Nada Surf - Always Love (video analysis)

In the actual video of 'Nada Surf - Always Love', as explained in the previous post, this video features more of a story than focusing on lyrics, which is interesting for an indie band to do, although not unheard of.

The various shots above show there is also a story to the video. The shot of the old man in the room is part of the story, and a shot angled in this particular way is an effect used normally to create a feeling of loneliness. (The elderly man is at the very far side of the room, and is considered a little smaller in the frame than normal, there is more of the room in the frame as opposed to this character.)

The shots also show characteristics yet again of an indie style of music, with close ups to the instruments and main character of the band, which (most of the time) is the singer. We see shots of the other members of the band also, but tend to focus on the story and the main band character. In one shot above, the main singer in the band is shown closer to the camera and larger than the other band members - this is to signify him as more important.

Overall, I think the video is effective, the only downside is the story is quite confusing when first watched.

Nada Surf - Always Love

I then though of adding another song to my blog which I thought of adding last night. Yet again, this song is off the US TV series 'One Tree Hill'. This song is very similar to the others in terms of pace, genre etc.

The band are called 'Nada Surf' and the song track name is 'Always Love'. The clip from the TV series (posted below) focuses very much on the lyrics of the song and the ideas that you get from listening to it. However the actual video in the next post does not focus too much on the lyrics and has more of a story behind the song.

The same effect is used as in the same clip from the below post, featuring Feeder. The song (like the post video below) plays in the background while the TV episode plays. The music the fluctuates in certain parts to empathise or de-empathise what going on in the episode. This TV series does this a lot, and this is where some of the songs I have found which I like the sound of, and think would be good to use in my music video have come from.


For clear mention of referencing, I have added the video where I first heard the song below.

Feeder 'Feeling a Moment' CD cover

Here is the official feeder CD cover, from the website http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/B0007W0LBY/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0.

I think it is very interesting with listening to the band's songs and everything that this was would the single cover to 'Feeling a moment'. It is entirely different to the cover I would expect after listening to the songs and thought the cover would at least feature the band. However, the cover is effective none the less with an animation style cover of what appears to be mountains and sky lifts. 

I thought I would give a mention to the band's single cover as this is the favourite of the songs I have researched and quite like the sound of 'Feeling a moment' for my music video. It is also important to take into account what kinds of album covers there are within bands, or artists. \

-There is the traditional cover, with a picture of the band at work or a portfolio shot which some bands tend to like, or there is an animation style cover such as the one above etc.

Feeder 'Feeling a Moment' Analysis

This particular song and some of their others are also considered in the genre 'Alternative rock'. The song is called 'Feeling a moment', and if you listen to it, you can see that the song is slower that some of the songs done by Jacks Mannequin. The youtube video below is a little pixelated, but the video is still clear.

The music video is quite simple, with all the characteristics of an 'indie' music video, close ups of the main singer, shots of instruments, pans in/out/around of the camera, effects, and shots of the other band members, although not as frequently as the main singer in the band. I think the video is effective, and I really like the song, its slow paced for the majority so therefore would be easier to lipsync with than a faster paced one.

Further song research - Feeder

I then thought of another band in which one of their songs would be good for my music video. It fits well with the indie genre, and is slower paced and different to the band 'Jacks Mannequin', so maybe something slower as another alternative would be a good idea.

The band are called 'Feeder' and are a more well known band than the US band Jacks Mannequin. I had heard a couple of their songs before, but this specific song I heard also on the US TV series 'One Tree Hill'. It was just background music on the show, but I liked the sound of the song so I researched the artist's name and the song name, realising it was the band Feeder. A link to their Myspace is posted, click on this text and have a look here. The URL is http://www.myspace.com/feederweb.

Below is also the clip from the US TV series in which I first heard the specific song. While watching through the song is playing in the background while the show continues, I thought this clip would be relevant to put in here as it shows the link in which I had found the song I liked and researched the band.

Mix of genre/characteristics music video

However, one video that may mix characteristics of a music genre, as explained in previous posts, is the video to the 'Artic Monkeys - Brianstorm' music video.

The music is an indie genre, however, the video features a specific dance or dancers, which is usually a characteristic of a pop or hip hop video. Perhaps the two are juxtaposed to create an effect and get the video noticed. There are both characteristics of an indie video and a pop video.

The dancers and dance symbolise a characteristic of a pop video whereas the shots of the band and instruments are characteristics of an indie video. None the less, the two mix well.

Either way, this video is definitely one that mixes genres and characteristics of videos. I had seen the video numerous times before, but though I would add it to my blog in order to show there is sometimes a mix in music genre and characteristics, I also like the style of the video.

I think jumpy shots and various short shots, add a fast paced and hurrying element to the video - which is shown in the arctic monkeys one. I think these shots are effective and has certainly worked to blend well with the audio, as the audio features a lot of jumpy, rhythmic music, with a lot of drums and guitar playing.

'Progidy - The way it is' student music video analysis

Another video I found which is different from the other two is an electronic style audio track with a fast paced and jumpy video. The video is to 'Progidy - The way it is' music track, and the student has added a lot of jumpy, rotating and fast paced camera shots, as opposed to any static shots.

The shots are obviously to go with the video, and this is obvious by the speed of the camera filming - which is effective. The only problem is the shots get very repetitive, and are very similar throughout, so you feel that you do not really want to watch the video all the way through, because it is simply all the same.

The video is obviously a different type of music to indie music, and is called 'electronic' or 'rave' music. The songs are the majority of the time, fast paced and often feature fast paced and jumpy shors - so this video has done well to catch that, however the downside is it is simply too repetitive - some different shots and effects would have been nice.

'Arctic monkeys - When the sun goes down' analysis

The next video I found was an arctic monkeys

cover, done by another A level group at another college. The video features 'Indie' characteristics of a music video, with close ups to the singer in the band and close ups of band members.

It also shows close ups of band instruments, such as the guitar, and close ups of the main singer in the band singing. The camera angles are good with a consistent level of variety. I think some camera angles like this would be very useful in my music video if I choose to do an 'indie' audio track.

The video also features a story behind the video, which is often used in indie videos, for example a story was used behind the song 'Naive' by The Kooks. A story is a great idea and a good thing to add to a video, but with the other footage it can sometimes confuse the audience, this is not the case in this video though, the story fits well.

'Paramore - Fences' student video analysis

This next video is a student video for A level media, and it is an imitation of 'Paramore - Fences' music video. What I like about this video is that the group are very experimental and not afraid to try something different.

Paramore as a band, are very well known and because if this quite hard to copy. However, this group has managed it, and I think they did it very effectively. The video is matched up with the lyrics very effectively and the effects used are excellent, the rotation of the camera and sharp turns empathise the fast pace of the music and the style of music.

The video looks very effective for a music video, and you wouldn't go far wrong to think it was an actual video if you had never heard of the original artist. The only downside is the main girl character's lipsyncing is a bit off at times, but whether this is an effect of editing or in general the video is still effective. Most of all, I like the judders of the camera, the rotation and mood created by the video - I think they all match excellently with the music track.

'The Mixed Tape' lipsync video

Here is a lipsync video for Jack's Mannequin, 'The Mixed Tape'. The video is quite effective, and the transitions and fade ins/outs work very well with the lyrics.

The fades show flashbacks in the story and match well again with the lyrics - this shows again that you can have a story to a music video or you can choose not to, but trying to do too many things in a music video may cause it to be confusing. Perhaps something simple would be best.

There are two shots i particularly like in this video, which I have screengrabbed and added to the post at the very top. The first is the numerous fades of the main character waiting in a room, and this is effective as it is an effect used to show time is going by.

The next shot is one nearer the end of the main character getting out of a car onto the airport, and the figure looks like a silhouette against the background of a sunset. This is very effective and is perhaps used to show an emotional shot.

However, the video is very misleading while watching, and at first is very confusing. At the start, the transitions and fade outs suggest the main character has lost their partner. However later on, we see the girl with someone else showing she is still alive. This is very confusing while first watching.

'Dark Blue' Imitation video

After looking at the original videos for Jacks' Mannequin, I decided to look onto Youtube to see if I could find any other imitation videos done by other Youtube fans.

The first one I found was an imitation of 'Dark Blue'. This was one made entirely with pictures, with 92 pictures in total. Listening to the song, the pictures are clearly relevant to the lyrics but simply do not match with the rhythm and fast paced beats of the songs. Some pictures last far too long and on the faster paced parts of the song the pictures are simply too slow. Although some of the fade ins/outs and transitions worked with the chorus.

This links to a discussion in class about pictures or video matching the rhythm of a song. It is clearly important that the visual part of the video matches well with the audio part, otherwise the video and the two parts (audio and visual) will simply not work together.