Music Video Director: Shane Drake:

Shane Drake is an American music video director from Redding, California. Drake started work as an editor and a cinematographer in his early career but soon moved into the director's chair. Drake's first music video was "Saturday" by Fall Out Boy and since then he has directed 56 more music video's. Drake is known for directing music video's for bands who belong to the "Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen" record label.
Shane Drake has worked with many different kinds of acts like Less Than Jake, Timbaland, Gym Class Heroes and Paul Van Dyk. However he mostly directs videos for American rock bands

such as Paramore, Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy and The Almost. Drake has been nominated for multiple MTV awards and won the "MTV Video Music Award" for "Video Of The Year" for Panic! at the Disco's "I Write Sins Not Tragedies".

Music Video Analysis 1: Panic! At The Disco: I Write Sins Not Tragedies:

The music video is a performance/narrative video and the narrative of the video is based on the lyrical content of the song. The video includes a lot of props and costumes and includes many circus performers. The narrative of the video is that there is a wedding between a bride and a groom very two very different families. The bride's family are up class and wealthy and in the video we can see there metaphorical masks or facades. However, the groom's family are entertainers and performers and Panic! At The Disco's lead singer plays the ringleader. During the video we see that the ringleader is actually the groom's conscience and he persuades him that the bride is no good and leads him back to his family.

The video itself is very visually good with some great costumes and make-up and it also incorporates a variety of close-ups, pans and some very quick and snappy editing. The video also uses a lot of close-up shots on the band members performing which is a very conventional technique in a music video. I believe that Drake has matched the exuberant and animated style of Panic! At The Disco with the video and I believe he pulls the narrative along very well. it may be his past jobs in editing and cinematography that helped him get the perfect balance between performance and narrative in the video. There are some flaws to the video however as I believe that the video centre's in on the lead singer too much even though it is conventional to do so in a rock music video. However, the record company of Panic! At The Disco (Fueled By Ramen) may have asked this of Drake.

Music Video Analysis 2: Paramore : crushcrushcrush:




This video is also a performance/narrative, however in this video there is a lot more emphasis on the performance in the video. The editing in the video is very fast and snappy and there seems to be an equal mix of close -up, mid and long shots. The narrative of the video is that a group of people who live in the desert are spying on Paramore performing and then they break all of there equipment. Though not directly related to the lyrics, there are some elements of the lyrics in the narrative especially with the idea of people "spying" and being watched. drake again uses some great props in the video and makes the desert inhabitants look very scary and strange with some "hills-have-eyes esque" props.

This video is also very visually effective and is set in the middle of a desert and therefore has some great landscape scenes. There is a lot of shots on the band playing but none more than on the lead singer. I believe the emphasis on the lead singer is that because she is female she will attract the male fans (note that the male band members wear jackets while the lead singer wears just a t-shirt) and she will also appeal to female fans who will want to imitate her, especially with her bright hair. One flaw in the video may be the meaning of the narrative, though it may relate to the lyrics in a small way, it does not seem to convey any message or tell the audience any story and seems to be not very well thought out.