Analysis of Music Videos

The first music video i analysed was "No surprises" by Radiohead, the band from which made my chosen film "National Anthem"

The first thin we notice when watching the video is its simplicity, The entire video is a static close up, with no variation in shots or camera angles, whilst at first this would seem like a negative, we quickly realise that it perfectly captures the songs melodic, fairytale sound.
If we analyse the lyrics of the song, we understand that it is essential the story of a man who commits suicide by C02 inhalation, and the visual aesthetic captures this perfectly.
Water fills what appears to be a glass helmet around the subjects head, as the water rises the subjects head becomes distorted and magnified. Whats interesting about this is the fact that no camera techniques or editing choices were used, this was all physically done. By using physical techniques that dont rely on a camera, the video immediately connects with the audience, as this is so different to essentially every music video, its almost eerie static camera mimics the audience, unmoving, a fly on the wall as we watch this subjects helmet slowly fill with water.
The lighting of the video is also worth mentioning, rather than a clear source of light, the video is lit up by almost entirely coloured l.e.d lights, the result of which is that only certain parts of the screen are lit up, further distorting and shadowing the subject, its only half way into the song where tungsten lights outlining the glass helmet are turned on, white washing the subject. The use of these lights create an almost cold calculated atmosphere to the video, which does indeed represent the lyrics of the song.

If i were to incorporate anything from this video into mine, it would be how simplistic and experimental the visual aesthetic is in the film, however i will have to analyse the lyrics in the song in more detail before committing to any visual style.








This music video is entirely different to the previous piece is analysed earlier, the purpose of the piece is to push a political message onto the audience, it does this by creating a literal map of mass shootings that took place in America in 2017.

Due to the fact that this is an animation rather than a recorded piece of live footage, it is never the less interesting to analyse. If we pay attention the drum beat of the song, we can se that every flash on the map is timed perfectly so that it corresponds with a drum beat, i found this particularly interesting, the idea of cutting to music or atleast using the main beat of the song as a guidance point to work my editing around. Doing this means that the pace of my video feels natural and free flowing,  rather than having violent cuts throughout the piece which would distract the audience from the song itself.







This song by Rage Against The Machine almost exclusively features footage of news reports, political rallies and protests which all portray the corruption in government.

The found footage in this film at first seems to be completely unrelated to the story, the opening shot is of a 1960's B movie, however as the song progresses we gradually understand the use of this footage and how it relates to the songs message. the music video does show a live performance from the band, whilst this is visually interesting and breaks up the monotony of the video it is not crucial to the song.
The use of political figures contrasted against the seedier underbelly of the power creates a violent opposition between what we are presented with in media, against what actually happens when these people are in power.

The idea of showcasing the political unrest and struggle we face everyday is deeply interesting, i feel that this subject could be perfect for an experimental music video, both literally and metaphorically. I intend to use this subject as the basis for my piece.