Music Video Analysis 1

The music video ‘Wonderwall’ by the band Oasis uses editing effectively as the whole video is black and white to create a solemn mood through the dark contrast between black and white. This refers to the abstract narrative of the video which uses an artistic style to appeal to the target audience. Another technique used in terms of editing is adding a bright colour to certain objects in the video such as props including a guitar which changes from bright blue to bright green to bright yellow and a hat which stays blue. These colours draw attention to the objects which is done to show their importance; the hat belongs to a sad clown, blue connotes sadness which could be connected to the mood of the clown. Also, instruments used in the video is a formal convention to reflect it is a music video; this way the video is making sure the audience’s attention is drawn to the guitar. Other uses of editing include fades from the clown character to the band which adds a dreamy effect along with the non-diegetic sound of the violins playing. Flash effects are also used to give the impression of an old camera taking a photograph which reinforces the vintage artistic style created from the old black and white effect. Other elements of editing seen in the video vary from a kaleidoscope effect of each different key part of the narrative including the clown, each different band member, dancers and instruments and a cross cutting effect where the lead singer’s face is visible on top of other clips to ensure the main attraction in the video being the lead singer. The large amount of editing effects are almost used ironically; this is because the black and white effect implies that the video is going to be very basic relating back to former music videos from the 60's. However, this is not the case as many psychedelic and abstract effects are which surprise the audience, breaking formal conventions. Some parts of the video have a slow motion effect which reinforce the dreamy mood of the video; instruments such as cellos and violins are used which also add a wistful tone to the soundtrack and the video.

The cinematography includes many close ups on the band members faces, especially when vocals are being used to emphasises the performance aspect of the video. A close up is also used on a musician’s hand playing the cello and guitar to reflect the genre of music and the type of media. As an audience, we expect to see the band playing instruments to create realism and relate to the stereotypes of musicians. Throughout the video a slow pan is used to present the whole band members and allow the audience to see them during the video to follow formal conventions.

 

Mise en scene is also powerful in the video as seen through props; a record player is seen many times during the video and is used to make it seem the song track is playing from it; adding to the vintage tone of the video. The video is shot in a large, bare room against a white wall to reinforce the intense emotions portrayed through the editing and lighting. Next, an important character in the video is a clown; the costume makes this obvious to the audience as for the big shoes, large check suit, big bow tie and the traditional clown face paint. Clowns connote joy and happiness as they are always joking around, however this contrasts with the serious tone of the song to imply that maybe even the people who are always expected to be happy can still feel sadness.

Finally, for most of the track, the sound of the song is diegetic due to the performance element of the video except for the montage edits where the song is played over a sequence of images. At the start and end of the video the diegetic sound of the clown’s footsteps becomes louder and the audience can hear the sound of the record player being set up; this builds tension because of the suspense before the music begins to play.