Analysing Student Videos From My Genre

 Madness - House of Fun

 

The first thing we see in this video is a close-up shot of the universal symbols for play, pause and stop on a retro CD player. These symbols instantly stand out to the audience and adds more focus to the band's musical and theatrical ethos. Considering that the song was released in the 80s, the mise-en-scene in this shot is particularly fitting. Madness is a band who belongs to their own unique genre; nutty-boy ska. The black/white colour scheme of this shot could be representing the integration of races which ska in particular promotes.



From here we have a close-up on a banner and a midshot of what is easily recognisable as a birthday party. The high-key natural lighting challenges the normal conventions of what you would expect from this environment and makes the audience question the plausability of the party.

These doubts are then confirmed when we become aware that the only attendee of the party is the birthday boy himself. His solidarity marks him out as a significant character in the video and promotes him as the artist. He is wearing a striking purple top, dark sunglasses, party hat and an especially large birthday badge. The choice of costume can be seen as drawing paralells with the genre and the band; the clothing is quirky and unique and so is nutty-boy ska and Madness - hence the name.

 

Next, we see a point-of-view shot of the main character in the shot through a pair of sunglasses. The lenses connote that not only is his eyesight being slightly misrepresesnted but his life is also being filtered - he is on an entirely different wavelength to others around him. As he opens his birthday present, the wrapping paper slowly reveals a 'Cat In The Hat' book; a children's book which is well known for its obscurity. The point-of-view shot creates the effect of putting the audience directly in the characters position.

 

 

As he opens his present, we see a mid-shot of him nonchalantly discarding it. This again reinforces the idea of rebellion and deviating from the norm.

 

 

Here we have a mid-shot of the protagonist in the video entering an urban environment. The dull, rainy weather works tremendously to contrast with the vibrancy of the artist's character and costume. The over-the-shoulder shot of the artist about to walk below a bridge and enter a town or city indicates that he's left his own unique realm of kookiness and is about to enter reality - perhaps for the first time.

 

 

The next scene we see is performance based. There is a jump-cut which focuses on a performer who is sat on the shoulders of another in a setting with a black backdrop. The lack of detail in the setting immediately creates enigma, along with the peculiarity of the situation of the performers and the framing of the shot.
 





Although there is focus on the brass players, the camera repeatedly returns to close-ups of the lead singer to promote him as the front man.

After this, the narrative of the video continues as we see the main character entering the street. From here, there is a sequence that shows him entering an off-license, purchasing some alcohol and bubblegum. While the alcohol signifies rebellion, the close-up shot of the bubblegum again adds emphasis to the idiosynchrasy ideal of the video, genre and artist.

 

As the main character is about to leave the off-license, we see close-up shots of the other two band members waiting outside the doors in costumes and standing in stances which particularly make hilight them amongst the crowd.

 

 

A midshot of the off-license shows the lead singer approaching the doors and eventually joining his band in dancing down the street in a nonconformist fashion with his purchases.

 

 

After this, the video ends with a brief performance scene where the 'birthday boy' is finally seen enjoying himself with his friends. Although there is a resolution to the video, the narrative is often left unclear. Some could argue that this is to promote the quirky side of the artist and genre but as a whole, it is my opinion that it's as a result of poor organisation and a lack of thorough planning.

 

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Arctic Monkeys - Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts 

 

 

To introduce the artist, we first see a panning shot of their instruments and some on-screen text stating the name of the song and band. The shot is edited with a red tint and high contrast, this is used to segregate the performance based scenes from the narrative while the red signifies that the 'bigger boys' in the title are seen as a threat to the narrator.

 

 

Generally, the idea of the video is dictated by the narrative of the song which addresses the narrator's struggle with living life as a young lad who has had sweetheart stolen from him by a 'bigger boy'.

 

 

 

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Blur - Parklife

 

 

Because of a lack of content and variety it seems silly to analyse this video shot by shot but as a general comment - It's certainly well casted in that the actors vaguely resemble a young Phil Daniels and Damon Albarn but the editing is sloppy and you get the impression that the filming was restricted and rushed.