Craig Davis' Analysis

In this post, we going use to an analysis checklist created by Craig Davis to analysis our own music video.

1. Narrative type

Illustration - our video falls into this narrative type as it simply visualizes the music and gives meaning to the lyrics. As with most music videos, the narrative illustration is combined with a performance. As Davis' mentions, narratives are rarely complex because they need to market the band/artist and song; we had this idea in mind when we were coming up with our narrative.

2. Performance type

Conventions of solo artist performance - a common music video aspect is lip-syncing. As there are no instruments in our video, we focused exclusively on the lip-syncing parts. This was key due to the fact our song features a solo artist so during the performance parts, he would be addressing the viewer through camera. This required close ups and shots where our performer's mouth was clear and predominate. Our performer is also part of the narrative, being the lead male in the story, so the video's cuts between the performance and the narrative, being what Davis calls a "hybrid form" form of editing.

3. Audio-Viual Technical Codes:

Camera shots: Our videos features a wide variety of shots, the main ones being medium shots and close ups. The close ups fits in with the main generic convention for music videos of seeing the singer's face while there singing.

Camera movements: During outside shots when our performer was walking around, we used a crane do tracking shot and to tilt the camera for high shots. Furthermore, during the "black background" parts of our video, we re-used the crane, it being stationary this time, to get the camera to vertically tilt for high or low shots.

Editing: Throughout our video, we used jump cuts and the so-called "MTV style" editing. We did this to give what Davis calls "a de-centred experience" of jumping from location to location giving the narrative a sort of fractured continuity; an aspect we agreed as a group to be common to narrative music videos.

Post-production digital effects: Digital effects were throughout our video. A key example being the "Reflection fade" scenes, where the performer's reflection in the mirror fades out of view. Slow motion , colorization and glow filters were also utilized.

Lighting: We used lighting in the "black background" scenes to remove the background naturally instead of wasting time doing it the computer way. We also used this as expressive lighting to add mood to the scenes.

Mis-en-scene: We aimed to design a sort of "urban chavvy" Mis-en-scene in our music video. We did this through clothing (hoodies) and through the areas we filmed at (estates) We also found an area covered in graffiti, adding to the design.