The video for “Radiohead’s” song “Just” begins with a slow zoom in on the a man standing by the bath which shows the audience that he is the centric character in the narrative of the video. There is a large amount of crosscutting used in the video because the narrative story is shown to be happening at the same time as the band playing in the apartment block. A graphic match is used at the start of the video to show that the events a taking place at the same time however, the images crosscut rather than fade in to one another. The slow pace of the cinematography and editing in the opening of the video make the opening sequence interesting for the audience as it begins to set the tone of the video , this is because the opening sequence gives no detail of the narrative and begins to create the enigma within the video. However, the pace of editing builds up throughout the video as the narrative begins to develop. Contrastingly the pace of editing for “LCD Soundsytem’s” track “Someone Great” changes continuously throughout the video, which means a contrast is created when fast paced editing is used because the song is slow. Differently there is no editing used in “Coldplay’s” video “Strawberry Swings”, this is because the video is a montage of drawings on the pavement which create a constant moving image showing the narrative of the video. This means that there is limited composition within the video however; high and low angles are used within the video. For example; when the protagonist and antagonist initially confront each other there is a switch from low to high angle to show that the hero has lost his power when he is falling through the city. Similarly a power change is represent by the switch between a low and high angle shot is used in the video “Just”. Throughout the video high angle shots are used on the central character to show that he is the weaker persona in the narrative, low angle shots are also used to show that the crowd of people interrogating the man are more powerful. However, at the end of the video a high tracking shot is used on all the characters to show that the enigma in the video has made them all weak, this all helps to add to the enigma as the audience continues to question the actions of the characters. Non-stereotypically the police officer in the video is shown to be weak and powerless to stop the centric character from lying on the pavement because a high angle shot is used, where as usually a low angle shot would be used on the officer to show his authority. Contrastingly the video “Someone Great” uses very little high or low angles which represent the political ideas shown in the video. This is because the protagonist in the video does not represent any culture or social group, the lack of high and low angled shots represents that no person in the world should have more authority or power because of their culture or social persona. There is however a large amount of tracking shots used on the central character which is similar to “Strawberry Swings” which uses tracking shots for the majority of the video with a lack of editing which allows the video to flow. There is a large amount of close ups used in both videos “Just” and “Someone Great”, close ups are used in “Just” to show the contrasting emotions on the characters faces however, “Someone Great” uses close ups are used to show the contentment on the characters faces. The producer has done this within the video to show that different cultures should treat each other same rather than appear distant to each other.
The protagonist in the video “Strawberry Swings” is shown as a superhero because he stereotypically changes into costume when there is a sign of danger. The female protagonist in the video is wearing a red dress, the colour red is used in the video to symbolise love. This symbolism is used to show the love shared between the protagonist and stereotypical damsel in distress. Similarly, the police officer in wears a stereotypical uniform which is used to show his power and authority however, this makes a juxtaposition with his role in the video. This is because the police officer has no control over the actions of the man lying on the pavement. Differently the central character in the video “Someone Great” is completely filled in black and at some points in the video appears to be in 2 dimensional form. The producer has done this to create racial and cultural meaning to the video; the protagonist does not represent any culture or society and acts as a bridge between the different cultures shown in the video. At the end of the video “Strawberry Swings” bright colours are used to show the happy ending to the video, and the setting for the video continuously changes as the narrative of the video develops. However, the opening of the video “Just” sets the location for the video; the set seems very empty which helps keep the audience focussed on the enigma created.
Often in the video “Someone Great” the pace of editing contrast with the sound played over the top of the video however, the song is the only sound played with the video. Although the editing contrasts with the music, the subject of the video goes with the music. Contrastingly there is a small section of sound played at the end of “Strawberry Swings” which deters from the comic book style of the video because begin to walk across the painting. Differently the video “Just” uses subtitles to add to the narrative of the video because the narrative of the video does not go with the music. However, there is silence at the start of video before the music kicks in; this is done to show the importance of the central character of the video. However, the subtitles are used in the video to create an enigma to the storyline, but at the end of the video the subtitles cut out which leaves the video on a cliff hanger.
There are several stereotypes used within the video “Just”, for example the police officer shows stereotypical traits as being helpful and powerful. However, his power is un-stereotypical taken away because he cannot use his authority on the man. Stereotypes are also use in the video “Strawberry Swings” because the female character is shown to be weak and the hero is stereotypically male which a key aspect of most comic book narratives is. Differently the video for “Someone Great” does not uses the block coloured person to show that there a certain stereotypes in society which should not exist. This shows the feelings of the artist through both the song and also the music as both share the same theme which is a typical convention of a music video. The video for “Strawberry Swings” immediately shows the narrative of the video which is a conventional concept used in most music videos. The video also uses stereotypical conventions of comic book narratives by using typical male and female roles. An enigma is used in the music video “Just” which is an unconventional idea for a music video which makes this particular video stand out. The enigma continues to build up throughout the video until the end when the audience believe that they are about to discover the answer only for the video to end on a cliff hanger. This is done to create discussion on the video which may help promote the video to other people who may not have heard of the band, which is a conventional way of increasing popularity for the band. However, a typical convention is used in the video because the bands are shown playing the song at the same time as the narrative of the video, which is a typical feature of a music video.
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