JD: Technical Analysis of a Music Video

 

 

 

The video I have chosen to study is 'On Top Of The World' by Imagine Dragons. I  have chosen this video as it has a strong narrative element, interjected with some performance. this is a useful analysis as it gives the opportunity to focus on a video with a narrative as ours will have, whilst also having an imposed element like the performance. as we hope to interject images of flames into our video.

 

 

The font colour change represents the time in the video. the white text represents the first minute in the video. and the red text shows 2:33 to 3:33.

 

The video has vibrant colours throughout the video, making it appealing. something which we can apply to our video to increase the repeatability.

 

 

Shot Type	Mise- en-scene	Duration (seconds)
Low Angle, Tracking shot.	Shot following a child on a tricycle, cycling up to a group of people	4
High angle, medium longshot	Young tricycle rider working his way through the crowd to see into the shot.	5
Mid-shot zoomed into the young boy	Shot shows the boy reach the window of the shop, and look up and in.	6
Mid-Shot	Shows old TV with something forming in the screen	3
Medium Close up	Closer view of the TV screen showing the formation in more detail.	2
Medium Close Up	Man Facing the camera, putting his jacket on, looking over the camera. Wearing smart clothes, in a well decorated room.	1
Mid-Shot	Man Kisses his wife and child goodbye. And leaves the shot.	5
Medium-Close up	Man starting his car and begins to drive off.	1
Eye-Level long shot	Man drives away in mustang, while family wave him goodbye.	4
Medium Close Up	Another man dressing himself in a close shot. This time putting a headband on. This man is wearing ‘hippie’ clothes in a converted bus	4
Medium Long Shot	Hippie waving goodbye to his friends in a rural setting.	2
Medium close up	Female ‘hippie’ blows the hippie man a kiss goodbye	1
Establishing shot	Hippie getting into his car, similar to the first man did.	4
Medium close up	Another character sidles up to face the camera, this character positions his cravat. ‘Texas’ attire in a house with a back wall covered in memorabilia.	3
Medium Long Shot	Again the character is positioned with his family before he leaves the house.	3
Medium close up	The new character gets into his car just as the other characters have.	1
Establishing Shot	Man drives away from his family home in his Reliant Robin	2
Medium close up	Bearded ‘biker’ puts helmet on, whilst looking directly into the camera	2
Mid shot	Biker puts clothes on, and starts bike, maintaining eye contact through the camera.	5
Medium long shot	Biker drives through the frame in a rural setting.	2
multiple	Flash to tv screen again, and people watching it. Including the young boy	5
Mid-Shot	All four characters walk through the frame on a zebra crossing, the third character is bare-foot. A nod to the Beatles album cover.	6
Zoom Out	Camera zooms out of the telly. Showing the characters putting the US flag on the moon.	5
Mid-shot	Happy crowd jump and dance at the shot of the successful moon landing	4
Medium close up	Juxtopositioning of grumpy director to the happy crowd in the previous shot. Making a joke of the fact the moon landing has been staged.	2
Mid-shot	The man who looks to be funding the shot is juxtaposed to the director. He is very happy. The director is not.	4
Mid-shot	Moon buggy is pushed through the shot and ‘astronauts’ jump for joy.	4
Close up	TV shows the original real footage of the real moon buggy going around the moon.	3
Medium close up	Happy partner of one of the ‘astronauts’ watching the TV	1
Medium long shot	Astronauts shoot a synchronised golf shot into the distance. Poking fun at the idea of a staged moon landing	3
Medium close up	The director clearly becomes increasingly distressed the more the ridiculous things the characters do.	1
Medium long shot	Astronauts become increasingly sporadic.	2
Medium Long Shot	Helmets now partially removed, the astronauts have become the band, and are playing the song on the moon landing set.	2
Medium close up	Shot of the lead singer singing into the microphone	2
Mid Shot	People behind the camera begin to dance. However the director becomes more disgruntled.	3
Close up	Space gloved hand playing the guitar	0.5
Medium close up	Shot of the guitarist singing along to the song.	1
Close Up	Shot of the Bass being played by a space gloved hand.	0.5
Medium close up	Shot of the bass guitarist singing to the song. The band is appearing in the reverse order that they did at the beginning.	1
CCTV shot	People rushing into the filming facility.	1
Medium close up	Drums being played	0.5
Establishing shot	Huge mass of women storming the filming facility through a corridor.	3
Medium close up	Shot of lead singer singing into the microphone.	0.5
Long shot	Group of women reach the set, which now has low level coloured lighting, and begin to dance.	0.2
Medium long show	Lead singer looks confused as the group of women breaks in, however does not stop singing.	1
Mid shot	Man funding the operation looks confused as well, and gives the thumbs up to keep going. The director maintains his look if general displeasure throughout.	3
Medium close up	Lead singer really goes for it.	1
Pan Up	The director get lifted up in his chair by the audience. As he has done throughout the video this seems to cause him mental pain.	3
Multiple	Shots follow showing the party, and people on both sides of the TV dancing to the music.	10

 Summary

The video contains a large amount of close shots involving the characters faces, meaning that a strong narrative connection is produced, meaning repeatability is created. something we hope to implament in our video to create a strong character based narrative.

The cutting rate of the video, is fastish however it is not as rapid as more performance based music videos, we hope to create a less rapid cutting rate in our video to create a story with the select frames.

The story produced behind each character is something we want to look at, as it allows the narrative to be produced with a recognisable background, however where this background is created with 4 characters, we will be creating a narrative for just one character.

Movement in the Frames;
within some of the shots used in the video movement of the camera is used to keep the shot interesting to the eye. an example of this feature is the shot section in the video where the characters are getting into their space suits. the camera crabs left and right to ensure the shot is kept interesting, even though what is going on in the shot is less interesting. This ensures the eye is constantly being drawn to new points of interest keeping the audience involved. this is something our group needs to investigate to ensure repeatability of the video.

Mise-en-scene;
Some shots in the video are constructed In such a way that a 'reading line' is almost visible, thus drawing the eye of the audience to the place deemed most important in the frame. the most obvious example of this is  the scene where the astronauts are walking through the double doors, down the corridor. the lines on the wall lead towards the characters making them the centre of interest in the frame. This could be interesting to explore in our video as it gives us the power to almost decide, where we want the audience to be looking in the frame. 

 

6 Inspirational Frames.

This frame shows a character in the centre of the frame with other, taller characters positioned behind, and above the shot. something we want to repeat with the bailiffs scene.

 

 The close up of the face produces a personal perspective look of the character, giving a background to build a narrative off.

 

 

 The wider angle of this shot allows a real background to be produced, again to create a background for the character.

 



 

 

The high angle shot can be used to give another perspective on a shot, something we can use if we need to increase the cutting rate of our video.

 

 

This shot is good for creating an atmosphere, something we can use when the character is coming home to find her home is ruins in our video. it has a powerful image as the character(s) walk towards the camera.

 

 

This performance shot is similar to what we want to accomplish, as it is affectively a filler shot which we will use to fill cuts in a running scene. however instead of an instrument we will show the image of fire burning. (in case of fire)