This document analyzes and summarizes several music videos using textual analysis. It discusses camera techniques used such as close-ups, tracking shots, and attached camera shots. It also analyzes themes and storylines of the music videos, such as a girl running away from her troubles and a love story between classmates. Common techniques like blurred starting shots and showing the band playing are discussed in the context of creating cohesive music videos.

1. Textual Analysis These are two screenshot taken from the very beginning of the music video. It opens with an extreme close up of a young girl’s mouth screaming, it slowly zooms out to reveal more and more of the girl’s face. The shot gradually zooms out to show a mid shot of the girl from the waist upwards, and we can see that she is standing in an empty street on a bright sunny day. The girl is very teary eyed and upset about something and the empty street could be symbolism for representing her loneliness. Every now and then the video cuts to shots of the band playing before cutting back to the story of the girl. This is the idea of having a short story to the video and having scenes of the band playing seems great and very popular in music videos. We will try and do something similar when producing our music video, the idea of having a small story as well as shots of the band playing, but keeping them separate from each other. I feel this idea breaks up the video and gives the viewers something else to focus on. A number of camera angles are used throughout this music video. We have various close ups of the band, a lot of the time, their hands – to possibly show the level of delicacy and precision of the songs notes by making the shots closer and cutting everything else out of the picture. Another camera technique is the tracking motion, tracking the motion and speed of the girl as she runs through fields and down roads. This is relevant to the lyrics as the song is about someone leaving behind their old lives and starting over. The girl connotes she is running away from something which in this case could be her troubles. ‘ Life is Life’ by Noah and the Whale

2. This is a very simple music video in which a lot of our groups ideas can relate to. Due to the nature of the song and the style of the band you would say this was also a ‘Indie Rock’ song – the puffy, long hair, the skinny fit clothing and tucking shirts into trousers. You can immediately address who the music video is aimed at by such features. The video is mainly of the band singing in a very simple studio photography shoot room. The fact the band chose to film in a photography shoot location for their video, gives off the impression they are a professional group yet they take part in activities such as bowling, cycling and playing tennis on set. This connotes they are also an active group who like to play around and have a laugh. Near enough every shot in the music video starts with a blurred picture and then focuses and the picture becomes clear. I feel the purpose of this is so the viewer can never really focus on one thing for too long, giving you the impression of everything moving fast as it cuts from shot to shot, to fit in with the pace of the audio. ‘ Norgaard’ by The Vaccines A very interesting camera shot is used in this video where the camera is attached to the back of the bicycle so when the girl is riding it around the studio the audience get to travel with her which almost makes you feel like your connecting with her as you share the same journey.

3. ‘ Love How It Hurts’ by Scouting For Girls This video tells the love story of one boy having a major crush on a girl in his class. The girl has mutual feelings but already has a boyfriend who seems to be a bit of a bully character. The boyfriend upsets the young lad and as a result he runs off crying. The characters in the video are wearing dated clothing giving you the impression it is set some time ago, but never states the time period. The three characters wear the same clothes throughout the video even after the time gap, where the video skips to later on in their lives. I feel this makes the audience feel familiar with the older actors and you automatically know it’s the same characters. I feel this feature also gives them the feel of being cartoon characters in this typical cliché love story, implying that there will possibly be a typical happy ending. The video uses many filming and camera techniques – It starts off by using an eyeline shot. We first see the boy staring towards something and then it cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the boy staring at a girl. The girl is the focus of this particular shot because it shows the audience that she is the interest of the boy. Close ups shots of the main character are used to really express to the audience how excited he is through his facial expressions as he gets prepared to propose to the love of his life. The focus of the next shot is the proposal ring rather than the character himself as the ring symbolises love and friendship which is purpose of the shot.