musicvideo

Dawn Shadforth’s Music Videos

by lukeegan

We watched a variety of Dawn Shadforth’s work in class the other week . I didn’t know who she was before this although I did recognise a couple of the videos. Her most notable work is probably the music video for Can’t Get You Out Of My Head by Kylie Minogue. While very popular at the time I find it a little cringe-worthy to watch now but still somewhat entertaining.

I was however captured by her Goldfrapp video for the song Number One. It’s limited color scheme of green and pink with everything else appearing desaturated appealed to me. This combined with the unique idea of the video deriving from the lyric ‘I’m a dog to get you’ creates an interesting one of a kind music video.

goldfrap no 1

Her work is quite varied although a lot of it seems to have great choreographed performances for instance her music video for Florence and Machines Drumming Song. It reminded me slightly of the concept of our music video with all the women wearing black and with the hanging material on their costumes. This was something that we intended to do but never actually happened. The choreography in this video is relatively simple but very effective and in hindsight I wish we integrated some moves for our extras in our music video. The movement in Drumming Song makes the video come to life something that we could have worked on a little more. Interestingly the main character in this video also stands out with her glowing red hair just like Mo and Emma do in our video.

drumming song

Dawn Shadforths work is varied and is useful to look to for inspiration. I actually wish I more of her work because we begun on the production of our music video.

Over and out,

Luke

Beyounce’s Formation

by lukeegan

In class we watched Beyoncé’s new music video Formation. I don’t listen to a heap of Beyoncé except when my girlfriends around. The song itself wasn’t anything that special to me but I thought the music video was very well done.

It was an epic politically charged video full of various representations and strong imagery. I wouldn’t say the messages in this video are hidden, it’s made quite overtly clear which I like. In saying this you would probably have to watch it a few times to get every reference and then you still might be missing a few as this video is packed full of them. stop shooting us

One of the stronger and most forward message in this video was when there were a line of police facing a young boy in a black hoodie. This is followed by graffiti on the wall that says ‘Stop Shooting Us’ which is a message frequently expressed by the Black Lives Matter movement and other activist groups. In the video the line of police join the boy in the ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ gesture which references Michael Browns death who was an 18-year-old black who was fatally shot by the police officer in Ferguson.

Hands up dont shoot beyounce hands up dont shoot

A part of this video that I particularly liked was when it switched to a lower quality camcorder-like footage which once again refers to police brutality. For anyone that has ever watched any footage of this it was easily recognisable. It was simple yet so effective.

Formation however isn’t just about police brutality it’s about what its like to be black in America including the standards of beauty, their history and culture. With images pulled from various periods in southern history the video shows Beyoncé and dancers elegantly dressed almost as if they are plantation owners.

plantation

The video also destroys the insulting idea that succesful black people and successful women must be in the illuminati. She makes it clear that she has made her wealth because she has worked hard and not through some weird cult-like group.

Another powerful moment featured Beyoncé lying and sitting on the top of a sinking police car referencing Hurricane Katrina and the refugees in Texas. Beyoncé reminds viewers that a lot of the devastation in the south still hasn’t been cleaned up and is still rebuilding.

Formation Cop car

All in all I think this video is very powerful in evoking political connections through its imagery. It’s good to watch a music video that is thought-provoking and has meaning and not a piece of media that’s purely for entertainment.