Directors study. Ray Kay

Ray Kay

Ray Kay is one of the latest directors to the music video scene. His love for music and fashion are combined within his music videos to give him a strong trademark style which we are able to see throughout his music videos, because of this he has been nominated for a number of video awards. “He enjoys bringing an innovative European approach to his videos, making them beautiful, believable and full of personality. His distinct colourful cinematic style is now a staple of MTV and BET for such artists as Beyonce, Cassie, Nick Lachey, Christina Milian, Mario, Stacie Orrico, Monica and Trick Daddy. ”

Ray Kay is based in Los Angles and is also a successful fashion photographer.

Rays Early Life:

Ray was born on the 10Th July 1978 in Haugesund, Norway. His birth name was Reinerk K. Olsen. He is an award winning Norwegian director and photographer, who bases his work in Los Angles.
He is one of the most sought-after music video & commercial directors in the world now this is because of the large range of popular artists which he has worked with over the years, which has helped to build up his music video collection, his videos are most watched video throughout history on YouTube, one of his videos was Justin Bieber's "Baby" which had, had 342 Million views before September 2010
Ray Kay mostly directs music videos and has worked with artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Beyoncé Knowles, Enrique Iglesias, Adam Lambert, Cheryl Cole, Diddy, Amerie, Sean Paul, Destiny's Child, Christina Milian, The-Dream, Backstreet Boys, Ciara, Snoop Dogg, and Ghostface. He also photographs fashion stills and album covers, and has directed commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Head & Shoulders, Zellers and Sport 1. As being as fashion photographer, we are able to see this come across in most of his videos as he uses this to his benefit to gain the best possible shots which will work to the artists taste.
His music videos have won several awards, including MTV Awards, Much Music Awards and ZTV Awards.

Photography:
Here are some of the images which he has produced from his fashion photography.

Style:

From watching a number of his videos (which are listed below) I am able to see how there are a certain amount of elements which he uses in most of his videos. The main focus which I am able to see from Goodwin’s 6 is how he uses the artist as a focus point. This is normal forced upon by the record label, and is normal used with bigger artists. Also is very clear how he uses his fashion background to work on different angles and ways of showing the artist which could not normal be the conventional way within a music video.
In most of the videos which I looked at we can see how he uses a very bright colour palate and uses vibrate colours to show this, this normal again links to the artist and style of the song which they are using. In one of the videos which I looked at which was the Dream “shawty is ten” we are able to see how at the start is uses a monochrome style, using black and white and then slowly integrates colour into the piece. Starting with selected items of clothing, and building this up as the song moves on.
Throughout of all of the videos I am able to see how lighting is very important within all of the videos and plays a huge part in helping to create the atmosphere of the scene. Lighting is used differently in all of the videos some of the time it is a background and others it’s to help show the atmosphere and also draw attention to the artist.
We are able to see that through all of this he has very high production values which will come through in his post-production stage.
This are just some of the elements which I picked up on which are used in most of his videos, some of these elements are similar to the directors which we have been studying in class which I have been interested in. I like the work of Ray Kay as it is very applying for an audience and draws them into what is going on, this is done by the way in which they have combined a number of different elements and his previous career.

Music video:

Below are some video stills from his music video for Lady GaGa – “poker Face”


From these pictures we are able to see how he is using his fashion background and applying it to is videos. It helps as Lady GaGa is not afraid to experiment with what she where. Through out the whole video we see how she goes through a number of different elaborate costumes which you would not expect to wear normally. You can also see that The way in which some of the positions she stands or sits and very typical of a photographer. This again is from his background.
In his piece and a number of his other videos he uses lighting a lot to help emphasis the artist. in "poker face" we see this is normal done in the chorus or during this build up to the chorus. this again could come from his background as lighting is key within photography.

I do not see many of these elements being used within our music video. this is because of the limited budget which we have to use. where as these videos have much larger budget. Some of the aspect of using lighting to help emphasise the artist or using it to move between locations is something which we are looking at as it possible to do at school.

Links.
http://www.rhfilms.com/ray-kay/

Official website - http://www.raykay.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Kay

You tube. Other music videos by Ray Kay. where you are able to see his style which I talked about earlier.
Lady GaGa – “Poker face” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bESGLojNYSo&ob=av2e
Justin Bieber – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kffacxfA7G4&ob=av2e
The dream – “Rockin that thong” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg4lamc-dhE&ob=av2e
The dream – “Shawty is a ten” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTWDpfc7gsU&ob=av2e

Short Analysis of Mumford & Sons 'The Cave' Music Video

At the beginning of this project both Louis and myself discussed how we would approach the designing of our video. At that time we both agreed not to watch the video made for the band by the record company. However after doing some research Louis came across the video, after watching it he suggested for myself to do the same.



After watching this video we both concluded that we wanted our video to be very different from the one seen here, this video has some interesting concepts with the motor-bike riding representing the freedom which is spoken of in the lyrics. However there are no direct links between the visuals and the lyrics. The editing of the video is cut on the beat, yet myself and Louis wanted to create more with camera movements and bring in other elements of characters. The focus of our video will be clear and sharp in comparison, we have decided on a structured narrative which the artist will become involved in also. We hope this will draw the audience in as well. It has been interesting to see another interpretation of this song, but unfortunately we have had no inspiration from this for our own video, so it shall be completely of our own creation.

Target Audience

This is our poster which we worked on during class about who are target audience is, and who we want our video to appeal to. For this Myself and Roisin worked with Sarah and Danni from the class as both of our groups had the same target audience. The target audience which we were looking at are the hopeful Youths".

Within our poster we have cut different images of young celebrities who teenager either aspire to be like or have a huge interest in. We have also include a number of brands which are very popular among the youth culture. we feel that all of this different images would help to describe the kind of people who we are appealing to.

Music Video Ideas.

From looking at the Directors which we studied in class we both had an idea about what kind of video we wanted to create, and what elements we wanted to include into the video. There were some elements which we both knew we wanted to include, but had to find away of linking them in. Before this we had to find a song which we both felt happy with doing.
As a start we knew we wanted to do a song which people would know when they hear it, but also something which is not too well known that we have already heard i another to be sick of it, or have seen the video which has been made. We had also already decided from talking that we wanted to create a narrative based video with elements of performance injected into sections of narrative in a number of different ways.

To start off this idea process we started a spider diagram for idea 1. - We both agreed that we liked the song "forget you" by Cee Lo Green, as we had heard it the other week off Jools Holland live later. But had found that it had become a very popular song over the past couple of weeks and we had already seen the video for this. We still made a Spider diagram for this as we found we had a number of ideas which we had to write down which could of linked to another song.

From this we moved on to looking through both of our ipod's, thinking of a possible song which we could use. When we stumbled over the song "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons.


But found that the song was very quick and upbeat, which was like Forget you, and we wanted to try looking up an idea for a slower song which might work better fr having a narrative and performance base video and using the ideas for the directors which we had studied. This was when we stumbled across the song "the Cave" by Mumford and Sons, which we found fitted better to our idea, and to make it better, we both loved the song.

From here we wet on to create a quick spider diagram, while still thinking if this was the song that we wanted to use.We then went on to create a more in depth spider diagram, once we had confirmed between ourselves that we intended to use the song "the Cave" by Mumford an Sons as our song choice.

Below is the song "The cave" by Mumford and Sons if you have not hear it.

Music Video - Directors.

Both myself and Roisin, were very excited about being able to create our own music video. within the process leading up to this point of deciding on what song we intended to choose, we were looking at 5 popular video directors. some of these inspired us a lot and other we where not as keen on. These directors where:

• Michel Gondry
• Spike Jonze
• Johnathan Glazer
• Mark Romanek
• Chris Cunningham

From watching a selection of videos from each of these directors, i have found that four myself i was more interested in looking at the work by Michel Gondry and Mark Romanek. The main reasons for this was that i was inspired by the way in which he uses to link between music and visuals, using different groups of people or objects to select certain parts of the music. This came mainly from his video for Daft Punk - Around the World.

From this video i like that way in which we are able to see how they have selected certain people and grouped them together to help represent a different section of the song, either the beat or the lyrics. This is very catchy and you are able to see which group of people are representing each section of the music.
The other director was Mark Romanek. within a number of his piece he used lighting as a key feature throughout the piece. this was something which inspired me. for this he used a link between the music and the lights(visuals). this was very often done to able aid the performance of the band or artist. one of the videos which i found this worked best with was, Linkin Park - Faint.

I like this video because of the way in which Mark Romanek has used the connection between the lights and the music, as we have been able to see how they have used a clear connection of the lights getting brighter and changing on the main beat. This again was very catchy and inspired me with what was possible to do with a music video, also what we could possible do in our video.


From these directors which we have been looking at within class Roisin has also taking a licking to the work of Mark Romanek. she also likes the work of Spike Jonze. The reason for liking the work of Mark Romanek, is for his use of black and white throughout a number of his piece, this is also combined with elements of supper slow-mo, braking into quick elements. Roisin likes this as it gives the video a much nicer and higher quality finish. and helps to add dramatic elements to the video. This is very clear within his video Scream by Micheal Jackson, which Roisin has posted about below.

Roisin also likes the work of Spike Jonze. This is because of the way i which he uses interesting interpretations of the song and artist. Also how he has used the clear link between the visuals and the beat of the music. Using the technique of cutting on the beat. We are able to see how they have taking a very interesting interpretation of the song "Buddy Holly" by The Weezer. throughout the whole bases of the video they have linked it to the TV programme HAPPY DAYS, which was based in an American dinner, which was a meeting place for teenagers. This would of most probably of been set there, as they wanted to apply to that age group.



we were both very interested in he video "street Spirit" by Radiohead. this was because o the use of black and white and also the use of supper slow-mo with elements of braking out into quick outburst of movement at normal time. This was something which we both found very interesting and wondered if we could re-create this. The reason i feel it worked so well as it linked to the music and seemed to link to the lyrics as well.




From looking at the 5 directors i feel that both myself and Roisin have been able to get a number of different ideas about what we could possible to do when looking at our own music video. and also we have been able to see what kind of elements we would like to include into the video. some of them are similar as we both like the work of Mark Romanek. But also how some of the work by both Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze are very similar which means we have the same ideas about how we could use their influence. Hopefully with all of these ideas we will be able to combine to make a piece which we are both happy with.

Video Analysis: Scream by Michael Jackson feat. Janet Jackson, Directed by Mark Romanek

This song and it's video is a great testament to Michael Jackson's career, it was inspired by his personal experience with the media 1993 when he was accused of sexual child abuse. It also represents the strong bond between brother and sister as Janet helped him through this difficult time.

This video is composed of high quality morphing effects which distort the singers faces even more as the scream, creating a feeling for the audience that they are in great pain. The jump-cuts through the video help move the sequence of scenes fluidly, creating a contrast in the wild music. As well as this the action is sometimes slowed down to an extreme case, this is a typical signature move of Romanek's. As an example when Michael Jackson smashes his guitar, his anger and the destruction which moves with it is emphasized by the slow-motion creating a bigger and more dramatic impact for the audience.

The artists are the constant focus of the video, at least of them is always in the frame, and attention is draw towards them by their black outfits against the white walls. Romanek also has Michael Jackson performing some of his iconic moves that he is well known for to draw attention to the artist's popularity and fame; which in the case of the lyrics is being abused by the media.

The music video of Scream went on to be nominated for many awards including a Grammy Award, an American Music Award and numerous MTV Video Music Awards. The Guinness Book of World Records also listed it as the most expensive music video ever to be made t $7 million. It has been influenced by the artistic talents of sci-fi Japanese anime, these pictures can be seen on the screens inside the spaceship, they are usually screaming in time with the artists.

This is a fantastic example of a quality video, the attention to the editing detail has taken a great amount of skill by the editor and the director. On a personal response, this video is something to aspire too, not only was the song personal to the artist but it helped Michael Jackson to connect with his fans and help them to see how these accusations were wrong to the artist. The music and the visuals blend well together to create excellent artwork which has been admired by many.

VIDEO ANALYSIS. Florence and the Machine – "Dog Days are Over" (2008).

Florence and The Machine - "Dog Days are Over"(2008)



Producer-
Director - This video by Florence was not made by a production company. It was produced by herself, using friends and family as characters involved. The whole video was filmed in a wood near where she lived and filmed by her father. From this as an audience we are able to see a raw side to the video which is not often seen in high end music videos.

Notes from the video:

• Small amount of concept elements, which feature small amounts of narrative. with the main focus performance by the artist.
• An abstract piece which links to the work of the artist, as a performer.
• Naturalistic setting - filmed on location - forest.
• Mixture of High Quality and Handheld camera shots - post-production.
• Music starts when first see artist.
• The video Focus around her actions and movement.
• Colour Palate - A mixture of diff rent vibrant colours, which hep to contrast with the naturalistic forest setting.
• Link between music and visuals. (other characters hitting sticks and different objects, which is helping to create the main beat of the piece).
• Link to the artist. showing her as much as possible, using direct address to the audience/camera (which comes mainly later on in the video.)
• The use of straight cuts between action, cut on beat. This has been done to enable the best possible result.


• Link between lyrics and visuals. - we see Florence running away from the rest of the company. Lyrics - "run fast for your mother, run fast for your father". Another example of this is when we see all of the company hiding and revealing themselves from behind trees. lyrics - "hid around corners".


• All of the Movement speeds up with the pace of the music. - Link to the music.
• The use of Different angles and jumps cuts to help create a faster pace, linking to the music.
• Voyeurism of the female body. Instead of the traditional representation from Goodwin's Six. we are able to how all the company are chasing the female character (being Florence). All of the characters are also seen as being male.
• The sue of slow-mo. Which links to the music, this is done to add effect to what i going on, and complements what is happening in the narrative.
• The use of blurred vision on the slow-mo. This links to the music and lyrics.
• We see a contrast in music, slow to fast. This is shown by having a unclear image, which turns into all of the characters dancing around with a lot of energy which is reflecting that of what is going on in the music.
• As the number goes on there is a change in lighting creating a darker atmosphere, mixture of time.
• This is when we are able to see how there is more of a focus on the artist. mainly using direct address to the audience.
• The piece ends with the Artist (Florence) leaving into the forest darkness, as the music dies out as she gets further away.

This was the original video created for the song and was uploaded onto YouTube on November 6th, 2008. in 2010 the Sun's official website featured the new video for the song "Dog Days are Over" this was done mainly for the re-release of the single later on in the year. This video was directed by Georgie Greville and Geremy Jasper and edited by Paul Snyder. This video completely contrasts that of what the original video was base on. in August 2010 the video was nominated for 4 MTV Video Music Awards, or the video of the year, Best rock video, Best art Director and Best Cinematography, and ended up winning Best art Director at the awards.

New 2010 video.

I personal prefer the original video to the new release, this is because i feel that it relates more and has a stronger link to what the song is about, which then helps to bring across the artist, which help to portray the raw side to her music and performance.