David Bowie (Directing his videos)

David Bowie directed his own music Videos. I was given the task of analyzing a couple of his music videos and comparing them to see if his videos follow a theme.

Ashes to Ashes:

 This shot zooms into Bowie, showing him in a padded cell, denoting that he is "Insane" and has been put in a mental hospital. This gives the video a psychedelic feel.

 A lot of Bowie's music videos had a fixation on his eyes, he would usually zoom into his eyes since they were a big part of his persona and theme. His eyes drawn the viewers in with a hypnotic feel.

 This shot establishes a drwam like world, if you look closely the characters resemble that of the characters from wizard of oz, Bowie being the Tin Man. This dream like sequence follows the psychedelic theme.

This shot zooms into Bowie, tied up to a wall of what appears to be a spaceship. This change in style only continues to denote a dream like feel to the video and grabs the viewers interest with the use of set and special effects.






Lazarus:

 This pan shot that pans up Bowie's face reveals his eyes are blindfolded and have bolts covering where his eyes usually are. This is because this was his last video, knowing that he would soon die of liver cancer, so he did this to send the connotation that his eyes are gone or lifeless or dead. This follows the reoccurring theme that his videos have a fixation on his eyes.

 This pan shot  shows a hand, from a woman lying under Bowie's bed (Death Bed) gives the video a horror or nightmare based theme. This follows his style of creating dream like music videos.

This closeup shows Bowie with his hands raised, singing with an upsetting expression. From this I receive the connotation that he is singing or Praying to the heavens, wishing to go to heaven. This shot shows Bowie in a vulnerable and weak state which was used to upset long time fans of the formally lively star and to send the message that he knew that he would soon die.

This final shot shows Bowie entering a wardrobe. This shot is used to denote a symbolism of death. The wardrobe symbolizes a coffin and Bowie leaves his fans with a final goodbye (This video) he didn't want his legacy to end without a suitable end , so he decided to finish his career by his own will. So this wardrobe symbolizes the death of his music career, to die along side the artist.

David Bowie directed his own music videos and followed a psychedelic and dream like theme with each video. He also had a reoccurring theme, the zoom into his eyes. Bowie's eyes aren't the same colour, so he wanted this to be his symbol or calling card.









Main Music Video Research part 2

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