RESEARCH: Performance Video

It is common for bands in the rock/indie genre to create a music video that is heavily based on clips of the band playing live on stage. As well as this, clips of the band back stage, the crowd reacting to the music and pictures are all added to give the music a personal touch. I like to think of this type of music video as a bands diary.  Personally, when I watch videos like these, it makes me want to see the band live. Here are a few examples of the videos.

Use Somebody is by far the most well known song by The Kings Of Leon. This is partly to do with it's music video, that manages to create a  . The video shows more conventions of a typical music video as it has a performance track that is not filmed to a live audience. This shows how the band is trying to appeal to the masses as the singer is looking into the camera, directly at the audience. The video is synonymous with the sped up car light through the city roads, which is used constantly through the song.

This music video is by 30 Seconds to Mars. The band visited many cities while on tour and recorded many of  their shows along the way. What makes this video different is the interview style clips of fans of the band talking about music. The idea is that fans of the band watching will have similar views or will be able to relate, this creates a bond between the artists and the band.

Last but not least is 'You know you're right' by Nirvana. The band was so influential and managed to obtain a large fan base, as you can tell by the clips in the music video. The video captures the destructive and aggressive nature of the band's members. The video is made up of many short clips, the beginning has an especially 'jumpy' set of clips that illustrates the sparratic nature of the music. At the chorus, there are clips that are lip synced  with the song so it seems like Kurt is actually singing the base track. This is how the audience knows that this is the chorus.

Towards the end of the song, the chorus is prolonged which is when the clips start to show the band members  destroying their surroundings on stage.  The clips all show the same sort of thing on different stages, which illustrates that they do this a lot. After this, clips of the band members saying 'goodbye' to the crowd begin to emerge, which gives the video a parallel structure as the song winds to an end.

All three of these bands are from the rock genre and are trying to get an epic feel from the videos that shows how big and influential they are. My personal favorite is the one by Nirvana, as it is the best at showing the personality of the band members.

RESEARCH: Banned Items

These are some items that our teachers told to avoid using in the videos. This is because they are often over used or make the video look cheesy.

Things to AVOID
Mobile Phones
Hoodies (Unless it's for genre purposes)
No flashback narrative in black and white
Dark lighting
Normal college clothes

Things TO DO

Plan mise en scene carefully
Plan with editing in mind
Leave time before and after filming
Light set properly
When lip singing, actually sing the song!

Favorite video to be continued...

 Laura Mulveys theory states that she thinks that women are a gaze to men and that men are in power in music videos. I understand that women are represented as being very sexy in music videos and very rarley are the women in controls and the men are the gaze.

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However i found a jls video that is for the women gaze and they are constantly pulling there tops up.

Vernallis states that the edits in music videos come more frequent then in film and that they have a rhythmic basic connected to the song. Continually editing is broken in order to draw attention to what is on the screen. Jump cuts are often used and the camera moves with the music.A master shot  is frequently used to give the video a structure.

Jump Curts - Dappy No Regrets

Edit more frequent- Move like jagger

edit with music- stay awake , Example.

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses don't really apply to pop videos its just because they approach from a different angle to novels and films.He states that pop videos rely on repetition. The video repeats images in the way the song repeats lines of the song. It builds to a climax or to a constant repetition before fading away. Another feature is that women present themselves as being a male gaze such as Beyonce and Madonna.

Their are 3 types of relations between songs and videos:

Illustration: This is where the video tells the story by the lyrics for example ' Papa Don't Preach' ( Madonna ) . Dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song.

Amplification: occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contract with the lyrics but adds layers of meanings.

Disjuncture: this is when there is Little connection between the lyric and the video .

 VIDEO TO BE ADDED/


 I think a good example of a good music video in the one we studied in class ' The Bike Song' by Mark ronson. I think this video works well as it has very good techniques in bedded. We have alot of shots as bicycles which goes well with the song. We have repeated shots of the artist so we become familiar with them . Their is eye contact with the viewers at the chores making the viewers feel included. It is edited very well with the beat and it involves alot of slow motion especially when the camera is on the girls. It does a very good job of promoting the artist as we see them throughout the video.







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In a  music video it is a must that the music artist is appeared regularly in the video as that need to promote themselves. The more they show themselves the more the viewers will recognise them which will gain their popularity. If we don't not see the artist they cannot promote themselves as we don't not know who they are.

 Many people watch music videos for their own entertainment and the joy of watching the favorite's artists .

Music videos can help promote products , for example Lady Gag promotes cans of coke and virgin mobile. This is good for the company as Lady Gaga is a massive idol today so for her to promote their products can boost their earnings.

Many music videos have links to films as well which helps both boost the artist fame but also the films fame for  example Celion Dion My Heart Will Go Hone if featured in Titanic.

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Copyright Clearance I Need To Add Picture

RESEARCH: Analysis of previous students video

My favorite music video of the previous students work is the video for Florence and the Machine - Cosmic Love. The student video was based on the fantasy film, Alice in Wonderland. This matches with the actual song as it has a fantasy feel to it.

My favorite part about the video is the obvious meticulous planning involved with the mise en scene. By using dry ice, the dinner party scene was made to look like a mystical fantasy world. The dry ice was flowing from different tea pots and bowls, so the actual ice was never video but the foggy effects were. The table was also completed with home made cup cakes and deserts, to make the tea party feel come alive.

The scene is made romantic and sensual with the use of dark lighting, candles and smoke. Although the lighting is dark, the set is lit with with a spot light which allows the audience to see the set clearly. They have also layered two clips: of the artist walking outside, and the clip of the lights. This makes something that would ordinarily be boring, into a more interesting clip. Also, as the camera was moving when filming the lights,

The characters around the table were also dressed inspired by the film. Their outfits were gothic and old fashioned which somewhat resembled the Tim Burtons adaptation of the Alice in wonderland film


Things that worked well:

Layering clips
Use of spotlight
Mise en scene
Slow motion

RESEARCH: Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey discovered how women can be represented in Music Videos. As there is a difference in equality between genders, the pleasure in looking has also been divided. This is divided into: the active (male) and the passive (female). When the male gazed at the female, he is projecting his fantasies onto her.

 This is shown in music videos when women are being 'sectioned'. This means that the females are rarely shown in full, and are usually sectioned to reveal certain provocative parts of the body at a time. This is a convention in Rap, Hip Hop and RnB genre's aswell as pop and sometimes grime. The women who are 'letterboxed' are passive and are only present for the active male gaze (in the video and the men viewing the video).

An example of letterboxing is the video for 'Holiday' by Dizzee Rascal.

The video is full of women in their swimwear, bu there is a focus on one particular woman who is sectioned whilst walking through the house in her bikini.

It is very rare for a female to be in control in a music video, but even if they are, they can sometimes still be dressed for male attention. An example of this is Beyonce, a strong contender in the music industry that has never been used as a dummy in the background to make the video look good. However she still dresses provocatively in tight and short clothing to appeal to the male gaze.

The difference between Beyonce in this video and the girl in the Dizzee Rascal's video; is that Beyonce and her backing dancers are not sectioned on the screen for the male gaze, there are only shots of her and not just her body. She is also being active by dancing, and not next to any man, she is dancing on her own or with two other females.

Research on song choice

Some of the songs we were looking at when picking out final one. The genre me and my group wanted to work with was something around grime/dance/house/dubstep.

chase and status feat nneka - heartbeat

            Chase and Status - Hitz ft. Tinie Tempah 

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

Example - See the Sea

How have your skills in research developed since the AS practical work

My skills in research developed in several ways. For instance I know not only use Google, but I go onto sites such as vimeo and youtube and look at actual music videos then compare them to what we were taught in lesson to visualise the actual techniques they posses. Similarly, I read music magazines that discuss the industry as a whole which gives me an idea not only for my music video but the artist’s image which will have to be portrayed in the video, and how to create that image.  Another thing that has changed in my research from AS is that I am now more familiar with my classmates so we take p dissections and swap opinion on music videos from out of which I take different views and ideas. 

What is the function of a music video?

A music video has a few purposes that it needs to achieve in order for it to be successful. I have picked Michael Jackson - Thriller as an example of a music video that achieves all its purposes and have written about 4 different functions of a music video in speech bubbles at the times they actually appear on the video itself.

RESEARCH: Video I thought was cool

I thought this video was so awsome! The name of the Song, Artist and Director are all written on items of clothing as a way of introducing the song. This also ties in with the theme of the video as you realize when you continue to watch. I like the video because it is so simple and keeps you wondering right until the end. The whole video was filmed in one long shot and reversed so it starts at the end of the original shot. The  video is also slowed down to fit to the length of the song, it also keeps us in suspense while we wait to see what happened at the beginning. 

The song is by George Watsky an american artist.

RESEARCH: Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis made observations about the conventions of a music video revolving around camera and editing.

*There is usually a Basetrack ( a main scene that the video keeps returning to) to give the video structure. This is also known as a 'Master Shot'

*Edits are more obvious compared to other media products (Television Programmes etc)

*The camera moves! (Usually in time with the Music)

*Jump cuts are often used (not specific to genre)

*The usual rules of 'Continuity Editing' are broken in order to draw attention to what is on the screen

RESEARCH: Andrew Goodwin

Goodwin puts foward this theory that music videos in the pop genre do not follow the conventions of film and television shows. This is because they do not follow a rigid story format and can be much more varied than this. He noticed that pop videos fall into three categories.


Illustration, This is fairly self explanatory, the video illustrates the lyrics of the song. This usually involves the artist, but sometimes actors to demonstrate the ideas put forward in the song. An example of this is Eminem featuring Rhianna, Love the way you lie. Two actors: Megan Fox and XXX are both present in the video to act the lyrics being spoken. The set is dramatic, and illustrates the destructive nature of the relationship between the two characters.

 Amplification is when the video deepens the song itself and finally

Summaries what you have learned about the state of the music industry in 2012

Music videos play a big part in shaping not only the image of the given artist, but also grabbing the target audience’s attention and interest in that artist and his/her work. Audiences main targeted by music videos seems to come from the television i.e. music channels, and the internet. Nowadays sites such as vimeo and youtube are specifically designed to allow the public to enjoy not only the song, but its video too, and in the end the music industry seems to not mind it because it does bring about popularity for that particular artist. Similarly, when you are on one of these channels even if you’re not searching for something through the suggestion on the side they might end up taking you to another video and so on, therefore giving audience the opportunity to look at other music videos.

Site like youtube and vimeo are successful in what they do because in the end audience take pleasure from watching music videos. We not only familiarise ourselves with the artist of the song, but also begin to understand their image and therefore the personality they try and put forward much better, creating a bond between the artist and his/her fans. This as a result might lead to them buying their next album. Consequently, the appeal of music videos will depend on its target audience, because a music video’s content will very depending on what will relate and appeal to its target audience. For instance, someone like Example would be expected to have a lot of young people having fun in his video, therefore relating to his main target audience of young people. Similarly, having a flashy, catchy video can play a big part in promoting your song because a lot of the time if we just listen to a song we might find it boring, but adding the experience of watching it to the listing makes it much more interesting and memorable, therefore brining pleasure to its target audience.

Music videos do play a big role in the music industry, because they are a way of motivating its audience to go out and buy that artist’s album as a sing of appreciation maybe. Similarly, music videos promote the artist and having things such as a lot of hits on youtube could also reveal a lot about how popular an artist is.

Which labels dominate the music industry?

There are four main recording labels (also known as ‘The big four’) which dominate the music industry today:  

Sony Music – controlled by Sony Corporation of America,

EMI - owned by Citigroup,

Warner – owned by Access Industries , and

Universal – owned by French media conglomerate Vivendi.

The music industry has definitely changed in the past few years, especially when facing the problem of the amount of actual CD sales it makes. The internet, along side software developments such as compression, player formats, and hardware such as PDA, flash memory all have a profound effect on the music industry. They allow business models such as virtual record labels, online radios, digital downloads and streaming to take place, which in a way puts the sale of CDs in the background something that was certainly not the case in the past when music videos and songs as a whole were designed to be turned into hits that people would then ant to buy records of. It seems that just like anything else in the 21^st century, the music industry will have to try and come up with new ideas and ways of promoting its products and selling them in order to keep up with the developing world, and the examples a mentioned before a ways of it doing so, after all technology now plays a key part in everyone’s life. Similarly, the role music videos play in the 21^st century is one they’ve always played really, where they try and promote the artist to its audience, however because of this new way of distribution vie the internet, site such as youtube or links you see everyday on sites such as facebook, music videos have began to play a very big role in the music industry as they play a key part in the artist’s image.

Reviewing previous student’s video

http://vimeo.com/17676420

I will be reviewing the music video of previous students. This video works because it related well to its target audience who are mostly women. The reason I feel this way is because although the male viewers are still considered by having mise en scene in particular the clothing of the singer tight to appeal to the male audience, over all the song and the representation of the video is aimed at women. All throughout the base track when its just the singer and the guy, she always stands in front of him and sings directly to the camera, suggesting dominance and that she is in control.  Apart from the base track of the wall and her and the guy which the music video keeps going back to, there is also a story being told which relates well with the genre of the music video, RnB. Usually in RnB songs there is some sort of a story being told, and during their one the students managed to successfully include edits such as close ups of the artist, therefore promoting her, jump cuts, for example when they were on the street and saw each other, to her then ending up in front of him, as well as other things such as long shots and fast pace, the fast pace being an obvious edit which is a characteristic of a music video. 

RESEARCH: Analysis of Music Video

I have chosen to analyse the Iconic video for Oasis - Wonderwall. The entire video is in black and white, but certain objects are edited to be blue. This colour has connotations of sadness, whilst the monochrome makes the video authentic and timeless.

The video opens with a man dressed as a clown walking into an empty room and puts on the record, which is when the song starts to play. There is a match cut used at this point so that the audience can tell what they are doing. The delay between the beginning of the video and the song actually being played lets the audience wait eagerly for it to begin. If watching the video for the first time, they would not have known that it was an Oasis video until the bands name on the record appears on screen.  This tells the audience that the band is focused on their music.

Jump cuts are used in the video from beginning to end. An example of this is when the band member walks across the screen with the guitar. Another example is when the singer  firsts sits in the chair on his own in the center of the screen. Each cut is separated by a white flash which emulates a camera flash. This connotes fame, as the band is extremely well known. This makes the video more interesting. The fast edits contrasted with the slowness of the song keeps the song entertaining, as slow edits with a slow song would make the video boring.

The camera uses a lot of close ups of the lead singer, as this is how people will recognize the band. This helps the audience become familiar with him. It is important for us to use close ups in our own video as this is a common feature in music videos, and will let the audience identify with the artist. There are also close ups of other members of the band, which has the same effect. This is my favorite part of the video as it reveals the personality behind the artists.

As this is a performance video, the members of the band are shown with their instruments. This shows that  music is their main priority.

The reason I like the video is because it is simple and relaxed, fitting perfectly with the song. The video is a performance video, as the main base tracks are of the band performing. However, there are elements of disjuncture with the clown, that keeps the video interesting. The focus is on Noel Gallagher, the lead singer of the band.

RESEARCH: Three Types of Music Video

There are three types of music videos.
The first is DISJUNCTURE, this is when the video has nothing to do with the song or the lyrics, it usually revolves around a concept that will continue running throughout the video. Indie videos usually have disjuncture but this style of video is not limited to this video.

ILLUSTRATIVE. The Illustrative video is fairly self explanatory. It illustrates what lyrics are in the song. An example of this is an R&B video that has lyrics about a couple breaking up, then has a shot of the couple arguing. An example of this is the song...

The final is PERFORMANCE, which features the artist or band performing their song. This helps the audience identify with the artist. An example of this is Kings of Leon: Charmer.

RESEARCH: What is the Function of a Music Video?

It is essential, especially for new artists to gain recognition so that people can identify with them. This is done through music videos. When the artist performs in a video, the consumer becomes familiar with who they are, therefore they gain more fame. The artists are essentially selling themselves to the public.

Many consumers watch videos for entertainment, as each genre puts forward ideology that can usually be found in the music video some artists take this to a whole new level by replacing a music video with a short film, which helps the audience to see the artist in a new light, making them versatile.

Music videos sometimes advertise products, for example in Lady Gaga’s telephone video, Gaga receives a call on her ‘Virgin’ network mobile. This can be arranged with the brand and the artist so that the brand can fund the artist in some kind of way (sometimes the money goes towards funding the actual music video).

Some music videos tell the story of the song, by acting out the lyrics, this helps to give more meaning to the song. Similar to this, a video can have clips of a film that the song is a theme tune for this. The famous example is Celine Dione - My heart Willl Go On. Which features clips from the famous Titanic.

Music videos also have conventions. These are just a few:

- Music
- Edited to the beat
- Genre Specific
- Short in length
- Close ups
- No Tripod! Camera Moves
- Quick Edits
- Jump Cuts
- Match Cuts

RESEARCH: Copyright Clearance

In the summer I requested copyright clearance for the song 'The Nicest Thing' by Kate Nash, a British female artist. We may not use this song, but I requested clearance just in case! These are screen shots from the record company's website in which I requested permission.

Reflection of New Skills - Lip Sync Tutorial

In the two week summer lessons at the end of the AS year, we had a lip sync tutorial to prepare us for A2 coursework. We had some music and had to film us singing along to the song. When we transferred the clips and the song to final cut pro we had to sync the clips.

'Sync' is short for synchronise, as we have to synchronise the lips to the song, to give the effect that we are singing the song. To do this we have to mark an obvious word on the clip, where it is obvious that we are saying it. We chose the word 'if'. By pressing the letter 'M' during this time in final cut pro, the clips can be marked at this particular point. Then all that is left it to align the markers so that both words correspond.

This new skill will help us in our coursework as e are going to have to create a music video. It is a convention for most artists to be shown singing in their music videos as this is how the audience learns to identify with them. However, some artist s like the Gorillaz and most recently, Ed Sheeran choose not to be in the music video.

The tutorial has taught us how to use Final Cut Pro, a software that we are now familiar with, in a different way.

Throughout the as year in media i learnt alot of new technical skills that helped me with my final piece of work. Some of the technical skills i had never heard of but i thought it was very enjoyable to learn new skills.
1. I learnt the different camera angles , Close ups , Mid shots, Wide Shots , Hand Held and many more this was very helpful as different camera angles shows aspects of the film.

2. We used final cut to edit our thriller films.

3. We used this to make different types of music.

3. Life Type to create different types of text and effects.

4 . Working with blogger.

I did not make a digipack.

Reflecting On New Skills

LIP SYNC TUTORIAL

Final Cut Pro - In final cut pro we edited the clips of a band, which had seperate shots of each member playing their instrument. This is how we learnt to

BASE TRACK EDIT: when the track is marked to the beat and section of the clips are cut out in time to the beat.

We synced the clips with the tracks so that the mouths were in syncs, then i marked the tacks and cut random bits out in time to the beat (base track editing)

TOOLS: RAZOR, ,ARKER AND TINY ADJUSTMENTS OF CLIPS (ALT LEFT/RIGHT ARROW)

hard to sync the clips to the word on the soundtrack

easy to base track edit once the clips were synced, easy to use markers

FILMING OF OUR OWN LIPSYNC - SONG: BEACH BOYS - SURFIN USA.

at first we did not know that we had to lip sync so we shot random clips of things in the field.

After this we lip synced the song.

then we added the song on final cut pro and synced the clips and did the base track edit, like the first band clips.

We decided not to waste the first clips and added them during the insrumentals.

I was pleased with the video for a practice, it taught us how to lipsync,

has hard to lipsync as we didn't know the song.

My DIGIPACK!!!

I took screenshots of the final surfin usa video to add them to the digipack

The picture looked plain so i edited it on photoshop before adding it to the digi pack

added tracklist

added barcode ect

Picture for the middle of the digipack:

edited to make it blurry and more colourful

added pictures to the shot.

Most proud of this, spent most tine on it

it was easy after you play around with things, the layers were really annoying, have to lock/unlock all the time and freezing things before you move on.

I wanted to stretch the front cover image over the front and back to have a colour scheme. also if  left the full image over just the front cover it would look squashed. the big image makes more of an impact.

also if i cut the image and kept it at the large size that it is, it would look strange to have just the tops of shoulders and faces in the shot.

I wanted the best picture to be on the cover.

The inside was an image of the band that was stretched over two pannels.

If i did this again i would use two sepetrate images for the inside, as the Cd will cover two people in the group.

Also i would add information on the spine to make it look more realistic.

Front cover

Promotion

Unfinished!

added tour dates, headings, and 'sold out' stickers.

I would have liked to finish it, add back ground ect, information about the music ect.

Digipack

In the A2 summer lessons, we got the chance to experiment with photoshop to create a digipack. This is the packaging in which the C.D is sold in. The digi pack is very important and must keep in style with the house style of the band or artist. This is why i have taken still shots from the short music video demo, as the images are what would be synonymous with the band. Many artists base their digi pack house style on a particular music video of theirs and I have chosen to do the same.

I edited the pictures on photoshop to make them stand out and look interesting. The front cover image I am particularly proud of as it has a 'upbeat summer' feel that matches our song, Surfin' USA. I wanted the image to stretch across the front and back cover so the theme was continuous, also the image looked squashed when i put it as the front cover. I did the same on the inside so that the audience gets a feel of the whole band and is able to recognize them.

To make the digi pack look authentic, I added a bar code as well as copy right and label information of the back cover.

First Blog!

So I finally am able to access the blog so this is where the work begins!

My name is Charlene Moore, and I'm really excited for this coursework to begin. Mainly because it revolves around one of my favorite things: music! I listen to music all the time, like any other teenager, an also watch music on youtube. I got to have a taster of the coursework at the beginning of summer and now have so many ideas that I was thinking about over the summer.

Laura Mulvey’s Theory on representation.

‘In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly.’ Laura Mulvey, 1992

If we were to break down what Laura Mulvey is trying to say we would see that in her opinion society works in such way that it creates this representation where males are the dominant, powerful beings who shape the way females should act and look, once this idea is shaped it is constantly applied and females are therefore compared to this ‘fantasy’ and represented in such way that is closes to it.

An example of Mulvey’s theory is Benny Benassi – Satisfaction. In this video we clearly see women’s body being segmented for the male viewing.  A lot of the time there’s close ups or pans of certain parts of the female body, reinforcing the idea that there is a focus not on women as a whole, but a focus on parts of their body. The whole video is based on two things we assume men like, hard work and females so Benny Benassi has gone and combined them together. The choice of clothing is too suited for male viewing with there being as little as possible.

           

Eric Prydz – Call on Me is another example that follows Mulvey’s ideas of representation in music video. The whole video is based on females doing yoga in as little clothing as possible. Similarly to the video above there’s constant use of close ups of different body parts of the female, clearly implying that its targeted at males. 

Vernalli’s main points and ideas on editing and camerawork in music videos.

In ‘Experiencing Music Video’, Carol Vernallis’s focuses on the editing and camerawork of music videos and tries to explain to us the main points and ideas on those particular areas that are taken in consideration when making a music video.

While studying editing and camera work, Vernalli has realised that editing in music videos come much more frequently than in films and in fact they seem to have a rhythmic basis which in most cases is closely connected to the song. This means that the usual rules of ‘continuity’ editing which we came across with our thriller productions is broken when it comes to music videos, mainly because that way you tend to draw the viewers’ attention to what is on the screen.  Similarly, edits such as wipes, may be made really obvious for the same reason to draw attention to them. Another thing which is very common to music videos is the use of jump cuts, this is perhaps as common in music videos as the use of close ups of the main artist. Having close ups of the main artist not only makes the audience aware of who the main artist is, but also promotes them. Finally, Vernallis’s informs us that a master shot (also known as base track) is frequently used in order to give the video a structure.

   

Just Jack – Straz in Their eyes is an example of a music video that illustrates Vernallis’s ideas because we can clearly see the obvious use of special effects in the course for instance when the people explode an turn into stars. Similarly, there are about 3 base tracks, the hotel corridor, the black screen, and then the stage which the video keeps going back to. There is also no real continuity as the video features a variety of places that are pretty much different or not linked with one another and there isn’t much of a story middle and end.

Supergrass – Sun Hits the Sky is another example of a video that follows the points Vernallis had made. In Sun Hits the Sky, straight away there’s use f jump cuts as the red car makes its way close and close to the camera. Similarly, it is obvious that the base track for the video was the desert where the group was signing and playing their instrument, this is known because ever so often it would go back to them playing an singing along to the song. Finally, there’s use of obvious edits such as the overlapping of two scenes near the end, this is an interesting technique to use because it grabs the audiences’ attention, while also relating to the mood of the song as it’s very calm.