Analysis of previous work

We began our introduction of A2 media by analysing the previous years music videos. This enabled us to establish the most important features of a music video, what went well for them and what we should avoid. 

We picked up on the following points; 

Song choice; slow songs were often quite boring to watch in comparison to the faster ones  because visually it wasn’t as interesting. The slower songs had more of depressing or romantic narrative that was slow moving and not as interesting to watch. However these slower songs allowed time for a range of shot types, some of which you could tell had been carefully planned. On the other hand, the song can’t be too fast as the song needs to be in synch for it to be convincing, the faster the song the harder this may be. Some songs were clearly well thought and words practiced in order for it to be convincing however there wasnt a range of shot types that matched the tone or words of the song. 

Location and editing; Another point we picked up on was how important the location and editing is to the song. For example in last years version of professor greens hhdsjhs the group put in a lot of effort to find suitable locations and it showed. It fitted to the tone of the song and therefore made it interesting to watch. The editing pace also needs to match the pace of the song. 

Performance; The performance of the singer is what makes the video either great or awful. The better the performance of the singer the less you begin to focus on other things going on in the video. It makes the video exciting and enjoyable to watch. The performer may feel silly doing it but after watching last years videos it is apparent that the performer really has to put themselves out there and go over the top for it to look good. This is one of the main points I have taken from last years videos and will make sure that we chose the right person for our video who is willing to perform. This leads on to casting. The person cast needs to look good on camera, have practiced the lip synching, and be willing to perform. 

Narrative/ performance; I think the best videos from last year had a subtle narrative to them. In some videos I felt the shots and editing etc were focused around the narrative and this narrowed the use of different editing styles which were used well in other videos.