Visualizing music
After I watched some videos my friend Syd made
to the music of Pink Floyd, I came up with a few little guideposts for
integrating music and video. Some artists (Syd included) already
intuit these, but I thought it was interesting to explore devices for having
sound and video compliment one another.
In the text below,
I use examples from his videos, but the discussion is still easy to follow.
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Surprises - Places where a sudden
note or effect comes it.
-
Actualization: quick edit and/or footage contains
a "burst" of some sort.
-
Rhymicity to the beat - Spots
where the music adopts a simple, consistent quarter (or eighth) note beat.
-
Actualization: Cuts or footage that correspond
to the beat.
-
Good example: "Any Colour You Like" has the
two guitars panned hard left/right in stereo -> footage bounces between
hippies and screen effects.
-
Emotion - A shift in emotion
in the music (and most likely the lyrics).
-
Actualization: Shift in the color (can be
taken either literally or metaphorically here) of the footage.
-
Good example: When the scream comes in on
"Careful with that Axe" -> cut to images of human sacrifice.
-
Following the long notes - Notes
that are key to a melody/solo and are sustained (especially if they represent
a slide or bend) invoke motion.
-
Actualization: Camera should pan or image
should pass through it, in either case the motion should be steady and
sustained, just like the note.
-
Good example: The slide guitar on "Breathe"
-> the motion of the whale through the frame, then the motion of the water,
etc. (Whole sequence works just great!)
-
Lyrical allusions - Literal presentation
of the song lyrics as they are delivered.
-
Actualization: Of course, you don't want to
be too obvious about it, but this can be a cute trip, particularly if you
apply it satirically (e.g. superimpose images of recognizable politicians
to lyrics that could be interpreted critically... especially if they weren't
ever intended to be).
-
Good example: The Lunatic is on the grass
-> lunatics galore!
-
And later: The paperboy... -> the boy scouts.
Copyright visuAL
EXpression .
