An analysis of three music videos of different genres

Chase and Status featuring Plan B - End Credits

Chase and Status are an electronic production duo from London. They mainly stick to the genres of drum and bass, dub step and hip hop. Their record label is Mercury Records and their label type is Major Label. The band members of chase and status are Saul Milton known as (chase) and Will Hennaed who is known as (status). In this music video, chase and status have done the sound and have played it with the vocals of Plan B. The genre of this song is drum and bass; this is because the music video mainly focuses on gang culture and crime.

The start of the music video begins with a medium close up, low angle shot of the main character or the singer (Plan B) falling down to the ground. This shot has been slowed down to go with the slow instrumental guitar sound. Near to when the vocals start, special effects have been added to the guitar to building up tension and to create a different tone. The singer in the video is seen as the main vocal point showing that this is his song and he is singing. He is wearing a grey hoodie with the hood up as he is falling to the ground. This instantly tells the audience what kind of genre it is and the main topic of the video will be about crime, violence and show gang culture. As he (Plan B) is falling there is a dark disfigured man in the background, he too is wearing a hoodie, he seems to be watching Plan B fall. After there is a close up reaction shot of the side of Plan B's face as he hits the ground, this is shot has been slowed down like the first shot. Personally I feel that this is very effective, especially for the start of the music video because it keeps the viewers wanting to carry on watching the whole of the music video. Throughout the video, it has been filmed at night and most of the shots have been filtered to create a sense of coldness and to make it gloomy. This is a typical technique for music genres such as drum and bass. About 45 seconds into the video, vocals start with lip synchronisation. This close up shot shows Plan B waking up after falling to the ground, his eyes are looking from left to right with confusion. 

As soon as the drums kick in, there is a series of fast close up shots of photographs of a murder investigation, people with blood on their faces and medium shots of Plan B. The fast close up shots match the beat of the song showing that the director of this video has matched the video with the rhythm of the song. Straight after this Plan B is shown wearing a suit and sitting at a table with people who are questioning him, there is no other dialogue just the vocal of the song on the music. This scene is shot in a dark small room with a green or blue filter to create a sense of coldness. Being the people who are questioning his is a clone of Plan B but he is wearing a grey hoodie as we have seen him before wearing this. No one else can see his but Plan B who is sitting at the table; this means that he is imagining this as his own conscience. His clone looks as though his is mocking the police who are questioning Plan B who are wearing a suit. There is another quick shot, this time it is in white filter showing a man’s face towards the bottom half of the shaky camera. This could be put in so that it breaks up the tension that has already been shown in the video or to show a behind the scene footage. 

The next scene shows the outside at night, giving another edgy effect. This is a high angle shot of a gang crowding around someone who is lying on the floor getting badly beaten up. Giving more evidence to what the genre is by showing gang culture. There is also graffiti on the walls and the pillars on the building. It is then followed by a medium close up of an old man who is looking out of his window watching the gang beating up someone. We then go back to the close up of the side of the singer's face that is lying on the floor. All of the closes up shots of Plan B wearing the grey hoodie are shown in lip synchronisation. This shows that the director has chosen to do the lip sync in one steady shot and not to go through scenes with different outfits on, making it easier to get the lip sync right at the first few times when filming it. We get another repeated shot of the gang outside and the old man looking out of the window, this reflects why the police want to question Plan B for evidence.

The next scene is inside a dark tunnel with graffiti all over the walls, it has been filtered in blue to emphasise the coldness of the main characters feelings and to show what they are doing is wrong. The main focus is on the right hand side of the screen making the background blurred but the audience can still see a little of who is in the background. The main character can see himself but wearing the grey hoodie, he is reflecting his own conscience warning him not to do bad things. From this point, low angle shots of the main singer makes him look dominant from the rest. A man with blood on his face enters the tunnel saying "he's got a gun". Plan B uses the gun to shoot the old man who is trying to shoot them. This gives the audience more information to why Plan B was being questioned by police detectives. The use of weapons is common for this type of genre as it mainly shows gang culture.

This music video tells the main character's (Plan B) own version of the event that happened. Without having that much dialogue it lets the audience know what he might have said to the detectives. It also shows the audience how Plan B was involved in this event. Little dialogue is used other than the lyrics of the song such as "fuck you" and "he's got a gun", emphasising in emotions by showing anger and frustration to why the police is accusing his of doing something wrong. However, dialogue is not used when they are in the police detective room; instead the video helps the audience understand what he might have said to the police for his witness of the event. A cheeky side of Plan B is shown at the beginning of the video, he smirks at his conscience that is behind the detectives as if to say "you don’t know anything". A series of shot reverse shot of Plan B and the detective room marks the end of this scene.

After, a new scene start with an establishing shot of Plan B falling the background, just as we saw it at the beginning of this music video, the shot was slowed down to create impact to the audience. It also reflects what the audience have seen at the beginning of the song. But this time he instead of falling down, he seems to be lifting upwards. A series of fast shots of smashing windows and fire shows his memory of the event, and people have gone out of control. An old man whom we have seen previously in the video is hurt, but Plan B's conscience seems to be mocking him. They are beside a bridge again at night, there is not that much light. Shot reverse shot shows Plan B running away from the old man and the old man hurt falling to the floor. In the shot reveres shot there is also shots of Plan B who is wearing a grey hoodie singing with lip sync. This scene shows the evil side to Plan B and why the police wanted to question him. This is then followed by the consequence to his actions of another series of shot reveres shots of the old man in hospital and Plan B wearing the grey hoodie. Throughout the music video lip synchronisation is only shown by medium close ups of Plan B wearing a grey hoodie.

An establishing shot begins the next scene, showing rioting police with shields. This shot is also a shot reveres shot of the police and Plan B wearing the grey hoodie and singing in front of the camera with lip synchronisation. This shot reverse shot reflects the beat of the song giving it more rhythm. This shot them leads into showing people rioting and throwing petrol bombs. The audience see a different shot of the main singer with a long shot; he is standing on the left hand side of the camera showing the audience people rioting behind him. Giving more reason to why the police wanted to question him. We go back to the medium close up of Plan B singing and shot reverse shot of the old man getting beaten up as we saw before. 

Establishing shot shows a new scene, this time Plan B is on the roof top of a building, he is singing with lip synchronisation. He is crouching on the floor on the right hand side of the camera. Around him are people that have been badly beaten up with gun wounds and blood over their clothing. This scene shows the consequence to the violence that was going on. Next we move on to a new scene beginning with a panning close up of three men, one f them is talking to the other two showing he is the main leader, but the audience can't hear what they are saying. This grabs the audience’s attention; they want to find out what the characters are saying. A tracking shot follows them, the camera is hand held giving the music video edginess. This shot is intertwined with shots reveres shots of Plan B singing. The tracking shot leads the audience to the beginning shot of the music video of Plan B lying on the floor marking the end on the song. As this is the last scene the music fades out giving it a gentle end.

Coldplay- Viva la vida

This song was written by all of the band members for their fourth album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" (2008). The lyrics to the song contain historical and Christian references "look to the doors to let me in" meaning looking through the gates of heaven. The official music video for "Viva la Vida" was directed by Hype Williams and premiered on Coldplay's official website 1st August 2008. Since its release, this video has become one of the most viewed music videos on YouTube, with over 100,000,000 views worldwide.

This music video is different from the rest of this genre as it starts without showing the main singer. Instead it starts with a dark filtered extreme close up of a red rose opening and the camera has been twisted around to show the different angles of the rose. This shot must have been sped up in order to shot the flower open up at such high speed as this does not happen in a blink of an eye. As the rose is shown opening up, the sound of a violin is being played in the background. The sound builds up until the vocals start to kick in. 14 seconds into the music video the lyrics of the song starts along with an extreme close up side view of the main singer singing with lip synchronization. This shot looks as though it has been projected onto the wall because on the singers face there are cracks and there is a grainy texture. Furthermore, throughout the music video the flow of the video is jerky, it looks as though they have cut small parts of the filming to make it jump or they could have taken a series of photographs put together to build up the whole music video. This would be a similar technique one of their other music video "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall". This give an old look to the video, it takes the viewers back in time to when people did use projectors to watch films. After the close up of the lead singer there is an extreme close up of someone playing the drums, this slowly blends into the sound of the violin that was playing at the start of the music video. All the way through the music video there is a brown filter that has been out in through editing, this also adds to the old effect.

Close up the lower half of the double bass being played, the camera focuses on to the strings of where it shows the person's hand. There is more focus on the strings, but as the camera slowly moves upwards to the person who is playing, it becomes blurred. The next scene starts off with a low angle shot of someone playing a guitar. By having a low angle shot of the main singer makes him dominant from the rest, there is also lip synchronization, he moving his hands as if he his telling a story through the movements. There is a brown orange background, adding to the dark old feel to the music video. The movements that the singer is doing are suitable for the genre that the song is. High angle shot of the singer gives a different view of the singer. He is holding one hand up, but not covering his face instead it frames his face. In the high angle shot of the main singer he is looking up towards the camera, eye line match to the audience, as if he is telling the song/story directly to them. A long slightly low angle shot of the whole band playing, to show the audience who is in the band and recognition to the band members. Behind them, it looks as though there is a red flag being projected onto the wall because you can see the cracks. Again, a brown filter has been put in to give it an old feel, this technique has been done throughout the music video. Followed be a quick extreme close up of the sticks hitting the drums, synchronizing with the sound that has been given off in the song. This is then followed by an action zoom out, showing the man who is playing the drums. I intend to use this technique in my music videos because I feel that it shows the audience the instruments that are used also it would be easy filming due to the lack of professional people to play the instruments that are going to be used in my music video. Towards the end of the music video, there is a dull, sincere moment. There are medium shots showing each individual band member, standing still but rotating towards the camera. Behind them is a black background giving a dark feel, plus the cloths that they are wearing are dull and not bright adding to the atmosphere. Deep red rose petals seem to be coming out of their bodies, making them fade into the background. This gives a dark slow end to the music video, but this technique is effective at giving a subtle dramatic effect to the viewers. In addition, the main body of the lyrics has stopped but there is an eerie spirit like sound which adds to the darkness.

All the way through this music video, there is a constant showing of the lead singer (Chris Martin), mainly through low and high angle close up shots. This is done to give band recognition to the audience that this song is by Cold Play and no one else. Furthermore, there is a lot of close up shots of different instruments playing instead of showing the people playing it.

Snow Patrol - Called out in the dark

The music video above is by the director, Brett Simon. It is a humorous take on the performance video with actor Jack Devenport in the singer’s role and Boston Legal actress Tara Summers, acting as the director in the music video. The Production Company is DNA and the Producer of the video is Jeremy Sullivan. I have chosen this music video because the genre is similar to the song that I have chosen from an unsigned band. From this video I would interpret the humour that has gone into it, because most songs that are the genre of indie, pop, rock do contain harmonious scenes which encourage people to listen to the song and the music video.

Throughout the music video, it based on a filming set, making the viewers feel as though they are watching it first hand from the camera and not second hand from a web source like YouTube or the television. First the lead singer who is in the band comes onto the set, by showing this it first gives the viewers what they are expecting by having the lead singer in the music video. But as soon as they are about to start filming he is sent of the set and the actor, Jack Devenport, comes onto the set and starts miming into the microphone. Another unusual part of this video is that none of the members of the band are shown, the only member shown is Gary Lightbody, he is seen trying to get onto the set and be in the music video, but the director pushed him off as if he has no importance to the music video. In most videos they show all of the band members, if not they show the lead singer of the band acting as a character.

The camera pans across the screen following the movement of Gary as he moves off the set. A long shot of the stage in the middle with Jack lip synchronization to the song and female dancers around him. At the side of the screen you can also see the director and the camera screen as it is being filmed. This music video gives a different feel to what normal music videos do, this gives us an insight of what it might be like to be on the set or backstage of the filming set of the video, it gives a realisation to the audience, looking at the video in the director's point of view. Bright filter has also been put onto this scene to give it a fresh look. At the very start of the video there is not sound except for the voice of the director telling where Gary should stand on the set. The filming prop is used to indicate how many takes were made and what shot is it, this further reinforces the idea of taking their viewers to see the filming set of the music video. 18 seconds into the music video, the song "called out in the dark" starts to play with lip synchronization from Gary who is acting to be the lead singer. The camera keeps switching from Gary the band member of Snow Patrol and the actor Jack connotes Gary's unimportance to the music video and that he has been sent off the set because he could not do what the director asked him to do. High angle shot of the set with Jack Lip synchronization with the song and female dancers and two male dancers are behind him dressed in white making Jack stand out because he is wearing grey. Low angle, medium close up of the actress Tara acting as the director of the music video, the shot shows her miming cut because she has seen Gary go behind the set and so his reflection was shown onto the set. When the camera focuses onto Gary who is meant to be the lead singer, he looks unhappy with what they are doing to his song and music video as he is not able to be in it, he mimes and sings along to the song. Gary gets fed up of standing on the outside so h tries to get onto the set. This adds humour to the music video. It juxtaposes the video of Gary who meant to be on the set but we do not because the actor Jack is taking his place. Another camera prop is shown to show movement around Jack while singing to the song. A side angle view shows his sitting on a chair, on a platform with a camera at the front, he is being wheeled forward and the dancers are behind him swaying their arms to the music. As the camera switches from the backstage screen of the camera and to the actual filming camera we, the viewers can see Gary in the background with the dancers, showing that he will not stand for not being in the music video because it is his song. And so the director has to wheel him off the set again.

A new seen with a much darker lighting, the dancers are holding torches, showing a different technique then just to having darkness. As they are dancing and holding the torch it gives a disco effect and also shows movement. The video also shows that the band is moving away from the typical genre of indie rock to a more indie pop genre. A subtle light spotlight is shone directly onto the actor Jack who is acting to be Gary the lead singer, making him the main topic of the music video. The dancers must be wearing dark clothing to make them look like silhouettes, this is very effective because the background is dark as well and Jack has been light up by the spotlight to make him stand out from the dancers. The long shot of the set showing Jack in the middle and dancers around him enhances what they are wearing and the movement of the dancers. The next scene is on the same set but the lighting is back to how it was seen at the beginning. The camera now is in slow motion showing the female dancers jump up across the screen, to show them in mid-air; it also gives a different feel to the music video instead of showing the whole video in one normal camera motion. Soon after Gary the lead member of the band tries to do the same thing. A side camera medium shot captures him trying to get onto the set; it also shows a green screen which they have used to get the wall effects. Because Gary is wearing green he to blends in with the background, only seeing his head, arms and legs, adding humour to the video. In this process he runs too fast that he bumps into the camera recording tape and gets tangled around it, at this point it is blurred which further emphasises that he is not important in the music video.

Next there is a long shot of Gary alone on the set, he has got hold of the microphone and started singing, first the spotlight is shinning on him, but moves away to how that he is not meant to be on the set, and so Gary tries to move with the spotlight, also creating humour.  But at the same time we, the audience start to feel sorry for him because it is his song and he is not allowed to be on the set. A dark slightly brown filter and low lighting has been put on to make it dark. Another quick long shot shows Jack move onto the set, wondering why Gary is on there, then it quickly moves back to a close up of Jack singing into the microphone in lip synchronization with the song. We go back to the same set in darkness but a blue filter has been put in to enhance the dancers. In a high angle shot it gives a different view to the set, but the dancers are wearing white, and the blue filter enhances the way their clothes glow. The darkness gradually fades out as the dancers move backwards off the set. After there are a few comical close and medium shot of the female dancers, such as a woman peeking through a gap in the camera take prop, on this "Snow Patrol" is written on it. Behind the scene there is footage of the dancers messing about; however, these shots are not in black and white to how that they would be taken backstage of the set in a normal music video. 

Long, slightly low angle shot, showing four female dancers with the lead member of the band, Gary. They are dancing in a straight light. The long shot allows the audience to see the filming camera and the pre view screen. It makes the audience think that they are there watching them film the music video. The set is back to the original bright lighting, but the dancers are still wearing white. They are situated in the centre of the screen making it easier to see all of them and their dance routine. Furthermore, to make Gary look more out of place in the video, he is the tallest out of the four girls. The camera switches from the set with the dancers and the singer to the screen where the director watches the preview of the filming. The camera moves to a more medium shot of the dancers and Gary, but it focuses onto the dancers and so it cut Gary's head of the screen, emphasising that he is out of place. The dancer’s move of the set and a slow pan towards the director's expression, she is not happy with Gary because he cannot follow the dance moves. Medium shot to show each of the dancers, male and female holding the camera take prop in a line one behind the other. One by one the move behind the line to eventually get to Gary, lip synchronizing with the song and the camera zooms into his face to a close u shot to show him singing. By now we the audience are happy and content, we have finally got what we have wanted, to have Gary on the set acting a part in his music video. Bringing humour to the video, Gary is show dancing, the dancers are behind, he falls through the green board, and this shows that they have used it to edit the background. The camera pan to backstage to show the director put her head in her hands, showing that she is not happy with how Gary is acting. The camera goes back to before, showing the black set with the dancers holing torches and Jack the actor in the middle.

The close up of the singer in front of a white background shows lip synchronization with the song. The camera switches to a side medium shot to show that he was having a conversation with the director. The camera is slightly shaky showing that it was hand held. When he is singing, the lyrics seems as though he is talking to her saying "this is your life, this is your time". Low angle medium shot showing the Gary handcuffed to the poll on the set. Here we can only see his waist and his hand ties to the poll. By not showing his face it emphasises that he was not meant to be on the set. The camera shows a few repeated shots of the singer and dancers on the black set with torches, showing that they can carry on peacefully without Gary disturbing them on the set. Gary is still hand cuffed, he moves away but in doing so he pulls the board down showing the dancers getting changed, causing trouble again, adding more humour to the music video. The director grabs Gary away but they end up dicing in front of the camera, bringing a happy end to the music video. The dancers join them from behind, wearing what looks like to be their underwear. At this point there is slight lip synchronization by Gary but it is not clear. At the end of the music video, an extreme close up of the top half of Gary's face and then a long shot to show that he is hanging from a camera right at the top backstage. The music fades out and the without sound someone shouts "cut" marking the end of the music video.