STUDENTS WORK 'WALKING HOME' MUSIC VIDEO TASK ANALYSIS

To help us with our own music videos we looked at student video from last year. It really helped us because it showed us what worked and what didn't. It also gave us some ideas about how to construct our shots. The music video is both narrative and performance based. Like the music video for ‘Nicotine and Alcohol Saved My Life’ this music video uses the idea of memories and also the technique of a fragmented narrative this makes it more interesting because it allows the audience to keep guessing about what is going to happen and whether or not there is going to be a happy conclusion. This has been achieved by the use of cross fades which shows the transitions from scene to scene.

 

Mood and atmosphere have been created through the use of colour and desaturation. Bright colours have been used to create a happy atmosphere as well as creating the fragmented narrative because the couple are together. By filming at the magic hour the students were able to achieve quite a romantic and happy atmosphere which also adds to the vibrant colours. This is juxtaposed by the use of the desaturation effect because it makes the scene appear sad and dull which makes the shots look quite effective because the male character is all alone and so this makes us sympathise with the character. However using the magic hour means that the students were able to achieve lots of different lens flares from the diegetic lighting which was the sun. This makes the shots more interesting and adds depth to the shots.

 

Having the ‘artist’ walking with a tripod and a camera means that a star image is created as there is a close up of him. It also means that he is addressing the camera which is typical of performance based music videos. The audience are also able to see him lip syncing to the camera and so this has made a good performance based video as the lip syncing is well performed and the camera technique has made it more interesting. A slow pace of edit matches the speed of the music and so this adds to the sad and lonely atmosphere. A low angle has been used which makes him appear dominant; however, this would have made more sense to have a high angle to make him appear vulnerable. Although, this has made us think about camera angles and how we could make our characters appear to the audience.  

 

There is also a continuity error where in one scene the girl is wearing a jumper and then in another she isn’t and so this has make us think carefully about keeping the continuity throughout the music video. The use of rule of thirds and leading lines has been used to make the shots more interesting and makes the scene more alluring. By watching this music video task we have been able to see what a student outcome looks like and made us all think about things that could incorporate and improve in our music video.