Music Video Examples (a critique) P1 (a-f)

Video No.1 - This is the music video I have chosen that I do not think was done very well. 


Purpose
The purpose of this music video is to advertise for Sam Smith's music, it will be shown on TV programmes regularly. This is to get attention from viewers so they can hear the song and then purchase it on sites such as iTunes. Sam Smith also wrote this song and performed this music video because a lot of his music is based on experiences that he has had with relationships, so the purpose of this song and video is to express his experience and feelings on events that have happened to him in his life.

Editing:
The continuity in this video wasn't bad at all. However, I think that the cuts were left too long before they changed. I think these slow cuts made the video quite boring, not very interesting to watch. This is quite a slow song, so the video does fit with the pace of the song, but I feel that the video should be made even more exciting if the song has a slow pace as I feel it is then very hard to focus on the song and video. The video didn't include interesting editing techniques, mostly pans, following shots and medium close-ups where used and then cuts where switched not using any special effects. The colour wasn't changed during the video, it is all the same colour and shade of camera work.

Narrative:
There wasn't a story included in the video, it mainly showed the artist Sam Smith singing in different locations. I think that the video could've done with a story included in it so make the video more exciting. Throughout the video it shows Sam Smith in a room singing and then another cut of him walking down the street singing.

Camera:
In the video, there wasn't a lot of shot variety, the shots most used were following shot of Sam Smith walking towards the camera singing and the medium close-ups of him sitting down in a room singing. This made the camera angles very predictable and boring I felt. I don't think that there was any way that the camera techniques were unique and different as mainly pans, following shots and medium close-ups were used.

Mise -en- scene:
Sam Smith was wearing a blue and white checker coat in the video, and then a black jumper, black jeans and black shoes. Studio lighting wasn't used for when they were filming him walking outside, however it may have been used in the scenes where he was sitting inside. I thought that the lighting was done well as his face was shown clearly throughout the whole video. The shots that were filmed inside, I think the lighting was used well because the background of the room was quite dark, but Sam Smith was lit up fairly well, which I think put the focus of him which was good for the video.

I do think that Sam Smith is a very good singer/performer and I like his music, however I think that the camera work and editing made the music video for this song boring by lack of variety of shots and long times between each cut.

Video No.2 - This is the music video I have chosen that I think is done well. 

Purpose
The purpose of this music video is also to promote this artists talents in the performing arts. This will be shown on Television for people to watch, so they will want to purchase the song on music websites such as iTunes. The purpose of this music video is also to promote the film Despicable Me 2, this song is the played during the end credits of the film and in this music video, the "Minions" are shown in this video are different times, this is used to remind people of the film, to show them that the song is based on the film Despicable Me 2. The main character of the film is also shown in Pharrell Williams' music video, Steve Carrell the voice of Gru (the main character) is shown dancing on a bus at one point in the video. This is to promote the film but to also capture the "Happy" feeling that the film brings to people, which is what the song is all about.

Editing
The continuity in this video couldn't really be bad because it shots each shot as a different person dancing or Pharrell Williams in a different location. The cutting was done well as the shots weren't too long but they gave enough time to have a clear view of the shot. I think the editing showing different people dancing is really well done because it keeps the video interesting and happy, showing that it is fit for purpose because the song is all about being happy.

Narrative
There is no story to this video, it is about different people being happy and dancing along streets. This does not ruin the effect of the video because it is interesting enough that it doesn't need a narrative story, because the point of the video is making people happy. I think this is a good video without the narrative as I don't think that it is needed and the camera work and editing is exciting enough without narrative.

Camera
The camera work in this video doesn't have much variety, it mainly shows medium long shots of people walking down the street or in places dancing. However, this doesn't make it boring because each shot is cut to a different person dancing and because there is such a range of different looks or these people it makes the camera work interesting with the different ways that the dance and move. Following shot s are used a couple of times throughout the video to stay with the performers dancing on the street, this is good because it makes the video seem more spontaneous and funny with people just randomly dancing the street.

Mise-en-scene
There are many different locations used in this video. As it is showing many different, random people dancing, the places where it has been filmed varied a lot. This made the video interesting as well, as it didn't have a wide range of different shots used or a story to it, however it showed a lot of different people in many different locations which I think makes the video interesting and enjoyable to watch because you can see a wide range of different people having fun enjoying being part of the video. Even though there wasn't a wide variety of shots used in the video, it was still made interesting because of the short editing style and the movement in the frame was effective.