Crystal Castles - Courtship Dating

Artist: Crystal Castles
Track: Courtship Dating
Dir: Irwin Barbé

Paramore - Ignorance

Artist: Paramore
Track: Ignorance
Dir: Honey

Foals - Balloons

Artist: Foals
Track: Balloons
Dir: Dave Ma

Getting the Jist of Things...

In order to produce an effective and sufficient music video, I must first conduct research into the genre in order to gain insight into what I need / would want to include in my own music video.

I will therefore analyse 5 music videos from artists in the the same genre or sub-genre as Joey Nightmare to see what the codes and conventions are for music videos in said genre.

Bring on Joey Nightmare

As music is a big part of my life, I am frequently going to gigs and festivals in order to catch my favourite artists, as well as discover new ones. A few months ago, I went to an unsigned music competition, of which my friends were competing.

There were 6 acts in the competition, so the heat was on. And they all performed amazingly, making it hard to determine who the winner would be. However, one band caught my eye more than the rest. They were an indie / dance amazement, and I was hooked with their catchy songs straight away.

They may not have won the competition, but they definately made an impression on me. Introducing...Joey Nightmare.

[Click image to go to the Joey Nighmare MySpace page]

A Change of Direction...

After continuing with my original idea and carrying out primary and secondary research into the genre, it has become evident to me that there is simply no time to finish my song, record and edit it all in time to meet deadlines.

This is why I have opted to go back and find an unsigned band so I am free to go ahead and get the pre-production aspects of my music video completed, and plunge straight into filming and editing for my rough cut.

However, this means deleting all of my original analysis and planning as it is no longer relevant and would make my blog seem confusing with the 2 mixes of genre.

Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

Track: I'm Yours
Artist: Jason Mraz
Director: Eric Wareheim

The music video begins with an establishing shot of an airport with a commercial airplane featured, immediately suggesting that the video will have a ‘holiday’ feel to it. During the build up to the start of the song, there are short takes of various things, such as Jason Mraz (the artist) looking out of the plane window, and CU’s of road signs and water. This allows the audience to start having an idea of where the music video may be set.

As the music begins, there is juxtaposition in terms of setting, as it changes from the sunny atmosphere of an external location, to the darker atmosphere of an internal location. The shots are fairly long, focusing on the artist preparing to go out, keeping in time with the pace of the song. Mainly CU’s and MS’s are used to keep a sense of mystery – the audience is yet to find out where he is going – with the artist never fully shown on camera. Additionally, there is a shot where the artist is shown fiddling with a key (presumably to the apartment he is in) and then simply throwing it on the table and not taking it with him, suggesting to the audience that he isn’t intending on coming back and is out to seek adventure, allowing the audience to gain insight into the artists personality.

Following this is a travel montage (destination still unknown to the audience) of the artist in a taxi, on the plane, and then hitch-hiking and jumping into the back of a person’s pick-up truck (whether or not he knows them isn’t obvious at this point which ties in with the sense of adventure). The whole time the artist is singing the lyrics of the song, making it a mixed-style music video as it features both a narrative and a performance. At this point it’s obvious that the music video is trying to emphasize the chilled persona of Jason Mraz and promoting him as a happy-go-lucky type of person.

The setting then changes again as the journey finishes and the artist finds himself in an empty swimming pool which the people he’s with start too skateboard in. The footage is edited in such a way that it changes from shot to shot to match the beat of the music, which is very effective as it keeps you hooked on what is happening. The artist is shown talking and socializing with some people as the others skate, with brief shots of an exotic looking waterfall whilst they talk, allowing the audience to see the topic of conversation without having to actually hear it (as this would take away focus from the song).


After being shown a glimpse of the next location, the artist leaves with the new people he’s met. An effective shot used is when there is a lyric on the song saying “loved” and then a shot of the artist making a love heart shape out of his fingers as he sings it (refer to video – 1:33)