Tag: animated music video

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With this last part, we will head for more energetic offerings from last year. Be sure to get in the lively mood and the trippiness of those videos. Fasten your seatbelt and enjoy the ride. A bit of caution here as these videos are mild NSFW.

Caravan Palace “Lone Digger” by Double Ninja

“The choice of the title started as a joke while exchanging emails with our manager and we liked the modern touch immediately. Our good old robot as an emoji <I°_°I> ! We communicate a lot via email and text messages, so it actually took us a while to realise it could be a problem pronouncing it. But it’s fun to puzzle people a bit, even your direct partners: label, PRs, distributors… Somehow it started to be called “Robot” or “Robot face” on the net but that was never our choice.” (The band commenting on the title of their new album <I°_°I>, since I couldn’t find any interviews regarding the video. For whatever reason a video this popular and the band this socially active didn’t have any single mention is beyond me).

Okay, I’m a bit cheating here as this video was released in late 2015, but I know it when I saw it, this video has to be up here on this list. I’m not beating around the bush, Lone Digger video is one of the most impressive production. Everything here is top-notch, the music is great- the French band Caravan Palace is one of the most prominent electro-swing band today; just listen!), the video kicks ass- they created the mood of the club that go so well together with the song, and they managed to turn up a notch into a bloodbath of the lawless. But the video speaks some of the truth as well. Aren’t we, human, when get drunk and high, becoming some sort of wild animals? This video brings an absolute amazing energy that surely will make your blood pumping and your heart racing.

 

Savern “Hendrix” by Airplan Studio

Regrettably, I can’t find any interviews regarding the making of this video. Might have it in Hungarian, where the band and the animation company are based, but again that out of my reach.

Wildly imaginative, cinematic, and just plain entertaining to watch, this video gives a lovely tribute to classic rock music, classic western movies and the post apocalyptic world that suddenly become popular in recent years (no small thanks to Mad Max Fury Road). Let’s face it, this world building is so cool that you could make a movie revolve around this settings (Actually they did raising funds for another project based on this settings, which sadly failed). The story is a trip to madness where the world is suddenly invaded by the alien that could make people hallucinating. There’s the green liquid that can keep people in check but with all the supply is now gone, our “Man with No Name” version becomes more and more out of touch with the reality and get himself more into the world of Jimi Hendrix. The CG animation mostly keep up with the theme but the art settings of the post apocalyptic world are the real winner here. Moreover, this video never forgets to be fun and as a whole, this is a must watch for any fan of classic rock music and movie lovers.

Continue reading “Some notable Animated Music Videos of 2016- part 3” →

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This part offers even more diversity in animation techniques, as well showcase the varied genre of songs. Let’s get right down to it.

 

Lorn “Anvil” by GERIKO

“He allowed us to choose one track from his latest album and gave us full creative freedom to explore and develop bot the narrative and the aesthetic of the piece. It was a great privilege to be awarded so much trust and creative licence by an artist we deeply admire” – GERIKO

Hands down the most ambitious and ambiguous video out of this list. Inspired by Japanese and Belgian comics, most notably Akira, Ghost in the Shell and the Matrix, Helene Jeudy and Antoine Caëcke (aka GERIKO) created a an incredible science fiction universe in a brilliantly stylish black-and-white animation for Lorn’s song “Anvil.” In this dystopian future in which social networks can manifest in physical ways, invade the body and mind and blow them wide open, a young woman chooses to take her life via a machine and we see every bit of process that she emerges herself to that crazy world there. The subsequent journey our main character embarks on is exquisitely detailed, mesmerizing, and truly compelling visual.

 

Jane Bordeaux Band “Ma’agalim” by Uri Lotan

“The inspiration came from a visit a few years back at Musée Mécanique in San Francisco, a museum devoted to antique penny arcade machines. Walking around the museum there was a feeling that time had stopped. The characters inside the machines have been destined to a never ending cycle repeating the same action over and over again. That metaphor worked perfectly with the lyrics.” – Uri Lotan

“Ma’agalim was conceived in an untraditional way. We contacted the band with the intention of creating them a music video. That gave us complete creative freedom, as long as it was in the spirit of the song.”

I’m gonna be honest, this video melted my heart for its beautiful, detailed yet bittersweet feelings it evokes and the fresh and innovative approach for its story. Ma’agalim is a Hebrew word for “circle”, and as the creator mentioned above this is precisely the theme with this video. We see the characters running in circle, getting stuck in a very specific and endearing place, but that’s why this video has a feeling of timelessness. The video centers around an enchanting, innovative CGI animated wooden penny arcade, packed with as many beautifully designed and whimsy characters. As the arcade rotates and our little girl wanders around, the internal workings of the machine are revealed, showing how it brings an everyday life of those characters in that penny arcade world. An intricately designed, beautifully-executed, and gently poignant achievement in CGI. Many people even go so far to compare this video to the worlds of Pixar for good reasons. My personal favorite pick.

Continue reading “Some notable Animated Music Videos of 2016- part 2” →

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Welcome to the special edition of World Animation where this time I will dig into the doomed child of animation market: the animated music videos. If you have never really give much thoughts about those animated music videos, you’re not alone. It’s the section that hardly get discussed both in the anime fanbase and in the cartoon market, and my guess is that apart from a niche audience who follow music video and the professionals: animators and the bands alike, no one hardly know anything about it.

Animated music videos of course have a totally different approach to animation compare to short films or series, in which not only you have to make the video compelling on its own, but the animation has to support and elevate the song. That mean, you can’t pull off something like this (in which the song is clearly about being there for someone you love, even if she is “beauty queen of only 18”, but the video was about the love affair between the guy and his girlfriend’s mom. Yuck. AND IT WAS A FREAKING HIT). But here’s where it gets interesting: Animated music videos usually carry a strong artistic expressions than other media. The whole process of animating a music video (at least for indie scene) is that the band sends the director/ animator their song and some ideas on the concept of what they want in the video, then they basically leave the rest to the director. That process results in the creators have their full artistic control most of the time, thus the outcome usually one of the more striking piece of animation than the rest of animation medium.

In fact, while compiling this list, I came to a rather surprising realization: I had no setlist as a point of reference at all. There were some sites that recommend some animated videos, but the videos were all over the place; and there was no “best of list” or whatever; as a result I had to come up with the most traditional way: watching all the videos I could get my hands on to do this list. Yup, it means watching 40+ of those videos until all of them just blended and melted in my brains. But I have to say, except from the time consuming and the fatigue it caused me, it was actually a very rewarding process. Then the list I was compiling just kept getting bigger the more I watched, to the point I had made a line somewhere (otherwise I would recommend everything).

So ladies and gents, here are my 15 favorite videos out of last year from multiple music genres, with multiple animated techniques where I will address about their core concept, the style of animation they use, and how they are stand out from the rest. Really, if you have 20 minutes of break, why don’t you listen to some cool music and watch some stunning animation and gain some insights about them in the process? It’s just an episode worth of time anyways, and many of the videos just clock in at 1 minute. So watch them guys and comment which videos you like the best, or even if you like to see this kind of content every now and then; I’m fully aware this is an anime blog so it’s your call. Enjoy!

 

Porter Robinson & Madeon “Shelter” by A-1 Pictures

“I knew I wanted to do an anime, animated produced video in Japan. I wrote the story that happened to connect pretty brilliantly to the lyrics of Shelter. To me the Shelter video is also a story of familial love mixed with some of my own fantasies and sensibilities… There’s a significance that can be derived—passing yourself onto a new generation.” – Porter Robinson

Many of you sure have heard about this one. An original anime music isn’t something new, but for a American DJ artist who specifically requested his song to be anime-style, you know you’re in something special. As a matter of fact, the staffs of A1-Pictures had noted that the most special aspect of the production was to witness the enthusiasm of Porter Robinson about the project. For the records, I have watched Porter Robinson other videos and yup, this guy knows how to tell a good visual storytelling. Moreover, for a medium that focus prominently on mood-building and work mainly as a visual companion for the song, it’s a treat to see some video that actually attempt to tell a complete story (as you will see below, most of the time they don’t bother to try); but Shelter also pulled off an emotional ride, with awe inspiring world building and impressive animation to boost (A1 Pictures did an excellent job). This is clearly a passion project and passion project is always a winner in my heart.

 

Radiohead “Burn the Witch” by Chris Hopewell

“The band wanted the video to raise awareness about Europe’s refugee crisis and the “blaming of different people… the blaming of Muslims and the negativity” currently engulfing European politics”- Virpi Kettu (the video animator)

Paying homage to The Wicked Man in terms of plot and the 1960s British children’s TV programme Camberwick Green in term of its visual, the video’s stop motions character designs and settings are seemingly the most simple and brightest video out there, but the music and the subject matter make it a very unsettling atmosphere (the band purposely want the video to be lighter to what they play to “wake people up”). The topic at hand is about burning the witch after all. Radiohead is no stranger when it comes to building a paranoia mood, and this video helps raising that comfortableness to a new level. Like in Lynch movies, there’s always a sense of something hideous, decay, something really wrong right underneath the normal happy rural life. The video serves as a response against authoritarianism, some even go so far to say it as an attack against Trump’s right-wing policies. And with that paranoia mood they evoked, I believe the song pretty much nailed it.

Continue reading “Some notable Animated Music Videos of 2016- part 1” →