Music video review: Fire - Kasabian

Music video review: Fire - Kasabian

By Matt Kinahan

The purpose of this video is to promote the album 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum', It was both on MTV and YouTube (which it gained 8'000'000 views from). The narrative in the video is telling the tale of a bank heist which goes horribly wrong. in the video we find that firearms have been replaced with guitars, but also that the currency they are stealing has been replaced with music notes.
The lyrics 'I'm on fire!' in the chorus are visualised by action sequences. At 3:10 the gang make a getaway and are being shot at by police officers, and the chorus is played over this action sequence, the chorus helps give the video a faster tempo and makes the video appear more energetic. the fast beat of the chorus also mimics the band's heart beats as the are trying to escape.

There are few visual effects in the video, firstly colour grading, colour grading in this video is used to make the video appear more brown and dull, since the music isn't upbeat the video helps compliment  the music. The colour-grading helps give the illusion that they are in a dusty, and humid part of America. I also found that colour grading is slightly orange, which is representing the name of the song 'Fire' (which is red and orange) From within the video.

They also added in Gunshots for the guitars, to help the audience realise that the guitars are actually their firearms. this also makes the video appear more realistic. I also found that they way they are using firearms as guns is referencing the fact that they are a band outside of the video and that they are a band inside a music video.

 

Kasabian - Fire: Budgeting

Kasabian - Fire  
Kasabian's budget for the music video 'Fire', would be based off the props needed, the cost of building hire and the equipment needed.

Using excel I've worked out the estimated price it would cost Kasabian to produce this video.

Some visual effects are so easy to add into a video by editors that they shouldn't charge them just for the effects, however the back scene must have been shot in just a building (which they made to look like a bank), due to the fact that banks do not rent out the buildings.

Original video:

Fireball visual effect - Matt Kinahan Editing: part 2

Fireball visual effect - Editing
Program: adobe after effects
PART ONE:
Once the fireball effect was made i wanted to incorporate it into a video.

 So i recorded myself holding and throwing a juggling ball, then i could overlay the fireball effect on top, some would say that this is a bad technique to use, however i believe it gives me a good reference point to overlay the fireball in post production and also gives a feel for how heavy the ball is and where the ball actually is.

As you can see in the pictures to the left, this made it very easy to position the fire ball on the screen, however the fireball's rotation stayed stationary, this is more difficult to animate do to having no reference to how to the fireball should rotate. So this part of the editing stage i had to do manually, this meant rotating the fireball when i felt it was necessary.

after that i just had to make the fireball was in sync with the juggling ball, this helps make the fireball appear more realistic, but also helps cover over the juggling ball so that my video doesn't show continuity.

I don't always use the juggling ball to reference the position of the ball, sometimes just motion tracking a point can give you a decent reference point. this i done by using the 'tracker' feature in adobe after effects. by tracking the X and Y axis points on a specific point in the video (dots, lines and even shadows are good points). track the motion to a null object, then parent the footage you want to stick to the tracked motion, this should make the fire ball look as if it is sticking the your tracked point.

To see how the video turned out check it out on YouTube, need any help?

Contact me at MattKinahan@gmail.com

Fireball visual effect - Matt Kinahan Editing: part 1

Fireball visual effect - Editing

Program: adobe after effects

I started off by creating the 'Fireball' effect. This was created in adobe after effects.

 The effect was achieved by layering different types of flames together.

The flame effects i used are from action essentials 2 https://www.videocopilot.net/products/action2/

I then used the 'optical compensation' to make the flame round and spherical, this will give the fireball  a spherical shape.

I then mirrored the flame to give it a more overall spherical shape, this has now given the fireball it's shape. 

After that i added a 'fire torch' effect, the shape of which fits nicely over the already made flame ball.

The 'fire torch' effect gives the illusion that the ball is actually on fire, this helps make the fireball look realistic.

You can also color correct the flames, this will make the two different flames look more similar. this again will help the fireball look more realistic and make the two layers appear as if they were the same flame.

Any questions? Need help? ask me

Or email me at Mattkinahan@gmail.com