Review of previous student video

In this lesson me and my class looked at previous music videos that was from previous City and Islington students. One video that will always stick out in my mind was a music video on the song naive by the The Kooks. This video to me was very impressive as it was done by only one female student. This student is not seen on camera, even though the performances within this video is good for me it is not why it stood out from the rest.

For our Music video for A2 Media Studies we are marked on various technical things:

• Holding shot steady where appropriate. 
• Framing shot appropriately. 
• Variety of shot distances. 
• Material appropriate.
• Appropriate mis-en-scene. 
• Editing to make a meaning clear.
• Varied shot transitions.
• Using sound with images and editing appropriately.

If you use all or most of these technical skills in your music video you will gain a very high level 4 which is a B-A grade and as this film achieved that this is why for me it stands out.

This music video of naive is done by The Kooks a British indie band. I believe this video supports the genre with the dim lights and the effect of black and white on the artist and with the mis-en-scene of the guitar gives the video the indie vibe. The editing for me was one of the reasons why this video got a very high grade as it was achieved to a high level. One edit that I will remember is a fade in and fade out of the artist to a different shot position and this edit made the video look authentic. This video also had appropriate framing and a variety of shot distances and shots it also consisted of a lot of close ups which both fit the marketing criteria and helps it look like a real music video.

Even though I really enjoyed this music video there was some flaws to it. like for instance, the very first image we see is of a blond girl in the street on a phone and behind her in the background is a McDonald's cup and this piece of mis-en-scene distracts you from looking at the girl. however I feel the rest of the mis-en-scene is used well like; the location.

I believe that what makes a good music video is the good use of technical skills which is clearly shown in this video, but the representation and the narrative has to make sense. Now for me I feel the narrative was reasonably easy to understand of the girl cheating on the artist. However at the end of this video you see the artist meet a boy in a hoodie, I thought it was the same boy (the artist) but I had to clarify with my teacher who told me it was not the same boy and if there is not a clear understanding of who this boy is then the ending does not work. Any problem could be resolved and this one could have been resolved by the boy taking down his hood and it would have made a clearer picture.

These mistakes are not big and vital ones, and this video for me is still worthy of the grade, just because the editing is done well and looks authentic but also because this video is represented well. The girl cheating on the boy makes women represented in a negative light as unfaithful.