Case Studies on Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves was a director who was very interested in media while he was at university. He made several short films where he was there. He was able to work with the video production company "Factory Films and he was able to create an award winning short film, and the company was interested in his works. He began his music career by shooting 3 music videos where are relatively low budget videos of around £5000 each. Jamie made music videos as a living and was at the point where he needed his videos to do well, in order to just live and be able to survive. His whole livelihood depended on his videos being successful. He was able to be successful, as the treatments for his two best known videos were sent to production companies and each one was successful, such was his talent. One of his many talents was that he made his music videos in such a way that made them look like mini films because of the storylines that were involved in them. One example of this is the song "Just" by Radiohead.

One of the really popular videos he made was the song "Just" by Radiohead. He was able to direct, and film this video in just 3 days. He had a larger budget then he is used to and he had a budget of £100,000. This video is like a mini film, as the storyline is about Radiohead performing in a flat somewhere, and on the pavement in front of the block of flats, there is a man who is laying there for no apparent reason. The storyline for this music video is that random people are approaching this man on the floor and are asking him what is wrong, and why he is laying there. His responses to this are that he wants to be alone, and that he doesn't want to tell the people of why he is laying there. Using Roland Barthes theory of enigma codes, the problem in this music video is that everyone wants to know why this man is lying there. This enigma code keeps the audience interested, and eager to see what happens next. This music video is an example of an open text as there are many different meanings that could be taken from this song. Going back to Goodwin's theory, the music lyrics have nothing to do with the storyline in the video, which could confuse some audiences. Jamie Thraves is able to use many different techniques in this video. For example, there is good use of cinematography, in which there are many close ups of the man laying on the street. The closeups are able to detail the emotion of this man, and really emphasises what he is feeling, which is good use of techniques by him. Also, I think the editing matches the music, as when the music is slow, the individual shots are quite a few seconds each, and when the music speeds up, the editing is done a lot faster.





Another one of the popular, well known videos that Jamie Thraves made was the song "The Scientist" by Coldplay. This video is similar to "Just" in the way that this music video is also like a mini film because of the storyline that is used in it. However, it is a much different storyline to the "Just" video. The music video starts off with a man just lying there and it starts to reverse in time. The audience begins to see what he has been doing, and why he ended up in the state that he is in. We eventually find out that he had been driving a car, and they had some kind of car accident and that the girl in the car has unfortunately died. We then learn that he has been walking away from her, wanting to be by himself because of how sorrow he feels about the death of the girl. Also, dealing with Goodwin's theory, the music lyrics somewhat agrees with the video visuals. An example of this is when the lyric sung is "Oh let's go back to the start". As the video is rewinding, or going back to the start, the lyrics is agreeing with the visuals. As the song is pretty slow, the editing is very slow and each clip lasts quite a few seconds before a change in shot. Also, a lot of medium and long shots are used in order to show the environment of which he is going through, and it shows what he has been going through.





Another example of a music video that Jamie Thraves made was the song "I will follow you into the dark" by Death Cab For A Cutie. This video is also another kind of mini film. This song is about a boy who wakes up in his bed, and he starts playing this guitar and starts singing the song. Then he notices this massive hole in his bedroom. The lyrics are about him being a strict catholic and talking about heaven and hell. He eventually rolls out of bed and falls into the dark hole. This symbolises that he is falling into hell as he is a strict catholic, and then we see him trying to get back up into his room, but he falls back down the hole. He decides to accept his fate that he going to hell, and decides to follow someone down the hole and follow them down into hell. There is a definite story in this music video as it details the struggles of a catholic person if they commit sins and the consequences of this. Using Goodwin's theory, there is an amplification in this music video, as we often see him sleeping in the bed, in a way that suggest he is trying to forget about his troubles and just get on with his normal life. Also, the lyrics agree with the visuals as the title is "I'll follow you into the dark" and that is precisely what happens at the end of the music video. There are lots of close ups which show the emotion of the singer, and also lots of long shots which show his room, and shows how big the hole is getting and what he is going through.


Conclusion

In conclusion, I have learned that Jamie Thraves has a very unique style when it comes to making music videos. He likes telling stories in his videos and making them out to be like mini films. Also, in his music videos, he likes using strange occurrences that you wouldn't really see everyday. The props and storylines that he uses are not things you see in everyday videos, and could be seen as something out of the ordinary. Examples of this, is the dark hole used in "I will follow you into the dark", the use of rewinding in "The Scientist" and the mystery story in "Just". Lastly, Thraves gave tips on how he wanted to make music videos. He said: When making music videos, use the lyrics sometimes, but don't always be too literal. Another one of his tips were, use the emotion of the lyrics when making the video.