, the movement from scene-to-scene and the placement of the camera, props and action has been timed to perfection by Gondry. The use of the camera to fool the audeince is used as well (for example, a 90 degree angle is used in the bed scene to fool the audience into thinking Lucas is lying horizontally, when the camera flips it is revealed that his legs were actually off the end of the bed - to make this more convincing even elements of the set were placed on their side).

Anyone interested in film or the production of music videos who hasn't seen this piece needs to watch it and appreciate the amount of thought that has gone into it.

Dizzee Rascal - 'Sirens' dir. W.I.Z.

After watching the short film 'Cubs' by Tom Harper I remembered seeing a recent video for Dizzee Rascal's 'Sirens'. The video follows a similar theme as 'Cubs' with Fox Hunting in an urban setting but what I liked about this music video was the use of symbolism. Fox Hunters riding through a housing estate creates a really interesting visual which seemingly has no relevance to the song until you realise that Dizzee Rascal is being hunted down like a fox. The Fox Hunters are a powerful metaphor for the police and authority and the way that some people feel that the police 'clamp down' on gangs and youth culture.

A really clever aspect of this video is the fur coat that Dizzee Rascal wears, it works as a symbol for youth and 'hoody' culture but also acts as a visual tool to represent the fox (at the end of the video the fur from the coat is drenched in blood and smeared over the youngest hunter in the pack as part of the ritual of the hunt).

The end of the video shows the young boy (presumably related to Dizzee) watching the 'kill' and ultimately becoming what one can only assume will be a trouble-maker. This suggests that although authority is put in place to stop crime it can sometimes develop or perpetuate crime.

Albatross Waltz - Simon Roswell Carter

Stop Motion Music

'Audioslave - Revelations' dir. Danny Clinch

'Jack Penate - Torn on the Platform' dir. Tim Pope

This video is a fantastic example of how, when done well, traditional methods of animation can work with new technology. In the video the head of the puppet has an almost stop-motion look to it which the rest of the video didn't have. I was completly confused as to how this was produced because the movements of the head looked too convincing to be super-imposed.

I was searching the internet earlier to try and find out how this technique was achieved when I found the Digital Arts website which had an online article about the video.

(http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=8050)

The person responsible for the head was post house Clear's Marcus Wood who used Flame to help pull-off the idea of traditional animation but with a modern twist.

Two sets were used and Jack had to keep his head still as possible whilst performing his song. This footage of Jack's face was frame-cut every five frames to create the stop-motion look. The footage was then motion tracked to the puppet's head (marked with a cross).

"... although the idea is simple, all that tracking makes it a time-consuming project," explained Marcus Wood (Clear's VFX artist).

'Audioslave - Original Fire' dir. P.R. Brown