Summer homework - music viedos

The Last Shadow Puppets – standing next to me

There are great visual effects throughout the video with the effect of lighting because as for most of the video it is just alex and Miles playing their guitars by experimenting with different light creating shadows makes the video more exciting.

The structure of the video consists of two separate performances, one being the band playing and singing and the other being a group of about ten women that appear half way through and do a little ballet dance, you aren’t expecting these women to appear also they are all wearing the same black and white stripy dress but with different coloured tights on, this adds colour to the video.

There is a few great shots, one of them being the screen shot, near the end of the video there is a man in the background with his filming camera and at the front of the shot is a screen with Miles singing on it. Another good shot is at the beginning of the video there is a medium close up of the two singers that tracks back to a long shot but as the camera is moving back the name of the band is printed on the floor so it looks a bit like credits.

For the mise-en-scene it is all shot in a London studio, the props used are the instruments, guitars and a tambourine, there is some globe like white lights dangling from the ceiling, the dancers are props also they all have their hair styled in a ponytail so it is hard to identify who is who. Alex and Miles are both wearing clean-cut formal suits making them look like you can tell they have a bit money, also their hairs are styled in a similar way this could be so they can portray a specific image of themselves.

I think the video is a success as it’s quite a slow pace song so it has a slow video to fit in with it. Also because they are already in bands themselves, Alex Turner from the arctic monkeys and Miles Kane from the last shadow puppets they have still showed dedication to the last shadow puppets as they released more than one video.

Michael Jackson – you rock my world

The video starts off with a long acting section before the song even begins, this bit of narrative sets the scene and informs the audience letting them understand what is happening, then eventually a black shadow lets the audience know Michael has arrived, its effective being a black shadow behind a screen because the song hasn’t actually started then as soon as the song starts an actual image of Michael appears, this is effective as its telling people the song has started, i think the whole performance at the start is done because otherwise you wouldn’t understand the performance in the actual song.

The structure of the video is a mixture of performance and narrative, although the performance is a part of the narrative it adds excitement to the video otherwise i don’t think you would even be able to tell that it is a music video.

I don’t actually like the music video i think it has too much performance during the song which draws your attention away from the actual song, however most of Michael jacksons songs have a lot of performance like this so i don’t think it affects the success of the video.

I like this shot on the right because in most music videos you usually see the front of the artist first however in this shot Michael is facing the other way round. The mise-en-scene is it’s set in an American bar, it is there throughout the whole video, the main props are the stage, where most of the dancing happens, bottles, as that is how the trouble starts when people start smashing bottles, also the paintings hanging on the wall signify the ‘tough’ men Michael has ‘messed’ with. There is a little special effect used when a fire is started as it shows some people fighting and escaping at the end perfectly fine.

In relation to other videos there seems to be a continuous theme where there is a big story before the song then halfway through the song it goes back to this story then there is always a little bit at the end to finish the song. You can see a bit of a progression of Michael Jackson in this video as compared to one of his first videos, thriller, you can see a bit more money has been spent on special effects and props.

I think most people would be interested in this music video for the dancing as that is one of the things Michael Jackson is known for, the people who would be most interested in the dancing is men and women around the ages of 20 up to late 40’s.

Oasis music video – Little by little

The narrative and visual effects work together to give a good effect, by this the lyrics match the story going on on the screen and this helps you understand the video. They use a cartoon effect throughout the whole video making it look as though it’s a story being retold from the past, like from someone’s memory tracing out the steps which is why it’s not a clear image.

The structure is a mixture of narrative and live because there is the guitar being played throughout the whole video and the story going on at the same time.

I think the shot above is a great shot because it fits in perfectly with the lyrics as when the car drives past it mentions ‘the wheels of your life’ but also the way its staged its showing the man going from this tiny little man growing back up to his normal size. The mise-en-scene is set outdoors in a busy street and at the end there is a bit of empty countryside, the main props in the video are extra people passing by, cars and a bus stop, these add reality to the video making it look like an everyday situation. Also the main colour scheme is black and white but to make some things stand out they are coloured in red making it look less dull.

I think the video is a success as it’s quite creative, it has both visual and narrative structure which makes it interesting. Also i think the detail put into the images used is very good, it makes it look like a lot of time and effort has been put into making the video.

As the video was made ten years after the band was created i think it shows progression of them as they hadn’t really done a video like this before, however i do think the only thing that has improved is the quality of the edits and images. As the album that little by little was released on is called ‘Heathen chemistry’ there is intertextuality to the video as the street the video they are in is called ‘Heathen street’.

I think there is an older target audience for this video, ranging from the ages of 17 to 50, this is because i think you have to understand the story of the song to get the video, this is represented by the story going on throughout the whole video.

Radiohead music video – No surprises

This music video was shot all in one take, this gives a visual effect as it keeps the audience interested to see what happens. The narrative behind it is about taking a life, the effect of this is you are left wondering whether the man will survive under the water for the whole song, which leaves you waiting in anticipation.

The video is all one performance so there isn’t really much structure apart from one man singing with his head in some sort of astronaut helmet, however all the lyrics are mirrored and scroll up the screen the whole time which adds narrative to the video as it’s like reading the story.
I think the whole time he is under the water for is a great shot, it makes you believe he was actually under that long however i researched it and it was actually filmed at high speed then slowed down for the actual video so he wasn’t actually under the water not breathing for a whole minute. The lyrics mirrored scrolling up is a bit of a special effect, it also adds movement to the video. There is no edits throughout the whole video, this is very unusual and makes this video different from most others.

I don’t think this music video is much of a success, although it is a great well known video i think the fact that there isn’t much happening makes it boring and hard to understand, however i think the whole concept of the water tank is brilliant as it is so different from all other music videos.

Most of Radiohead’s music videos are different compared to each other, they all have a different concept as the band progresses each video just gets better but different.

It’s hard to distinguish a target audience for this video as because the songs about taking a life not many people can relate to it however i do think it has an older target audience as it is quite hard to understand the video, i think the age range would be anywhere from 30 onwards and mainly men because as the bands all men they can relate to them but just from this video where you only see the singer they can just relate to him.