Applying Theory

Massive Attack - Unfinished Symphony




Massive Attack's Unfinished Symphony - possibly the most talked about video, and the first of it's kind. An extremely simple video, emphasising the view of gangs and violence. The video is set in a run down Urban enviroment, the location alone portraying the stereotypical characters such as thugs tot he audience. The video relates to it's target audience, and begins with a close up of two metal balls being twisted in a mans hand. We then see a close up of a bulldog on a chain, we are able to discover the typical enviroment within seconds of the video. The camera angle switches to a higher birds eye shot, revealing a gang; the camera then pans to the right across the estate, and focuses on a close up of a little boy holding a toy gun and firing it. I believe this is very effective imagery involving the message they are portraying.
The camera then using tracking to continue down the street, slowly focusing on a woman dressed in black on the left hand side, then pans around her to focus on her face on. As she is walking down the street we as an audience are able to take it the atmoshpere of the urban background, and the people that live there, giving us a bigger insight to the video. The people on the street although simply walking along, pay a huge part in the video and live up to the sterotype of that area also; we find we are able to focus on both her and the people behind as they are in view of the camera too.
With only a couple of transactions the camera has been tracking the character throughout the whole video, simple yet effective; we do not only follow the main character throughout the video, but we get to see her surroundings also.
As she crosses the road the camera angle pans around, and is now side on, giving the audience the view that is situated down the road she is crossing, keeping them interested further; this is a very clever technique as no real camera action has taken place, simply a change in surroundings. This will immediately attract the attention of the target audience, as we see what the streets are like, and understand the effects it has.
I have descovered through analysing the video that there is a long space where there is no singing, and the character is simply walking, however, this is not boring at all to the viewer; there are a number of things going on in the background, and we also see her facial expressing and can imagine how she is feeling. This is believe adds a sense of sympathy to the piece, making the audience eager to continue watching.
Towards the end of the video, the camera angle sswitches from in front of the character, to behind her, adding some variety to the video; i find this affective as i found out from analysing that it matches the beggining piece of editing, we start off by seeing her from behind, and finish that way. I believe it is a relevant piece to the ending of the video as it suggests she is leaving. The camera continues tracking her movement, however holding back further, giving the impression that she is walking away as she moves further away from the camera.
The shot ends when she turns the corner of the street.
This video is a prime example that music videos can be just as good when less editing has taken place, as i said before the video is very famous and has got it's name for being extremely simple yet effective, some would say that is even harder to do then the complicated and technical videos! I was very impressed.




The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony


The Verve- Bitter Sweet Symphony is an extremely effective yet straight forward video, famous for its simplicity.
We immediately recognise the theme of the video as attitude towards life, the video set in a east end location, primarily relating to it's target audience. From beginning to end the video portrays the theme extremely well, applying attitude to the video creating the impact of the message of peace the video is trying to convey to the audience.
The video is a classic, the simplicity allows the song to speak for itself, and begins with Richard Ashcroft walking to a corner of the road; throughout the next 25 seconds tracking is used, leaving the character still standing at the end of the road, from a long shot.
The camera continues tracking, showing the character bashing into public whilst walking towards the camera, this creating a stereotypical view of the east end. We can already see that the video is not complicated and does not involve a large amount of camera action, however, it occasionally switches to a shot as if we are looking through the characters eyes, seeing what they would see. This is used in order to add some variety to the video yet still keeping it simple.
The pavement journey throughout the video was influenced by the video Massive Attacks 'Unfinished Symphony', however this video expressing a run down urban enviroment, once again relating to the audience.
The parituclar character that Richard Ashcroft is trying to portray is a 'hard' and 'east end thug' type character, expressed through his rudeness throughout the video, not stopping for anybody and knocking people down; this again relating to the target audience and also the area located.
We as an audience do not recieve a clear view of the character the whole way through the video, showing people walking in front of the camera lense, and restricting our view. This is done on purpose, to represent the idea of the busy streets and the crowding public, matching the location again.
Close ups of his face and feet are also shown occasionally, adding variety and his own expression also expressing the crowding; although the camera angle is still tracking him, following his every move, this reminding us that he has not stopped walking, no matter the circumstance.
The video, as you have seen is extremely simple and yet not boring to watch, this proving that you do not need to create a masterpiece to make an effective and popular video.
Towards the end of the video Ashcroft's 4 bandmates appear from the right hand side of the shot, and all walk behind him.
This shot is a perfect way to end the video, keeping the simplicity and adding the remaining bandmates. Overall the video has impressed me, the tracking follows all the way through the video with occasional differing camera shots such as close ups and medium shots, and also point of view shots. An excellent yet effortless music video.


Fat Les- Vindaloo



Fat Les's Vindaloo, is an extremely popular song, famous for comically copying the Bittersweet Symphony however, it was originally written as a parody of football chants. The video is located in the same place and holds the same aspect as the Bittersweet video, however, with a number of twists!
The video has clear intertextual references to the verse and deliberately includes a Richard Ashcroft look alike, comedian Paul Kaye, truly immitating the style of the video. However, this is only apparant as the two videos have already used those conventions.
The video copies every aspect of the original, mocking the location, the band and the song itself, however keeping the camera angles roughly the same. I have descovered that unlike the original video, where we watch Richard Ashcroft walking down tht street alone, we see Paul Kaye barging his way down the street, first alone, yet slowly gathering a crowd. A number of famous comedians feature in the video such as David Walliams and Matt Lucas, making the video that much comic, upping the views and popularity.
Although the video is a comic version of the original, i find that once people have seen this version of the video they then go to view the original, all in all a rather clever popularity technique!