TW: Technical Analysis

For this task I chose to analyse the music video for 'Time' by Chase and Status ft Delilah, I chose this video as it follows a gritty narrative, the main focus is on the story and that is something I would like to project on my own video. The narrative follows an issue of everyday life- domestic abuse, that often goes unseen and focuses on the views of those around whom the issue affects. I also chose the video as its production values makes it more relatable to our own video, apart from some locations such as the prison, this is because the main location used is inside a suburban, normal household, giving influential ideas for our production.



The first table represents from 0:00-0:55 of the music video:

Shot number	Shot type	Shot length	Mise-en-scene
1	Medium shot	2 seconds	Teenage girl sat down looking at her phone
2	Medium long shot	2 seconds	A family is shown sitting on a sofa, the teenage girl is sitting alone on a separate chair, the father is playing with his daughter.
3	Medium shot	1.5 seconds	Father is shown closer up playing with his daughter with her teddy in his hand
4	Medium shot	1 second	Teenage girl is shown smiling, sitting in same position
5	Medium long shot	2.5 seconds	Back to shot showing father, daughter and mother on sofa, the dad runs around the sofa playing with his daughter
6	Close up ‘meat shot’	5 seconds	Close up shows artist singing, synchronising with lyrics, focused through a rainy window not breaking forth wall
7	Low angle mid shot	4 seconds	Shot shows teenage daughter on a swing, external location, blank facial expression giving a sad mood
8	Medium two shot	2.5 seconds	Parents are on the sofa watching television, both seen drinking wine and close with each other
9	Medium shot	1.5 seconds	Teenage daughter on separate chair looks towards the parents with a worried facial expression and looks away
10	Three shot, teenage daughter placed in foreground, parents in background	2 seconds	Teenager is seen leaving the room, with her parents lying on the sofa together in the background of shot
11	Low angle two shot, medium close up	1.5 seconds	Parents are given a closer shot of them on the sofa cuddling and kissing
12	High angle close up	2 seconds	Camera goes back to artist singing through rainy car window
13	Shallow focus medium shot	2 seconds	Teenager is shown on her bed looking anxious
14	Medium close up	1 second	Artist shown again from different angle, through windshield of car looking out the window
15	Handicam over the shoulder shot	2 seconds	Over the shoulder of the mother in the family shows the dad stood up finishing his drink looking angered
16	Reverse over the shoulder shot	2.5 seconds	Mother is shown over the shoulder in shot, looking scared and being pushed by the father
17	Handicam, two shot medium close up	1.5 seconds	Man is shown putting his drink down and grabbing the woman by the arms in the living room, with her looking worried
18	Pull focus medium shot	4 seconds	Shot reverts back to girl in bed, pull focus shot reveals her earphones as she grabs them quickly and puts them in her ears
19	Over the shoulder close up	1.5 seconds	Close up emphasises man’s angry expression as he shouts at his wife
20	Reverse over the should reaction shot, close up	1 second	Emphasises wife’s expression as she cries and looks down away from her shouting husband
21	High angle close up shot	1 second	Returns to girl on her bed, looking up very scared
22	Close up two shot	1.5 seconds	Man is shown stepping back to highlight his anger
23	Medium two shot	0.5 seconds	The man is shown about to hit his wife
24	Over the shoulder close up	0.5 seconds	The man’s anger is shown by his face whilst he slaps his wife and she begins to fall
25	Quick pan to the right, mid shot	0.5 seconds	The woman is seen falling onto the sofa after being struck crying

This second table represents from 2:40 and onwards of the video:

1	Medium shot	3 seconds	Teenage daughter is shown on the bed looking very worried (after calling police)
2	Close up deep focus shot	2.5 seconds	Returns to artist singing shown through rainy car windshield
3	Handicam tracking shot	4.5 seconds	Father is shown being arrested and removed from the house, coming out the front door resisting arrest
4	Long shot	1.5 seconds	Teenager is looking from the front door crying, exterior shot looking towards front door from the outside
5	Low angle tracking shot, medium close up	4 seconds	Tracking shot follows the father continuing to resist arrest whilst being marched down a prison corridor, shouting and screaming
6	Fast tracking long shot	1 second	Camera gets further away from the man resisting his arrest in the corridor, non-verbal language and facial expression making him look weak and isolated
7	Slight pan medium long shot	0.5 seconds	Continuing to resist his arrest the man falls down whilst the officers hold onto him
8	Long shot	0.5 seconds	Long shot shows officers dragging the man, positioned behind the men
9	Medium long shot	1 second	The man is shown looking blankly, whilst sitting on his bed in his prison cell
10	Extreme close up	0.5 seconds	Meat shot of artist synchronises with lyrics again
11	Medium shot	1 second	Still sitting on the bed, the man holds his hands on his head, connoting guilt or anger
12	Birds eye view medium long shot	0.5 seconds	Birds eye shot shows the man pacing around his cell
13	Close up very slow tracking shot	2 seconds	Returns to artist singing with lyrics in same location
14	Medium shot	1 second	Shows the man approaching his wife in the prison visitors area with teenage daughter sat down behind looking away
15	Over the shoulder close up	2 seconds	Over the shoulder of his wife, he is seen hugging her and his wife kissing him
16	Medium shot	1.5 seconds	Mid shot shows teenage daughters feelings, she looks away from her father scared and confused
17	Close up, slight pan down	2 seconds	The close up shows the couple holding each other’s hands tightly, pan shows the wife’s hand grab her husband’s arm in support
18	Over the shoulder medium close up	0.5 seconds	Over the shoulder of the husband, the mother is shown crying and looking into his eyes
19	Medium shot	1 second	Camera returns to the daughter, with a tear rolling down her face, she looks towards her mother briefly looking confused then looks towards her father’s direction
20	Over the should medium shot	1 second	Continuing from the previous shot, the father is shown over the daughters shoulder, at first looking at the mother whom he is holding hands with, then towards his daughter looking upset and angry with her.
21	Medium reaction shot	1.5 seconds	The daughter quickly looks away from her dad, looking scared and wiping a tear from her cheek
22	Over the shoulder  medium close up	1 second	Over the shoulder of the father he is seen still looking towards his daughters direction, in focus is the mother who is crying and looking towards her husband in a supportive and guilty way
23	Close up, slow pan	1 second	Camera returns to artist synchronising with lyrics, looking out the window of a car
24	Deep focus medium long shot	1.5 seconds	Location changes to outside the family’s house, daughter in the foreground shutting the boot of a packed car, her mother and little sister shown in the background
25	Over the shoulder medium close up	1 second	Daughter is shown approaching her mother from over the shoulder, hugging her as her mother kisses her on the cheek
26	Medium long shot	0.5 seconds	Juxtaposed shot of the father lying curled up on the prison bed faced away from the camera, representing his isolation
27	Long shot	2 seconds	Shot is taken from inside the back window of the car, showing the car pulling away from the girl’s mother and little sister as her mum smiles and looks proud of her
28	Over the shoulder medium close up slight zoom in	3 seconds	Juxtaposes back to father in the cell, over the shoulder of him looking in the mirror at himself looking disappointed and angered.

What I have learnt from the task:

• Fundamentally I have learnt how the cutting rate of music videos is a lot faster to film, and depending on the pace of the song, this cutting rate can be made a lot faster, with shots being frequently under a second long. This is important as it establishes whether illustrating music and visuals will be shown, this song matched its cutting rate well with the pace of the song, making it a lot more watchable and repeatable, as well as surprisingly easier to understand. This is something I will know to keep in mind when making my own video.
• I have learnt how powerful frequent reaction shots can be, the video features many and this makes the video a lot more emotional and makes the audience very compassionate for the characters in the video. This is important as our track choice features a lot of emotion, particularly sadness (like this video) and this can therefore be a technique I can use to make a very moving video.
• Also I have learnt that, in my opinion, a video with a very strong narrative can be just as/more effective as a video with performance throughout. This video does contain some performance, however it is minimized and fits the sad mood of the video, mainly through mise-en-scene such as the rain pouring down the window as the artist sings. This can help me as it shows that perhaps a video featuring little/no performance can still be compelling.

Stills that are useful to me:

The use of juxtaposition editing in the music video is very effective, cutting between the domestic issues between the mother and father and shots of the children looking happy and innocent- this is used to emphasise what kind of effects issues like this has around others and how it often goes unnoticed. This also makes the video more moving as it emphasises how severe issues like these are, making it seem more realistic and emotive for the audience. This shows me how the use of juxtaposition editing in our video could be effective as our narrative also follows family issues, not as severe however we could use juxtaposition to make our piece emotional and have an effect on its audience.

Furthermore, the use of an over-the-shoulder shot in a mirror is effective in showing the emotions of characters on screen, it can construct prevalence or just be used as a symbol of reflection on a character, this can be useful for our video as the emotions of our prevailing character in the video will be focused on throughout. Therefore this kind of shot could be used in our own piece, giving prevalence to our character and showing his dual nature through this type of shot will consequentially make the audience more empathetic

An over-the-shoulder shot is also effective and more frequent in showing the emotions of other characters, this shot shows the husband of the family drinking, after this he hits his wife whom the camera is positioned behind. This is very useful for our production as the narrative will feature a father who also drinks too much and becomes angry with his family members, very similar to this video, an over-the-shoulder shot can be used to reveal the fact that this father drinks too much and to highlight that there is still a connection between the two people in shot (in our case the father and son).

I also like the way the performance element of the video is shown in this video, the artist does not break the forth wall and never looks towards the camera whilst performing, this is effective in making the performance seem more realistic and fitting with the other narrative that the video is following. Furthermore the way the camera is positioned behind a window with rain dripping down highlights and reflects the sadness of the video and is used as a signifier of sad thoughts as this shot is iconic in many films and music videos of a character being upset. Although we are not planning to feature performance in our video, this is useful in showing me a method in which the narrative can still be followed with the performance incorporated in a way that looks natural and juxtaposes well.