Coldplay - Don't Panic Analysis

Genre/GenericConventions

Coldplay are an alternative rock band and this song is of that genre. The generic conventions in this video include

·          -   Use of dark and dull colors – in the scenery, general colors of the video, colors of all detail ranging from the clothes to the buildings and even the color of the rain.

·          -   Emotional – the feel of the track is emotional and it’s as if they have a sad story to tell

·          -   Deep topic – the narrative of the story and the lyrics are of a deep topic

·          -   Depression or sadness – The narrative, lyrics and the scenery of the video shows element of depression and sadness.

·          -  Performance in co-operate with narrative – There are shots of artists singing along with cross transitions into scenes of what they’re talking about

·          -  Parallel editing – A lot of video transitions from artists singing to the narrative side of the long shots of power stations, water cycle etc.

Textual Analysis

There are long shots/establishing shots of background at the beginning which then zooms into a mid shot of artist singing inside the house (linking into the convention of artists performing).  Throughout the video there are a lot of zooming in and out of long shots showing the scenery and transitioning between different images of buildings and the sea etc. there are also a lot of close ups of all the artists, even the ones not singing. There is a distinctive link between lyrics and visuals which are also contradictory for example when the chorus come on and in the verses Chris martin says things about living in a ‘beautiful world’ and then the video goes into long shots of a dark rainy gloomy scene of building and power stations, and it also shows his house getting flooded and all the artists getting swept by the water. Dark gloomy background with rain and dark clouds, links into the generic conventions of sadness or depression in rock videos. The editing in the video includes a lot of quick shots to show all scenes and because it’s a narrative it shows a story as well as shows the artists performing so there are a lot of short shots.

Theory

The theory of Binary Opposition can be applied to this video as the lyrics contradict the theme of the video. The lyrics are talking about living in a beautiful world but in the video you see dull colors, pollution, factories and industrial building, flooding etc. Theirs is also a slight narrative theme to the video as in the lyrics the artist says at the end ‘everybody has somebody to lean on’ and in the video it shows the group going through difficulties such as flooding or all the other bad things happening and they are still together at the end of the video which maybe shows that they always have each other. The gratification we can examine from watching this video maybe for leisure purpose or entertainment or maybe for consumers to relate to the video emotionally.

12/10/2011

I have chosen Hip-Hop/Rap as my genre

My 3 top artists are 50 Cent, T.I. and Young Jeezy

50 Cent - Window Shopper

Expensive cars, beautiful women, rich environment, designer clothes, south of france, alot of money (400$ burger), very baggy clothes, a lot of jewellery, alcohol and fine dining

Prison environment, baggy clothes prison clothes, ghetto environment, performance based of artists rapping, bandanas

Expensive cars and designer clothes, a lot of money involved in the video, beautiful women, baggy clothes, bandanas, alcohol

The conventions of a hip hop genre music video include many things. The sets or location are usually clubs, streets, parties or fancy places. There’s a lot of money involved in the videos and you can see rappers throwing around money. There’s usually a lot of expensive jewellery, cars, clothes (usually very baggy), big houses and alcohol on display. If the setting isn’t in a rich environment it’s usually a ghetto area such as the streets/projects where there’s a representation of gang culture, violence, guns, drugs and sex. The camera shots tend to be long and always establish the flash of the video by focusing on the money or expensive props. There’s usually close-ups of the rappers performing and close ups of the money, expensive cars, money, alcohol. There’s a lot of voyeurism when it comes to camerawork and there usually are a lot of close ups of half-naked women dancing around in sexual ways. The videos don’t really follow a storyline but is just a chance for the artist to show himself performing and show off.

Media HW - 3 Openings 17/01/2011

I've analyzed the film openings of the three movies '300', 'Mean Streets and 'Blade II' concluding similarities and differences between them in my conclusion.

Mean Streets:

• Starts of with Warner Bros. Logo and blank black screen. – red writing
• Starts with voice-over of man
• Close up of man waking up from sleep, free-hand camera movement
• Police sirens in the background and sound of cars etc. urban background
• Camera follows him through the room and when he looks at himself in the mirror
• Music starts abruptly as he puts his head on his pillow with jump-cuts and zooms into his face (close-up). The music sounds old fashioned
• Shot goes to next scene of a projector, camera still moving in a freehand fashion
• Shot then changes to an olden film
• The name of the film ‘Mean Streets’ then appears on the screen in big red writing then shows all the names and credits while a film plays in the background of random men. Footage looks old fashioned.
• Slow paced

300:

• Starts with black background and blood splattering, with the directors names etc (credits) – red writing
• War-like music and instruments for music
• Pictures of horses with men on them who have harpoons sticking out of their bodies
• Names are on the horses and the camera quickly zooms out to more horses which have other names
• Fast paced
• Animated
• About a third of the way through the name of the film (300) appears in big red writing
• Names of cast then appear

Blade II:

• Starts with blank black screen with red writing and an action kind of melody in the background and logo ‘New Line Cinema’
• The camera then appears to be moving sideways as a new scene slowly transitions into the screen, the new scene is blurry in the background but there are chains hanging that are in focus. A voice-over then comes in – side pan?
• The voice-over introduces himself as ‘Blade’ (the main character)
• The scene then cuts into a hospital scene – again transitioning from the side giving it a train like effect
• The camera continues to move to the right throughout the trailer
• A lot of close ups of different activities but conceals who’s doing it, just shows the object etc.
• Red writing then appears again with names
• Close-ups of a lot of different weapons
• At the end the title of the film then appears ‘Blade II’ in a font made out of blades.

All three openings are similar as the genre maybe similar, they all may include violence because they all starts with black dark background with red big writing which represents violence, danger, gore maybe. ‘Mean Streets’ and ‘Blade II’ start with a logo whereas 300 doesn’t and they both have a lot of close-ups of different things or people, maybe to establish the personality of the character, what he looks like or who he is. In the 300’s case it’s just a long sequence of credits but with pictures in the background of gory war images. Mean Streets and Blade II have voice-overs which may also be used to establish the characters.