Techincal Analysis Class Discussion

As a class we today decided which music videos we would be analysing for our technical analysis. As a group we knew that for our final piece we would like to produce a narrative/performance based music video. Therefore, we decided that Dan would complete a performance based music video, Royal Blood - Out Of The Black, I would complete a narrative based music video, The 1975 - Robbers, and finally, Will would analyse a music video that combines these two, Young Guns - Bones. We decided as a group that the best sequences to analyse would be a verse and a chorus, therefore, we can gain a wide range of both the main sections of the songs. However, for Will's analysis he is more likely to just complete two sequences that cover both narrative and performance.

RG - Techincal Analysis

'The 1975 - Robbers' Technical Analysis

 

Shot Number	Duration	Camera Technique	Mise-En-Scene
1	0:00-0:07	The shot present is a MS, combined with a shaky handicam moving to follow their action on screen. This instantly creates an urban feel to the music video, as the shot is not static, creating a sense of the audience being present with the characters.	Dark colouring, with the male and female characters hugging to show their love for each other.
2	0:07-0:09	Same as previous shot, however from a different angle behind them, with less movement as the characters are walking in a straight line.	The lovers are walking away from the screen; text instantly appears on screen with the name of the song and the artists.
3	0:20-0:23	Close up of male character face, static shot.	Bright colouring, the character looking sad out of a window, the sun reflecting on his face.
4	0:27-0:30	Long shot of male character, following his direction of walking, whilst moving from upper body to lower. Handicam is used again to make the shot shaky.	Male character walking along by a skate park, smoking, looking sad, with beer bottles lying around him.
5	0:31-0:33	Same as previous shot however from inside the ramp at the skate park. Portrays a different angle at a different point of time.	A group of young adults/teenagers, sitting around by a skate park, smoking and drinking. With the two lovers walking together in the background holding hands.
6	0:35-0:37	Close up of both the lovers, slight movement from the handicam, however remains focused on the two of them.	Natural lighting, with a similar darkened colour-wash to the rest of the footage. The male and female are exchanging smoking a cigarette and then kissing whilst still in the skate park.
7	0:48-0:51	Close up of male characters face, handicam, which pans left to reveal female in background out of focus looking at the male.	The male is sad, looking down at the floor, when the camera moves to reveal the female; she is in the darkness, leaning against a wall, looking down upon the male character.
8	1:12-1:17	Mid shot of both male and female. Handicam, the shot follows the male character as he is bending down slowly, whilst remaining shaky.	Both characters are lit from behind to create a silhouette of them. The lighting is dark and red from fairy lights in the background. The male is bending towards the female as she is below him as he sings into the microphone to her.
9	1:18-1:19	Mid shot of male and female, shaky, following them walking away from the camera at a fast pace. Similar to shot 2.	They are walking towards a shop, wearing vintage/”indie” clothing. Holding hands, whilst appearing to possibly be moving in a drunken manner.
10	1:19-1:20	Similar to shot 8. However, just the male is present, and it is a low angle shot.	The male character has his shirt unbuttoned, and is spreading is arms out wide and throwing his head back, to possibly connote power.

From this technical analysis, I have learnt that in a narrative video such as this one, which we would like to stylise in our final piece, there are dominantly only two main characters throughout the music video, and that is the female and the male. With the song being sung by the male, he features in 95% of the shots, as the story is being told from his position, this would be the same in our piece, as the song 'Careless' by 'Royal Blood' is a male duo group.

The shots that feature in this music video are all of a short length. The creates an fast cutting rate throughout the music video. The song is about love and the struggle through love, therefore, this cutting rate creates a dramatic sense to the music video. Also, with all of the shots being filmed in the style of a handicam rather than just being static, creates an edgy and urban feel to the video. This relates to the characters in the footage as they are shown to be struggling for money, and have drug addiction, therefore, they rob the store at the end of the music video.

The framing in the video often obeys the rule of thirds, or just features the characters central in the frame. The effect of this is that the characters present in the video are always in the eye line of the viewer, therefore, they are made the focus of the music video. This would be effective for the narrative section of the music video we are planning to produce. Therefore, the idea of not breaking the convention of having the rule of thirds throughout the music video, or having the characters central would be ideal to duplicate, as we also want to ensure our character in the narrative is the focal point.    

 

WB - Technical Analylsis

#	Distance	Camera and movement	Mise-en-scene	Duration
1	MS	Handi-cam shot.	Every shot is in black and white throughout the video. Positioned in an empty room with limited lighting except a line of stage lights positioned at the back of the room.	0.2 secs
2.	CU	Handi-cam shot tracking out.	Singer positioned facing away from the camera singing into a microphone on a stand. Once again limited lighting with a spotlight at the back of the shot being the only source.	0.4 secs
3.	MS	Handi-cam shot.	Moving image of the guitarist playing. Spotlight at the back the only source of light, now positioned more to the right.	0.3 secs
4.	MS	Handi-cam shot with slight movement.	Drummer performing with stage lights positioned along the back wall creating a silhouette.	0.1 secs
5.	CU	Static shot of drummers face positioned on the right.	Drummer performing with stage lights positioned along the back wall creating a silhouette. . Drum kit blurred whilst face is in focus.	0.1 secs
6.	MS	Handi-cam shot.	Guitarist performing with a line of stage lights positioned behind him, once again being the only source of light in the shot.	0.1 secs
7.	MS	(SAME AS #1)	(SAME AS #1)	0.5 secs
8.	MS	Tracking shot.	Girl in shot positioned in the middle of the shot holding her hand over her face, facing away from the camera looking left. It is the first narrative based shot. All the narrative shots of the girl within this sequence incorporate slow motion. She is sitting/standing on a roof or somewhere up high. There is a view of a city behind her showing skyscrapers along with flat blocks etc…	1 sec
9.	CU	Handi-cam shot with some movement.	Cuts to a shot of the singer performing. He is in focus whilst the rest of the band is out of focus in the background behind him. Furthermore, the stage lights across the back wall seem to be the only source of light.	1 sec
10.	CU	Handi-cam shot with a ped-up.	The guitarist is in focus playing his guitar positioned on the right whilst the drummer at the back is out of focus and on the left of the screen. The stage lights are used again.	1 sec
11.	MS	Tracking shot.	Another narrative shot of the same girl in what looks like an abandoned flat standing still with her hands behind her back.	2 secs
12.	MS	Steady cam with slight movement.	The girl flicking her hair and standing outside. The light from the sun creates a silhouette.	2 secs
13.	CU	Handi-cam shot	The performer is looking at the camera. The light from the stage lights at the back is present again.	1.5 secs
14.	MLS	Handi-cam shot	Drummer performing positioned on the right of the frame with the stage lights at the back being the source of light.	0.3 secs
15.	MS	Static shot with a slight tilt throughout.	Girl holding her head conveying something is wrong without moving at all. The broken windows in the back of the shot reinforce the idea of an abandoned roof top flat.	2 secs
16.	LS-MS	Starts as a static long shot and then tracks in finishing with a static mid-shot.	The whole band are in shot performing with the stage lights along the bottom of the room at the back and a spotlight in the top right hand corner being the light sources. The positioning of the band with the lighting causes them to appear as a silhouette.	1.5 secs
17.	MS	(SAME AS #4)	(SAME AS #4)	0.5 secs
18.	CU	Handi-cam shot.	Drummer facing to the left away from the camera performing. He is in focus whilst the drum kit isn’t.	0.2 secs
19.	CU	Handi-cam shot.	Shot of the singer performing with the bright light from the stage lights being used again.	0.2 secs
20.	MLS	Static shot.	The band members in shot presented as a silhouette due to the stage lights and spotlight at the back of the image.	0.1 secs
21.	MCU	Static shot.	Showing a band member performing with the spotlight causing him to be presented as a silhouette.	0.5 secs
22.	MCU	Static shot.	Showing a band member performing with the spotlight causing him to be presented as a silhouette.	0.3 secs
23.	LS	(SAME AS #4)	(SAME AS #4)	0.1 secs
24.	CU	(SAME AS #14)	(SAME AS #14)	0.5 secs
25.			Another narrative shot in which the girl seems to be throwing a picture frame at the wall to smash it. Much alike the other narrative shots slow motion is used except in this one the last 0.5 seconds are sped up to normal speed.	2 secs
26.	MCU	Static shot in which a pan is used.	The singer is performing again presented as a silhouette due to the spotlight at the back of the shot. He is positioned to be facing away from the camera looking right.	1 sec
27.	ELS	Static shot.	The girl is on the roof taking steps back. Blocks of flats are shown in the background as well as graffiti on the rooftop wall.	2 secs
28.	MS	Static shot with a tilt.	The back of the girl’s head is shown looking over the city below her.	0.3 secs
29.	CU	Static shot with a tilt.	Close-up of the singer performing looking straight towards the camera. The only source of light once again is the bright stage lights at the back of the shot.	0.2 secs
30.	LS	(SAME AS #4)	(SAME AS #4)	0.1 secs
31.	MS	Handi-cam shot.	Guitarist shown performing presented as a silhouette due to the spotlight.	0.5 secs
32.	MS	Handi-cam shot.	Singer shown performing on the left of the frame whilst the drummer in the background on the right. The technique is used again where the singer is in focus whilst the drummer is out of focus.	1 sec
33.	LS	Static shot with a slight track.	Shows girl picking up a chair in the abandoned rooftop flat.	0.5 secs
34.	LS	Handi-cam shot.	Shows girl throwing the chair at the wall in slow motion within the abandoned rooftop flat.	1 sec
35.	MLS	Handi-cam shot.	A change of angle continuing to show the girl throwing the chair at the wall.	1.5 sec
36.	CU	Handi-cam shot.	Showing the singer performing looking at the camera again.	2 secs

I chose to conduct my technical analysis on Young Guns song 'Bones' because it fitted the genre we were going for as well as being both a performance and narrative video. For our video, our concept includes having a predominantly narrative based video as well as using performance as that is very conventional for the rock genre. 

Moreover, this video experiments with using slow motion, black and white, and limited light sources. This for us is really useful to analyse as we want to try all of these techniques. We definitely want to use slow motion at some point within our piece as we believe if done effectively, works really well. On top of this, we have also considered shooting our film in black and white thus is very useful to see how other bands use it. Within our performance section, we are thinking of using a quite conventional style where we are in a plain dark room with limited light sources; this could be something like a spotlight. This technique is also used within this video and thus useful to analyse.