A-ha - Take on Me

The first music video that I am going to analyse is from at least 20 years ago. I have decided to choose this particular music video, Take on Me, to give me an idea of how music videos are produced and the clever techniques and effects that can be used to producing an interesting overall appearance. Take on Me is a song by a Norwegian band called A-ha. The song was released in 1985 and the song combines synthpop with a variety of instruments, including acoustic guitars, keyboards and drums.

The video features the band in a pencil-sketch animation method called rotoscoping, combined with live action. Basically, live-action footage is traced-over frame by frame to give the characters realistic movements. Approximately 3,000 frames were rotoscoped, which took 16 weeks to complete.The video's main theme is a romantic fantasy narrative. It begins with a montage of pencil drawings in a comic book style representing motorcycle sidecar racing, in which the hero, played by Morten Harket, is pursued by two opponents. Towards the end, shots of Harket, show him trying to break out of his comic-book frames. At the same time, his image appears in the girl's hallway, seemingly torn between real and comic form, hurling himself repeatedly against the walls as he attempts to shatter his two-dimensional barrier. This scene is largely patterned after a climactic scene in the 1980 film 'Altered States'.

This music video appealed to me in particular because of the interesting mix of fantasy and reality. The clever combination of a cartoon and the real world creates an interesting storyline and captivates the viewer's attention. I have found from watching this music video and some others, that having a storyline to the music video is more interesting and holds the attention of the audience more effectively.

There are many other different films and TV shows, which also incorporate a mix of cartoon and reality into their storyline. Some of these include, 'The Phantom Toll Booth', a 'Family Guy parody' of 'Take on Me', and 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988), which broke new ground with its advanced special effects and 'realistic' portrayal of the interaction of animated characters and live actors.

In the Family Guy episode, Breaking Out is Hard to Do, Chris gets dragged into the music video while in the grocery store. This was extremely effective in recreating the video, with an almost shot by shot exact comparison. There have also been other covers of the song. One particular version was Dustin McLean's literal version cover of the song, which was the first known example of the 'literal music video' meme.

The music video is iconic in portraying the band A-ha in a certain way, in order to grab people's attention. The video perhaps appeals slightly more to the younger generation as it is intriguing and eye catching. It definitely interests this type of audience, as it has an compelling narrative and the rotoscoping technique holds the attention of the audience throughout the entire video. The band, A-ha also have a certain appeal to the female audience, which is portrayed through their 'cool' clothing, including denim and leather jackets and also, the way their hair has been styled. The band have been styled as idols for a younger female audience.