FMP: {Light Hearted} Critique - Boyhood

Boyhood is a 2014 American independent coming-of-age drama film, written and directed by Richard Linklater. Shot intermittently from 2002 to 2013, Boyhood depicts the adolescence of Mason Evans Jr. from ages 6 to 18 as he grows up in Texas with divorced parents.

Production began in 2002 and finished in 2013, with Linklater's goal to make a film about growing up. The project began without a completed script, with only basic plot points and the ending written initially. Linklater developed the script throughout production, writing the next year's portion of the film after re-watching the previous year's footage. He incorporated changed he saw in each actor into the script, while also allowing all major actors to participate in the writing process by incorporating their life experiences into their characters' stories.

Boyhood premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically (U.S.) on July 11, 2014. The film also competed in the major competition section of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, where Linklater won the Silver Bear for Best Director. It was declare a landmark film by many notable critics, who praised its direction, acting, originality and scope. The film was nominated for 5 Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Motion Picture - Drama, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette). It also received 6 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Arquette, which she won.

Right from when I saw the trailer for this movie, I was desperate to see it. I love the whole concept, and to have that sort of time, dedication and patience as not only a director, but as a writer as well, is truly incredible. Following the same 'family' for 12 years takes bravery and it's such a clever idea. It also plays with your mind when you're watching the film, because you just cannot get your head around the fact that it's the same people, not just dodgy lookalikes from the next state along or whatever.

The story of the movie is a pretty normal one in some respects. Somebody out there is going through the things this boy and his family are going through. Parents divorcing, vicious stepparents, domestic abuse, isolation and growing up to be a high school graduate. I'm so glad it became a 'normal' film, and it wasn't one of those far fetched sci-fi dramas with aliens coming out of nowhere and their being a murderer wherever you turn. That would've seriously ruined it.

I saw this movie over a year ago, so it's pretty hard for me to remember what exactly happened, but I do remember a specific scene which just made me fall absolutely head over heels in love with the whole film. When [Mason] is all grown up and off to college, a scene takes place for around 2 minutes where there is absolutely no dialogue. It's just surrounding sounds of the environment and it makes the picturesque side so endearing.

 

 

The song in the background of this clip just gives it a peaceful feel, and it's the sort of thing that would happen in real life. You'd turn on the radio, listen to a song and just drive for miles and miles listening to it, wondering where the road is going to take you. Two lanes of freedom. With this scene being at the very near end of the film, it sums up the whole experience throughout. A pretty hectic life, but it turns out okay in the end. He's off to college. He's happy. Marvellous!

 

In an interview with thedissolve.com, Richard Linklater discussed the differences between the real life and character version of lead actor, Ellar Coltrane.

Q: Was the character of Mason a fusion of sorts between yourself and Ellar?
A: Yeah, I think so. It's very personal, but it's filtered through all of us if you think about it. The adults, too: Patricia, Ethan, and myself, we're collaborating with our parents and who they were, and ourselves as kids, ourselves as parents at this moment, and kind of figuring that out so there's this kind of triangulation at all times. We're filtering our ideas through these kids who are in the moment as kids growing up. There's hardly anything in this movie that wasn't real to some degree, that didn't happen to myself, or one of my collaborators. Pretty close to everything is based in somebody's reality or memory or something, pretty much across the board. That's a good place to start.

This. THIS ANSWER. Oh my gosh. Amazing. I love it when we find out little things like this. When there's hidden facts that make the film better. It's so good to see a director channelling himself and his colleagues when it comes to the storyline/plot/script of a film. How he or one of his colleagues has experienced the events in the film just makes it so much more humbling. Very good job, sir.

Overall. Good film. Awesome film. Highly recommend checking it out if you haven't already.


- Olivia.

{Sources:}
https://thedissolve.com/features/interview/666-interview-richard-linklater/ - accessed on 18th May 2015
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyhood_(film) - accessed on 18th May 2015

Music Video Critique #3: Blank Space - Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is an American singer, songwriter and actress from Reading, Pennsylvania. With album and song sales exceeding 30 and 80 mission, respectively, she is one of the world's best-selling music artists. Her work has earned her seven Grammy Awards and seven Academy of Country Music Awards, among other accolades.

Taylor released her first album, Taylor Swift, on October 24th, 2006, with Big Machine Records, who are an American record label specialising in country music artists. Currently signed artists are Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts and previously Reba McEntyre. Taylor first single, named Tim McGraw, was released in June 2006 and spent most of the year radio touring to promote her album. Since then, Taylor has released another 4 albums, all specialising in country music, apart from her most recent, 1989.

Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now and Red all specialise in country music, whereas 1989 is upon the pop genre, and has become Swift's biggest selling album in her own records, and was the biggest selling album overall of 2014. Her latest album, entitled 1989, was influenced by some of Taylor's favourite Eighties pop acts, including Phil Collins, Annie Lennox and "Like a Prayer"-era Madonna. The album was executive-produced by Swift and Max Martin, with whom she first collaborated with on her 2012 single "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together".

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Blank Space is the second single released from 1989, and the music video to go with it has a hidden message that nobody was expecting. Throughout her career, Taylor has been the media's key topic for relationships. She's famous for writing about previous boyfriends, whether they ended on good or bad terms, and in my opinion, with this music video, she's given the media exactly what they've been treating her like. She's portrayed herself in the video, like the media have been portraying her for years.

"I'm all too aware of the jokes made about all of my ex-boyfriends and how I like to include them in my song writing, and I want to address the general thought of me in a video where I play the crazy villain."

I adore videos that actually have a narrative; a story line; a purpose. It makes them more intriguing and actually have a way of promoting the specific song. I've watched this video so many times now and I'm still not bored of it, because she's over emphasising her personality and I just love it. It's kind of hilarious. When interviewed about the video, a magazine columnist asked if Taylor was 'boy-crazy', in which Taylor responded, "For a female to write about her feelings, and then be portrayed as some clingy, insane, desperate girlfriend in need of making you marry her and have kids with her, I think that's taking something that potentially should be celebrated - a woman writing about her feelings in a confessional way - that's taking it and turning it and twisting it into something that is frankly a little sexist." However in this video, Swift performs the very unflattering image that the public has foisted upon her, as if to say "You want boy-crazy? I'll give you boy crazy!"

The main thing I noticed, as a media student, when I first watched this video, is the colourings throughout. In the past, Taylor has given us very bright and colourful videos that fit the themes of the song, take Shake It Off, for example. With this video being set in a fairy-tale looking home, the video and story is far from the stereo-typical 'princess' themed narrative. 

Throughout the video we see a number of long, medium and close-up shots which fit within the sensitivity of the lyrics at certain points of the video. The concept of the dominant female is portrayed with what she's wearing, her body language, facial expressions and tone of voice throughout the video. Although she's almost playing to the media in terms of giving them boy crazy, she's doing it in a clever way. There are a number of lyrics which match with the actual script of the song, as if she is physically speaking them to her 'boyfriend'.

If you've seen Taylor's past videos, there is always links either to a real life situation, or videos of hers that have been created before. There are a number of features within this music video that link to her previous songs from other albums, which is a really unique feature Taylor does. With this, she's constantly bringing out new music and videos, but her loyal die-hard fans will never be able to forget her original music, who made her the artist she is today. It's also a nice feature to have as when people watch the video, they may relate to a previous song or video, and this will then give them a reason to go and watch her older material, which keeps it current and still in the public eye.

There are a number of shots within this video that I absolutely adore. The setting, colour grading and angle are absolutely amazing and I fully commend the director for this video. When it was first released, I couldn't stop watching it. One that I did keep my eye on was the in depth content of the picnic they were having. All it consisted of was champagne and sweets. Thinking about it, they're two particularly slim people - eating junk. Does this mean that even though they're nice to look at, they're ugly on the inside? Hidden messages in videos are great.

Overall, I absolutely love this video. I love the narrative, concept, sassiness, colour, song, and camera work. Everything about this video is great and I genuinely wouldn't change 1 second of it. It's so cleverly thought out, with the links to her old music, disney films (Snow White - with the apple), metaphors about them being ugly on the inside. Everything. Genius. High five, Taylor! 

- O

{Sources:}

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

http://www.bigmachinerecords.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_Space

Music Video Critique #2: Paul Weller - Wild Wood

Paul Weller is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Starting out with the band The Jam (1976-82), Weller branched out to a more soulful style with The Style Council (1983-89), before establishing himself as a successful solo artist in 1991.

The Jam were an English punk rock/new wave/mod revival band. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries. The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped clothes, and they incorporated a number of mainstream 1960s rock and R&B influences rather than rejecting them, placing The Jam at the forefront of the mod revival movement.

The Style Council were an English band, formed in Woking in 1983 by Paul Weller himself, (the former singer and guitarist with The Jam), and keyboardist Mick Talbot. The permanent line-up grew to include drummer Steve White and Weller's then-wife, vocalist Dee C. Lee. As with Weller's previous band, most of his London based outfit's hits were in their homeland, although the band did score six top 40 hits in Australia, and seven top 40 hits in New Zealand.

Weller went from The Jam to The Style Council as he wanted a change from the "power pop" style to the more soulful style and it gave him the chance to infuse jazz/soul/funk and even a little rap into his songs. In terms of target audience and fans, Weller tended to have a strong fan base from the beginning that followed his every move between bands and onto his solo career.

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Paul Weller released his first solo album, Paul Weller, in 1991. After leaving label Polydor in 1989, Weller formed The Paul Weller Movement in 1990, releasing a single, Into Tomorrow, on his own Freedom High record label in October 1991. Its success - reaching #36 in the UK chart, led to Weller being offered a new record deal with Go! Discs, and the resulting album was released on 1st September 1992, reaching #8 on the UK album chart.

Weller's second album, Wild Wood, was released in September 1993. It made it to number 2 in the UK charts, and contained three UK hits; Wild Wood, Sunflower and Hung Up, all reaching within the top 20. The music video I will be critiquing is Wild Wood, which is a single from the album. At the time that the video was released, Weller was signed to Go! Discs, which was a London based record label launched in 1983 by Andy Macdonald and Lesly Symons. Shortly after the launch, Go! Beat records was launched as a subsidiary for dance artists like Beats International, Gabrielle and Portishead. In 1992, Paul Weller signed.

Throughout this video we see a number of different filming and editing techniques that were very common within the particular era of music videos. Time lapses, cut aways to the artist singing in a different location, traffic marching and point of view shots within crowds of people. All of these features tend to match with the theme and genre of the song, which is very blues-y feeling and calming. In other circumstances, the scenes also are the complete opposite, with the busy crowds within the city and manic scenes.

Time lapses are often seen during the instrumental parts, as it's completely contradicting the part of the song; calm and relaxing to hear, manic to look at. The whole video is a metaphor. "Finding your way out of the wild, wild wood" could be another way of saying "Finding your way out of the crowds", so in this sense, the people are the woods.

In terms of a narrative, there isn't really one at all. This video is just a collection of clips that tell the story of a particular lyric line, rather than from beginning to end. I quite like it, because it makes the video fun and quirky, rather than the stereo-typical love story we normally see in videos these days. As well as the time lapses, there are also image distortions throughout which coincide with the time lapses and create a warped scene. This happens during the shots during the city scenes, and cities are more often than not busy places, which to some people, could be quite a scary place; often leaving their image of a city slightly distorted. 

Overall, I do like this video. It's quirky and different to any I've seen before, and that's what I love about Paul Weller's music and videos. They're not copied, they're completely his own and that's what makes a good musician in this day and age. He may have been inspired by others, but his work is a class unique act.

- O

{Sources:}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weller#Solo_career
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jam
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Style_Council
https://vimeo.com/38030651

Music Video Critique #1: Faith Hill - American Heart

Faith Hill is an American country-pop singer and occasional actress. She's one of the most successful country artists of all time, selling over 40 million records worldwide. Faith is married to country singer Tim McGraw, with whom she has recorded several duets.

American Heart is a song written by Jim Beavers and Jonathan Singleton, and recorded by Faith herself. It was released on September 30th, 2012 as the second single from her upcoming seventh studio album. The song was announced on her Twitter account and distributed for airplay the following day. For the Twitter debut, Faith responded to questions with the hash-tag #AskFaith prior to her weekly performance on NBC Sunday Night Football that night.

As well as the song itself, a music video premiered a month after the single was released. The music video was directed by Trey Fanjoy, who is a well known music video director in the country music industry and has worked with the likes of Dolly Parton, Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift. The video reached the number one position on the GAC countdown in early December, and in the following May, was nominated in the Female Video of the Year category for the 2013 CMT Music Awards.

The video kicks off with a series of short interviews with a group of kids. All of them are talking about what being American means to them. "We're different on the outside, but we're the same on the inside", is the big takeaway message from the video - and you get that before the music even starts. Faith shared the stage with 10-year-old T.J Jones, as they put together a choreographed number that's worthy of a broadway stage. At various points in the song, Faith steps back to let T.J. take the limelight. 

The concept of the video came from the line in the song, "it bleeds, it scars, it shines when times get hard." Director Trey Fanjoy explained in the behind-the-scenes film that inspired by the lyric, "We have created a 15-foot illuminated 'American Heart' full of red, white and blue stars and stripes. There's a really special metaphor found in all of it, and each of the bulbs represents a different part of our country and a different spirit in our nation. Together, they form something that's bigger than all of us."

I really like this video as it's such a simple concept with a strong message. Studio-based music videos are always a winner in my eyes as you can do so much with them, and I love how both Faith and Trey chose to keep it simple. It's important for songs with a large and special message to keep the video to a basic structure, as the artists don't want all of the attention to focus on the video. Involving the children at the beginning and T.J within the video really shows Faith as a family-friendly artist, and this may be the image that she is trying to portray - and in my eyes, it worked! 

This video falls into the "video using band/artist in a creative way" category. This category consists of 2 main features; the artist being one of the main features during the video, and being creative visually with the lyrics and song itself. With her both performing/lip syncing and acting during the video, it creates a natural and personal feel for the audience watching that the particular artist has put their own spin on the video and has a real input within the choreography.

This video is one of Faith's most involved choreography in a video yet. "When I first heard the song I was brought to tears. I not only knew I had to record it, but I almost immediately saw it visually. It's awesome and so appropriate to be able to share it with my fans first, because they've been so supportive of me throughout the years." 

The beginning of Faith and T.J's appearance originates with them getting ready in what appears to be a dressing room, with T.J. almost assisting Faith as her little companion. This is portraying America, to other countries around the world, as a very friendly place, and ensuring the message is one that can be remembered. No matter how old or young you are, you can still appreciate America in all it's glory and show your appreciation, in this case, through music. 

There are a number of shots that I really like during this video and they all take place within the studio, and by the looks of things, it's all down to the lighting. Silhouette's are absolutely beautiful in any music video, and create a mysterious feel to the whole production. In this video, there are a number of silhouette shots, and I have picked 3 of my favourites. I really like the way they make both Faith and T.J. complete silhouettes, and the bright blue background behind them really emphasises the shapes and dance moves they're performing.

There are a number of different lyric counts within the song, and the shots and views that are used tend to match eachother really well. For the silhouette segment pictures above, the lyrics "cause it beats like a drum down in New Orleans..." which is an upbeat, happy lyric, and the dance moves portray this throughout the video. Silhouette's also create quite a mysterious atmosphere, almost like a cover up of who a person or act really is. 

Other shots I love are the mid-shots of Faith and T.J. during the entire video. They tend to appear near the chorus section and show the loving and affectionate relationship for eachother, which puts a nice family-orientated feel out for the video. This could then foreshadow the upcoming album that this single is on, and show old and new fans a snippet of what her new sound and image is, seeing as her last studio album was in 2005.

Overall, I really like the way Faith channels who she is within the song and lyrics and portrays her love for America throughout the video. Like I said, studio based much videos are always a winner for me as they are unique in their own way and portray the artist for who they really are, without taking the attention away from the song itself. The song reached at #26 in the US Country Airplay charts and is believed to reach #1 when her full album is released. 

- O 

{Sources:}

http://tasteofcountry.com/faith-hill-american-heart-video/

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=27258

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-615/474246/faith-hill-returns-with-american-heart-video-watch