Analysis of student videos

 Walking with elephants

I have chosen to analyse this video because I think it is one that my group should aspire for our video to be like because all the shots look so professional and high quality and the beat fits the timing of the shots that they have and overall it is one of the best student music videos that I have seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=498oCIxE7fI

 From the very beginning they have this surveillance camera effect on the shot which shows them running up the stairs. This effect makes the shot look very real and as if they have actual footage from a CCTV camera which starts the story that they are going to tell through out the video. This filter suggests that they are being watched by someone that they might not want watching them and also shows them as doing something they maybe shouldn't be doing. This would not be as clear if they hadn't used this effect and would have taken more time for the audience to understand the story if they has used a normal effect.

In this section of the video they used a darks background and lighting with vibrant colours like spotlights of blue, red and green to shine on the artists face and body. This was very effective because f allowed us to see the lyrics on the screen very clearly because of the dark background. The lighting worked very well also because the vibrant colours were very little but made the shot look a lot less dull than it would if it was just black lighting with the white writing on top. The white writing was very large and bold and stayed on the screen very briefly as each word appeared because the lyrics were very quick. The worlds were shown on time which was good because if thy were out of time with the actual lyrics then it would look very sloppy and rushed. In this shot even though you have the dark background and the titles covering the artist we are still able to see him lip syncing and singing along with the song so that we aren't excluded from the artist.

There were also many shots that had been layered so that I had the effect of flickering and almost jolting which fitted with the beat every time they made this effect. They also used images of other media products within their video for example there was a section with a clip of the lion from the Life of Pi movie which was related to the lyrics of the song "kinda like the Life of Pi". Having this clear relationship between the lyrics and the video shows us that they have analysed the lyrics in detail and tried to visually show them in multiple different shots as they do this in another scene with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air logo and Saved By the Bell, these were in relation to these lyrics, "Bit nostalgic now I'm feening Fresh Prince, Saved By the Bell's what it might be".

Another  technique in editing that they used was this multiple clips of the same shots, this shows that they want repetition and perhaps emphasis on this specific shot because they are showing it 9 times. This shot is very simple to create but has a very large effect because it can show a lyric repetition or emphasis an important lyric in the song whilst looking professional.

Throughout this video their strength is editing and this clip shows an intricate geometric design on the outside almost like the background to the rectangle shot in the middle with the artist in the centre singing. This is one of the most professional shots in the video because it shows so much all in just one shot, we are able to see the artist singing, the location of him and the colourful background relating back to the lyrics again. This is proving Andrew Goodwin's theory of music videos that there needs to be a relationship between the lyrics and the visual aspects of the video.

This shot shows all of the characters and artists involved in the song in a high shot from the sky that looks very clean and clear. This allows us to see their location which appears to be in a garden or in the grounds of a place that hasn't been shown in the video. It also allows us to see the Mise en Scene with their clothing which is very dark with black, khaki and blue as the main colours of all their outfits. This adds to the mystery of the story that they are trying to tell because dark colours are often associated with mystery and the unknown. Using dark colours also makes them look more professional and as they are apart of a close group because they are all in very similar clothes they all have a visual connection which the audience are able to see with this wide shot.