MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

COLDPLAY-PARADISE

This song is not the same genre as my music video song, however I chose to analyze this song as the artist is wearing a elephant costume and for my own music video I want my artist to be wearing a panda mask as the name of the artist is 'panda man ' and having the artist wear this will make my video humorous and joyful. 

•    Is the music video based in real life, or does this take place in a fantasy world? This music video is based in real life, but as the artist is wearing an elephant costume it adds a fantasy feel to the video as you would not normally see someone dressed as an elephant walking through the streets of central London and a desert. 

Is the way the artist is portrayed in the video really how that person dresses and acts in real life?The elephant in the video is meant to be the lead singer (Chris Martin); he also does the shots on the one wheel bicycle, which must have taken him a lot of practice. Chris Martin does not dress up as elephant normally, however he does this to make the music video more interesting. Viewers would rather see an elephant going through popular central London places rather than the artist himself. 

Consider how the musician is dressed - is that how regular people dress?People don't normally dress as animals on a day to day basis, therefore the artist it not dressed regularly, however in music video many artists tend to dress differently in music videos to get their brand image across to their audience. 

Consider the actions taken by the artist in the video would they really do these things in real life? In the video, the elephant escapes from the zoo and uses the tube, and Boris bikes. In my video I would like to incorporate these elements as they bring humour to the audience. For my own music video I also wanted to base my music video in central London as I think that most iconic places in London are very interesting and it would make my music video more interesting to watch. 

    Does the video portray people in stereotypical ways? Are these reflections of real people or are they just one-sided characters? This video is not very stereo typical, although an animal wanting to escape back to his home is quite predictable. These aren’t reflections of real life characters, yet the elephant performs normal day-to-day tasks, which reflects real life characters.

Consider the editing - how does the frequency of cuts from shot to shot affect how you feel about the video? The shots aren’t cut to the pace of the song, but this is because the song follows are story rather than the lyrics of the song.

Consider the setting - why did the director choose this location or setting? I think the director used these settings as he is from London, so he wanted to show off the city, just as I want to, he used south Africa as this is where elephants are from, and this is the whole point of the music video – the elephant going home, and returning to his ‘paradise’.

DUKE DUMONT-

WON’T LOOK BACK

Is the music video based in real life, or does this take place in a fantasy world?The music video shows a group of 3 people robbing a shop and running away on pogo sticks, they get chased by a policeman who’s on a segway. It is partly realistic and partly not, it is realistic in the sense that people do steal daily but having the escape route being on pogo sticks is not realistic as they are slow and someone with common sense would know not to. However this makes the video more funny. 

Is the way the artist is portrayed in the video really how that person dresses and acts in real life?The thief’s are wearing all black clothing, which is ‘normal’ attire for someone who doesn’t want to be noticed. However they’re also wearing a plastic mask, which makes them more noticeable. Similarly to the Waiting All Night music video, the artist is not in the video, this is because the artist wants to sell his music rather than creating a brand image for himself. This is seen through all his songs as he is not in them.

Consider the actions taken by the artist in the video - would they really do these things in real life?I don’t think that in real life anyone would run away from a crime scene on a pogo stick as they are really slow and the majority of criminals would want to get away with the crime rather than being caught. Neither do I think that in real life a policeman would chase a criminal on a Segway as they are also not the fastest and a policeman would want to catch the criminal as fast as he/she could. 

 What is the benefit for the musician to portray him or herself this way?The musicians are not in the video but the actors are portraying the musicians as rebellious and mischievous which is creating a brand image for the artist, as the song is upbeat and fast, the action in the music video portrays this. 

Does the video portray people in stereotypical ways? Are these reflections of real people or are they just one-sided characters?Because the actors are wearing masks, you cannot tell if they’re male or female, so there is no sexism in the video. The characters are shown to be real life, however parts of the video are comical as they’re on pogo sticks and Segway’s.

 Consider the setting - why did the director choose this location or setting?The director has chosen this setting because it is hot and sunny so it reflects the music, as the music has quite a summer vibe to it. It is also quite a realistic setting as there are many people in the street and watching the event happen.

RUDIMENTAL –

WAITING ALL NIGHT

Is the music video based in real life, or does this take place in a fantasy world?The music video is based on a real life experience. The man in the video is injured in a car/bike accident and loses his leg, which can possibly happen in real life. The music video is the inspirational true life-story of San Francisco-born BMX champion and actor - Kurt Yaeger, who became an amputee after an accident in 2006. All the characters in the clip are professional BMX'ers and the real friends of Yaeger. Director Nez Khammal approached him after he found his information on his website and told Yaeger that the band was interested in his story. Therefore the music video is based on real life as the artist has decided to base his music video around a story of a real life person, this makes the music video inspiring to the artists audience. 

Consider how the musician is dressed - is that how regular people dress? In this video the actors are dressed in normal everyday clothing., as the music video is based on skateboarding and a hospital, they dress normally to show a normal life of a professional skater and it shows that they do get injured pursuing what they love. 

Consider the actions taken by the artist in the video - would they really do these things in real life?People that have accidents and go cycling is an everyday occurrence. The actual music artists may not go cycling but they’re not in the music video, however the actors must go cycling due to the fact they seem to be professional cyclists, the video could be portraying that the artist themselves love cycling and stunts but they could not be shown in the music video due to the likely hood of them injuring themselves. 

What is the benefit for the musician to portray him or herself this way?It makes the artists seem younger having professional cyclist stunters as being able to do tricks on a bike is quite relatable to young people as they’re always trying to learn how to wheelie and perform other tricks. It could show to a young audience that with practice and determination you can achieve anything you want, even with cuts and bruises along the way, the outcome will always be good. 

Does the video portray people in stereotypical ways? Are these reflections of real people or are they just one-sided characters?Having only men being on the bikes is quite stereotypical as men are seen as more sporty than women, also the fact that the men are stunt cyclists could be seen as quite sexist due to the fact that there aren’t many women

in the video. 

 Consider the setting - why did the director choose this location or setting?At the beginning of the video, the cyclists are going through a town and it is easy to see it is filmed in a hot place as the sun is shining. This makes the song relatable to the summer time and this is effective as is makes the song more memorable. Even when the music video is filmed in the hospital the music is still very joyful and upbeat. 

NICKY ROMERO – TOULOUSE

Is the Music video based in real life, or does this take place in a fantasy world? The music video takes place in real life, this is shown through the shots. The locations that this video is filmed at is a bus stop, the tube station and the streets of Hamburg in Germany. The actors/dancers are dressed in a casual way to show that it is based in real life. The artist of the song is not in the music video, as this is a house/ electronic dance track, the artists are usually not in their music videos. 

The actors are dancing around the streets, involving other people in their dancing and giving them masks (as seen in the screenshot on the right), something you would not see normally on a day to day

basis. 

The music video almost tells the audience a story, the shots filmed are not cut to the beat of the music as the song is very fast and there is about 3 beats to a second. Each shot is  around a second to 2 seconds long. The music video is 4 minutes and 20 seconds long. There would have been around 200+ shots used to make the video. As the video has many cuts and shots is goes well with the music as the pace of it is fast. It contributes to the mood of the music. As the actors are wearing masks whilst dancing it shows that people are more confident when they are behind a mask, as no one can see who they truly are. The people that are approached by the actors seem shy at first but when the masks are put on them, they dance and run around like the actors. 

The locations are based in Hamburg, Germany. Germany has many different places which are visually interesting for example, the underground trains, which are used in this music video. 

MARTIN GARRIX –ANIMALS

The music video is made to seem like they are in a real life atmosphere, they do this by dressing the dancers in normal clothes and by getting people to be filmed at a rave. Animal masks are used to hide their identity and this also goes with the title of the song ‘Animals’. Martin Garrix is in the music video, however he only reveals himself at the end of the music video when he takes of his tiger mask. The artist is dressed no differently then the other dancers to show that he is the same as everyone else. However Martin Garrix is always in front of all the other dancers/actors this makes the audience think that he is someone special and different from the rest. The actors in the music video are dressed normally, in black jumpers and jeans, however as they are all wearing different animal masks makes the video unusual. The things the dancers do in the video are typical dance moves people would do at raves/parties in real life, when people are watching this video they can relate it to themselves.

Martin Garrix probably got his inspiration from different raves, this reflects through his music video as it is based in a rave like environment. He chose the setting of the music video to be at a rave and different locations surrounding it, for example the hallway to the rave hall and outside the building where the car in parked. As the rhythm of the music is fast and upbeat, there are many shots, there is a different shot about every 1-2 seconds. The music video is 3 minutes and 11 seconds long, which mean that they would have used over 100 shots to make the music video. The artist DJ's at many raves and party events, so he would know what type of setting to choose for his type of song.