Heather Wragg

Coldplay – Yellow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MwjX4dG72s&ob=av2e

Throughout this analysis I will be discussing editing and camerawork. Coldplay – Yellow was

a hit single in June 2000 and their first top 5 hit in the UK.

The whole of this video is minimalistic, and just focuses on the lead singer, Chris Martin,

walking along a beach (Studland Bay – Dorset) singing directly to the camera which gives us

the impression he is singing to us. Many effects were used during this video although it

looks simple.

At the start of the video at the intro, the camera shot is blurred and then gradually becomes

less blurred and we can see the camera is looking into the distance of the sea. As the song

starts to go past the intro to the place where the electric guitars and drums start to kick in,

the camera moves to look along the shoreline where the artist is standing and starts to walk

across the shore singing to the camera. At this point in the video it is really dark so we can

just see a black figure (he is wearing all black with his hood up) walking towards us.

We can see the sky and there are stars in which look like a midnight sky and links to the first

line of the song “look at the stars, look how they shine for you”. Gradually as the song goes

on, the sky turns from a midnight/early morning sky to 1 minute in where all of the stars

have disappeared and it has become lighter. The sky gets brighter and brighter and

eventually looks as if it is the middle of the day and at the end of the video the camera

moves and shows us a sunset. It is like a whole night and day has passed in around 4

Heather Wragg

minutes. The video ends with the camera being faced again towards the sea but this time

with the sun setting.

The whole of the video is filmed in slow motion yet the artist is singing the lyrics in time with

the song which is playing at normal speed. To do this, the artist had to sing at twice the

speed so they could slow down the video but also keep the lyrics in time. We can also see

the waves moving in slow motion.

At the end of the video the camera carries on moving backwards and the artist stops moving

and this turns into a long shot of him and then he walks off the view of the camera. This

video is also one long tracking shot of the artist walking down the beach. As the artist

stumbles to the side, the camera follows him and then follows him back. All through the

video we have a constant mid shot and sometimes even close ups of the artist to show the

emotions of the artist whilst he is singing.

The video doesn’t seem to directly tell a story and apparently there is no meaning behind

the song but the way the artist keeps looking back down the shoreline (we can see this from

a long shot of him) suggests that he is waiting for someone and possibly singing the song to

tell a story of this person. This is a conceptual video.

Heather Wragg

The weather is gloomy, wet and windy which helps create the effect of the song which

seems to be a sad love song and contrasts to what you would think a beach scene would

look like with golden sands and bright blue seas you generally find on holiday etc. He is also

wearing a coat and waterproof and has wet hair which suggests it has just rained.

Many of Coldplay’s video’s are created in the same way with edits such as Chris having to

sing the whole song backwards in ‘The Scientist’ to create a different effect that is very

original and different to many other videos. This particular video is very similar to The

Verve’s ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ video and is also an alternative rock band like Coldplay.

The Verve’s video is also just a constant tracking shot of the artist walking down the street

with a range of different camera shots and really only differentiates because there are

public walking around in this video and shots from behind.

This type of video that is used is not typical of a rock music video as these sorts of videos

generally have a performance type video e.g. Kings of Leon. Judging just by the video we can

tell that the audience for this sort of music is going to be teenagers and adults. Children

would find this video boring and there is not much to look at and children do not stay easily

entertained watching something considered boring and not very pretty to look at.