Previous Student's Work: Long Road Media - Group 52's Music Video 2009-10:

This music video is an A2 video production that a group of students from Long Road Sixth Form College created. It is mainly a performance based music video yet it does try to string a narrative together but unfortunately it is not executed very well. The group do well in keeping to the stereotypes of a pop rock music video by making it performance based and using a lot of close-ups on the singer. The editing is also quite good and the group make a good use of dissolve transitions and it really helps the video flow together. They incorporate some effects too that keep it interesting like dulling down all the colour in some scenes and just leaving the singer's red coat to stand out in the shot. This makes her stand out and makes her the centre of attention in the shot and this would not be out of place in a normal pop rock video.
However, unfortunately there are a lot of errors in the video. The changing of black and white, partially black and white and normal colours breaks the continuity of the video and make it look very amateurish. The quality of the camera work is also not very good and in multiple scenes, the shot goes from clear to grainy footage. The attempt at a narrative is not portrayed clearly enough to the viewer and even the performance shots get a little boring as they are mostly long mid-shots of the singer walking down the road.

This music video has taught me a lot and I think I have learned many things from it. For example, the idea of having shots partially black and white with the clarity of certain colours brought out is very effective and maybe an idea, we as a group, may use in our music video production. The video has also taught me the importance of continuity in a music video. The difference in camera qualities and black and white effects breaks the verisimilitude of it being a real music video production. This will be thing that I will make sure will not happen in our music video production. Overall, I think the video needs a lot of work but the essential ideas and the key conventions a music video are still there.