Noel Gallagher To Bring Out Music Video!

When the song was originally decided upon, there was no proper music video released for the song. All that was on the internet were videos that contained lyrics and some live performances of Noel Gallagher performing the song, as you can see from the video bar on the side of the screen.
This has now changed. When searching on the internet, Adam, who is in my group, came across an article on the Sun Newspaper's website reporting of a video that was to be released to Gallagher's 'What A Life' song. The article can be found here. Now that a video has been released, it will probably be played more over the music channels meaning it will become more contemporary. Originally we wanted to stay away from the contemporary music, however as a group we feel that we can still produce a video to the song to a good standard.

The video can be found below.


The video is 8 minutes long and has a story line to it. The video picks up from another song by Gallagher called 'The Death of You and Me'. The video followed a waitress in her life, and his What A Life song takes on from this. This psychedelic video features actor and comedian Russell Brand as he portrays an evil being whom tries to poison the waitress from the video 'The Death of You and Me'. She acts as the protagonist until Noel Gallagher appears to save her from two females. The video is notable for including snippets of a reworked version of 'The Death of You and Me', causing speculation that it has been taken from Gallagher's second solo album.

(taken from Wikipedia)

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.

Stan Music Video

The music video that I am going to analyse is EMINEM's video Stan featuring Dido. The story of the song is a fictional story about a man named Stanley Mitchell who claims to be Eminem's biggest fan and throughout the song Stan becomes obsessed with Eminem. The first three verses are delivered by Eminem as Stan while the fourth verse is Eminem attempting to reply to Stan's letters, only to realise that he had already heard about Stan's death on the news. As already stated, the song features Dido who sings the chorus of the song, and she also appears in the video as Stan's pregnant girlfriend of which he abuses and later kills her. The song is from the genre of hip hop music. The rapping within the song performed by Eminem places it within this category. Rapping is a typical characteristic in hip hop music. The chorus of the song, or the main part that Dido is heard singing in the song is actually taken from one of Dido's own tracks called 'Thank You". A link to this video can be found here.

Below is the short version of Stan.



There have been two versions of the video for this song. A long version which is around 8 minutes long, and the version above which is just over 6. The video is more of a small film which has been remembered by many people. The lyrics are somewhat powerful as the character Stan explains his obsession for Eminem and also how he is going to kill his girlfriend. To see the lyrics to this song, click here. (Below is the analysis for the shorter version)

There are many ways within the video where the visuals and lyrics collaborate and 'make sense' when shown/heard together. This is apparent in the first couple of lines in the song when Dido is heard singing 'the morning raindrops on my window' and 'even if I could it would all be grey'. To coincide with these lyrics, there are indeed raindrops heard and seen through a window due to there being a storm outside the house in which Stan and Dido are in. The storm is evident through the thunder and lightning heard and seen as the room lights up with a flash. This use of pathetic fallacy has been done to show how dark and dingy the house is and also reflects the mood and persona of the lead character, Stan. The next line stated was 'even if I could it would all be grey'. Although the colour grey isn't specifically seen on the screen at this time, there are other dark neutral colours that present the audience with a creepy and dark house with little atmosphere. The movement of the camera at the beginning of the song shows the camera possible being on a crane as it goes from a low angle shot to eye line level with a window. This gives the audience a notion of looking into the lives of the people within the house. There is a lot of camera movement throughout the video that will be analysed later on.

The next most obvious visual that coincides with the lyrics is when Stan is writing a letter to Eminem. The sound of a pencil is heard against paper and Stan is in fact seen writing a letter with a pencil and paper. Another obvious link between the lyrics and the visuals is again, in the chorus when Dido sings 'but your picture on the wall'. This line is is usually always accompanied with either and establishing shot of the room in which Stan resides and writes his letters, revealing the hundreds of posters that he has up of Eminem, or the shot is a close up of the posters and the camera pans across the room's wall showing all of the posters at a closer view, as shown with the screen grab on the left hand side. These are just a few of the matching visuals and lyrics in the video. Generally because the video is a narrative, it is more than likely that what you hear within the music is what you are going to see should you watch the video.

In regards to the editing of the video, it does not appear that the cuts match the beat of the song as in the case of many other music videos. This may not be the case because the video could be seen as a mini film and cutting every few seconds to the beat would mean that the story line in would become dysfunctional and confusing with too many cuts and shots appearing. Because this video is more of a small film, the shots and cuts are more consistent and the editing is at a steady pace allowing the audience to take in what is happening. There are a variety of shots and editing techniques throughout the video that work well to establish the story line. One of the opening scenes sees Dido walking to the bathroom. When she is sitting on the toilet, the camera moves down by use of a crane (possible special effects) to show Stan underneath her in a different room. The movement into the dark room below reiterates to the audience that thought of something being wrong with the house or the people in side. The lack of colour throughout the video shows how dull the lead characters life is within the video.

The video finds numerous ways to try and promote the track. The constant referral to the artist by use of images and lyrics gives the audience a strong visualization of the artist. In this instance, Eminem, or Slim, is referred to a lot throughout the video as the story behind it explores the main characters obsession with the artist. It should also be noted that the characters name in the video is Stan, one of many nicknames that has been given to Eminem over his performing years, further relating this song to the artist. The use of images has also been used effectively in order to sell the track.The image above is of Stan looking into a mirror in his room only to be greeted by the reflection of who he wants to be like, Eminem. The constant appearance of Eminem throughout the video shows how the deranged character is constantly thinking about his idol and how he has mentally replaced his girlfriend. Other visuals such as when Stan places the photograph of Eminem over his own girlfriend also helps sell the record as it shows to the audience who the artist is and possibly to show how popular they would like the song to become.
The video for Stan is similar to some of Eminem's other videos in regards to the colours and language used. For instance, his video 'When I'm Gone', found here is another famous track by the artist with an iconic video. The reason this video is so similar to Stan is due to the colour scheme used. The consistency of the colour green is a colour that appears throughout a few of Eminem's videos. The colour was also a recurring one in the film 8 Mile in which he starred. A snapshot from the 8 Mile film can be seen on the left hand side of the screen. As you can see, the picture has the same sort of colours in as the Stan video, further supporting that the colours used are popular ones that are iconic with the artist.