Performance and Narrative Based Music Videos

Eminem - Like Toy Soldiers

This Video has both the performance base and the narrative based video in it. This is because Eminem is telling a story through the lyrics and also the video represents that as well. You can see this through the mise en scene. One thing being that the outfit he is wearing in sections of the video. It is patterned like the army which is partly the topic he is rapping about. As well as this there is also effects like on his clothing there is blood which links in with the lyrics again. He is in the hospital praying for his friend not to die. The camera work and editing as well has made it seem like he is wishing for his friend not to die with the special effects that have been used. The camera angle are either an eye line match or a high angle as if he is praying up to god (the camera). The video tells a story about the events he is rapping about.

Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue

    

This video also has the two elements to them because you have the band Yellowcard playing in the video for the performance base as well as the lead singer playing the lead role in the narrative based part. The whole band are playing in a 'parking lot' which does have some contextual relevance because the video is based on the streets and a car is involved at the end which we don't realise. The narrative part of this video (the story) is that he keeps having a recurring circumstance where he keeps missing the car or in one case being hit by it. Each time he does this scene it gets progressively more positive and at the end he is able to get in the car with the girl. The same mise en scene is used each scene because it is like a flashback. The same 'props' are used each time because of this, such as the homeless man with the trolly, the group of nuns and the car as well. This is different to most videos because usually there is a lot if changes in the mise en scene, camera work and the editing however this idea is juxtaposed because of the style of the narrative.

Bittersweet Symphony - The Verve

   

The lead singer of The Verve features in the music video the whole way through and the rest of the band come in in the end. This is sort of a performance based video as the band feature in it, however they don't actually play any instruments in the video together. The narrative side to the video is footage of the lead singer walking down a street and bumping into people because he isn't moving or stopping for anyone or anything. There were only 52 cuts in the whole video which when you think about it is very little. They used multiple long takes in the video which made it interesting as well and so we could get a view of the mise en scene and the actions and reactions of the other people in the video after he walks into them. The majority of the camera work was long shots and there were only around 3 or 4 close ups. These were as you can imagine to emphasize the expressions from the people.    

The Neighbourhood - Sweater Weather

In this video it is primarily performance based because there isn't really a story (beginning, middle, end) to it. The lyrics match with the visuals which tell a story however this wouldn't be classed as a narrative video. The band feature in the video the whole time which would suggest this is a performance based video however they don't actually play the music and perform as a band. This video is different to the others as it is footage which has just been built around their music in the style and genre which matches it best so that it represents the band in the way they want. It is also a video which promotes their style and 'outlook' with their fashion, tattoos and piercings. This falls under mise en scene and the editing with the black and white effect matches and links in with the mise en scene.

Through doing this task I have learnt and found out about how a lot of music videos are different, a lot are the same and some of them are completely unique. However, looking at the narrative and performance based videos only, I found that the best videos were the ones which incorporated both the elements in and the ones which were strongly narrative, turned out to be the better, more engaging videos. Overall I think I have found that when I do my music video I will be doing a narrative based video because you can be the most experimental, but they are the most engaging.