Music Videos

One video I really like and think still would look great if it was released this week is 'Good Life' by Kanye West and T-Pain. I really like this video as it’s quite simple and not too flashy, but it’s still a great video. I really like the technical aspect of the editing. The graphics are so colourful and bright and every little thing on screen matches perfectly to what he says. The graphics contrast to the rest of video which is in black and white, so they really stand out. I like how they don’t have a lot of unnecessary props and too many other people, it’s just the two artists and one other woman. The editing and graphics really makes the video fit together. Although a lot of videos now tend to have more storyline based ideas, I think this video would still look good today as it's quite simple and sometimes simplicity is key.

One video I hate is 'Starships' by Nicki Minaj. The video is based on one line from the song 'lets go to the beach, each'.  I prefer to watch videos that have some relevance to the actual song, this is just her dancing around in different colour bikinis and different styles of hair. From about 3 minutes onwards, the video turns into a display of special effects. The editing goes crazy, it's too much. The costume is terrible, it’s just different colour bikinis, I guess that goes with the theme of the beach, but for a song that’s called ‘Starships’, you would expect more elements of space and sci-fi. The one thing I do like about this video is the actual type of shots, they have a wide range of shots, such as close up, mid-shots and long shots. Also, although the weird special effects are a bit much, it does fit in with the instrumental part of the song.

 

My current favourite is 'Thinking Out Loud' by Ed Sheeran. It’s not a very current song as its 9 months old, but I haven’t seen any videos after it that I really like. Again, this video is very simple, it’s just two people dancing in a dimly lit ballroom.  I love everything about this video, especially the mise-en-scene. The ballroom set design looks very fancy and it’s the perfect setting for two people in love. Even the costumes are simple but they still look very nice, they’re not over the top. I think the editing of this video was done very well as it’s almost as if you’re in the room with them, following them around, it transitions very smoothly. I think the overall idea of the video is very sweet and fits well with the song.