Student Example

To provide inspiration for our music video project, we also watched some made by previous students. It was interesting to see other thought processes in responding to the brief and the different genres they managed to capture. One video, in particular, caught my attention.

THE VOIDZ - CRUNCH PUNCH (2018)

Perhaps it's because this was the last video we watched, or perhaps it's because of the engaging techniques used; whatever it was, this video stuck with me. This is the music video for 'Crunch Punch' by The Voidz, directed by PrimeProductions on Youtube.

The video begins with a nice example of intertextuality - the director uses "stock propaganda footage" at the beginning of the video. Essentially, this consists of monochromatic shots of battle. Instantly this casts the viewer's mind to war - it works in a similar way to a video I've previously looked at: B.Y.O.B. directed by Jake Nava. That particular use of war imagery was in protest of the war in Iraq - in watching the student's video for the first time, this is where my mind wanders to. Perhaps this song has an anti-war message. They also set us up for the tone of both music and video; this is going to either be heavily impactful or include references to violence.

During the course of the video, the director uses colour imagery to paint complex pictures in the minds of their viewers. I really liked the detail of the performance section being monochromatic and then contrasted with colourful environments. On my first watch, I got the impression that this song was themed around war PTSD - the colouring could be conveying that something is wrong with its narrator in comparison to the world around them. The vibrancy of these many interior and exterior shots could represent vitality and happiness. Juxtaposing that with static and greyscale seems to allude to some form of depression or, at the very least, loneliness.

There is a certain scene in this video - it could be referred to as a turning point - wherein the music becomes a little bit discordant, a little bit off-key. This works to grab attention before the director uses a very vague, very missable shot of the ventriloquist dummy seemingly being hanged. This shot is framed by trees, making it all the more uncomfortable. It serves to further the abstract plot the video has been following in a shocking way that brings me back to the themes of PTSD and depression. Suicide is a problem regarding many soldiers that have experienced war and so, in making links to the first few seconds, I do think that this video is showcasing the effects of war in an abstract way.

To put what I've learnt into my own work, I'd like to begin thinking about the different ways of accompanying music to highlight certain features that listeners may have missed just in listening. I can also learn from this video certain techniques for shocking and grabbing attention - such as a strong sense of colour juxtaposition and bizarre, seemingly out-of-place scenes. Overall, I do like this video. After considering each scene I am a bit miserable, but I assume that this was intentional - in which case this video as a complete success.