Adam Jones

Sober• Jones originally got offered a

film scholarship, but decided to take one in art and sculpture instead, this is clearly evident within his videos as there is great use of stop-motion-animation within the majority of his videos.

• This being the first video that he’s directed for his band : Tool (in which he plays guitar), the animation itself is a little rough and frenetic, but his skills improve through the music videos he has done.

• This video is slightly different from mostthat follow it. The use of fading images ofthe band upon the stop-motion is unique to this video as the band is yet to maketheir image more about the music and lessabout the individual members and their lives. Regardless, it is done in an interestingway as each member of the band is shownas the camera swoops around each cornerof the corridor.

• Another thing which is not included within any other Tool music video, is the use ofrepetition, where footage is repeated probably due to in-experience and/or to fill up the song duration. Seeing as all of the later videos don’t repeat the scenes, thus showing progression of skills and the likelihood of a larger budget.

Prison sex• This being Jones’s second video with Tool,

you can clearly see the improvement of his clay-animation skills with the black skinned figure as it performs a lot more complex movements, such as ripping pages out of a book, etc..

• A soon to be frequent aspect of Adams videos is the use of pull-focus’s which complement the arty style which Tool become famous for in their later videos.The use of the pull-focus in the opening of this video exaggerates the relationship between the music and the visuals as a bass note is played in synch with the camera focusing upon another string, which actually happen to BE electric bass strings !

Stinkfist

• Up until know, the videoshave used dark muted brown colours as the mainscheme of within the action,produced by a combination of props and grading. FromStinkfist onwards, the grading become more varied and changes a few times within the durationof the footage. The distinction being brown topale blues and other mutedcolours.

• Having worked on the sets of : Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Ghostbusters 2 and Nightmare On Elm Street 5, Adam Jones has a lot of experience with making make up and set design look professional.. Good enough for a feature film, in my opinion.

• This is shown with the elaborate breathing apparatus and the “second skin” skeletal/muscular make up on the actors which look very realistic.

• I have oft described this video as “a horror movie in which the scary bit never comes”, this is exemplified through the eating of nails, shaving your own skin off and fleshy lumps seen growing out of the actors shoulder and head.

Ænema

• Ænema is, in my opinion, Adam Jones’s best video. I know I have all ready talked a lot about it, there is still stuff I have to say about it.

• One of the favourite bits off all the clever stop-motion-animation, including the use of water, has to be how the camera angles allow you too see different parts of the creepy alien guy more magnified than others, thus distorting its figure.

• Sorry, that I cannot stop banging on upon the use of water within this video. But, not only does it look awesome, it has a strong relationship with the lyrics.

• “Swim. Learn to swim. Learn to swim.

Cuz I'm praying for rainAnd I'm praying for tidal wavesI wanna see the ground give way.I wanna watch it all go down.Mum please flush it all away.I wanna see it go right in and down.I wanna watch it go right in.Watch you flush it all away.”

Schism• This video is another good example of

how you can link visuals in with the lyrics. The word “schism” literally “a division”, and this is shown clearly with the impressive set production of Jones. With the simple but effective use of the bland walls and the huge cracked gap being the focus of the many of the shots.

• This shot, I think, is my favourite of the entire video. The clever use of projecting footage over top of other action along side the mood lighting. This makes a nice contrast between the hard shadow of the figure and the faded out background projection.

Parabola• Parabola is by far the weirdest of Tool’s

videos, it takes the art-music to the next level, as contextually, the images have nothing to do with the song. But still, it works..!

• And because the band is not shown at all in the entire 10 minutes, I goes against a lot of Andrew Goodwins views on music videos.

Bibliography• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hglVqACd1C8 – Sober

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf1vC8ubnkY – Prison Sex

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07pLGIgyfjw – Stinkfist

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCEeAn6_QJo – Ænema

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRSLmlFqExU – Schism

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiV_ue-PbL4 – Parabola

• The only reason I did not include Vicarious is because it is all CGI, which I’m not interested in.. But you can have a link if you want ! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUXBCdt5IPg&feature=related