Over the past week, we as a class talked briefly about rotoscoping. Simply, rotoscoping is taking live action, and going frame by frame, tracing over to give moving objects a more animated feel and look to them. While in the classes learning about the technique, It made me start to think of a certain “movie” I have seen before, and for you 80s fans out there, you might have seen this one too. For this blog post, I am going to use probably the most famous music video of the 80s, and probably the greatest music video to air on MTV. I am talking about “Take on Me” by a-ha. The only thing I don’t like is when the lead singer hits the high notes, it can hurt yours ears he’s so loud and high pitched.
A little background on the band:
Formed in 1982 by Morten Harket - lead singer,Paul Waaktaar-Savoy- guitar, and Magne ”Mags” Furuholmen- keyboard/synthesizer.
From Oslo, Norway
Broke up in 1994, came back together in 2000, still play today.
Take on Me song and music video:
from album Hunting High and Low (band’s 1st album, 1985)
1st version of song recorded in 1984.
2nd and current version recorded in 1985.
Music Video:
Directed by Steve Baron
won 7 awards at 1986 Video Music Awards
Here is the Take on Me music video. Note the rotoscoping.
As a bonus, here another a-ha music video, Train of Thought. Also, note the rotoscoping.
March 22, 2010 at 7:11 am |
This video really is a great example of rotoscoping. On top of looking great and going well with the music, it smoothly transitions back and forth without any cuts between live-action and those famous line-drawings.
March 22, 2010 at 7:12 am |
[...] comments here, here, and here. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)ControlMonkeys also have an [...]