LaBlogotheque

It is difficult to connect to your audience so much that they really feel like they are there, in the room. But LaBlogotheque has this mastered.

LaBlogotheque:

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LaBlogotheque is a French group who records sessions with top indie musicians. But they don’t record the musicians performing live shows, they record them performing on the street – or on the subway, or in abandoned buildings, or in buildings with interesting architecture, or in front of very small groups of people…

LaBlogotheque captures musicians in a raw atmosphere, with a raw look. The on-the-street format forces the musicians to break the music down to just its basics – its roots – and perform it simply and from the heart.

LaBlogotheque’s shows capture this by employing recording and editing methods that match the raw feeling. The footage is edited into simple, deep colors – usually a red, blue-green, or yellow, with a film-like level of high contrast. This keeps the film looking messy and unready. This keeps the shows feeling close-to-home.

What LaBlogotheque is best at is capturing a soulful atmosphere and portraying it to their audience. By absorbing the colors, the sounds, and the events of the videos, the audience is able to feel at home with the musicians. The video’s viewer feels like the musicians are letting them hear a secret. LaBlogotheque does a great job of presenting it.

LaBlogotheque’s shows are available on YouTube or on their website.

Andrew Bird / Matching vs. Coordinating

Andrew Bird’s music video for his song Lull is fully animated. But it isn’t animated in a cartoon-like style. It looks like moving bits of paper. Everything is hand-drawn in actuality, but the pieces were moved around digitally – not by stop-motion.

I love this disconnection of styles. Usually, something that exists outside of a computer – something tangible, like a piece of paper – will be animated in a primarily non-digital manner (stop-motion, clay-mation, etc.). And conversely, digital pieces will be animated digitally. But in this video, physical pieces are digitally animated – this is atypical.

This is something like the idea of mix-and-match. Where originally, one thing matches with another thing, a new thing can be matched with the first in a way that coordinates. The difference between matching and coordinating is an important concept to understand in digital media. Mixing and matching allows for so many more options of styles, and for so many more outcomes.

Julia Nunes / Ben Folds

People tend to separate the internet from the outside world. Cyberspace is seen as a bit of life that is not an actual part of life. But sometimes the internet affects the real world in huge ways.

YouTube musician Julia Nunes was a sensation in herself, but when she posted a cover to the Ben Folds song Gone, a big thing happened. The song was a big hit, and Ben Folds was so impressed by it – the cover and her music – that he invited her to go on tour with him. Ben Folds is Julia Nunes’ favorite musician.

There was no contest or competition. YouTube was the only thing in play. Julia Nunes received this awesome opportunity because YouTube made the connection possible.

Julia Nunes' videosong cover of Gone by Ben Folds.

 Julia Nunes performing Gone with Ben Folds

Wait For The Summer - Yeasayer

Yeasayer's video for their song Wait For The Summer is very well-done and interesting. It pulls along a theme of apples and life - its beginning and end - as it explores the seasons and time. It explores the ideas of life through the apples, through the beetles scurrying around, and through the layering of silhouetted humans. They discovered that human silhouettes, when layered on top of each other, can create different shapes. The whole video is very psychedelic, which matches with the sound of the song.



The song itself is fast-paced, but the video moves along fairly slowly. But there are so many details in the video that it works nicely in keeping with the song. The video really works to accentuate the themes of the song.

Kids - MGMT

In January of 2008, a music video for the song Kids by MGMT was posted to YouTube by user jsalmon. It involved a boy and a girl, faces painted, dancing to the song, and clips from old shows of people dancing.

 

A few months later, in April, jsalmon was contacted by Ray Tintori, who has directed several official videos for MGMT. Tintori invited him and his two actors to be in the official video for MGMT's song Electric Feel.



Jsalmon's video has received more views so far than MGMT's own official video for Kids (which was released in 2009), and it is the first to show up in searches for the song. It's crazy how huge this video has become, and even more crazy what came out of it. The Internet is the best place to become well known for doing something awesome, because it is the fastest. We truly have the setup for Andy Warhol's "fifteen minutes of fame."

Exodus Damage - John Vanderslice

John Vanderslice's song Exodus Damage has a very good video. It was filmed with old film video cameras, and it uses time-lapses and also occasional still film shots. It tells a mysterious story that follows a young man (it looks as though it was in the 1990's), roaming around with his iconic Leica, taking photos of large buildings.



The old style of filming goes nicely with the sound of the song. Both the video and the song are very crisp - they have the same feel. And the look of the video clips (and the occasional still photos) - lots of dark black colors against moody colors - emphasizes the darkness of the lyrics. The song is full of creepy, dark things, but masked with a bright melody. The look of the video really enhances that.

Project For Awesome / Good vs. Bad of the Internet

On December Seventeenth, Youtubers are taking over YouTube... for charity.

Inspired by the Vlogbrothers, December Seventeenth is the day of the Project for Awesome. On this day, millions of YouTubers, most of whom are nerdfighters or who associate with nerdfighters, post videos about charities. They all use the same symbol in their descriptions. Then everyone involved rates everyone else's videos with five stars. This accomplishes two things: it breaks YouTube's algorithms, which is fun; and it makes people aware of many good charities.

One thing that always seems to be true about everything is that there is a bad side and a good side (this concept is similar to the idea of "looking on the bright side" except that I am more cynical and creating large groupings of events and ideas). In this example, The Project for Awesome is the good side of YouTube. The bad side of YouTube is the idiocracy and vulgarity of some of its content. Every time a new internet site is made, it can either be good (and useful) or bad (and stupid). Twitter is working itself out right now. Sometimes Twitter is a stupid means of hyper-individualism. But other times, Twitter is a great resource for instant communication. Twitter can be used well if people decide to do so. Everything can either be good or bad, and that identity is always changeable.