A group of A level Media students created a music video for Boys II Men 'War'. I found that this music video was of a rather low quality as the filming technique was not particularly inventive or interesting, nor was the location of the video.
The entire video is based around the group of boys fighting in school and lip syncing in front of an edited fire. Clearly the video is showing a group of boys who thought that fight scenes alone would make their video worthwhile, without including any kind of storyline.
The shots were mostly mid shots, especially in lip syncing shots and the fighting scenes were generally wide shots and had no pace to it, so the scenes seemed rather slow and uninteresting as the audience cannot feel the action as we didn't feel close to it and it does not seem fast paced and exciting as the shots were slow. The transitions consisted of cuts and fades that didn't really add much to the video as more often than not, it didn't even go in time with the song.
In addition to that, the lip sync is completely wrong and not in time at all. In fact, it almost looks like they're not even singing the same song at times, except for the occasional 'War, what is it good for'. Other than that, they are often singing despite the lack of lyrics.
The use of fire in the background is also rather boring as it's not used effectively and is frequently used, meaning it looses it effect after the first couple times.
The production in the video is also extremely low, as they filmed this video in school, which immediately makes it dull and doesn't give the audience a feel for the meaning of the lyrics, which are also not represented very well in the video.
In conclusion, they should have had better production in using a better location and perhaps dressed up in something that represented what they wished to describe in their video rather than just wearing their usual attire. They could have included effective, well timed cuts and transitions to go with more interesting camera shots and tried to use some camera movements to help create an atmosphere. The use of the fire was also unnecessary and their editing was wasted on a clip that they used too often. Repetition does not work very well if it is overused.
The use of some kind of storyline is also very important. Mindless fighting does not help to create an interesting music video. Even a simple or somewhat meaningless storyline that could captivate the audiences attention.
Professional Video
Taylor Swift - Shake it Off starts off with clear shots of ballerinas in a blank grey setting. Taylor Swift appears amongst them, dressed as a ballerina. As the shots change, we see several shots of Taylor dancing and lip syncing in different 'genres', such as street, syfi, rap and jazz. The shots are well thought out and are edited in time with the music.
I like how she uses plain backgrounds to make her and her characters stand out as they perform interesting dance moves that fit in with their genre. She has a good use of production through costume and chorography that make it quite entertaining to watch as she seems to fit in with all the different genres. Her shots are fast paced which keep the audience interested and she has many different shots focusing on close ups of several dancers and then wide shots to show the entire group dancing.
I also like the meaning that could be interpreted through the video, as the lyrics state to 'shake it off', which could mean shaking off bad comments, rumours or press and just enjoying yourself. By using different genres, it seems like she's applying it to anyone, whether you like or sing rap or jazz or like dancing in ballet or street. This is enhanced by the one of the later shots, where Taylor Swift is dancing with normal people.
This also allows the song to apply to everyone, people who don't sing or can't dance, as they can 'shake it off' as well.
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