“Bohemian Rhapsody” is also famous for its promotional video, which is the first music video to have accurate live performance scene of a band, to match music with an image, and to convey great visual impact to audiences (The history of music video). After “Bohemian Rhapsody” achieved success, many record companies started to produce music videos for their musicians, so that musicians could publicize their music without appearing on TV shows in person or could choose whatever visuals they like to accompany their music (Wikipedia).
However, and interestingly, the promotional video of Bohemian Rhapsody was made not because of these reasons above. According to Brian May, who is the guitarist of Queen, the video was made because the song was too complex and overdubbed so many times that it seemed impossible to perform the song on TV show Top of the Pops, and also because of actual absence of Queen on the day of the TV show because they had a tour (wikipedia). So, surprisingly, the video was produced in only four hours at a cost of £4,500!
(Later, an alternative edit of the video was produced.) (wikipedia).
The video consists of promotional video part and live performance part. It begins with the Freddie’s harmony part with all members standing in the formation that is almost same as the cover photograph of their second album Queen II.
The video continues with the shot of
member’s full close-up and Freddie’s close-up superimposed, which is only in the alternative version.
And then the video moves to the live performance part accompanying the first ballad part. Because the vocalist on this section is only Freddie, the video mainly focused on Freddie in this part.
The next opera part is the main part of the film effects. It starts with the shot that Freddie standing in a mist, which correspond to the lyrics “I see a little silhouette of a man”. And suddenly the shot returns to the “Queen II” formation (wikipedia). As the chorus becomes heavy,
the video also switches into honeycomb shot, which was done by a shaped lens (wikipedia). Another part the video effect corresponding to the music is that when the Freddie’s voice “go” echoed, his face also cascades away by pointing the camera at a monitor (wikipedia) .
Finally, in the hard rock part, the video goes back to the live performance again. And when the song reach the very last part, “Queen II” shot once again appears and it fade out with the sound of a Chinese gong.
However, and interestingly, the promotional video of Bohemian Rhapsody was made not because of these reasons above. According to Brian May, who is the guitarist of Queen, the video was made because the song was too complex and overdubbed so many times that it seemed impossible to perform the song on TV show Top of the Pops, and also because of actual absence of Queen on the day of the TV show because they had a tour (wikipedia). So, surprisingly, the video was produced in only four hours at a cost of £4,500!
(Later, an alternative edit of the video was produced.) (wikipedia).
The video consists of promotional video part and live performance part. It begins with the Freddie’s harmony part with all members standing in the formation that is almost same as the cover photograph of their second album Queen II.
The video continues with the shot of
member’s full close-up and Freddie’s close-up superimposed, which is only in the alternative version.
And then the video moves to the live performance part accompanying the first ballad part. Because the vocalist on this section is only Freddie, the video mainly focused on Freddie in this part.
The next opera part is the main part of the film effects. It starts with the shot that Freddie standing in a mist, which correspond to the lyrics “I see a little silhouette of a man”. And suddenly the shot returns to the “Queen II” formation (wikipedia). As the chorus becomes heavy,
the video also switches into honeycomb shot, which was done by a shaped lens (wikipedia). Another part the video effect corresponding to the music is that when the Freddie’s voice “go” echoed, his face also cascades away by pointing the camera at a monitor (wikipedia) .Finally, in the hard rock part, the video goes back to the live performance again. And when the song reach the very last part, “Queen II” shot once again appears and it fade out with the sound of a Chinese gong.
