Evaluation of student video

Beyonce - Run the World

The beginning of the music video, the first shot is located in an open area that look deserted, there is nothing in the visual apart from the set. During the jump you see a snap of different locations. A clarified location is outside Bernard’s barber shop, this is first established when one of the characters perform a piece of chorography outside in the snow. Another key location that they used frequently is motorways with cars driving fast and train tracks. Soon after there is a longs show of the whole group this is used to introduce all of the characters to the audience and allow the audience to see their location. Another location that they used is in a tonal this looks effective as they perform their synchronized dance there. The use of using a number of different location make the video interesting to watch as there is a lot going on. They use a bathroom, to create a seductive feel on the audience, a bedroom with money all over the bed, to represent that she has a lot of money to be able to roll around it, a complete black set was used with the use of high key lighting, this was used to make dancers stand out and make them the main focus in the shot.

There are a number of different props that they used throughout the video. This helps make the video more interesting and add to the narrative. Cars are used in the jump cuts, they are moving at a fast pace to fit with the tempo of the song. Bottles, ladder, money, American flag appear at some point in the video, they are all used effectively.

The costume that they all were is similar to each other as well as to what Beyonce wears in her video. This shows that they are trying to imitate Beyonce’s style.  The costume is dark, revealing and sexy all in one. They are wearing all in one outfits this shows their legs completely they are also wearing leather or fur jackets as well as patterned tights. The black costume emphases the power and strength that girls have.

At other parts of the video their costumes change. The main girl changes into an off white top and in white underwear. The colour could be representing innocence and good even though her dancing, facial expressions and costume are completely opposite to what the colour could represent. The last costume change is when they are in an army outfit. This fits with the narrative of the song as it is about and army of girls running the world.

The lighting throughout the video is high key lighting. There are elements when the lighting is low at different angles, an example of this would be when they are under the tunnel. The use of high key lighting throughout the video is to make every movement they perform clear to the audience.

There are a verity of camera angles in this video each of them portray different things such as, low angle shots are used when the group are all together to make them seem as if they are powerful dominant and “run the world” 1min 12sec into the video there is a low angle shot of the girls walking towards the camera looking down in the audience, this is an effective camera angle, it makes the audience feel intimidated by the group of girls walking towards them.  Long shots are used to allow the audience to see the mise-en scene in that shot, as well as the structure that they are positioned. There are a lot of close ups of the main girl, this is the one with the ginger hair. The use of close up show her facial expressions and the mid shot show the audience her body language and how she is portraying herself.

The editing is of a high standard in this video, it looks like they have put in a lot of time working on the editing. The start of the video there is a fade in of text this information is for the examiner board, it fades out after a while and the video gets started. There are jump cuts from one set to another, in between the jump cut there is a black screen and a fuzzy effect. This engages the audience as they don’t know what they expect at this point the pace of the editing is fast. Jump cut was used to show the passing of time. It showed the main girl at one point then the second then the third. This was a more interesting way of getting her from one place to another, rather than the audience just watching her walk there. An editing technique that they used a number of times is when the screen flashed and shows the group in two different sets. The effect of this makes it look like there are more girls. Changing the pace of the editing is something else that they done. I noticed this when the main girl is in her scene, at one point she flicks her head the pace of the editing is fast when she does that but the movement of her hair is slow. She does this coming into the camera so I think that she is trying to come across scary and intimidating. The fire in the background is an editing technique that they used, it is possible that they filmed the girls on green screen and then edited it and added the fire effect.     

I personally think that this music video produced by A level music students was of a high standard. I enjoyed watching a re make to Beyonce- Run the world. They used a lot of effective editing techniques to make their video engage the audience, their chorography was really good. They used conventions that fit with this genre e.g. sexual movements, revealing cloths, synergized dancing, fast pace editing etc

A2 Media Studies - The Killers - Mr Brightside

The structure to this music video is a narrative as it is telling a story, it is also performance because you can see the A level students performing.

The opening to this video is the camera zooming in on an electric guitar. This is an element of performance.

The first set that the audience see is in a forest then jump cuts to introduce the first character a girl in her room then a guy in the bath room. This indicated to the audience that these two people are somehow part of the narrative. Another set is in a kitchen this could be used to portray realism. The main location in this video is the forest where the performance part of the video takes place then the in a house to portray realism and a naturalistic narrative. There is another location and that is in a church.

The costumes that are worn by the band conform to the expectation of this genre which I would say is rock and have elements of pop as well. They are wearing black suites with white shirt, tie and one has a waist coat on, the trousers to their suites are skinny and they are wearing them lower than their waist making it look less formal.

The characters in this narrative have a change of clothes but the audience fist see them dressed casual.  This conforms to the expectation the audience would expect young people to be wearing. You see them later on getting ready for their wedding so the girl is in a white dress and the guy has a suite on.

There are a lot of technical conventions have been used to conform to the expectations of this genre. Jump cuts are used to cut from one scene to another. The jump cuts fit the pace of the song. This is key as the visual flows with the audio. The jump cuts cut from the performance to the narrative. Throughout the whole video there is a black and white colour effect. This could be used to represent that he is thinking back in the past of how things used to be and what happened. There was an effect that was used when the girl and guy were in the care kissing, the audience could see someone outside the care looking in then he was gone. This makes the audience feel sorry for him.  

The use of low angles of the couple when they are together could be used to portray the good time in their relationship as this shot makes them look happy together. A low angle shot was used after the couple had an argument, the guy was sitting on the sofa alone this makes him look small and powerless.

When the camera is on the performance part of the video it pans around the band, to allow the audience to see all of them. Close up are used to show the audience the characters facial expressions and emotion.

All the props use in the video are used to add to the narrative. All the props are used to portray different things for example the kitchen props are used to create a sense of realism. The instruments are part of the performance, without them it wouldn’t be a performance.

over all i think that this music video was really good, the use of black and white clouring was effective. the compination of narrative and performance worked well together. they used a lot of technical conventions this was good as it helped the audience identify the genre through the conventional expectations.