The Script – If you ever come

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Music Video Deconstruction…

Representation… In this music video the guys in the band are re-presented as just being ordinary guys. Their is one drummer, one guitarist and one singer in the band. They are dressed in quite casual clothing, in tops and jeans. They are all wearing black, but the singer hasa white top on. I think that the casual clothing helps for viewers to relate to them as it shows they are just ordinary people. The dark clothing links to the rock side of theirgenre which I believe is pop rock. They are not in revealing clothing like in pop videos,which helps to show that its not all about their bodies.

In the video where we see the band performing, it is shot from inside. The walls are all very dark and there is little lighting coming into the room. I think all the dark colours

are trying to be a representation of how much he missing her. I would represent black with anger, death and sorrow. I believe that the dullness is trying to show how he is almost lost without her, feeling all sad and sorry for himself. I think it works well with the lyrics of the song, and think the colours are a good way of representing his mood and emotions. Around the band whilst they are performing, is a circle of chairs. This initial seems a bit odd, but later on in the video the girl then enters a similar/same room with a circle of chairs to attend a meeting/discussion, this could in some way be a way of connect the two people. We also for a short bit of the video see the singer stood outside near the exit, which again we see the girl walking up too later in the video. In the song, the singer is hoping his ‘girlfriend’ will come back to him. There are cuts throughout showing the girl leaving, and her life without him. The end of the video is a bit open ended and viewers don’t really know whether she is going back to him or not.

This image is showing their dark clothing, dull lighting and it shows were they perform.

These two still shots, show the location of both where the band perform and where the girl goes at the end of the video, I think there may be a link possibly between the two.

Again, these two still shots from the video, I think are also slightly linked in a way. I guessed the location was the same because of the exit signs and yellow walls. I think this video can be ‘read’ in different ways, as it is not clearly shown whether she goes back to him or not, so is down to individuals reading of the video.

In this video, we see the band as being very passionate about their music. As well as this the narrative of the story is very emotive and there is a number of different shots that I believed help to really show their feelings and emotions. Below I have screen shots of some bits of the video and my views on the still shot….

This is the starting shot of the video, it is a close up of the ‘girlfriends’ face. It helps to automatically show her emotion as we can see from her face she looks quite upset and scared. This then zooms out and we see that she is in fact stood at the train station about to leave her ‘boyfriend’. The girl is looking quite rough and lonely, we also see her crying in some other parts of the video.

In a part of the video, we see flashbacks of the girls old life. There are close ups of alcohol, drugs and smoke. It seems to me that the guy helped the girl give up all of this and turn her life back around. He is singing about wanting her to remember it, even if it is the only thing she does remember of him. I think all the close ups of this makes it seen very normal and natural, it shows not everyone is perfect, and people are able to relate to it.

I think this shot is emphasizing the guys loneliness without the girl. He is sat looking up in the ceiling, looking like he is in quite a deep thought. All the empty chairs also help to show his loneliness without her. The circle of chairs have been used throughout the video, with the girl entering what looked like a similar room at the end, possibly to somewhat connect the two people the narrative is based on.

I really like this still shot, I think the girl walking along the long corridor works well. I like the fact you can see the light shinning through the window at the end, and it’s as if she is walking to the sun light. I also like the fact that she is like a silhouette figure. I think it shows her loneliness and also shows a sense of her being lost without him.

This is the ending shot of the video, the man spins the chair around sort of as an invite for the girl to come back. This is quite important as the chairs link to previous parts of the video. The guy sings with a circle of chairs around him and then the girl attends a talk with a circle of chairs, making this ending link well to what has been going on in the video.

Genre… I would say that the genre of this song is pop rock. I would say this because I think it takes conventions from both the pop and rock music videos. I am going to look at the conventions it uses from rock and the conventions it uses from pop:

Pop convention used… Rock conventions used…

-is focusing on love -band play instruments (guitar and drums)

-wear fairly fashionable clothing

-dark lighting

-has a narrative running along with the video

-cuts from the band playing to the storyline

-shows different emotions -features bits with drugs, smoking and drink

-dull clothing

Narrative… This music video has a narrative running along side it. It cuts from the band performing to the narrative and occasionally includes some flashbacks. The song is called ‘If you ever come back’. The main singer in the video is trying to get his ‘girlfriend’ back. At the beginning, we see the girlfriend at the train station with her suitcase about to leave him. As the video goes on there a cuts showing us her life without him. The girl is looking very upset and lonely without him. He is singing about wanting her to come back to him; saying that the ‘door is always on the latch’. We also see flashbacks of her old life, possibly from before she was with him. He is saying that ‘even if it is the only thing she should remember, it should be this’. In the flashbacks the girl is doing drugs, smoking and drinking and from this bit of the video I got the impression that the guy helped her get through her addictions and get her life back together. Lots of emotion is shown in the narrative of the video, the girl is seen crying and upset most times, and the guy also seems passionate and lonely without her. Below are screen shots, briefly showing the narrative:

Audience… I would say that the main audience for this music video would be girls. I would say the age range would probably be 13-20. I think that dependant on who the audience is, they will be watching the video for different reasons. Most people would probably just be viewing the video for entertainment. However, some may be viewing it as ‘escapism’ as a way of escaping from real life for a period of time and just thinking how the narrative could link to them. Some may use the narrative as a personal reflection, maybe someone has experienced a similar thing and they want to see how this person copes with it. Dependent on the person watching the music video, everyone is going to read the text in many different ways. I personally watch music videos for entertainment but sometimes can also link the narrative to experiences that I may have encountered in my life.

This image shows who I would expect the target audience of this music video to be.

Media Language… How meaning has been created through:

Colours: In the video, the band member are all dressed in complete black, with the singer

just wearing a white top. I think the dull clothing automatically creates quite a sad atmosphere as I would represent the colour black as connoting death

and anger. I think the colour of the clothing links well to the song as the song narrative is quite sad. If however they were all dressed in bright colourful clothing, it wouldn’t have the same effect and the mood of the video wouldn't be the same

Props:Chairs are used as a prop within the video. I think that maybe there is a link to the room the band perform in at the beginning and the room the girl enters at the End. Whilst the band are performing, we see a circle of chairs around them, and at The end, we then see the girl enter a similar looking room to attend a meeting/discussion. The chair the guy spins around in the image on the left is seenas a sort of invitation for her to come back to him. At the end, I wasn’t totally sure Whether she ends up going back to him as it isn’t shown, however I think that it has Purposely been left open ended, so people can make their own decision.

Lighting: In the room where the band perform, the lighting is really dark. This automatically gave me an idea that it is going to be quite a sad, emotive video. I think the colour black connotes death and sorrow, and the darkness of the room, helps to emphasis both his passion and his loneliness without her. There is a slight dim light coming from above, this helps to highlight the band. It also creates shadows on the floor, which I think looks quite good.

How meaning has been created through:

Editing: In the video, lots of editing is used to cut from one location to another. We see the band performing, the girls life and the girls past life, making it have quite a fragmented narrative. There are many cuts that occur in the video, I think it helps to make it more interesting and also helps to show viewers the narrative of the story too. If the video however was just of the band performing, it would be totally different. The video would be read in many different ways and everyone's interpretations may be completely different. Therefore, I feel I like the use of the narrative and think it works well.

Camera Angle and Shots:

This is a close up of the ‘girlfriends’ face, we can clearly see that she is wiping tears from her face. I think the close up really helps to capture her emotion and ifit was a more distant shot, her emotion wouldn’t have been emphasized as well. I Like the use of close ups within the video and would like to have quite a few close ups in mine. I think they really stand out as they are focusing on just one particular thing.

This is a long shot, which is near to the start of the video. We see the girl, with her bags about to get on the train. I think this works well as it goes along with the lyrics of the song. I like the fact that it gives viewers more of a sense of location, and think that this shot is quite an important one in the video. It helps to explain the narrative and shows that the couple have just broken up and the girl has left him. In my video, I need to use a number of different camera shots and angles in order to make it interesting and varied.