Analysing, Example - Last Ones Standing

The music video for Example's 'Last Ones Standing' is a disjuctured narrative, as the video tells a story, but there is no relation between the lyrics/music and story.  However there are elements to the video which relate the lyrics and music together but not explicitly as an amplification or illustrative music video would do.





In this first clip there is a relationship between the music and the visuals where we see quick cuts of different pictures, made to look like photographs, of the car and the artist in his car and they move in a continuous way as if the camera man has taken multiple shots in a row quickly and fitted them together.  The music we hear is multiple chimes which are quite loud and sharp and they come in everytime a new photo is shown to show good continuity.  This also emphasises the importance of the car and who is in it as it already has siren on top of it so we know its a detective's car, and so with the car being accompanied by the music we can see that this car and driver is an important part of the story.







In this second clip, there is another relationship between the music and the visuals.  This is where, as the main part of the chorus starts, the music from the chorus becomes louder and more up beat, and the visuals we see at this point is the characters in the story who are police, are chasing the criminals.  This allows them both to go wel with each other as you would expect some up beat music to be heard when watching a chase scene to add tension and exitement and this  happens in the first and second chorus and so shows good continuity throughout the video for both the chorus and story.



In this clip there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. Where when it says 'Were on the run', the visuals we see are of the artists running, which then quickly cuts into a shot of them running down a set of stairs, and then again into a long shot of them chasing criminals on a bridge. This illustrates to the audience the fact that they are running, however the way it is sung could mean that the singer is the criminal, as being on the run wouldn't neccessarily mean your chasing someone rather than being the one who is being chased and so the roles of the artists singing are different to their characters in the story.






In this clip, the main artist is shown with closeups however, in other music videos the main artist is shown through closeups every 5 to 10 seconds, but because this has a story to it, the main artist is not shown with alot of closeups. To aid this though, we are able to understand who the main artist is, from him being the boss of the other detectives in the police station, also the fact that he is the only one who is lip syncing lets us know straight the way that he is the main artist.





from this video i have learnt that having the visuals as a story which relates very little to the music and lyrics, can be just as good as one that does.  This is because the story draws in the viewer and they want to see what happens, and they can do this at the same time as listening to the song, so there is 2 elements of entertainment, whereas in other music videos which don't really have a story, the viewer is just watching the artist lip syncing most of the lyrics and maybe there isn't alot going on in the background.  This can help us in our music video as we could consider that having a story could get a better audience.

Analysing, Devlin ft. Yasmin - Runaway

The music video for Devlin's 'Runaway' featuring Yasmin is an illustrative as the hand gestures given by Devlin directly illustrate the lyrics being sung. 




In this clip there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, first off the lyrics 'visualing paradise, i woke up and rolled over' are accompanied by the artists hand gestures where he points to his head and then moves his hand in a rolling motion which illustrates the respective lyrics.  Hand gestures are also a generic convention of rap music and conveys them in a physical stimulus, the audience can then see the lyrics aswell as hear them.





In this clip there is a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, where it says 'i gotta leave, i gotta go' we see a pair of walking legs to show a person 'leaving' or 'going'.  There is also the lyrics 'i gotta be free' which is accompanied with birds flying away and this is a symbolisation of the desire for freedom and want to be like the birds.





In this clip there is a relationship between the music and the visuals as we have a piece of music along with the people begining to run, which builds up to the chorus and gives the chorus more of an impact.  When we reach the chorus the music has a beat added to it and this impact of the music amplifies the meaning of the song.  Also in this clip there is an example of voyeurism where we see Yasmin looking at the camera during the chorus, in a seductive/attracive way, however it has a notion of innocence which when tied in to the context of the song makes sense as the song portrays her as a victim.  Also immediatly after, we see Devlin himself looking down the camera with a face of saddness and sensitivity as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders which can be related to by both male and female members of the audience as a admiral quality.






In this clip, we see a triple-layered conveyance of the song's message; there is a relationship between the music and visuals, in that, as the beat stops and the music becomes soft, there are images of open spaces such as the 'pier' which infer freedom and peace (as well as the sun rising, always a cause for optimism).
As well as this, the lyrics and visuals have a relationship:  the line 'the unwinding of eternal rage' epitomises this, and adds to the message of peace inferred by the aforementioned shots.
Close-ups of the characters reinforce this, especially the black woman who looks as if she is about to cry as that line is sung - her own 'unwinding'. There are multiple close-ups in the clip of both the artists AND other characters which allow us to see the emotions and perspectives of numerous characters, thus amplifying the songs message.


The music video is an Amplification as it conveys story's emotions through the video but not the story itself. The lyrics and music communicate the story, so when the song is added to music video, it has twice the impact.

We have learnt from this video that adding effects to video to alter the colour (ie, saturation/contrast) can reinforce the mood of the song. For instance, in 'Runaway' the video looks more dingy and colourless: although colours are present, they are not vibrant or bright. This makes the mood of the song/video more evident. This is something we shall address in our own music video.
Again, shots of feet are used to emphasise movement.
One thing we'd like to try to emulate in our music video is the way the camera circles the performer in the performance shots. This is done at multiple closeness levels and is an original way of portraying the performance.