Music video analysis

Music Video Analysis

Band: Kodaline

Milo Fisher

Video 1: Lose Your Mind

What conventions does it follow? • Video starts with 23 seconds of establishing shots, giving the video

a location and time period. • Tells a story of three acts.• Has a story with a resolution• Tells a story / shows imagery that flows with the music.• Mixutre of shots less than 3 seconds and wide shots that last

longer.• Use of minimal lighting and use of blur effect.

Does the video have high production values or CGI?

• The video uses a small amount of CGI to represent the inner thoughts of the man. Using a mixture of lighting effects, pictures of people and lens flairs shows the euphoria state that the man is in.

Any representation?• The video shows how society treats people who go against its ‘norms’. Two

men in tracksuits mock the man for being different, but in the end they ‘learn’ from him that being nice never hurt anybody.

• It can be seen as the working class living in two different ways. One way is the man, he is a happy-go-lucky man who just lives life by letting it flow. The other way is the men who mock him, the struggle to be accepted and feel they must be seen to be important.

• The video and the song are a tribute to the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, featuring the style and ideals similar to them. The man is trying to discover inner peace, and shares his knowledge with the two men, teaching them of enlightenment.

Video 2: High Hopes

What conventions does it follow? • Video begins with an establishing shot.• Use of close ups on faces.• The idea of death and how it can be saved with love.• Use of filter to increase brightness.• The music foreshadows the happenings on screen.• Use of jump cuts and panning shots – similar conventions to

a movie.

Does the video have high production values or CGI?

• The video features famous actors such as Liam Cunningham and Niamh Large. The video is shot in widescreen and uses minimal CGI, such as added smoke and gunshot wounds. All of this adds to the atmosphere of the video.

Any representation?• The video represents hope. The man gives up on life, before he finds

hope and risks everything to ‘start again’ with ‘high hopes’. And he comes to love the woman, so when he is at the brink of death he holds on because he has ‘high hopes’ of having a future with the woman he loves.

• The woman could also represent life, as she comes running to him before he is about to die. And as he grows to love life, he is at the brink of death, so he crawls to her and clings to her because he now wants to live again. And at the end, she appears beside him.

Video 3: All I Want

What conventions does it follow? • The video uses a establishing shot to set the scene of an office.• The music matches and tells the main characters inner thoughts.• Many shots involve one character contrasting against the main

character.• There are shots slowed down / sped up.• The video ends with a freeze-frame and fade to black.• Reoccurring shots and scenery / repetition.

Does the video have high production values or CGI?• The video features a main character with high

quality make up to look like a disfigured face. • There are a wide range of locations • A choreographed fight scene with the main

character.• CGI backgrounds (look at picture above).

Any representation?• The video follows the classic tale of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ AKA, its about

what’s inside that matters• The video represents how people are too dismissive of things that are

different, and that if they give new things a chance they can realize that they are interesting.

• The video could be seen as a form of bullying / rejection. People make the main character out to be a freak, when he is a human like everyone else, and they mock him for no other reason. Trying to destroy everything he cares about (see the cup). And in the end he is given a reason to keep going, as someone finally recognizes him for who he is. Hence the lyrics ‘you brought out the best of me’ and ‘all I want is to find somebody’.