Tuesday, May 13, 2014
"Midnight" by Coldplay: Relationships Between Shots
My media teacher asked us students to analyze a video of our choice and write about the construction of it's shots. Since the 'music video' is currently my favorite type of art form (in part because of my passion for music), the first piece that came into my head was the music video for Coldplay's recent single "Midnight." It's a great song, and it's accompanying video, directed by Mary Wigmore, is very striking and unique.
First of all, I would like to note that every shot in the video has at least one type of altering effect on it. It creates for an overall psychedelic atmosphere, which complements the music beautifully (the song itself could also be described as 'psychedelic').
The editing of the video is quite smooth, and could be classified as seamless. Cuts are not made on beats of the song, and thus you don't really notice when they happen. The images of the video reflect the song in a quite a few ways; most notably the ubiquitous theme of darkness throughout the video which complements the repeated line of the song "In the darkness." Also significant, is Chris Martin in the video mouthing the lines of the song.
In terms of how the images are related to each other; as mentioned before, they all have very similar effects added to them. The most extensively used is reminiscent of a film negative. In addition, many subjects reoccur throughout the video, such as lead singer Chris Martin, as well as a wolf walking through a forest. Again, all of these shots have the negative effect applied to them.
In terms of organization, as with most music videos, it is rather non existent. In this case, a seemingly random montage of images fill the gaps between Chris Martin singing. I would imagine that when you are editing such a video, key decisions, such as clip length and movement, etc would come naturally to you. You would just feel out the music. Mary Wigmore, the director of "Midnight," did a really great job. It is one of my favorite music videos of all time and I strongly recommend viewing it if you get a chance!
Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQeMxWjpr-Y
First of all, I would like to note that every shot in the video has at least one type of altering effect on it. It creates for an overall psychedelic atmosphere, which complements the music beautifully (the song itself could also be described as 'psychedelic').
The editing of the video is quite smooth, and could be classified as seamless. Cuts are not made on beats of the song, and thus you don't really notice when they happen. The images of the video reflect the song in a quite a few ways; most notably the ubiquitous theme of darkness throughout the video which complements the repeated line of the song "In the darkness." Also significant, is Chris Martin in the video mouthing the lines of the song.
In terms of how the images are related to each other; as mentioned before, they all have very similar effects added to them. The most extensively used is reminiscent of a film negative. In addition, many subjects reoccur throughout the video, such as lead singer Chris Martin, as well as a wolf walking through a forest. Again, all of these shots have the negative effect applied to them.
In terms of organization, as with most music videos, it is rather non existent. In this case, a seemingly random montage of images fill the gaps between Chris Martin singing. I would imagine that when you are editing such a video, key decisions, such as clip length and movement, etc would come naturally to you. You would just feel out the music. Mary Wigmore, the director of "Midnight," did a really great job. It is one of my favorite music videos of all time and I strongly recommend viewing it if you get a chance!
Here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQeMxWjpr-Y
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