Music Video Analysis (PG 2/3)
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The main premise of the video is that they go to people’s weddings and surprise them by playing the song for their first dance. The opening makes it seem like more of a documentary, as the lead singer talks to the camera to describe their plan. At the first wedding it shows various medium shots of people looking confused as to why these random men are setting up a curtain in the middle of the dance floor.
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When the song starts, there are a combination of different shots, showing them all driving around LA in a black vintage car that matches with all their suits, cross cutting between them and the first wedding. You see the lead singer driving and singing, while the other members talk amongst themselves.
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After their reveal, there are many close ups showing the reactions of the bride & groom, along with the other people at the wedding. Everyone then gets up and dances with them. It’s showing how they can bring happiness to others and lift your mood.
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They include the diegetic sounds (even though they seem to have been added back in later) in some parts, such as the guitar noise when plugging in the cable, them walking into the building, people’s cheering and reactions, making it seem more realistic, and not staged.
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They include slow-motion of people dancing, to romanticise the occasion more, and have a time-lapse of them driving during the night, to show that they’ve been doing it all day.
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When the confetti launchers go off, all subsequential shots, even those of them in a studio have the same, white confetti in it, maintaining the continuity and flow of the video.
Seeing as our video is likely to include only 2 or 3 characters and not a large crowd of people, the camerawork isn’t that inspiring, because they’re mainly reaction shots. Only the first bits where he’s sitting in the car and singing is partially relevant. The video’s intention is to get people to want to see them live, so including as many shots of people enjoying themselves and having fun, while making sure you know what they look like is important. Obviously, we won’t have any celebrity endorsement, so that’s not a requirement for us, meaning we will stick to telling a narrative and having some portions of lip-synching.
Maroon 5 - Sugar
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The video starts with a similar message to the song. Wanting to be remembered for the life you lived, not the amount of money you earned. Once the song starts, a time-lapse of the character driving starts, showing night become day as he drives through a city. It’s supposed to suggest that he drove all night to get to these locations he makes his memories at.
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They all seem to involve some extreme activity, like jumping off high rocks, into a lake. You can see him in a wide angle jump in slow-motion, then cut to a shot of Avicii’s logo on a rock, with the sun setting in the background. There are some other time lapses later of his house he grew up in.
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There is some performance involved, which is simple but effective. The main character sings to the camera, while holding it himself, with the places he’s visited in the background.
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At one point, he looks through photos of him growing up. This is very relevant to us, because we were considering including photos of memories in our video, and re-visiting them, but they would be more upsetting, as it would be someone towards the end of their life looking at them, fitting with the mood of our song.
The video ends with a quote from the song, spray-painted onto a wall, along with Avicii’s logo. The concept of the video is very simple, but fits incredibly well with the video. It’s not ultra-high budget, just a man going round with his friends and a camera, filming some of the things he’s done. Incorporating time lapses of traffic, the sky, stars etc. show time passing, and him always having a good time, conveying the message further.
Avicii - The Nights
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The establishing shot is looking out to the ocean, with the camera moving upwards, and then we see Khalifa walking down the road, keeping to himself. It is very calm and fits perfectly to the sombre piano playing.
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There is a medium shot of Puth when he starts to sing, which moves backwards to reveal his surroundings. There is the city from the most recent Fast and Furious movie, along with two suped up cars either side of him. Next, there are medium close ups and medium shots of him, looking directly into the camera and singing as it moves around him, combined with scenes from the movie.
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As Khalifa starts to rap, we see Paul Walker in his first Fast and Furious movie, along with the other cast members, all smiling and looking happy. He’s also in one of the locations in the last film as the camera tracks around him while he raps, cross cutting between him and the movies.
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Various iconic moments from all the films are shown, like their house, sharing meals together and some of the cars they have used. This video is made for the Fast and Furious cast and fans, reminding them of all the good memories they made together, enforcing the repeated phrase of them being family. The lyrics mention this “how can we not talk about family when family’s all we’ve got.”
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The shots of Khalifa and Puth standing by the cars are repeated, although at slightly different angles while it cross cuts between scenes from the movie and them. Then finally, it shows the tribute to Paul seen at the end of the final film, with Paul and Vin looking and smiling at each other, ending on Paul turning off in a different direction in slow-motion, then slowly tilting up towards the sky, with the lens flare from the sun and the words “For Paul” after the music stops.
The slow camera movements and use of slow-motion really add to the sadness of the situation, and emotion attached to the song. Also, the use of wide angle landscape shots of the areas used in the final film adds to the ‘epicness’ of the song.
Wiz Khalifa - See You Again
To see our lyric analysis and why we originally considered this as one of our top 3 songs, click the button below.
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As the title suggests, the video is about relationships. In the video, there are multiple different couples, including homosexual ones. Stories of them meeting and sharing experiences is shown in the video. There are extreme close ups of them being suggestive, such as whispers in each other’s ears, trying to avoid eye contact because of nerves, subtle touches and looking passionately at each other, all the kinds of things you expect between couples.
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A lot of slow-motion is used, (much like many other videos) when they are all about to kiss their partner, and it seems to slow down further when the chorus hits. They’re not paying attention to anything around them, just the other person involved. Since our song of choice is also about love, we could try to show both characters being completely engrossed in each other.
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As the chorus finishes, their kisses break off and other people are seen, but not focused on. They are in the foreground or background, blurred by the shallow depth of field, sometimes obstructing the face of the character in focus, showing how they are only paying attention to one another, no one else. Selectively blurring out other irrelevant character or objects gets you to focus on something or shows you what the character is thinking about.
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During different parts of the song, the trademark white drawn face is overlaid onto random character’s faces, only for a single frame, but you notice it as it is repeated a few times. We could try to do this, if we decide to have something like that on our digipak, but as Disclosure have used this before, it is recognisable by their fans, and might seem random for us to do it too.
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The pull focus from one of the girls’ face to the man she was kissing earlier as everyone else leaves the lift, builds tension and foreshadows that they will kiss again, as the song builds to its chorus. The idea of them not thinking about anything else is reinforced when the pairs of characters suddenly appear in a black room, with twinkling particles floating around, while the camera tracks around them as they stand closely together kissing once again.
At the end of the video, some of the couples have the logo overlaid onto their faces too, but for much longer than one frame like the extras. It is just a final reminder you’re watching a Disclosure video. There are so many close ups of people’s lips, eyes, faces, hands and other body parts, showing their nerves, excitement and concentration while being with someone they like, and how they’re all natural human reactions. The slow-motion combined with extreme close ups emphasises their reactions, which would typically go un-noticed by others, which I like. I will suggest we do something similar, since our song is about a relationship.
Disclosure - Latch ft. Sam Smith
