Music Video Analysis (PG 1/3)
Jet – Are You Gonna Be My Girl
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The whole video is in black and white. The members of the band stand out from the bright, plain background.
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The whole video is performance, and is very convincing which would be hard to do / organise. A band would have to learn the song which will take time.
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Graphics of a woman appear, because he’s singing about a girl, along with squiggly lines. There is a clear style in the video.
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There are some extreme low angle shots of the singer, standing on a see through floor, making him appear extremely tall.
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A lot of shots are repeated – Close ups of the band playing, the singer singing, dancing along, etc.
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Most of the camera moves seem to only re-frame someone. They don’t move in time with the song.
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When there is a close up, parts of their body is cut off, or sometimes they move out of the frame, which seems unconventional.
I feel that this music video doesn’t give me many relevant ideas for what we could use in our final product. The narrative in the song is only partially shown by the graphics, and the rest is performance, which will be hard to achieve.
Adele - Someone Like You
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Use of slow camera movements, slight slow-motion and no fast action shows emotions of Adele as she walks down the street.
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After the first chorus you don’t see her face for a while, then she doesn’t sing again until the second chorus. Most of it is performance, which is hard to make look convincing, so we will have less singing along to the song.
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The first almost 4 minutes is one continuous shot, with Adele in it at almost all times. This will be very hard to emulate, as it would take many different takes, and equipment we don’t have to keep it as smooth and steady as in this video.
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There is a black and white tint throughout, along with a film grain and letterboxing to make it seem like it was shot on an old camera. It is effective for this video, but I don’t think we would use it for ours.
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I like the use of a close up of Adele’s face being overlaid onto a pan around the location she’s at. We had talked about having one shot atop another with a lowered opacity, so think using this at some point would be a good idea.
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At the end, you see a scene showing Adele with an ‘1000 yard stare’ while you see a man walking off. At this moment, you realise she was broken up with, and wishes it didn’t happen. Having a character stare while things happen in the background really helps sell their sadness and emotions, so with we could try to incorporate this into our video.
This video gives me some ideas for specific shots and editing techniques, such as an overlay, that we can use for our music video. I do however think we won’t copy the black and white effect, as it is doesn’t seem like it would add to our product, but I could quickly try it during the editing process, to see if it would be favoured over having colour.
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The opening shots are wide angles, which helps set the scene, and you immediately know that it’s set inside a luxurious country club. (Which is also said in the graphic at the start.) Setting the scene is important, as the whole video revolves around the job of a teenaged boy that works there. We could have a few brief shots showing the locations that we’re using, that way the audience better understand what’s going on.
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I like the slow track towards the objects being focused on – The plate and the perfume / cologne. It is more interesting than a stationary shot.
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The next few shots introduce the main character, the towel boy, and showcase what he does for his job. We see close ups of the objects he uses and the characters he serves. He’s very young in comparison to the people staying at the country club.
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The towel boy looks very bored, while the customers look like they’re having fun, hitting each other with towels. This shows the age gap between them, emphasising their differences.
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The theme of him being turned down is introduced early in the video, when he holds up a card saying “tips” but gets a pat on the face.
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The next few shots are wide angles, showing many characters and more of the things that happen at the club, having fun while the boy isn’t and has to cater to their needs.
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Slow-motion is used to make the woman seem beautiful, with her hair blowing in the wind.
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There are some parts in the song where the boy sings along, almost as if he’s trying to motivate himself, while saying it in a mirror. He makes a lot of eye contact with the camera, which helps you identify with him. We could have our actor sing directly to the camera, to help express his emotions.
While the theme of the song and video aren’t similar to James Bay – Let it Go, some interesting techniques have been used. For example, there aren’t only cuts, there are sometimes vertical wipes, to follow the movement of the boy running off frame, reiterating his movement. While we will probably stick to cuts, and fades, to show a change in time, it is interesting that they have chosen to do that.
Finally, most notably, a shallow depth of field to bring your attention to the woman with her hair blowing in the wind, and show how the towel boy is only focused on impressing her. This is used every time we see her, keeping it constant throughout. Furthermore, when the other girl he is uninterested in tries to get his attention, he looks away, and the focus is pulled back to him, blurring her. The use of depth of field to bring your attention to something is important and we may convey significant events by keeping only the objects in focus, and blurring the background.
Martin Garrix feat. Usher - 'Don't Look Down'
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The first 3 shots set the scene and introduce the two main characters involved. We see a wide shot with lots of plants and foliage facing a house, with two people sitting on the balcony, then a close up of an old woman with a shallow depth of field to keep attract your attention to her, followed by an old man sleeping, having his face rubbed by his wife. This immediately lets the audience know that these two characters are important, and that they are married.
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The next few shots show her looking after her husband, putting him to bed, reinforcing the idea of them being in love. After that, there’s a time-lapse of the sun passing across the sky and setting, rather than a crossfade, to help show the change in time. I would like to incorporate a time-lapse in our video, so having a wide angle, showing the sun or clouds moving across the sky would be a good idea.
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The previous sequence had been bright and happy, with warm colours, but when the man wakes up in the middle of the night to find his wife’s not there, there is much darker lighting and everything appears more blue in the montage of him trying to find her. Having the light fall on half his face, while the other is dark really shows his emotions, and how upset he is by this. Lighting is very important and can really make a difference in the feeling of a sequence, so we will try to control and think hard about it.
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The man stares into the distance when he definitely knows that she’s gone missing, which is very effective at showing his disbelief.
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The video fits with the lyrics of the song. They include the days of the week, and as the singer moves to the next day, the man has gone from being upset and worried, to determine to find his wife. We will match some parts of the narrative with the lyrics.
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After his mobility scooter breaks down, he gets it fixed and upgraded, and as he speeds out of the garage, the music reaches its crescendo. This adds to the energy of the shots, making it seem even more lively than it would have been, had it happened at a different point in the song. Action matching at key points of the song help make the video flow better, and is done in a lot of music videos, so when I edit, I will try to do this as best as I can.
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It continues with him driving around off road on his mobility scooter, even wheelying at one point, suggesting it’s as if he’s been brought back to his youth because he’s so in love with her. It then shows an over the shoulder shot of him looking at a picture of his wife in his wallet, stroking her face like earlier. We may try to have a repeated action shown in our video.
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He then gets helped by a biker gang when a tree is blocking the road, and goes back with them. There are lots of close ups of women dancing suggestively, but he’s still holding the picture of his wife and ultimately dives off to find her. The shots seem to cut regularly on the kick, helping keep the video to flow.
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As he’s going back to the town, we see the same locations, and camera angles, but him going back in the opposite direction this time. Also, the colours become ‘warmer’ as he’s greeted by all the people from the town, and finds his wife. His face lights up with joy and excitement. Starting and ending in similar locations helps set the beginning and end points for the video, bringing it to a close, so you’re not left wondering what happens next and expecting more.
This video is helpful in giving me some ideas about different techniques we can use for our production. This includes specific lighting to show a character’s emotions, using wide shots to make a character appear isolated and repeated locations / themes to help identify beginning and end points of the video.
Avicii - Waiting For Love
