Looking Into the Work of Spike Jonze

 Spike Jonze is a famous music video director who has directed numerous video by artists like Jay-Z, Weezer, The Notorious B.I.G and Ludacris. All these videos have a  crazy element to them, which relates to our video. 

The first video I analysed was Otis by Jay-Z and Kayne West. This video doesn't have a comical effect but Jay-Z and Kayne West destroy a car to make it suit them, this is what Jonze does to music videos. He gives the artist something simple and lets them edit it to their liking, and this is an occurrence in most of his videos. The similarity between their video and ours is Jay-Z is wearing a flat peak cap and raps directly to the camera.

 

Jay-Z makes gestures with his hands like Eminem and other rappers while rapping to the camera, and we mirrored that in our video.

 The second video, I am analysing is The Sky's The Limit by Notorious B.I.G. In this video the Notorious B.I.G is played by a kid and so are all his staff and bodyguards, which is comical considering all the kids are trying to rap but it just ends up being comical. The similarity between this video and every video I've seen by a rap artist the rapper always raps to the camera.

The Notorious B.I.G is seen rapping in his bed which is what we did in the beginning of our music video.

At the end of this video the Notorious B.I.G ends up on stage and this is common in a lot of rap videos, but not particularly in Spike Jonze's videos.

The final video I am analysing  is Get Back by Ludacris. This video is only filmed in two locations in a mens bathroom and on the the street. A lot of Jonze's videos take place on the street and they either have a comical effect or have a crazy effect to them.

This video uses a mirror effect which is what we did in two different moments when Harry smears shaving cream all over his face and when I'm lip syncing to a mirror with a camera facing it.

Ludacris wears a comically large arm over his own arm and this is  obviously a costume that Jonze has recommended because it is funny this is what makes this video extremely funny.

Comparisons Between Our Video and the Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff's- Parents Just Don't Understand

The Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff- Parents Just Don't Understand (YouTube link)

The Fresh Prince (or Will Smith) has had a lot success as an actor but this song, which was created in 1988, has loads of similarities with our video. Just like the beginning of our song the Fresh Prince starts off in his bed.

The Fresh Prince then get up and raps to the camera just like with what we did for the beginning of our music video. Another similarity is the colours used are based around white walls, white clothes and other objects.

The speed of the editing in the video is very quick and snappy and often the speed of the shot quickens which is a comparison to ours.

The Fresh Prince often raps to the camera and does amusing poses to give the video a very funny and comical effect which is what we tried to do, with 'Bonkers'.

We attempted to use a dutch tilt in our video by either changing the height of the tripod or using a handheld camera, and that was the same in this video.

Comparisons Between Our Video and Eminem's- Without Me

Eminem- Without Me (YouTube link)

There are a coupe of mad moments in Eminem's song 'Without Me' and the editing and camerawork is very similar. At the beginning the speed of the shot gets sped up quite a bit just like ours.

The first shot of the main star 'Eminem' is when he sits up in bed which is exactly what we did in our 'Bonkers' video, however his room is darker while our room was lighter and included more object that were white.

Eminem uses crazy costumes in his music video like someone dressed up like a pink rabbit and someone dressed up as a cactus. Harry dressed up as a penguin which was also very comical which mirror 'Without Me'.

When Eminem is rapping he speaks to camera which is what Harry and I did in our music video, also Eminem made gestures with his hand like we did.

In Eminem's video he gets other people to lip sync in their video like we did by making people say 'Bonkers' and what Eminem also does is make people were flat peaks caps as well.

Reshoot at Harry's House

We had to reshoot certain scenes at Harry's house because some of the shots were very bad and blurry. We reshot the beginning scene were I was in the bed and lip syncing, and we decided to add in funnier shots like Harry rubbing shaving cream all over his face.

Comparisons Between Our Video and Nickelback's - Rockstar

Nickelback- Rockstar (YouTube link)

There are a couple of similarities between our music video and Nickelback's video of Rockstar, the first main similarity was the fact that Nickelback got a lot of different people to lip sync in their music video which is what we did.

What they did include in their music video that we included was a specific type of clothing; flat peak caps, shades, funny top and trackies which is what Nickleback did in theirs. This type of clothing is very common in hip hop and grime music videos which is why we decided to wear it.

There is also a crazy element to Rockstar and that is really similar to our video, in Nickleback's video because in their video someone is breaking a guitar and in our video we throw various objects out of a window.

Right at the end of Nickleback's music video they finish with people in a gig with the band on stage which is how we ended our music video.

Reshoot in the Park

We decided to reshoot the park sequence not because there was anything wrong with the shots, just because the shots didn't look 'bonkers' enough so Harry dressed up in a penguin costume to make it look funnier.

Comparisons Between Our Video and Busta Rhymes - Gimme Some More

Busta Rhymes- Gimme Some More (YouTube link)
The beginning shot in Busta Rhymes' music video is very similar shot to our music video because it shows a house while our music video shows a long shot of the camera walking round the area in a really fast shot

The first shot of someone lip syncing is a close up and that's exactly the same as our shot, however our first lip syncing shot is a high angle while 'Busta Rhymes' uses a low shot.

Busta Rhymes uses a crazy theme to his song and this is what we tried to do with our song as well what we did was dressing Harry up in a penguin costume and make him look crazy.

We have a very similar colour theme to Busta Rhymes because  he uses a lot of white in his background and so do we, for example the bed sheets are white and so is Busta Rhymes' background.

Almost all of our shots have someone lip syncing to the camera and that is the same throughout the whole of the song, just like ours. 

Busta Rhymes gets different people to sing in his song to say 'gimme some more' just like we got different people to say 'bonkers' in our music video.

Reshoot in My House

We had to improve the shots in my house because we used two different cameras and they were on different settings and they looked too different, the big thing was that one was on LP (long play) was way to blurry.

Editing

We started to edit our video after we did the reshoots and improved our production, we are not finding it very difficult. We have already uploaded the reshoots and are replacing the bad shots that didn't work.