Weapon of choice by Fatboy slim was shot in 2000 in a Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles. The video took 2 days to shoot, and was finally released for the first time; March 12th 2001. The music video was directed by Spike Jonze, and choreographed by Michael Rooney, Christopher Walken and Spike Jonze.
The video stars Christopher Walken dancing through the Marriott Hotel. As the video begins Walken is positioned sitting in a chair waiting in the lobby, creating a sense of curiosity because the hotel is quiet and empty. As the music begins Walken starts to move to it. It creates a sense of surrealism because Walken holds a reputation to be seen more as a villain.
(1:18) Walken steps on a luggage carrier, spinning through the lobby and ending up on the escalators. This pace of choreographing works well because he is in sync with the beat. (1:33) As he reaches half way, Walken begins to step down the escalator keeping in sync with the song, The beat becomes more persistent (1:40) as Walken runs out of shot. (1:55) Walken jumps upon a table where magazines are laid and he kicks them off, this act portrays more of his rebellious side which is later shown in the video when he swoops over the bannister's and flies through the lobby. (2:25) Walken is dancing through a corridor filled with mirrors. The mirrors create the effect of him dancing a lot in one place, this visual works very effectively. (3:01) As the song comes to an end, Walken dives over the banister, without hesitation; he is flying freely and ventures from wall to wall. This carries on his rebellious manner through the laws of defying gravity. (3:17) Walker flies towards a painting in a superman movement. He then turns around (3:27) floating in front of this painting, emphasising his importance. He almost seems like this rebellious hero who is flying in the sky looking down on earth. The camera is positioned from underneath Walker making him look superior. (3:31) Walker brings his arms out to the side of him and flies back down to the ground, he is standing in front of the painting; creating a visual that he was dreaming and that he is no longer flying in the sky, he is back on two feet waiting in the lobby.
The music and visuals are successful to each other because the music is upbeat and light hearted. Helping with the choreographing of movement being able to stay in sync with the beat. The audience can engage with this promo because the visuals are easy to remember, enabling the audience to relate back to this video when seeing or listening it which makes the video successful. The lyrics work well with the visuals because Walker can portray the meaning through his dance for example; (
Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow
“Go With The Flow” was released in 2003 by Queens of the Stone Age from their album “Songs for the Deaf”. At the 46th Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance. The music video was made in England by Shynola (a group of visual artists based in London who have worked together on a number of acclaimed music videos) . The video was nominated for the Best Art Direction, and won Best Special Effects at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
The video is shot completely in red, black and white, and features the band travelling through the desert at high speed in a 1960’s pickup truck along with other imagery, most of it of a sexual nature. The video is highly stylised with a very simple narrative of 2 cars racing towards each other.
The main Mise-en-scene feature is the two trucks which are hurtling towards each other down a deserted highway. Other Mise-en-scene such as telegraph poles, cactus plants, phone box with a raven on top and wooden fencing are mainly used for the purpose of highlighting the speed of the vehicles (as they race past) and indicating that they are in a desert. Throughout the video everyday objects are used in a sexually suggestive way. For example at 1.04 after a bikini wearing young woman is first seen draped across a car bonnet raising her leg, a guitar neck is shown rising at the same angle. At 1.20 the woman (enlarged) lies in the road with her legs open and a small car enters between them. At 1.53 the woman holds an oil can up and ‘oil’ squirts on her face. At 2.18 the woman is again shown on the car bonnet with her legs open as a man approaches her and begins to climb on the bonnet, straight after this the two cars meet and ‘merge’ causing a logo of a fork prong to enter a hole made by a coiled snake (the logos are on the 2 car bonnets.) This is followed at 2.35 by a swarm of ‘sperm’ that swim through the desert and cactus.
The video mainly uses sweeping shots which go over and around the truck and constantly highlight the speed of it. The only time that slower sweeps are used is when the woman is featured, although the camera is still moving.
As stated above the video won an award for visual effects. According to Chris Harding (of Shynola) the concept for the video was based on the artwork for the band’s album cover (mostly red and black) and the film Sin City which was released shortly before. The band also spend a lot of time working at a studio in the desert plus the ‘driving’ pace of the track fitted well with the high speed driving of the trucks.
The film took 8 weeks to make from inception. A live action shoot was done near Los Angeles featuring the band performing in the back of the truck as it speeds down a highway. Green screen was then used to add everything else around the truck. According to Harding the final video features a mix of “nurbs cacti, the dancing girls are animated texture sequences on hand placed planes, and the swimming sperm are instanced geometry flowing along curves. The trails of fire and smoke coming from the truck are sprites with animated texture sequences.”
Harding also says that as the video is so stylised because “We designed everything, right down to the logo's on the truck's gear stick. If we hadn't done this, when we came to do the actual work, we wouldn't have known what to do, and there would have been no continuity.” Stylised visual effects feature throughout the video, but especially at the end where there are lots of sweeping images all merging together, such as flowers, wheels, lines, speedometers and lips.
There aren’t many links between the visuals and the lyrics apart from the ‘flow’ of the swimming sperm and at 0.28 the line “she said I throw myself away” matches lead singer (Josh Homme) throwing away a beer can.
The music links to the video through the ‘driving’ speed of the track and the drummer drumming on the truck’s dashboard. Throughout most of the video the cuts are in time with strong drum beats.
The video fits well into the stereotype of the genre of rock as it features speed, fast cars, darkness and half naked women. Most of the comments about the video on sites such as Youtube are quite simplistic but generally positive. Comments such as "Awesome song and video","I can't get enough of this video", although some people give more detailed comments and have clearly thought about the quality of the video - e.g. "I think this is one of the most visually appealling and creative vids of the century so far","The artisitic direction of this video is amazing." There is also a comment that "If you like this stuff you should check my band out" which shows how a good video can inspire others to make music/videos.
Directors Shynola (Chris Harding, Richard "Kenny" Kenworthy, Jason Groves and Gideon Baws). met at art college. They did not originally intend to make music videos (they intended to make animated films) but found music video a good way to”Try out new ideas and get paid for it.” They preferred music videos to doing commercials as they would still have almost total control of their work. They are now very successful and have produced videos for top artists such as Radiohead, Coldplay and Blur. They have also done animation work for adverts (Nike,2002), television (The IT crowd, title sequences, 2006) and film (Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, 2004).
Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow
“Go With The Flow” was released in 2003 by Queens of the Stone Age from their album “Songs for the Deaf”. At the 46th Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance. The music video was made in England by Shynola (a group of visual artists based in London who have worked together on a number of acclaimed music videos) . The video was nominated for the Best Art Direction, and won Best Special Effects at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
The video is shot completely in red, black and white, and features the band travelling through the desert at high speed in a 1960’s pickup truck along with other imagery, most of it of a sexual nature. The video is highly stylised with a very simple narrative of 2 cars racing towards each other.
The main Mise-en-scene feature is the two trucks which are hurtling towards each other down a deserted highway. Other Mise-en-scene such as telegraph poles, cactus plants, phone box with a raven on top and wooden fencing are mainly used for the purpose of highlighting the speed of the vehicles (as they race past) and indicating that they are in a desert. Throughout the video everyday objects are used in a sexually suggestive way. For example at 1.04 after a bikini wearing young woman is first seen draped across a car bonnet raising her leg, a guitar neck is shown rising at the same angle. At 1.20 the woman (enlarged) lies in the road with her legs open and a small car enters between them. At 1.53 the woman holds an oil can up and ‘oil’ squirts on her face. At 2.18 the woman is again shown on the car bonnet with her legs open as a man approaches her and begins to climb on the bonnet, straight after this the two cars meet and ‘merge’ causing a logo of a fork prong to enter a hole made by a coiled snake (the logos are on the 2 car bonnets.) This is followed at 2.35 by a swarm of ‘sperm’ that swim through the desert and cactus.
The video mainly uses sweeping shots which go over and around the truck and constantly highlight the speed of it. The only time that slower sweeps are used is when the woman is featured, although the camera is still moving.
As stated above the video won an award for visual effects. According to Chris Harding (of Shynola) the concept for the video was based on the artwork for the band’s album cover (mostly red and black) and the film Sin City which was released shortly before. The band also spend a lot of time working at a studio in the desert plus the ‘driving’ pace of the track fitted well with the high speed driving of the trucks.
The film took 8 weeks to make from inception. A live action shoot was done near Los Angeles featuring the band performing in the back of the truck as it speeds down a highway. Green screen was then used to add everything else around the truck. According to Harding the final video features a mix of “nurbs cacti, the dancing girls are animated texture sequences on hand placed planes, and the swimming sperm are instanced geometry flowing along curves. The trails of fire and smoke coming from the truck are sprites with animated texture sequences.”
Harding also says that as the video is so stylised because “We designed everything, right down to the logo's on the truck's gear stick. If we hadn't done this, when we came to do the actual work, we wouldn't have known what to do, and there would have been no continuity.” Stylised visual effects feature throughout the video, but especially at the end where there are lots of sweeping images all merging together, such as flowers, wheels, lines, speedometers and lips.
There aren’t many links between the visuals and the lyrics apart from the ‘flow’ of the swimming sperm and at 0.28 the line “she said I throw myself away” matches lead singer (Josh Homme) throwing away a beer can.
The music links to the video through the ‘driving’ speed of the track and the drummer drumming on the truck’s dashboard. Throughout most of the video the cuts are in time with strong drum beats.
The video fits well into the stereotype of the genre of rock as it features speed, fast cars, darkness and half naked women. Most of the comments about the video on sites such as Youtube are quite simplistic but generally positive. Comments such as "Awesome song and video","I can't get enough of this video", although some people give more detailed comments and have clearly thought about the quality of the video - e.g. "I think this is one of the most visually appealling and creative vids of the century so far","The artisitic direction of this video is amazing." There is also a comment that "If you like this stuff you should check my band out" which shows how a good video can inspire others to make music/videos.
Directors Shynola (Chris Harding, Richard "Kenny" Kenworthy, Jason Groves and Gideon Baws). met at art college. They did not originally intend to make music videos (they intended to make animated films) but found music video a good way to”Try out new ideas and get paid for it.” They preferred music videos to doing commercials as they would still have almost total control of their work. They are now very successful and have produced videos for top artists such as Radiohead, Coldplay and Blur. They have also done animation work for adverts (Nike,2002), television (The IT crowd, title sequences, 2006) and film (Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, 2004).
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