Evaluating videos 2

Blink 182 - After Midnight

The video starts with an establishing shot, of a board, which tells the audience it is based in a ‘Youth Psychiatric Ward.’ It then moves to a short narrative, giving the audience more insight into the story behind the songs. The basic spine of the story being a boy liking a girl. In order to emphasise the feelings from the boy, a close up shot is used to show the boy smiling, which then cuts to an over the shoulder shot looking towards the girl, which then cuts to a close up zoom towards the girl. While the narrative is being shown, it is silent apart from the natural sound, which has been quietened more then natural. This makes the audience feel more involved in the story, and the audience are able to understand the story more as the music is not distracting them. As the music starts, the video cuts to the drums first and then the rest of the band. A convention I have found is to have the band shots in an isolated area, with just them in it. I believe this is to help the audience split band form the story. As the song build to someone singing, fast cuts are used between the story and band. Showing the story still moving forward. A lot of low angle shots are used on the main singer.

During the chorus there are more fast cuts used between the band and story. The camera movement is also a lot faster, using long shots and tracking shots to emphasise moment and action. There is also a lot more action happening in the story during the chorus, making the video more exciting and building some tension for the audience. The clothes worn by the actors are grey, dull colours to show represent the life in the psychiatric ward, which is meant to be boring and dull. The band members wear dark colours, mainly sticking to black, white and red. The video then ends the same as it began, silent and bringing the narrative to a conclusion.