Previous A2 Music Video Analysis-It's Too Late Now

It's Too Late Now

Things we like	Things we don’t like
Fade transitions fit well with slow paced timing of the song	Resolution of some of the footage is wrong and stretched in the video
Fits the conventions of typical RnB blues music video	Camerawork is bad quality
Tiling 4 videos (all 4 in a row and all 4 in a square) of each member lip synching looks interesting and effective	Lip-syncing out of sync a lot
Range of shot sizes and angles used : wide shot, close-up, match-on-action shot, low angle	Cheesy and very typical narrative used
Shots with black backdrop are well lit and look good, draw attention to the singers	Different cameras and resolutions used for different shots, looks unprofessional
Spinning pan on a dolly gives a very original and effective shot, clearly shown each singer in quite a smooth movement	Some shots are very long and go on for too long
Narrative fits with lyrics of the song
Each singer wearing a black dress adds continuity making it look good, follows conventions of matching in a girl band

Previous A2 Music Video Analysis-One More Year

Fiji-One More Year 

Things we like	Things we don’t like
Use of hand-drawn stop motion animation is quirky and unique	At times the camera movement can become shaky
Transitioning the stop-motion into real-life footage is very interesting	The cut at the start before the music starts you are able to hear background music that the band may not want you to hear
Tracking shots following the lead male as he walks through the video keep our attention on him	Not much actually happens during the video lots of repeated scenes
Slow-motion shots fit well with the dancing scenes	There is a story but it isn’t fleshed out and just consists of a boy drinking and walking
Fast-forwarded shots make it look quirky and more humourous	The lip sync doesn’t match the music at times
Pans are smooth and still
Effects such as smoking and vomit are made to look realistic and fit with the rebellious theme of the video
All shots are well lit with all subjects very visible and clear
Scene with facial features on white background looks very unique and interesting, effects are well done here

Previous A2 Music Video Analysis- The Smiling Lies

The Smiling Lies 

Things we like	Things we don’t like
The use of fast forwarding made it look quirky/funny	Lighting tended to go too dark at times, so the focus then became off.
Professional looking use of focus pull shots and high quality camera work	The transition between the professional looking studio shots to the co-op scene appears out of place. This could be because of the dull colour palette contrasts that of the studio artificial lighting.
Timing of the cuts between shots well synchronised with the timing of the music	The synchronising of the guitar and the music sometimes became off and didn’t match.
General theme of indie/rock is consistent throughout, in music, outfits, actions in the video	The narrative that this sort of genre normally contains didn’t go anywhere and would not catch the focus of the audience.
Good use of props (vintage car, quirky handmade space helmets)	It became very repetitive with some shots looking very similar.
Range of shots used (extreme close-ups, close-ups, wide angle, dollying the camera to from the same angle)
Black backdrop focuses attention on the main subject of the band
Entertaining, effective use of humour
Match-on-action shots used a lot to make shots of the band playing more interesting

Overcranking & Undercranking Experiments

We experimented with a technique 'overcranking', a method in which while filming the song is sped up and the singer lip-synchs along with the sped up track. The footage is then slowed down later in post production to match with the original speed of the song. The outcome of this is a slow-motion video that looks sleek and professional 

and still stays in time with the song. It is simple yet effective!

We also did the same but with the technique 'undercracking', the same concept but the song is slowed down so the singer lip-synchs along with the slowed down track. These techniques can not only be used for whole songs but also certain parts of the song, as an effective use of editing and software 

Editing Filming Experiments

Experiments With Lighting

After we had looked at the setting, we involved the lights. we set them up as a standard 3 point set up. One as the key light, one as the fill light, and another as the back light. We experimented with these, and what would happen if we took one of the three out, and then we went on to experiment with different gels over the lights.

Below are some of the results of our experimentation (taken on the Canon 550D):

House lights - the normal lighting of the room without the use of professional lighting.

All lights on with backlight - all three lights were used here to give a bright look and the backlight makes the image look more three-dimensional. 

All lights on without backlight - here we turned off the backlight to make the subject look more two-dimensional against the black background.

Backlight only - using just the backlight gave a very distinct, creepy feel by revealing just the outline of the subject, creating enigma in the image.

Using the Camera

We experimented with different forms camera movement using techniques that produced very different looks. One technique was simply panning by moving the camera horizontally on a tripod, keeping the pan smooth and still.In our experiment, we used this technique to create interesting shots in which we panned 360 degrees. During this movement, the shot would pan across 3 different subjects ('band members'). We moved the lighting underneath the camera and pointing up at each subject so that each would be well-lit when the camera panned around to them, yet the lights still out of frame. However, when trying this we found that it meant that the gaps in between each band member were un-lit and empty.

Experimenting with 360 degree panning

This technique has the potential to create a fun and interesting music video, possibly even a one-shot video, but from our experiment we learnt that if we were to do so we would need to improve it. We could perhaps spin the lighting with the camera so that everywhere the camera pointed, it would be well lit. We could do this by having the camera, the camera operator and the lights on a spinning platform and have the band members stand around it. We could also make some sort of change to each subject by the time the camera panned back round to them, adding some humour and unpredictability to the video.Another form of camera movement that we tried was mounting the camera and tripod on a track. This allowed for long tracking panning shots that remained smooth and steady. These kinds of shots looked very professional however we found that they didn't quite fit with the look of a conventional music video.An example of a music video that effectively uses panning is Babel by Mumford & Sons. It uses panning shots and stitches them together to create a seamless pan around a room, giving the impression of a one-shot video.