Analysing existing music videos

Coldplay- A Sky Full Of Stars

Notes and opinions: This video has not really got a narrative and instead follows the main singer of Coldplay dressed as a one man band walking down a busy shopping street. The other band members join in the scenes also wearing one man band type clothing when the chorus of the song begins and more of a beat starts. The camera angle does not change until about half way through the video, it begins with a handheld camera simply following the lead singer as he walks.

The fact that the general public/fans are included within the video works well as it helps people feel more engaged to the artists. The scene changes in places where the song has a change in tempo which is conventional, an example is when the other band members appear and it pans out to show a quote in graffiti on the building. The use of bright colours is effective as they help the message be delivered that the song is happy. It may of been more effective with a wider range of shots so more editing techniques could of been used.

Olly Murs- Dear Darlin'

Notes and opinions: The video is about the end of a relationship and has a slower editing pace because of the tone of the song. There is a good use of flashbacks throughout the video whilst showing the current version of the singer in the same room, which clearly shows the audience they are flashbacks and he is in the place in which these memories happened. 

The colouring of the scenes starts as a cool sepia to represent the mood of the lyrics but gradually get brighter throughout the video when things start working out again. An improvement that could of been made is a wider range of locations and costumes.

Wheatus-Teenage Dirtbag

Notes and opinions: The video has a very understandable narrative which shows the lead singer as a looser in his final year of high school, he falls asleep and dreams of being noticed by the girl he likes. The ordering of scenes clearly shows that this is a dream, as the first shot is of him falling asleep on the stairs and shows a blurred transition effect  to the dream, the last shot is of him waking up. The target audience for this artist is teenagers, so a story about having a crush in high school makes viewers relate to the artist.

There are several effects used such as a pull focus so either a character or the background is the main focus point, there is a use of different locations to tell the narrative. There are also many shots of performance scenes showing the singer in a school gym (still relevant to the narrative) performing on a guitar and lip syncing the lyrics.

Beyonce'- If I Were a Boy

Notes and opinions: The narrative of this music video is a very strong and deep one, the first shot is of Beyonce' and the actor playing her husband saying what are most important in a serious relationship. The story shows how the husband is the more committed and thoughtful in the relationship and the wife works as a cop and leaves quickly in the morning without eating breakfast with him. We see how a man flirts with her and she flirts back whilst the husband is ignoring advances from his female co-worker. At the end of the video we see how the roles had been reversed and the flirts scene is played again but with the husband as the cop and the wife making breakfast, this is a clever way to show and challenge stereotypes.

The video itself is all in a high quality black and white which gives it a very real life feel so the audience feel like they are living it which I think works really well. The editing pace is slow to fit the meaning of the lyrics and there are a wide selection of camera angles used such as mid shots, pans, and long shots. A way to improve the video is to possibly have some performance scenes with lip syncing, however this may take away the feel of the story and Beyonce' herself is acting it out so we still see her image.

My Favourite music video of all time-

A-ha - Take On Me