Research: Music Video analysis 5 - editing - James Arthur

James Arthur - Say You Wont Let Go

The song is 3 minutes and 30 seconds long and has 114 shots, which is a lot shorter than Black eyed Peas - Where is the Love, as this is an acoustic song. This song has a longer ASL when is showing the artist and the artist playing the instrument in comparison to when the narrative story line is happening in which shot length is much shorter.

The establishing shot is off the artist in the first location, wearing casual clothes and with a guitar in his hand, clearly establishing the genre of acoustic pop.

I think simple extreme close up shots like these are very effective and can be fit in very simply and would suit my song.






It then cuts to an extreme long shot, with the two alone on a lake, similar to Taylor Swift - Mine, music video.










As the artist begins to sing about the significant person in his life, it cuts to a low angle hand held camera with trees in the background to introduce the girl, this would be a simple achievable shot to get for my music video.

The blurs and cross dissolves here break convention but i would like to do for my two stars in my music video, just to see the outlines, and manipulates conventions in a very clever way.

There is then a new location, with very fast shot lengths to show the scene set up of the equipment and the male showing the female his music. It is difficult to tell if they are the same two characters from the earlier shots.

Then the fourth location of the music video with 2 new characters. this music video seems to incorporate a lot of natural light into its shot. This shot is followed with close ups of the baby.

High angle shot of the artist, I would like to do this on my music video but may be difficult to achieve.






New location with 2 new characters, the next shot the visuals match the lyrics as it is her looking over her shoulder to match the lyric "as you looked over your shoulder".





This video makes a lot of use of reflections and nature and uses trees as part of the reflection, I like that because I know two of my locations will be in a park, and at a beach which are both natural.

Another new location, the sixth with a new character and possibly the same children from the earlier shots. the camera is moving sideways as she is turning the pages and is only a side high angle view.





Simple shots like these would be very suited to my music video with a hand held camera following them.








The 7th location and a new character and a dog, I think this may be to try add emphases the song can be applied to lots of different situations.









The 8th location and more characters, this would be very hard to achieve because I would not have the props to do this and a hospital would not allow me access to produce this kind of shot. Again this has a lot of natural light.

This shot matches the lyrics as they talk about being hold and how they will still love each other when they're ghosts.









How this research has influenced my planning:
This research has shown me to have a longer shot length on the artist and shorter ASL on the narrative part of my music videos. This music video has also given me the idea of using simple shots such as a hand held camera following two people walking, and of rain dropping in a puddle. Also given me an idea on how to introduce the female in the music video by having a low angle of her walking under a tree supposedly smiling at her other half.