Nirvana's 'heart shaped box'

The establishing shot of the video is of a dieing man in a hospital bed with the three band members sitting on chairs by the side of the bed. One noticeable symbol in the room is a black cross on the floor coming out of the bed. With the dieing man in bed having long brown hair and a beard it's clearly a symbol of Jesus and the crucifix. Another noticeable factor is the stream of light that comes through the curtains and falls on the main singer Kurt Cobain. And with Kurt Cobain's blonde long hair the light makes him appear angelic. This all may be linked to the next scene which may appear like a dream, where by the old man is now dressed Jesus and is next to a crucifix. The mise en scene shows a field of red poppeys and with a clear blue sky that all seems quite tranquil other than the crucifix, maybe symbolizing heaven with Kurt Cobain 'the angel' being the dead man's guardian angel. However the tranquility is soon overturned as you see the man start to climb up to the crucifix and the sky turns red as kurt cobain and the band start to perform, this maybe symbolising hell.

Within the performance section the camera pulls focus onto kurt Cobain as well as putting him out of focus. This maybe symbolising Cobains confusion and the illusion that all the happenings within the video are day dreams or images within his head as well as a technique used to create a more frantic performance, perhaps reflecting the band's performances. This may also be for audience appeal and to sell the band as a live band.

Throughout the whole video many symbolic images are used and in conjunction with other elements raise questions of representation. Such as the little girl seen throughout the video dressed in the Klu Klux Klan outfit. She is seen looking up at what appears to be lynched fetuses. This may be a way in which Cobain, in an anti-establishment and anti-religious manner, wanted to question Christian views. As the Klu Klux Klan see themselves through the eyes of god and argue their views through the bible. The use of an old man with a Santa clause hat on who appears to be Jesus as he is crucifying himself on the cross may be a symbol of how Christian values and a Christian festival has now become dominated by commercial use with Santa Clause, not St Nicholas, and the giving of presents. So within the music video Christians appear to be represented as a racist and anti abortionist group. However the use of the Klu Klux Klan child may be a symbol and representing the klu klux klan as being naive and stupid highlighting their ignorance symbolised by the little girl looking up emotionlessly at the dying old man, now wearing a bishops hat, as well as skipping past in a child like manner. The use of the fetus is also used within the drip for the old man as the girl's outfit turns black, symbolising the mans death.

The music video appears to want to argue against Christian values and Christian views much going with the genre of the band from which many anti establishment and anti religious are expressed through lyrics.

Radiohead's 'There, There...'

Dir. Chris Hopewell,

Radiohead's video for 'There, There...' is a serial music video in which we see the main singer in Radiohead, Thom Yorke, walking through the woods with strange anthropomortic woodland animals acting out human like events such as a wedding, feast and within there cottage like houses. The narrative then moves on to a hanging coat within the forest surrounded by crows. It then moves on to Yorke putting on the coat and shoes and running from the birds but failing to get away due to the woods seeming to consume him and turn him into a tree.

The video uses a lot of different techniques to create the correct atmosphere and aesthetic quality of the video. One noticeable way in which it does this is the use of both animation and real footage. And the video itself connects these techniques by using stock motion in the real footage to create an animation like quality to Yorke's walk. This also is the case from animation back to footage as the video ends with Yorke turning into a animated tree. The aesthetics the camera and post production create an archaic or old looking video which is created using a sepia like filter along with a darkened framing to the whole video to make the video look like an old black and white silent film. The use of lighting to highlight certain aspects of the video is used throughout. Such as when Yorke is seen looking around a tree and a beam of light goes across his eyes as he looks left and right. also used to highlight the coat, the wedding and the small tree cottage.

The music itself starts to crescendo and become more dissonant as the narrative comes to what appears to be the answer to the enigmas throughout the narrative, such as why is he walking through the woods, why do the animals act like humans etc. This being the hanging coat much like the golden fleece in Greek tales that Yorke has come to collect. These enigmas are what keep the audience questioning and carry on watching the video. The change in the mood of the music pushes through the narrative much like conventional equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium style. As the equilibrium is broken as the narrative moves away from the woodland creatures to the coat. The disequilibrium is Yorke being chased by the crows and then the new equilibrium is Yorke being turned into a tree.

Digipak Case Design

My design for my digipak will be a case that mimics a old Reel to reel tape. The case will screw open and shut and inside will be a small booklet and the CD itself. The booklet will have 4 sides with artwork based around cassette tapes cartridges and cassette tape tape. The use of cassettes is fitting for the band's genre. The genre of the band is alternative rock/grunge and the use of cassette is fitting to the band due to when grunge first appeared when cassette tapes would have still been widely used. The bands main singer, Joe, will be represented within the artwork using a stencil like creating with tape. Using Photoshop to create a close up still of Joe into a black and stencil i can then use tape to 'fill in' the stencil art of Joe. Also the artwork will have a bright red look to it by using the flash along with a filter type technique using my finger over the flash.

Foo Fighters - The pretender

The Foo Fighters single from their latest album 'Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace' is available in a standard CD single format as well as on Vinyl and MP3 download.

The simple artwork of the piece that just consist of a modified light-bulb along with the title of the single and the bands name is eye catching due to simplicity and draws the focus onto the light-bulb. This simplicity will be mirrored in my artwork as i'll use very simple artwork with an interesting object centered in the frame of the picture.

Genre-wise the band is grunge/rock band who often play big shows and could be said to be one of the biggest acts in rock music. This is reflected in the artwork and the font as it reminds me of a broadway like aesthetics with the white bright light-bulb and the art deco like quality to the font. Also the hand shaped light-bulb could be a symbol of the power of the band.

Shot Timeline

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