Media
Music video research
I am going to conduct an analysis of two music videos which
falls into the genre of the song i have chosen to do a music video to. As my
genre is light pop-punk or alternative rock I will look at other bands which
fall in this genre such as ‘fall out boy’ and ‘coldplay’
I will first be conducting an
analysis of fall out boys song ‘the phoenix’, This video was produced in July
2013. Andrew Goodwin identifies certain aspects of a music video that the
audience should look out for, these aspects include synaesthesia (if the sound
has been made visual), the relationships between the music and the visual, narrative and performance etc. Goodwin looks
and these aspects he has chosen when analysing a music video and then he is
able to classify them into three different groups, these are illustrative,
disjunctive and amplifying. Goodwin would class a music video as narrative if
the visuals and the sound had the exact relationship. He would class a music
video as amplifying if the there was a distant relationship between the visual
and the sound. He would class a music video as disjunctive if there was no
relationship what so ever between what you were seeing and what you were
hearing.
Looking at the video
for the song ‘the phoenix’ I would classify this video as amplifying. I believe
this video to be amplifying as there are clear relationships between lyrics of
the song and what we are seeing some of the time but not all of the time. For
example, we see a mid shop of a boy riding his bike which has no connection to
what the song is about. But in other parts there are clear links, an example of
this would be where there is a mid shot of one of the singers holding a phoenix
on his arm with his arm raised with the lyrics ‘raise you like a phoenix’
The song opens with a mid shot
opening the doors to a black car where four men are bound-and-blindfolded, the
video then goes back on itself as the shot after that is again a cut in over a
briefcase which then cuts to a mid shot of the four band mates stood rather
closely together, grinning and smirking at each other. This gives us the
representation of unity of a boy band and cheekiness of general ‘lad’ friends
rebelling and up to no good. Within the start of the video there is a hand-help
camera movement as the camera follows one of the singers who has handcuffed the
briefcase onto him, this hand-help camera movement gives us the sense of
engines and the camera continues to cut back and forth to cut ins on him
holding the briefcase and over the shoulder shots behind the singer. There are
also close ups used of
the singers face
which shows his facial expressions being edgy and almost nervous.
There is a shot reverse
shot used just after we see the singer walking down the road. This shot is very
misleading as is shows a middle aged boy riding a bike, the boy catches the
singer attention and smiles almost creepily and sarcastically, there is then a
focus pull of the singer to a women running up behind him. This shows we are to
focus on the women and it shows the narrative. By focusing on the women who is
wearing all black leather and red lip stick is almost a play on gender.
The lighting in this scene is normal day light which is
again misleading as they are committing crime in day light.
As the tempo of the music builds up the camera movement
becomes very fast paced going in all different angles. The singer is also
becoming very frustrated which is complemented by the camera movement as it
shows the singers aggravation. The lighting in these camera shots is low key
lighting which helps build up the tense atmosphere.
The camera jumps between three different shots which are all
controversial. One is of the singer getting tortured in a dark, compacted room.
Another is of the boy riding his bike in what looks like a friendly
neighbourhood in day light and the other shot is two of a couple in bed
together.
Towards the end of the video the singer which has been
tortured has got blood all over his body as the lyrics read ‘put on your war
paint’ again, classing this video as amplifying. The video is suggesting that
to have wounds, or having blood, is almost classed as bravery? This responds to
the music by having the imagery as portraying what the lyrics are
representing.
The second video I
have decided to analyse is ‘the scientist’ by th band coldplay which again is a
band which falls into the same genre. The music video is about a car crash, yet
again, like the first video I analysed it tells the story backwards. The first
shot is of the lead singer, the camera zooms out very slowly going with the
pace of the music, supporting Andrew Goodwins theory with the visuals relating
to the sound. With the first shot focusing on the performer this also supports
Goodwins theory as he states that the performer is often focused on and shown
off. Which the first shot is doing. This is important as it gives us a clear
understanding of who we should be focusing on in the music video which is what
Andrews ideas were.
As the whole video is reversed it shows editing plays a big
role within the music video. The camera tracks around the performer as reversed
editing is used as he gets up. Again with the video being is reverse and going
backwards is referring back to Goodwins theory of relationships between visuals
and sounds as the lyrics read ‘lets go back to the start’
There is low key lighting used during the video whih adds
and creates a dull atmosphere. Mis en scene is used to make the video more
realistic. For example the mattress he is lying on isn’t that odd to find in a
low classed town with graffiti.
A long shot is used showing the singer walking across the
train tracks which again is showing the depressing tone and atmosphere of the
song. This is again creating relationship between the visual and sound. There are
many close ups used within the video of the performer face to show emotion and
reaction.
