Friday, 24 June 2011

Afrika Shox.


This video, by Leftfeild is very well made and composed. The colours in the video represent very strongly the genre and relation to technology/'techno' which is also emphasised by the lights and sirens apparent in the busy cityscape.  The twin towers are shown in tilted low angle shots, the twin towers were destroyed shortly after this video was made and this creates a sort of prophetic irony.  The tilt of the shots also suggest disorientation. The genre of Techno is highlighted within the lyrics "Electrified". The camera explores as if the city is a concrete jungle and finds a man in rags, an african man.  This presents a metaphor for him relating him
to the African slave trade.  The dystopic city inter textually links with Blade Runner for example.

Andrew Goodwins Theory
Goodwins theory identifies a number of key features within music videos which are...
1) A relationship between the lyrics and visuals. With the visuals either illustrating or contradicting the lyrics.
2) A relationship between music and visuals, either illustrating or contradicting.
3) Close ups of the main artist or vocalist.
4) Genre related iconography present.
5) Voyeurism
6) Intertextual texts

The Afrika Shox video has distinct relations between both the lyrics and visuals and the music and the visuals in the the lyrics mention electricity and lights and colour in the visuals emphasizes the genre.  The music uses a tanoy style vocal effect which adds to the technology and lifeless and therefore dystopic emphasis.

Monday, 20 June 2011


I love the continuation of a single shot throughout the entire video and the creativity and general pointlessness of it all.  At the same time however, the video distracts us from the music its self which kind of defeats the point in my personal opinion.  The effort that appears to have gone into the video is easily recognisable and the band may be credited by the fans for this.

out of a forest by tobias gundorff boesen


Out Of A Forest from Tobias Gundorff Boesen on Vimeo.

This videos weirdness intregues me.
There are some nice sped up shots and weird animation style techniques.  Also the concept of the story within an event in the video.  This all makes the video seem very weird.