Left, Left, Left Left and Right!
Feb. 17th, 2009 01:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elennielSince I'm taking what feels like an eternity to select a sensible number of screencaps for my Vibes post, I'll do the Swing! PV review first. :D
This was my favourite PV of 2008. Musekinin Hero was close, but Swing! managed to come out tops in my opinion. :)
It was quite similar to Musekinin Hero in the sense that Swing! also had the concept of portraying a particular scene. But where MH was simple, desaturated, crazy and hilarious, and located in an office, Swing! was full of high contrast and intense colour, with more sedated and subtle humour, and took place in (what seems to me like) a jazz lounge. Swing! actually has less of a storyline that MH did. It seemed to me like MH was focussed on capturing the kooky character of K8 (which is a very clever idea, since their personalities are really what makes Eito stand out) but Swing!'s focus was in capturing the scene rather than the people in the scene.
I thought that the PV really succeeded ini achieving the essence and feel of the song, as well as being cool in itself. XD There was just this "sparkly" impression all throughout it, which may be due to the lightings and the blurring effect in some shots (more on that later in this post~). And for me, the art direction managed to hit the correct era (retro-ish, somewhere around the 1930s-1940s?) for the music whilst not looking exactly like it was set in the era. In other words, it felt retro without looking obviously retro.
On to the part with lots of screencaps!
V6 played multiple roles in the PV - as various people in the club and as performers on the stage. Uhm, okay. That sounds a mite confusing, but let's get to screencaps. I think those show it better. ^^
The first set was "various people in the club."
Go-kun was a waiter...
Ken and Nagano were patrons of the club...
Sakamoto was a... er... like an assistant to the band?
Okada was cast as one of the lighting technicians (or whatever you call that sort of role...)
And Inocchi... was the big boss. XD That, or he's a darn rich guy sitting around in the club. I think "boss" is more appropriate though. hahah
Second set of roles: V6 the performers. :)
Screencaps are self-explanatory. hahah
And every now and then the "various people in the club" would get together and sing and do random dance-ish stuff. XD
One thing I quite liked about this PV was the slight blurring effect used in quite a number of the shots. I'm not sure exactly what it's called, but it looks like a sort of lens blur? Could be added in post-production or done during filming itself - I don't know. But it was cool anyway. Blurred horizontally just enough to make it interesting but not so much that you get a headache from trying to see what it is. The effect was especially obvious with lights/highlights and in close-ups.
I liked the colours in the stage scenes too. Not over-bright nor psychedelic, but more like very intense medium and dark tones, and over-exposed lighter tones.
For the normal "in-the-club" shots, there wasn't so much over-exposure of the whites, but the colours were still definitely on the intense and saturated side, with a lot of yellow, pink, blue and purple in the lighting. I somehow feel that the colourful lighting was a key (if understated) point in the PV. Their outfits were pretty much black, white and grey, leaving the lighting to do the work of giving colour and interest. (Now that I think about it, I wonder if the lighting stuff had anything to do with Swing! being on the Light in Your Heart single. It sorta makes sense... )
The framing and composition of the individual shots in this PV was interesting too. With the exception of Go, all the others were always fixed in similar layouts. A pretty good practice in this case, because it helps to fix (even subconsciously) the locations and "ranks" of the characters in the viewer's mind since there were no overall shots of the whole place.
Okada was practically always towards the left of the screen and often framed by the band and/or the stair railing, whereas Sakamoto was always more to the right side, framed by the brick wall and the band. And - okay, I didn't exactly count all the scenes in the PV, but this is my impression - lighting technician Okada and band assistant Sakamoto have more long/medium shots than the others, they have people in front of them and their backgrounds are more cluttered. That combination kind of says "Crew Member!" After all, the crew are always in the background and "smaller" than the cast, even if their roles are just as important in any production/project. :D
Kenken was always on the right, and Nagano on the left~
You'll never find these two patrons blocked by any other character. They're always clearly the main focus, and their backgrounds are much plainer (i.e. emptier) than the lighting technician or the band assistant :P Lots of direct spotlight on them too. These are all appropriate, since, y'know... the customer is king. hahahaha
** The more I look at shots of Nagano and Ken, the more I'm feel that the set was the same one. Meaning that the background set - see the white wall behind with a Corinthian (I think) pillar carved on it? - does exactly extend all around them. Like the props were just shifted around and the camera angles adjusted so that it looks like one particular corner in the club. Notice that there's never any two-shot of club patrons Nagano and Ken. It's always individual, but shot and edited cleverly to make it look like they're at the same table. Hm. I wonder. If so, then the director and art director did a good job of it. I only noticed this now... and the PV came out months and months ago. 8D
(Reusing screencaps from above because my Internet is a bit wonky and I don't want to try uploading any more caps now.)
Inocchi... Hm... I think he was usually around the centre of the screen, as was Go. For Boss!Inocchi, the angle was always an upward one and from what I recall, he doesn't have as many close-ups as the other "people in the club." Most likely all this was to emphasize his character's superior rank. XD Go moved around a lot (he was the waiter, after all 8D ) and his backgrounds nearly always had people in them (Read: cluttered background. See: the Okada & Sakamoto shot comments earlier. hehe).
Bits and Pieces that I Liked... and Other Screencaps.
This sequence. Not just because it's Okada, okay? XP It was just cute... and I can't figure out if it was on purpose or accidental - which only interests me more. ahahah
He was moving the spotlight around and then it suddenly went off, so he checked it and found that the plug had come out or something. XD It's more likely to be a planned shot, but it does look like it could have been accidental an they decided to work it into the PV anyway.
The few close-ups of the band on stage during the instrumental part somewhere in the middle. I can't put my finger on why I like the shots... I just do. :)
Shake it, Inocchi~! XDD
(Seriously, look at the pretty coloursssss. That spot of yellow-green in the left screencap and the spot of purple in the right pic totally make those shots for me!)
( *whew* I didn't think I could write this much about this PV... My fingers are tired. 8D )
Swing! was a really enjoyable PV for me. I'll admit that a lot of my favour for this PV stems from the fact that I love this song. I really liked it a lot - even before I saw the PV. I fell head over heels when I saw the PV, and when I saw the SCP performance I became obssessed. XD But the music, the visuals - they all just worked together magnificently. It was plain and simple in concept and devoid of special effects, but there was a lot of technical detail in there from the lighting to the framing. *applauds director and art director* All that detail isn't really obvious (even I didn't notice a lot of the composition details until I took more screencaps), but it's certainly there, and it certainly makes the PV worth watching and... fabulous. :)
This was my favourite PV of 2008. Musekinin Hero was close, but Swing! managed to come out tops in my opinion. :)
It was quite similar to Musekinin Hero in the sense that Swing! also had the concept of portraying a particular scene. But where MH was simple, desaturated, crazy and hilarious, and located in an office, Swing! was full of high contrast and intense colour, with more sedated and subtle humour, and took place in (what seems to me like) a jazz lounge. Swing! actually has less of a storyline that MH did. It seemed to me like MH was focussed on capturing the kooky character of K8 (which is a very clever idea, since their personalities are really what makes Eito stand out) but Swing!'s focus was in capturing the scene rather than the people in the scene.
I thought that the PV really succeeded ini achieving the essence and feel of the song, as well as being cool in itself. XD There was just this "sparkly" impression all throughout it, which may be due to the lightings and the blurring effect in some shots (more on that later in this post~). And for me, the art direction managed to hit the correct era (retro-ish, somewhere around the 1930s-1940s?) for the music whilst not looking exactly like it was set in the era. In other words, it felt retro without looking obviously retro.
On to the part with lots of screencaps!
V6 played multiple roles in the PV - as various people in the club and as performers on the stage. Uhm, okay. That sounds a mite confusing, but let's get to screencaps. I think those show it better. ^^
The first set was "various people in the club."
Go-kun was a waiter...
Ken and Nagano were patrons of the club...
Sakamoto was a... er... like an assistant to the band?
Okada was cast as one of the lighting technicians (or whatever you call that sort of role...)
And Inocchi... was the big boss. XD That, or he's a darn rich guy sitting around in the club. I think "boss" is more appropriate though. hahah
Second set of roles: V6 the performers. :)
Screencaps are self-explanatory. hahah
And every now and then the "various people in the club" would get together and sing and do random dance-ish stuff. XD
One thing I quite liked about this PV was the slight blurring effect used in quite a number of the shots. I'm not sure exactly what it's called, but it looks like a sort of lens blur? Could be added in post-production or done during filming itself - I don't know. But it was cool anyway. Blurred horizontally just enough to make it interesting but not so much that you get a headache from trying to see what it is. The effect was especially obvious with lights/highlights and in close-ups.
I liked the colours in the stage scenes too. Not over-bright nor psychedelic, but more like very intense medium and dark tones, and over-exposed lighter tones.
For the normal "in-the-club" shots, there wasn't so much over-exposure of the whites, but the colours were still definitely on the intense and saturated side, with a lot of yellow, pink, blue and purple in the lighting. I somehow feel that the colourful lighting was a key (if understated) point in the PV. Their outfits were pretty much black, white and grey, leaving the lighting to do the work of giving colour and interest. (Now that I think about it, I wonder if the lighting stuff had anything to do with Swing! being on the Light in Your Heart single. It sorta makes sense... )
The framing and composition of the individual shots in this PV was interesting too. With the exception of Go, all the others were always fixed in similar layouts. A pretty good practice in this case, because it helps to fix (even subconsciously) the locations and "ranks" of the characters in the viewer's mind since there were no overall shots of the whole place.
Okada was practically always towards the left of the screen and often framed by the band and/or the stair railing, whereas Sakamoto was always more to the right side, framed by the brick wall and the band. And - okay, I didn't exactly count all the scenes in the PV, but this is my impression - lighting technician Okada and band assistant Sakamoto have more long/medium shots than the others, they have people in front of them and their backgrounds are more cluttered. That combination kind of says "Crew Member!" After all, the crew are always in the background and "smaller" than the cast, even if their roles are just as important in any production/project. :D
Kenken was always on the right, and Nagano on the left~
You'll never find these two patrons blocked by any other character. They're always clearly the main focus, and their backgrounds are much plainer (i.e. emptier) than the lighting technician or the band assistant :P Lots of direct spotlight on them too. These are all appropriate, since, y'know... the customer is king. hahahaha
** The more I look at shots of Nagano and Ken, the more I'm feel that the set was the same one. Meaning that the background set - see the white wall behind with a Corinthian (I think) pillar carved on it? - does exactly extend all around them. Like the props were just shifted around and the camera angles adjusted so that it looks like one particular corner in the club. Notice that there's never any two-shot of club patrons Nagano and Ken. It's always individual, but shot and edited cleverly to make it look like they're at the same table. Hm. I wonder. If so, then the director and art director did a good job of it. I only noticed this now... and the PV came out months and months ago. 8D
(Reusing screencaps from above because my Internet is a bit wonky and I don't want to try uploading any more caps now.)
Inocchi... Hm... I think he was usually around the centre of the screen, as was Go. For Boss!Inocchi, the angle was always an upward one and from what I recall, he doesn't have as many close-ups as the other "people in the club." Most likely all this was to emphasize his character's superior rank. XD Go moved around a lot (he was the waiter, after all 8D ) and his backgrounds nearly always had people in them (Read: cluttered background. See: the Okada & Sakamoto shot comments earlier. hehe).
Bits and Pieces that I Liked... and Other Screencaps.
This sequence. Not just because it's Okada, okay? XP It was just cute... and I can't figure out if it was on purpose or accidental - which only interests me more. ahahah
He was moving the spotlight around and then it suddenly went off, so he checked it and found that the plug had come out or something. XD It's more likely to be a planned shot, but it does look like it could have been accidental an they decided to work it into the PV anyway.
The few close-ups of the band on stage during the instrumental part somewhere in the middle. I can't put my finger on why I like the shots... I just do. :)
Shake it, Inocchi~! XDD
(Seriously, look at the pretty coloursssss. That spot of yellow-green in the left screencap and the spot of purple in the right pic totally make those shots for me!)
( *whew* I didn't think I could write this much about this PV... My fingers are tired. 8D )
Swing! was a really enjoyable PV for me. I'll admit that a lot of my favour for this PV stems from the fact that I love this song. I really liked it a lot - even before I saw the PV. I fell head over heels when I saw the PV, and when I saw the SCP performance I became obssessed. XD But the music, the visuals - they all just worked together magnificently. It was plain and simple in concept and devoid of special effects, but there was a lot of technical detail in there from the lighting to the framing. *applauds director and art director* All that detail isn't really obvious (even I didn't notice a lot of the composition details until I took more screencaps), but it's certainly there, and it certainly makes the PV worth watching and... fabulous. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 05:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 06:46 am (UTC)And thank you for reading! I was starting to think that I'd made this so long no one was going to bother reading it ^^;
no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 05:45 am (UTC)Nice observations! Very detailed - it was really a fun and colorful PV. I really like Okada (no biases there XD) and Ken's part. They are cute! :D
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 06:53 am (UTC)All their parts were cute and fun, although Inocchi was the funniest! <3
no subject
Date: 2009-02-17 07:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 04:57 am (UTC)I'm glad you notice these things because I'm too busy making the face I just typed. Hehehe!
Swiiiiing!^_^
no subject
Date: 2009-02-18 06:15 am (UTC)Good that you enjoyed reading it (or at least looking at the screncaps? XD )
no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 11:07 am (UTC)YES. The colours were so pretty, as was the lighting and the whole sparkly feel the PV gave off! Loved the V6!band though :x and I liked that they weren't overly dressed up or anything, like JE groups tend to be at times *coughsEito's-itsmysoulcough* :D
Overall, I enjoyed reading your analysis and thoughts on the PV ^-^ Showed a lot of insight and more that I certainly didn't pick up from just watching it.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 01:04 pm (UTC)I liked that they weren't overly dressed up or anything
:Db (Eito's nearly always over-dressed... hahaha Not in Musekinin Hero though!)
Good to know I didn't bore all of you with this review (at least, I think I didn't...)! Actually, when I started to write it I didn't think I could ramble that much - but I just kept going on and on.. and on. 8D
(You know, your comment just made my rather sour day a little better. ^^ Thanks~ )
no subject
Date: 2009-03-02 07:55 pm (UTC)Hmm, Eito's costumes aren't THAT bad when you compare them with Arashi's plastic bag costumes that they had for their debut XP Musekinin Hero, that was another PV I watched just recently ^-^;; I really liked that one too~ Tacchon was so funny, always eating at his desk everytime he got screen time =P
That's pretty amazing, you know, being able to write this much =P
(Aww, bad day? :( )
no subject
Date: 2009-03-03 01:19 am (UTC)Strangely, Eito's concert costumes are actually fairly decent in comparison to Arashi's concert outfits. o_O I remember watching 47 and thinking, "Huh. Considering that this is Eito, the costumes are actually really nice overall." hahahaha
Tacchon and food - inseparable. I bet he loved shooting that PV. All he needed to do half the time was eat and sleep, which he does in real life anyway. XDD
ahahah I shocked myself with this review 8D
(Yeah, bad day. Not horribly bad, but bad enough to make me feel down in the dumps most of the day. ^^; )
no subject
Date: 2009-03-03 11:09 am (UTC)Hahaha, Tacchon ♥
(Aww, hopefully today was better? :D)