Music Videos by other groups

This is a video done by a previous media group. We chose this particular video because we liked their abstract ideas such as the writing on the blackboard and wall which highlights either the chorus or certain words from the track. We like that the group manages to create such an abstract piece and yet still manage to maintain what the song is originally about. Their use of flashing screen makes the video that little bit more interesting as you have random flashes of colour and it grabs your attention. We feel that we could use this video as a guide to when we create our own music video. It consists of the main elements when producing a successful music video and we hope that we can use the information and apply it to our own video.

Camerawork...

There's a range of camera shots, particularly at the beginning as it zooms in and out of the singer's face, which works interestingly well in contrast to having a standard long or medium shot of the singer, which is boring and hardly eyecatchingly different. The change in shots also is insync with the beat of the track, which is very effective as it creates balance and is easier to follow the video when listening to the track.
Side shots of the singer makes a change from the usual front profile of the singer. The use of close ups makes the audience focus their attention on the singer rather than the surroundings, makes it less busy and more straightforward.

Editing...

Use of short, well timed shots produces a variety of shots which flick back and forth and makes the video more appealing to watch and breaks up the track, as its not just filmed for a long period of time in one place before changing to another shot in a different location. There's a particular part in the video, which works amazingly well is the part where the shots of the singer is flicking backa and forth and the rooms that she's in is changing from black to white and vice versa..the shot before it cuts to the rocket taking off. It works really well and again doesn't rely on the usual conventional shots of just one shot which cuts to another.
Use of flashing colours as a background for some of their text, shows that they use graphics on the computer as well as creating their own effects e.g. the use of the boxes representing certain words.

Setting...

The video was fairly simple in terms of their location. I assume that they used the black and white rooms for a majority of their shots. It works well with the rest of the video as it keeps the audience's attention focused on what was important, the singer and the track that they were singing. Having limited amount of locations must have worked in their favour as its time efficient and doesn't require the group having to run around locations trying to capture all their shots.

Performance...

In general the performance was mediocre, the lip syncing was out of place in certains parts of the video however this isn't always noticed because of what's going on in the video. There isn't much to say about the individual's performance as there wasn't much acting or the singer and the group weren't moving around a lot. But that doesn't mean it lowers the video's appeal..it's still just as interesting as other videos, maybe moreso.

Genre Conventions...

The video is played for a good length of time, enough so that the audience doesn't grow bored or lose interest. The track is sung by urban femal vocalist, Lily Allen. I have searched on youtube.com for the original video but there is no video to that particular track, there are, however, live videos of Lily Allen singing the track and slide shows of the singer in various photoshoots whilst the song is playing. So the the group is actually lucky in the sense that they can interpret the song in their own way when creating their video as they don't have an original video to compare themselves to. But that does have its downside, as there's not a lot of research involved and you cannot relate the 2 videos and notice the contrast between them to determine what can be done to improve their own production.