Music Videos Research, Jonathan Desbiens

Initially I though of an emotional song, maybe featuring a narrative based video with emotive lyrics and associated instruments, such as violin or Piano. While this is still an option, much more upbeat songs appear to open more opportunities for editing, such as effects, quick camera shots and possibly more interest.

Jonathan Desbiens, or Jodeb, is a Canadian director from Shawinigan-Sud, Quebec, who directs music videos primarily of the electronic genre (and related/sub genres, such as dubstep), and focuses on CGI elements and techniques, such as polygon models falling apart in Rusko's "Roll it, Light it", frequently using 2D and 3D editing. It is also apparent that he enjoys mixing all three types of music video at times (Narrative, Performance and Conceptual).

This video, for example, has a lot of vivid colours and animations, as well as time slowing down within the narrative for more intense beats or sounds, all combining to a very powerful effect on the viewer. I believe that this style of relatively simple animation can be managed, if not simplified with slowed-down-quickly editing towards a freeze frame for the split second of animation upon an important beat of the song kicks in, such as a drop or iconic section/sound. 

The Director, Jonathan Desbiens, has worked with this artist in another video, "Clarity". In this video there was a much more conceptual feel, opposed to the although conceptual, more of a narrative/ performance video of "Find you". The effects and animation for Clarity is much more random and vivid, occasionally showing characters in a story involving some kind of crash, but mainly focusing on splashing effects, coloured splatters, light bulbs smashing, and generally colourful, powerful and expressive images to follow the music. 

I like the videos due to the emotion and power captured through strong synchronized beats paired with intense visuals such as the explosions of what appears to be snow and varying colours, as well as time slowing with the beats. My music video will potentially feature similar effects and editing, though I may leave out the concept of a performance music video.



The videos featuring Zedd include a lot of colourful and vibrant effects and images due to the songs intense, vivid nature. the artists themselves are wearing clothing depending ont he situation; Zedd himself is usually wearing everyday clothes he wears as he is just placed in to give reference to him as a performance element to the song, whereas the vocalist is often seen wearing an outfit, as they are more prominent and so relevant to the song and it's narrative, such as with the desert and cave where she is seen wearing a radiant white, the lyrics focused on "clarity" and the two protagonists on a quest for eachother. But this video being focally conceptual, the artists are not particularly focused upon and so their clothing and composition is not very applicable here. 'Find you', however, has a larger focus on narrative opposed to concept, and so can be discussed more in it's mise en scene and composition. The general tone is quite fast paced, and so the music and effects synchronise with the story as well as eachother, but the background and atmosphere reflect a snowy, natural theme, and so the effects and lighting are prominently blue and green, the first location being quite white, sleek and reflective.

This is another link to another video Jonathan directed.

http://www.jodeb.ca/#/cypress/

It is quite evident that Jonathan's work and mind alike revolve focally around CGI, as well as performance (which is quite common due to publicity and selling the song as best as possible while promoting the artist), often jumping to shots and scene where there is no actual relevance to the song as such, and is mainly just conceptual for visual enjoyment. But to achieve these powerful images he only seems to dedicate himself to the electronic genre, as this music synchronises with his editing well and fits the style.

This link shows the process which was carried out to get the cgi into the video, however due to not having the same resources I will have to think of a more simplified and laboured version.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/code/5930328/zedd-matthew-koma-and-miriam-bryant-rock-out-with-cgi-in-find-you

(These videos and link were used for the purpose of reference and analysis and will not be used for anything other than this).



(Stone Sour's "Through Glass" Music Video is also extremely unique, showing a story, as well as performance of how people, namely stars, are fake and lie, being shown quite literally when the camera turns around people at a party, and as this is done, they become cardboard cutouts followed by a man to carry them off set (this video was directed by Tony Petrossian). This style of editing is more 'interactive' than Jonathan Desbiens' work, and seems too much of a challenge for what I am aiming for; Desbiens' work revolves around layered animations and effects, as well as solo-shot 3D images, and can be created without too much tampering with the composition of a shot the was "Through Glass" was made; There were direct physical influences and pauses to create the effects generated, whereas "Clarity" could have been created with simpler 2D layered drawing and green screens directly on top of a finished video clip).