Second Video Analysis

As part of my research for my video, it is vital to look at other videos that share the genre of the music my group are going to use. This is so as we can see how a music video is filmed to this particular type of music, and also to see if there are any ideas that we could use that would look professional in our own video. So, within the group we each looked at a music video that is from the same genre of music as our own and analysed it. Now, I found it difficult to pick a song to analyse because there are so many different artists to choose from, and then you have to sift thorough their songs to analyse one. I finally settled on 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out' by Oasis. I felt that this was an appropriate band to analyse seeing as the song that we are producing a video to is by the lead singer of the band. The video can be found below.



The video begins with someone striking a match. As you can see from the video, the striking of the match happens exactly as the music begins. Although at this point in the video this visual has no meaning to the viewer, it becomes apparent later why this was used. The next shot in the video is a visual of the main vocalist of the song, Liam Gallagher. This would have been included so as to identify the band to the viewer. The shot then quickly changes to an empty street with someone with their back to the camera. The screen has black side bars that create the impression of a television. The idea that you as a viewer or the band themselves are looking at this person through 'a TV screen' creates a notion of looking as we look upon what this person is going to do. The shot that follows is again, of Liam Gallagher. This time the shot is a close up of him as he begins to perform the song. This idea of having a close up of the artist singing the opening line is a technique that my group wanted to use to establish who was singing the song and to start the video off.

Just from the first few seconds of the video, you can already tell that it is going to be a mixture of a performance and narrative video. You can tell this as you have already seen the singer, and another person in a completely different place to the performance of the song who has nothing to do with the band. As the opening line of the song is sung, the camera moves around the artist from right to left. This shot causes it to become more interesting that simply have a still shot of the artists face. The whole time that the camera is moving, the artist, Liam Gallagher is staring straight in the same position the whole time. Another thing that I noticed when watching this video, was how Liam Gallagher is chewing gum throughout. This shows how the laid back, casual, not caring attitude that a stereotypical rock artist is supposed to have. This is not an idea that we have thought about incorporating into our own video, however it is an idea that could be worked upon. The song continues and the shots switch between the girl in the street (with the TV screen look) and the band. When the band is on the screen, it should be noted that the camera is hardly ever in one position with the whole band in the shot. Instead, the angles of the shot change and the camera is constantly moving slowly from one side to another as it establishes what is happening within the room.

When the band is in shot, the camera switches from each band member in turn and some of the shots have close ups of the instruments that are being played. This shows to the viewer each of the band members contribution to the song. As already said, the video cuts between a performance of the song and a narrative to go with it. The performance of the song is as though Oasis are directly singing the song to the girl withing the video. The girl is walking down an empty street with very little life and blanked out billboards. The lyrics that accompany this are 'stop crying your heart out' - also the name of the song. To an on looker, this would connotate that the girl in the video is possibly depressed and lonely, and the song is trying to almost cheer her up and get her thinking positive again. This is shown in the second verse of the song. At 1 min 25 secs of the video, the song breaks into the swing of it and the drums are played loudly with a continuous rhythm. The drum is beaten around 11-13 times in the space of 5 seconds, to which there is a cut for every beat (as shown with the picture below) This is a definite convention that all music videos follow, and one that we will use. By this I mean cutting to the beat of the song, and should there be a fast paced bit within the song, then it would be ideal to have quick editing with lots of different shots to fill the beats. This is done to show a lot of different things but with only a small space of time. The viewer has enough time with this video to see that the girl is lonely, and is obviously in a petrol station and has payed for some fuel.

The video now changes, as does the song. The song picks up a bit of pace and a few more instruments are heard and with a louder tune too. Songs increase in volume after the first few lines are sung to show that the middle of the song has been reached and the main message is being conveyed. The lyrics change from the depressing 'stop crying your heart out' to 'get up, come on'. This is more motivational language, and the visuals match this. In the beginning, the billboards that the girl passes are all turned off, and now that she has perked up after hearing these words, not only is she smiling and looking to the sky, but all of the boards are turned on and displaying images of clouds. After this is seen, the match that appeared at the start of the song is seen being lit again, followed by shots of the girl walking away from the petrol station holding a full petrol canister. It then becomes apparent what the girl intends to do (setting alight to something - we later learn that it is herself) and therefore shows the depressing side of the song.