Music Video Analysis: Train-Drops of Jupiter - Joffy

Drops of Jupiter, by californian rock band Train, is a single from train's second album (Drops of Jupiter), the song was successful and reached 3rd place on the U.S singles chart and 10th on the U.K singles chart. The accompanying video features members of the band playing the song inside of a church whilst a crowd gathers.
In the video when an instrument is heard it can also be seen on screen such as when violens can be seen and heard at the same time. The video does not contain a narrative storyline as it only features the members of the band performing. The video focuses heavily on the lead vocalist, Pat Monahan, with a variety of differing shots, this is also known as the MEAT of the video. The video is relatively fast paced which also mirrors the pace of the song, and many different camera shots are used which show the band members, the audience and also the setting.

9 Frame Analysis - Bloc Party Mercury - Jonathans Screen Analysis

Shot 1- 0:05secs This shot serves as the introductory shot to the music video. The shot is a simple zoom in shot showing a hut in a jungle. It introduces the scene as somewhere in the middle of nowhere, which suggests shady goings on. 

Shot 2- 0:15secs This shot introduces some of the characters of the music video. It continues from the last shot as a zoom in before a flash of ligtning and it cuts to the next shot which is a midshot/longshot. We can see from this shot that some sort of biological experiment is being undertaken which confirms the fear of the audience from the previos shot that something dicey is happening

Shot 3- 1:05secs This shot is a point of view (POV) shot. From the first person perspective of the monster (Smith) which has just been created. There may be a cultural reference to the Mary Shelley classic gothic novel Frankenstein, the monster in that novel came to existence in a similar manner to the monster in the music video.

Shot 4- 1:53secs This shot is a close up of a controller. The shot also uses the match on action editing technique to emphasise continuity. This shot also has deeper connotations as it shows that Smith is being controlled by his creators, building a reputation for itself.

Shot 5- 2:06secs  This shot is a continuation of previous shots which show Smith gaining a reputation. A quick zoom is used to draw attention to the newborn baby. This shot is also done in style of old homemade videotape, which gives the shot a feeling of antiquity.

Shot 6- 2:18secs This shot shows that Smith is gaining popularity and also suggests that a presidential election is upcoming, which then makes the creators aims obvious to the audience. The shot also uses the cross cutting editing technique as it shows Smith in different locations as his support builds.

Shot 7- 2:46secs This shot shows Smith partaking in a talk show as he is quizzed by the host. He seems to be forewarning the public of a disaster as the captions reads that 'our greatest fears will be realised tenfold!' This shot may be a parody of the many american talk show hosts such as Jay Leno, David Letterman and Carson Daly, and may be mocking American Culture.

Shot 8- 3:25secs This shot is in a similar style to shot 5. It shows a mushroom cloud in the background as infantrymen look on in the foreground. This may have been the disaster which Smith was predicting.

Shot 9- 3:44secs  This shot shows Smith sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office surrounded by his bodygaurds. Smith is now presumably in control of The White House and his creators have also probably achieved their aims. This shot gradually zooms out as the doors to the office slam shut. This music video takes an intersting look at society as a whole and i think the point of the video is to suggest that world leaders are manufactured and the world is possibly controlled by a secretive group of people.    

Request To Use Song For Music Video - Email

9 Screen Analysis - Artic Monkeys - Jordan Crosby

 

1. The first shot could be classed as a establishing shot for the location of part of the video , I think a lot of the composition is done around the lighting. The composite has every band member included. I believe the lighting is the most important element with in this video as every thing from the composition to the mise en scene looks to have been decided around the lighting. The lighting creates a frame which has got a strong vignetting effect which draws the viewer in to the center of the frame and also to the band.

2. The second shot uses a lot of visual effect. which is a bit random

3. We then get a sharp change from the second shot with in the color. This shot is full of color and is very fast paced as is the part of the song. To get the bright color they have used a video screen as the background which shows multicolor shapes. The camera angle is around waist height and it is a very wide angle shot. This shot is in the same position as the first shot.

4.  This shot is part of an animation.There is not a clear connection from the compasses to the music lyrics. This shot does not appear for long and the transition between the intro and outro of this shot is very fast and is just a straight cut.

5. A medium shot reveals 2 couples in a pool with the couple in the foreground in focus which seam to be enjoying there time. The feeling for this shot is betrayed through the location and also the lighting as the shot is very warm and inviting as the shot would not work if it was raining or cloudy.

6. This shot is again another out of the ordinary and used a lot of effects this may have been done to give of the effect of disorientation.


7. This shot is a silhouette effect made by the lights  and also is a very similar live shot of the band performing as seen in shot 1. The framing of shot is determined by the lights.


8.  This is a low angle shot which is shot in front of a bright colored screen which again gives a silhouette effect on the dancers. These shots do not appear for a long time and maybe only seconds at a time.


9. The video finishes with a very similar shot to the first one which the video opens with .

Shot Count - The Zutons - Don't Ever Think - Jordan Crosby

The song "Don't Ever Think" only lasts 2.59 but still has approx 47 shots within the video within these 47 shots there are only 12 styles of shots used with mid shots being the most popular in the video. The video includes a lot of camera panning and tilting and that is the most popular way that is used for shot transactions with in this video of the Zutons. Within the chorus a lot of the cuts were synchronized with the beat. 

Lip Syncing Task - Jordan Crosby

We were asked to choose a song of our choice which we would then have to film our selfs lip syncing and put it together with in final cut. With in the process we learnt how use markers with in final cut and also and also to help us get the music synced up we had to make sure we knew how to view the waveform and also we had to make sure we knew the layout of final cut for example the browser and also the timeline. To stop any problems we learnt about the linked selection tool which means it links the music file and video together.

Julian Opie , Photoshop - Jordan Crosby

We were asked to mimic the effect which was used on Blurs Greatest Hits Album in which it displayed a picture of each band member in a cartoon style way.

To start of working on this effect i had to start with a photo of me which I then had to build up on using Adobe Photoshop.

The Tools I Used With In Photoshop -

• Crop - 
• Fill - used to fill a space with a color
• Paint Brush - Used to paint a color on to the image 
• Layers - helped keep the image organized 
• Magnetic Lasso - made selecting areas a lot easier
• Quick Selection Tool - was a easy but inaccurate way to make a selection 
• Pencil Tool - Used to add the eye's
• Stroke - Allow you to add a outline

All these tools allowed me to created this effect very fast and very simple.

I started adding layers and features on top of each other to add the effect and then would hide certain layers to reveal the image