Analysis of previous student work

I've decided to analyse this A2 music video from a previous student from Coombe as I don't know who made it so I wont automatically have a bias and not criticise the video, however, my good friend Alex plays the lead singer. So I've decided to analyse according to the criteria my AS Prelim Music Video was analysed by; Camera, Editing, Performance & Narrative and Location & Mise-en-scene.

Camera:

• The camera pans several times on the people in the narrative and the instruments in the band. The effect of the pan grabbed my attention and clearly they were trying to show some significance into what they panning into such as the writing on the hand-made signs.
• There are plenty of close-ups on the artist and the band. These are typical codes and conventions of pop videos.
• In the performance shots they have experimented with lots of camera shots and angles. This worked well because I didn't become bored with the same shot returning after the narrative clips. It gave me a variety of positions where I can watch the lead singer perform from and ultimately heightened the connection between the audience and performer.

Editing:

• The lip-sync seemed out of sync throughout. On some words it seemed fine, but maybe the style of how the artist performed his lyrics and his lip movement didn't match the sound and pace of the track. Either way, it is a major problem that damaged the video and could have been easily sorted out during the making of the video.
• They used gray scale in the narrative to detach the performance from the narrative. The colour grey also highlighted the mood of the song and suggested a dull and sad search for the one he needs, which I believe was the meaning of the lyrics.

Performance & Narrative:

• The performance was comfortable and convincing. A rock/indie artist would typically have long hair and wear dark coloured clothing. The performance would typically be quite cool and not very energetic unlike other genres such as pop which usually have dance routines and parties. The artists performance is very typical of the genre and the group chose their cast well.
• However, the artist didn't maintain enough eye contact to the camera and often looked away after a few seconds which shows a lack of confidence. Effectively, this threw away the connection and heart felt message he is singing to his audience, and the lyrics and song suddenly became someone else and didn't belong to him.
• In the narrative I understand that there were themes of love, love within the mass public, and people looking for love. Although they did blend well with the song, I would've like to see the main artist in his search for love in the narrative. It would of illustrated the song more clearly and also would've been more entertaining for the audience, as they are only interested in the artist life and not someone else otherwise they wouldn't watch the video. The main purpose of a video is to illustrate the meaning of the song a create a relevant concept to it via. visuals.

Location & Mise-en-scene:

• I gathered from the performance that it was set in a gig. It was very authentic with the banner with the name of the band, and the use of all instruments you would expect a rock band to play. The black canvas background was a good idea as it didn't cause any distractions to the artist and it created a simplistic, no-gimmick look to the band. The stage in whole was very authentic and well made. What the band wore were also typical and not contradictory of the male rock band stereotype.