Hurtwood House - We Are From Venice (Evaluation Task)

I feel that the students who created this music video have successfully and creatively stuck to the typical conventions of a music video in terms of camera shots, angles and movements. Many music videos tend to include a lot of close ups, mid shots and long shots, as well as pans and tracking shots. This music video contains all of these shots, and I feel that each shot creates emphasis on whatever is being shown in the shot, e.g. the long shot used at 0:32 allows the viewers to pay attention the main focus in the shot, in this case, the boy smashing the small refrigerator with a metal pole. At the same time, this shows them what kind of environment they are in, which may be an important aspect of understanding the narrative within the music video. The random combination of all of these camera shots and angles help make the music video visually exciting, and they allow the audience to see what is key in the music video, and what is not so important.

In terms of technical aspects, I feel that they have managed to keep the pace of the editing in sync with the beat of the song, e.g. at 1:48, the song stops for a while and the screen turns black, and then as soon as the beat kicks in again, the visuals reappear in sync with the beat of the song. Jump cuts have been used to allow a sudden change from one scene to another. This shows the viewers that time has passed since the previous scene, so this is also effective in helping the audience the understand the narrative of the music video. The visuals are very fast paced, which matches the up beat dance music in the video. I feel that the video has been edited in this way to cause confusion to the audience the first time they watch, so that they can watch it for a second time round and hopefully understand it. This is effective because it increases how often the video is repeated by viewers.

Empowerment is a convention dominantly used throughout the vast majority of the music video. An example of when empowerment has been displayed is denoted at 2:10 where we see two opposing groups of youths approaching each other with various weapons, including hockey sticks, fireworks and smashed bottles. This connotes their aggression, dominance and power within the music video. This helps to amplify the narrative of the music video.

I feel that the mise en scene has been used effectively to portray to the viewers that the performers are rebellious people, especially through the use of props. I denote aggressive acts several times throughout the music video, e.g. at 0:29 we see a young male smashing the glass door of a small refrigerator with a metal pole. All of the props in the video appear to be trashed possessions or potential weapons, which makes the people in the music video appear threatening and dangerous. I also feel that the costumes used are pre dominantly hoodies, which can come across as quite threatening, especially because in today's day and age, the people of our society associate them with gang violence. This is effective because it fits in really well with the narrative of the music video, which is basically about two opposing groups preparing for a fight. 

Overall I feel that the group have done extremely well to create a music video with a narrative, without using any lyrics in the song.