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Robert DeLong - Dont Wait Up

 

Goodwins theory states that each different music genre has their own style of music video. For example most pop videos will focus on the main stars. The first music video I have chosen to review and analyse is Robert DeLongs Dont Wait Up, this is a poppy/electro song in which the music video doesnt really have a narative or a story its mostly just the singer preforming his song in a desert.

 

The video starts off with an establishing, black and white shot of some rocks or a mountain, from this we can guess that the setting will either be in a desert or in a mountainous region. This steers away from usual pop music videos as it hasnt set the scene for a story and we dont see the star in the opening shot. We then get a few more establishing shots confirming the desert region, these establishing shots appear as jump cuts as we get flashes of the area rather than a panning shot. After 10 seconds we get our first shot of Robert along with all of the equipment, this shot of Robert fades in from a low quality image to a more crisp one. Once the song gets started the music video starts to get more in to the genre of a typical pop music video as the rest is focused on Robert along with his instruments.

 

Occasionally in the song the video will stutter to the beat of a drum. I beleive this is to get across the point that the singer is playing most of the instruments while singing at the same time. There are few times that the lyrics and the video sync up with one and other with that they are showing. The only time this is done is when the singer says "Ive got a restless mind" and when ever he says this he is usualy dancing or moving. Throughout the song, Robert has his signaure face paint on, this show his own type of branding and so you recognise that its him. The video ends with another establishing shot but this one has more colour than the opening one.

 

Dont wait up has 131 shots in the music video this is normal for a song that has this kind of a tempo. At the begining of the song there isnt as many cuts becuase it starts off slow but through the song gets faster and the shots become more frequest. Like in Goodwins theory he states pop videos focus more on the singer. This video follows this theory as most of the 131 shots are made up of close ups of Roberts instruments and medium close ups of his body and face.

 

There seems to be lots of different cuts meaning there could have used lots of different camera to create this, there would also be a projector used to project images onto rocks in the background. I will refer to this music video if a do a performance based music video.

 

 

 

Opening Establishing Shot

Opening Establishing Shot

Sets the scene

Shot of the singer

Shot of the singer

Typical pop/electronic music video focusing on the star

Video Stuttering

Video Stuttering

Occastionally the video stutters to the beat of the drum.

The Singer restless

The Singer restless

When Robert says "I've got a restless mind" he is moving about the most.

Signature Face Paint

Signature Face Paint

The singer has his signature face paint on during the song as a sigh of familiarity and branding.

Ending Shot

Ending Shot

The music video ends on another establishing shot as the song fades out

Twenty One Pilots - Stressed Out

 

The second music video I have chosen to review and analyse is Twenty One Pilots' Stressed Out, this is a poppy/electro/rap song in which the music video tells a bit of a story but its more that the lyrics link to whats going on, on screen. The video also has the singer lip syncing through out and the drummer playing the drums in the video. The shots change quite rapidly when the drummer has a mini drum solo in the middle of the song. 

 

The video start off with a camera on a dolly slowly moving down a street as we get an establishing shot of the video. The rest of the video is then just filled up with close ups of the singer and the drummer and then two shots of the band preforming. Like in Goodwins theory stating pop videos focus on singer and the people in this band this music video is a 70/30 split of 70% beind the band preforming. The other 30% is a narative based video where the two band member ride tricycles like the used to when there where young. This is because the whole music video and song is about now that youre older you stress out about money and jobs and the two just want to go back to the "good old days". There is also a two shot of them sitting on a curb drinking Capri Suns and some subitles asking each other if they want to play rought each others houses. Occasionally some of the shots 

 

There was 110 shots in the 3:45 song averaging at 1 shot every 2 seconds. This show that this song is quite a fast high beat song. This is very typical of a music video of this genre because the whole song is gerneally up beat meaning frequents shots and camera cuts.

 

This music video could easily be made with a few cameras and a studio, the only issue would be the bed sceen but that can be recreated in other ways. I will probably use this video as a way to see how a mixture of performance and lipsyncing video would work.

 

 

Opening Establishing Shot

Opening Establishing Shot

The camera was on a dolly as this point going backward down the road

Music Starts When Singer Appears

Music Starts When Singer Appears

The singer is on a tricycle because the song is about being stressed out and wanting to be a kid.

Two Shot of Band

Two Shot of Band

During one of the performance based parts of the video we get a two shot

Narrative Story Part

Narrative Story Part

Subtitles during the story narrative part of the music video.

Two Shot of band

Two Shot of band

There is another two shot during a more narrative part of music video.

Full Shot of Band and Family

Full Shot of Band and Family

There is a shot of the band and their family during a narrative performance.

Close up of a tap

Close up of a tap

this is shown then the main woman is being drowned

Close up of wedding ring

Close up of wedding ring

Could show the married man is unfaithful

Woman Drowning in the bath

Woman Drowning in the bath

This is a woman drowning in the bath as shes being killed by her partner

Alt-J - Breezeblocks

 
This is a very story based music video in which we  see a woman getting domestically abused by her husband or boyfriend, he then continues to beat her up until she eventually gets knocked out and then he drowns her unconsious body in a bath, its realy quite depressing and the lyrics match the song a lot. The opening lyrics are
 
She may contain the urge to run away
But hold her down with soggy clothes and breezeblocks
 
these link to the woman in the video trying to run away from the man who is beating her, then the soggy clothes holding her down is linking to her being drowned in the bath by the man and her wet clothes holding her down. Goodiwns theory states that there is almost always a a link between the videos/music and the video.
 
I did a shot count of Alt Js breezeblock, this music video was was mostly a domestic abuse video but to a slow song, altogether there was 66 cuts in a song lasting 3:46, all of these shots were either close ups or medium close ups of different parts of the two people bodies. The whole music video was shot backwards so you dont really know whats going on until the end of it. There is a lot of close ups of a tap while a woman is drowning in a bath, I think this is to stress that she is trying being killed by the man. There is also lots of close ups of the mans hand with a wedding ring on his finger. I think this might tell us that the man in the video is unfaithfull to the woman that hes with because normally wedding rings are just there and they arent made a big issue of. The shots become more frequent towards the end when the song reaches a climax and gets faster.
 
I will refer to this music video if I do a heavily story based video because this video would be easy to recreate as it was only done in a small apartment so we would only need a bathroom, living room and kitchen.

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