Detailed Analysis Of a Music Video

3Oh!3 – Don’t Trust Me

http://www.muzu.tv/3oh3/dont-trust-me-music-video/228101?country=gbme-music-video/228101?country=gb

The music video is an example of disjuncture and performance. There is no relation between the song and the video, as the song is about the singers not being able to trust a certain girl, whereas the video's storyline is two male models being the only males left in the world. The performers almost make fun of models in the video, which makes it look comical. This is generic for it’s genre, which is Electronica/Alternative, as the songs by this band and others such as Hadouken! are generally up beat and fun. Lip-syncing is used throughout the video and improvised choreography. This creates the fun, comical feel to the video.

In the video, camera shots include:

Long Shots

Medium Shots

High Angle Shots

Two Shots

All of these shots are based around the two performers, which gives the audience a clear recognition that they are the front members of the band. A montage is used towards the end of the video for when the song slows down. The montage features slow motion used to express the comical facial expressions made by the performers, which add to the hilarity of the performance.

At the start of the video, a black screen with typed writing explains the plot, then it cuts to the actual video using a distorted dissolve effect. The distorted dissolve is used in different stages of the video, which breaks down the edits from shot to shot. This type of transition could be to show the chaos after all of the males in the world have been wiped out and it is just the two males in the video left. Another transition used is the flash of a camera between shots, this helps represent the theme of the video as the two main performers are male models.

There is not a large variation of shots used, as the singers are performing in front of the camera while it is still. This adds to the model theme as it gives the impression to the viewer that they are posing for a camera.

The lighting in the video is bright which could be a reflection of the bright lights flashing when pictures are being taken. It looks very artificial, like it is made to look like a photo shoot. There is also a feathered edge to some of the shots to make it look like the viewer is looking through a lens.

During parts of the video they exaggerate glamorous life and make fun of things that happen in these situations. For example, the room they are in at the start of the video has chandeliers, a glass table with expensive food and a red carpet, yet they trash the room by standing on the table and trashing the room. This adds to the comical aspect of the video that the band are trying to achieve.

They are shown in various locations, for example the the glamorous room, a gym and what seems to be a jungle with elephants. This could be showing how they are living as the only two males left in the world.

The performers are wear costumes that their target audience would find amusing. For example the start of the video shows them in blue and yellow briefs. This shows the viewer straight away that the video is not to be taken seriously and that they are having fun with the song. They also wear suits with ties, but they are not worn properly or smartly, this shows a more fun side and pokes fun at serious business men. The females in this scene are also wearing white shirts over their underwear. This makes the video appealing to men and shows what the performers think life would be like if they were the only two males left in the world.

The performers don't appear to wear much throughout the video, which adds to the comedy of it and shows it is not to be taken seriously. However some viewers may find this offensive as it is very revealing and some parts could be demeaning to women. Overall, I think the video reflects the light-heartedness of the song as it just includes the singers having fun.

Update on Our Choice of Song

After some discussion over our song lyrics, as a group we decided they could be misinterpreted as they are quite controversial. As a result we decided it was best to change our choice of song. Although the song is actually representing the bad effects of drinking, we realised that it could seem as though we are condoning teenage drinking, which is not the sort of message we wanted to put across.

The song we have now chosen to do is another one of our initial ideas;

Crush Crush Crush by Paramore.

http://www.muzu.tv/paramore/crushcrushcrush-music-video/222029?country=gb

We decided to use this song instead, as it still appeals to the same target audience, but is just of a different genre. After listening to the song as a group, we felt we all had the same sort of image as to what we wanted the video to look like and the sort of style we wanted to film in. Therefore, because our ideas were similar and we felt we could make a successful music video using this song, we agreed on changing the song to Paramore.

Detailed Analysis of a Music Video

The Automatic - Monster

http://www.muzu.tv/theautomatic/monster-music-video/208472?country=gb

This video is both a narrative and a performance, as it is telling the story of a group of boys going to look for a monster, but it also cuts to the band actually performing the song. This music video is humorous which is how it fits into the same genre as the video we are doing, in the video the band aren't taking themselves too seriously and they are having fun with it.

The video contains a variety of different shots and camera angles such as point of view shots, in order to show what the character in the video can see for example when they first spot one of the monsters, this is a point of view shot. Another type of shot used are close ups of the band when they are performing, this helps you to understand the genre of the video as you can see the emotion on the performers face. This video has a good use of fast cut rate because it switches from scene to scene a lot in order to show you all the different things that are meant to be going on around them when they are looking for the monster. Also as the song starts to pick up speed and get faster, the cuts from scene to scene begin to get faster as well. Fast motion is used in this video in order to portray the fact that it is a fast upbeat song not a slow melancholy one. High angle shots are used in this video in order to represent the size of the monster that they have found. There is one shot in the video where the band are standing on top of an ambulance and a low angle shot is used, this could suggest that maybe the band are standing up there to escape from the monster that is looking up at them.

One scene of this video uses intertextuality when you see the band mimicking a shot from the video to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

The genre of this video is very clear because almost everything about it is comical. There are numerous clips of big foot dancing in the forest and it also seems as if big foot knows that they are looking for monsters because throughout the video he is trying to wind them up. An example of this is when he sneaks up on one of them and steals their binoculars.

The costume and setting of this video relates to the song very well. The band are dressed as explorers and they have nets and traps with them in the middle of the woods. The song is about a group of people who go looking for monsters after seeing an advert saying that they will be rewarded if they find one. In the video you see more than one poster suggesting that there are 'monsters' in the surrounding area, which is why they decide to go looking for it. The costumes are very humorous as they are wearing bright clothes and fake moustaches.

There are elements of disjuncture throughout this video. Some examples of this are when you see london through the binoculars despite them being in the middle of the forest somewhere, there is an ambulance in the middle of the forest despite there being nor explanation as to why it's there. Another example is when you see a spaceship appearing above them.

Although the song isn't entirely based on science fiction, there are a lot of images and shots where the video itself looks science fictional. The use of strobe lights and flashing lights as well as low key lighting helps to make this video look like it is intended to be science fictional.

When you see the band performing they aren't dressed in the exploring clothes they are wearing throughout the video, they are dressed in casual clothes. During the performance the band go back to their stereotypical band image, the long hair and scruffy dress sense relates back to the genre of the music and the stereotype of bands from this genre.

Throughout the video the theme of this song is people who are looking to trap mythical creatures such as big foot and the loch ness monster. We know they are looking for the loch ness monster because it shows them looking at newspaper cuttings saying that it is believed that there is a monster in the lake. We do see what is supposed to be the loch ness monster although the image we see is actually just the stereotypical idea of what everyone thinks the loch ness monster looks like. Another mythical creature in the video is big foot, but again this is just another stereotypical image of what big foot looks like. We also see big foot dancing in this video.

Song Lyrics

Theres a story about a bloke named Jerry
Got slaughtered and got real lairy
In the pub he acted obsured
and he came onto a boxer's bird
so he got knocked out
face swelled up like a rainbow trout
his girl found out the truth
but he couldn't explain cause he'd lost a tooth

I wanna drink drink drink smoke fuck fight
I wanna shout, drink, scream, I wanna die!
I wanna be arrested
I wanna be molested
and my heads in pain, next weekend lets do it again!

An anecdote about a man named clive
wasnt one to usually drink drive
and after all he'd been through a stack
and so it was abit far to walk back
a month later and he's sitting in court
for the two lives he cut short
man slaughter he's convicted
for the pain that he inflicted

spinning, my head is spinning, up around around!
down to the pub
up to the club!
my stomach's turning, oh my body's burning
our liquid lives
this is how we all survive

here's a story about a chap named Bart
drank 4 pints in hour and a half
although the night had just begun
cause the local pub was open till one
the next morning out in the country
hung over and on the hunt he
was still drunk and he risked hiself
fell off his horse and shot himself

here's a story about a girl named Kate
got wasted and got date raped
when they told the doctors she'd sued
the found no chemicals was in her bloodstream
''well nothing malicious, but the alcohol levels were suspicious!''
when asked who had hurt her
poor old Kate couldn't remember.

Initial Ideas

We spent our first media lesson looking at various music videos and deciding on a genre. After looking at various music videos of all different genres, such as pop, rock, drum&bass, and new rave, we finally narrowed it down to four songs:

Hellogoodbye - Here In Your Arms (pop)

http://www.muzu.tv/hellogoodbye/here-in-your-arms-music-video/53224?country=gb

Chase & Status Ft. Plan B - End Credits (drum&bass)

http://www.muzu.tv/chasestatus/end-credits-music-video/492577?country=gb

Hadouken! - Liquid Lives (new rave)

http://www.muzu.tv/hadoukenatlantic/liquid-lives-music-video/219059?country=gb

Paramore - Crush Crush Crush (rock)

http://www.muzu.tv/paramore/crushcrushcrush-music-video/222029?country=gb

After discussing our ideas and opinions as a group, we have decided to use 'Liquid Lives' as the song for our music video. We chose this out of the four because we feel we could have fun with the video, as it is a fun, up-beat song that tells a story and has a message. We also feel our video to this song could relate to its target audience, which is teens, both male and female, as it relates to alcohol and drug abuse and states the dangers. We can tell that the target audience is for teens and young adults from the genre of 'new' rave, and from looking at the image of the band and their age, and also the lyrics of the song.