Analysing Past Student Examples

I had a look at three very different music videos created by the previous year 13 media class, in help to understanding what I'm capable at in producing my own video, and also to see what I should avoid.

Lewis Parker - Viva Brother 'Still Here'

http://vimeo.com/57132158 

In the beginning of the video, split screen is used to shown the three characters individually to the beat, and then the clip is sped up fitting with the fast tune. This shows an obvious link to Goodwin's theory of how the music sometimes links with the visuals. It is very well done, and I hope to fit the music with the visuals as well by speeding and slowing down scenes.

The video is performance and slightly narrative based, as we see the group of characters either singing casually when walking through town or properly performing with instruments in a small space. I'm not going to have instruments but I will have a singer. Also, I noticed in this video that the singer seems very unenthusiastic, which really suits the tone of the song. In contrast, my singer will need to be overly enthusiastic like Mraz is in pretty much all of his videos.

A strength to his music video is the precise editing and effective filter adjustments. There is a old movie-like effect used through most of the video, which seems to reflect as a style and suits the basic, non-flashy narrative. The hazy colour correction also complements the non-flashiness of the song and the old movie effect. For my music video, I'm hoping on using a more stronger colour correction effect, as my song is more lively (but still not flashy).

There is also an effect used on the narrative of the video, where it will go forward for half of it, and then it 'rewinds' (reverse and speeds up) to the very beginning with additional extra clips. This is quite a good effect, as it suggests on how they can just relive moments.

The only negative side to the video that I can spot, is that I find it too similar to the original. Other than that, it's too good.





Carla-Rose Smith and Ruby Gibson - 'We Intertwined'




In this music video, split screen is used as a main effect; it is used as part of the narrative to show the same things happening to the people. It is different to the Viva Brothers video, as the split screen is framed and shows different scenes. Out of the two types, I would probably use it similar to how Lewis used it when he mirrored a part.

I also quite like the beginning part when the characters both turn on the music.

This video is mainly narrative based, as the audience is following a story of two characters experiencing the same events in different places, who end up meeting each other at the end of the song. I thought that it was a really good idea, but I also found it a bit too clumsy (however, sometimes the clumsiness fitted with the cheese). It was clumsy on parts such as: when you can see a person holding music notes, when in one split screen there is four people skipping around and in the other only three, and when the singer is poorly boxed off. However, I really do like the idea, and the music video might of been a bit rushed, meaning that if a little more time was spent it would of been really good. This means that I need to use time wisely for my music video to be good quality.

I like the effect of how in some scenes, parts are taken out to make it jump to the beat, following Goodwin's theory of music linking with the visuals. For instance when the girl is standing in one spot and is moved to the beat.

Another small flaw in the video, is that in sections the singing isn't in sync with the singers. This is definitely something I need to avoid, as again it could become a bit too clumsy. I've already experienced the difficulty of lip syncing, and therefore understand how sometimes it can be a bit of a nightmare; clips end up moving about a lot when editing.






Amy Sadler and Caroline Autey - You Me at Six 'Crash'



In this video, contrast to the other two, there is no singing and completely narrative based with flashbacks and meanings behind objects. The video does follow Goodwin's theory of linking lyrics to visuals, as on the line 'It's meaningless to me', the girl chucks the heart shaped necklace on the ground. This part worked well, as the audience is shown a flashback of the girl being given the necklace, which is then followed to her throwing it away.

The flashbacks in the video were made mostly monochrome, which typically suggests past. It also makes it a bit more emotional, suiting the mood of song. By having flashbacks, the audience was able to learn the story and why the girl is leaving the boy: he cheated on her, as we see him with another girl. I'm probably not going to include flashbacks in my video, but I might include monochrome to separate scenes.

Again, like the 'We Intertwined' video, split screen is used to show separate characters journey's. Unlike the sharp frame in the other music video, this one is more gentle, suiting the emotional song used. Like I said, I probably won't use the technique like this, but I found it quite effective for this particular music video, as it suggests a normal day up to the point where they would meet up and the girl finds out.

I also like the choice of camera shots: most of the time when the boy and girl is together they are in the centre of the screen, but when the boy is alone at the end he is only on one side suggesting that something is missing. This shows that the makers of the video considered concept aswell as narrative.