Spider Diagram on the Conventions of Music Videos

Ed Sheeran - Lego House

I've decided to analyse this song because it is of the same genre as the song we have picked to create a music video for, and we've taken a lot of inspiration from this video.

In this narrative style music video Rupert Grint is in search of something, and the video takes him through his journey. The pace of the editing is slow because of the slow paced acoustic song. I think its very important for the video to be contrapuntal to the sound, the video and pace of editing must reflect the song and especially the mood and feel of the song. This is something we have achieve to create a successful music video. There is also use of lip synch which is crucial in making it an effective music video for the genre of music. Lip synching naturally difficult, however my group has decided to go ahead and try it.We were in two minds whether or not to try it because if its not executed properly it looks amateur however if executed perfectly it will really help to make our music video successful as lip synching is a typical convention in music videos.

Another technique that makes "Lego House" a successful video is the direct address on Rupert Grints behalf. By looking straight into camera Rupert Grint immediately builds this intimate relationship with the audience which is very important. This is something we will make the actor do in our video so the audience can connect and sympathise with him.

The use of close-ups and medium close-ups establishes Rupert as the main character. We instantly feel drawn to him via them shot types. The is an almost voyeuristic element to this video at times as we can see the character without him know. The camera movement is used in a variety of ways and to great effect. At times the camera backward tracks him, so he's walking towards the camera as the camera moves backwards. This allows the audience to see his face, however they wont be aware of where he is walking to which adds an enigmatic quality to his journey. We plan to use this, along with other, camera movement in our video. What makes this a good video is the strong narrative and the clever way the director tells it. What I perhaps don't like is the costume. I don't plan to have our protagonist wearing those types of clothes in my music video. 

Arctic Monkeys - R U Mine?

I picked to analyse this video because its different to most others that I've seen in some aspects. The director has interestingly decided to keep the footage black and white which didn't occur to me until now. Even though it is black and white and it clearly well lit and still a very effective video. The other reason for its uniqueness is that the majority of the video is shot in the small confines of a car. The footage in the car is all one shot however Alex Turner moves the camera around at times. To pull this video off you need a very charismatic lead singer who is portrayed to as the star image of this band. I think its a very clever concept and although I cant recreate the footage in the car, I will be taking ideas from this to use in my own music video e.g black and white.

Towards the end of the video the boys get out and perform as a band. As well as having big back lights, they also use flares carried and waved around by attractive girls. The performance at an end of a narrative styled video is quite common, as it also happens in Foo Fighters video for "Walk".

Eric Prydz - Call On Me

This music video has sexually erotic content and has a very voyeuristic quality to it which I found is very common among music videos of the dance and RnB genre.

The concept of this video is girls working out in the gym to the song. This music video appeal mainly to the men for obvious reasons. It may also appeal to the women as they would like to achieve the level of fitness as the girls in the video. It is effectively edited as it cuts on the beat which seems to be common among music videos that I have analysed so its something I will also do when I come to editing the video. The mise-en-scene in this video is thought out, the costumes add verisimilitude to the video and also attracts men. It's a good video to look at as they have only used one location however its still an effective video. The room is well lit with artificial soft lighting which reflects off the mirrors and make the girls in the video look very beautiful.

It's important to consider lighting very carefully as you want to make your artist look as appealing as possible to attract and audience. Lighting helps to highlight angelic features which gives star image to the artist. This is achieved by 3 point lighting which is something I will try and use in my video if possible. Obviously if I try to shoot footage on an outdoor location, lighting will be very hard to control so using a room with mirrors seems a very good idea.

Overall the video is parallel with the music and its a well edited, and well shot video. The use of varied camera shots are effective. Close-ups are commonly used and I think they help make a video that much better. It helps the audience connect with the artist. The pace of editing is very quick and on the beat and something I will obviously try and avoid is having shots that are too long as they will kill the pace of the video. I have learnt from this video, and others I have analysed that you have to vary your camerawork for it to be effective which is something I will consciously do when it comes to filming.