Rock Video Analysis

The main story and concept behind the video to The Pretender is the band in a long battle against the police throughout the video. Conventionally rock videos are quite rough and connote themes of anger and fighting, as well as rebelling against society and being their own person. This is what they may have wanted to portray in their video as they are in a battle with the law.

The music video uses a lot of visuals and however the cuts are in sync with the beat of the music. Furthermore the cutting works hand in hand with the level of the music video, for example towards the end as the tension in the music has built up the cutting is a lot faster which links with the tempo of the music at the time.

There is a narrative to the video however a lot of the time it is focusing on the band performing themselves which is conventional of rock videos as they want to steer clear of being associated with pop videos and want to look genuine and serious by keeping to them performing and showing their talent. It also focuses a lot on the front man, Dave Grohl as he is obviously the more dominant character in the group and inevitably the most famous.

Low Budget Video Analysis

A-ha! Imogen Heap (Analysis)

I found this low budget music video to be very interesting and well creating in terms of the budget they had to work with as they would not of been able to afford the most accurate of costumes to portray what they wished to create. That said, the video was of a good, studio-like quality which means they were successful with working with what they've got.

Furthermore you could see that they made the use of what they had around them rather than investing in specific mise-en-scene enhancing items due to the low budget of the film. For example their whole video is meant to be odd and disturbing so they chose to use the free locations that they had available, such as the forrest and woodland which is very effective as it seems natural.

From watching this video I have learnt that when working with a low budget you should make the most of the lighting and editing as they're two valuable aspects of the video. Additionally in terms of the editing cutting to the beat of the music seems to work extremely well in creating a flow in the video and keeping up the continuity.

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The Fix - Just Got Paid

When watching this music video I noticed they had put particular effort into the mise-en-scene as the costumes were all extremely relevant and created a genuine feeling about the music video. In many of the scenes the boys involved are all wearing suits and look identical to suggest that they're all part of the band and to create an identity within the group.

They made sure at all times the costumes were perfect on every person to keep up the standard and continuity of the piece. This was very successful as it made the video seem very real and professional which they set out to do.

Also, as this video is a pop video the cuts are at a much faster pace than the previous low budget music video I analysed which fits in with the genre of music. It is effective as the music is quite fast and jumpy which is similar to my genre so I will try to use fast cuts in my video.

Carol Vernallis Theory

Music Video Aspects

• Multiplicity of incomplete, sometimes obscure paths

• Unconventional order of shots, more freely

• Time space, character and narrative are revealed incompletely

• Discontinuity: pop video draws us away from the narrative by foregrounding other structures and elements e.g. music/star

• Visual hooks are created, linked by single feature

This theory suggests that the narrative does not always follow a standard path. The visuals on screen may not always be in direct link with the lyrics or song in general. With this, there may not be a clear beginning and ending to the narrative and story within the music video. For example in the music video to Marka, by Dub Phizix there is no clear structure within it and its completely unrelated to the song.

Goodwin Theory

	Music	Lyrics	Image
Illustration	Always cut on the beat	Images illustrate the literal meaning or feeling of the lyrics, often just with the band singing and dancing.	The artist is singing/dancing/playing instruments. Dressed as would be expected.
Amplification	Film cuts on the beat but also off to emphasise features.	Images amplify the lyrics, a specific narrative maybe used that would not necessarily be picked up from reading the lyrics alone.	The artists take on fictional roles in the narrative.
Disjuncture	Film cuts off the beat	Images that do not relate to the lyrics are used, often occurs with artists who are already very well established and can afford to take risks.	Artist takes on an image that is nothing like or the complete opposite of their expected image.

An illustration video is the least complex concept to base a music video around as it is the literal meaning of the song's lyrics portrayed in a visual form. Owl City use illustration in their music video for 'Fireflies', for example in one of the verses the artist sings the lyrics "fireflies" and their appear to be typed into some kind of gadget which is in sync with him speaking the lyrics.

Rihanna's 'Disturbia' video definitely falls into amplification as it has a strong focus on mise-en-scene and cinematography, including the extensive costuming and make up work. The video is very dark and almost weird which relates directly to the song and the lyrics.

Disjuncture music videos are used to portray music videos in the sense that it actually almost ignores the original song and creates a completely different meaning, story or concept to run separately but alongside the song. This is used by artistic and alternative/indie bands often to show their creativity and assert their difference to other bands. In this Calvin Harris video the video bares no relevance to the actual song and is a completely separate story.

Drum & Bass Moodboard

Conventions of a Music Video

Conventions of a Music Video

There are a number of common conventions of a music video, which usually involve performance, narrative, animation, props & costumes, locations and editing of shots.

In terms of the artist, he will always appear in the video purely sot he audience can connect with him/her easy and so they can promote their image, and promote themselves as a brand as now the audience can put a face and identity to the music.

Generally the soundtrack lasts for the whole song, however some songs choose to use intros and outros which might add additional seconds to the total duration. Throughout this, the artist will always have shots where they are lip syncing so the audience can see the artist performing the song themselves so its not just a backing track. This could be accompanied with them playing an instrument or dancing if that is something they do in addition.

Furthermore, the video will have a number of locations and when these locations change from one to another the costumes and props generally change too, as if it's completely different times. Therefore commonly they use montage editing.

There will be a range of different camera angle and shot types which accompany the cocnept or narrative often present throughout the video. Some common types of camera movements are tracking shots and whip pans, and then the simple close up whilst the artist is lip syncing.

There may also be a use of vertical shots like high and low angles, to show the 'sexy' look or the powerful look respectively.

The video will often be based around a concept rather than a story, and the song will be the soundtrack to the whole video and will start and end when the music does.

Editing will be used to cut to the beat, and there will be many camera angles used as well as the format of montage editing.

Rock Video Analysis