Homework: Music Video Responses

Jump cuts were used in Foster the People's music video to Houdini to keep the tempo fast and mirror the beat of the song. Additionally, close ups were used to establish the band at the outset and long shots were used in the latter parts to demonstrate their image and what was going on in the narrative. The band were the characters that the audience mainly focus on in the music video as the narrative involved them - this is possibly because they are still a relatively new band and would want people to recognise their music and their image immediately. In terms of lighting, the band are always lit with an unnatural light source so their appearance can be immediately recognised by the audience. Although these are sometimes not in the shot, the back lighting is always visible and flashes at the same tempo as the shot transitions and the music. The computer generated images (CGI) aids the narrative in coming back to an equilibrium because the band members are able to perform again. 

I thought Foster the People's music video to Houdini had a unique concept and encouraged me, as an audience member, to continue watching to the end until equilibrium was returned again. I think the range of shots (close ups and long shots) established the band well as the audience can see them from a range of angles - something fans of the band would find appealing. 

The music video for The Shins' Simple Song was based around one narrative of an elderly man dying and pretending to leave his house deeds somewhere in the house for one of his children to find. This narrative begins before the music starts at 00:45 seconds. The shots varied but were similar to Foster the People's in that close ups were used of the band to establish who they were and create audience recognition. There was a mixture of blue/grey video overlay hues for the sad scenes at the outset and colourful video overlay hues for the past scenes. These effects contrasted each other and signalled a time change to the audience. The shot duration is much longer in this video than Foster the People's perhaps due to the slightly slower tempo or so the narrative could be conveyed clearly as it's the central part of the video.
I thought this music video was quite unusual and I didn't like it at the outset. I thought it was quite morbid and didn't reflect the meaning of the song that I had predetermined. However, I thought the shot range was interesting and added to the narrative by indicating the emotions of the band/characters.

Cyriak's Powers of Ramsay is an extremely unconventional music video as the song has no lyrics and it's genre cannot be identified exactly. The CGI used helps build the comedy and is the crucial element in producing a video with graphics of this standard. The comedy element (noted as it was on BBC Comedy's YouTube channel) is rarely seen in music videos because artists usually take their music very seriously and don't want to be seen as a joke. However, this challenge to typical music video conventions is intriguing. The shot types are more difficult to comment upon because the entire video is supposed to be a zoom in on Gordon Ramsey's skin so the camera is supposedly in a fixed position. Sound effects are used to make the 'Ramsey creatures' seem menacing - mirroring his TV personality. 

To a certain extent I found this music video entertaining and funny, however it didn't seem like a music video to me. The music soundtrack wasn't really focused on and the comedy aspect made it hard to take the artist seriously. Conversely, it served it's purpose in creating entertainment for the audience and it was memorable because of this.