CF: Technical Analysis

Technical analysis

Fidlar – No Waves

Shot no.	Duration	Shot type/distance/angle	Mise-en-scene	Connotations
1	16 seconds	CU	Flicking through television channels	The channel finally chosen contains the title Fidlar – No waves
2	4 seconds	Low angle handicam MCU shot	Man on skateboard	These shots all introduce the members of the band as the characters of the television show that the introduction is resembling. The costumes the characters are wearing present a youthful and rebellious persona.
3	3 seconds	LCU handicam shot	Basketball
4	3 seconds	MCU handicam shot	Motorbike
5	4 seconds	MCU handicam shot	Hammer and nail
6	4 seconds	LCU handicam shot	Girl sitting in street smoking cigarette, drinking a soda, wearing cycadellic shirt. She uses non-verbal language to swear at the camera (expresses a rebellious side)
7	8 seconds	Long shot (handicam)	Group shot of all the characters,; the title of the song is visible	Resembles 90’s American television show
8	22 seconds	MCU handicam shot (camera follows character from in front) Slightly sped up	Static occasionally pulses over screen	Reinforces idea of home-video
9	13 seconds	Sped up handicam shot wide shot	characters frantically dancing	Conveys the energy of the riff in the track which plays at this part
10	5 secionds	MCU handicam shot from side angle (camera follows character from in front) Slightly sped up	Girl is drinking from a brown paper bag	This implies she is drinking in public which is illegal in the USA where this video is set, this reinforces the rebellious persona of this character
11	15 seconds	MCU handicam shot (camera follows character from in front) Slightly sped up	The female protagonist character is singing the track to the camera	This is gender reversal as the singer of the track is clearly a male and not a female
12	10 seconds	CU handicam shot  (camera follows character from in front) Slightly sped up
13	6 seconds	CU handicam shot (unsteady camera movements reinforce idea of home video)	Man in youthful clothing talks and acts to camera, he is wearing a wolf-like hat which makes him appear playful and childish	His actions may reinforce the stereotype that older generations may have of younger people, as his violent hand movements like impersonating a gunshot may come across as violent
14	20 seconds	Sped up handicam footage	The sped up footage shows a party where people are clearly having a good time
15	19 seconds	MCU handicam shot	The female protagonist character is singing the track to the camera	This is gender reversal as the singer of the track is clearly a male and not a female
14	31 seconds	Montage of handicam shots (range of shots and angles) WIDE SHOT and CU’s	Sped up footage of a party taking place as it gets dark	Show the infamous party lifestyle that there is a stereotype of young people living

Findings

Firstly I learnt that the amount of shots and the prevalence on the singer singing to the track in the video does not necessarily need to be significant, in this music video, we see that there are 3 shots which feature the female protagonist of the video to be singing the song, even though these shots are quite lengthy, together adding up to a total of 1 minute and 6 seconds, when the entire video lasts 3 minutes and 11 seconds. As a result, me and my group feel that there is less pressure to incorporate a singer into every or even a lot of the shots in the video, but we feel that the singer should be shown in at least some shots, to reinforce the band’s image.

 A concept which we mutually agreed was good was the use of shots which follow the singer on a journey while they sing to the track, we believe that as we have already elected a beach front, boardwalk or pier as a location which we would definitely like to incorporate, such a location may be perfect for these shots.

The camera work in this music video was extremely energetic due to the high pace of the shots, as well as the shaky camera movement which was a result of the handicam shots; this conveyed the dynamic ethos of the artist. This is especially important as the track of ‘No Waves’ by Fidlar is actually the same artist as the song for which we will be creating a music video and is clearly part of the same genre, and for this reason, we feel that we could also assimilate such camera techniques.

I found that from analysing this video, I can see that to fully create the illusion of the music video being an old home-film, conventions of music videos with high-production values are not obeyed, such as the rule of thirds, and instead, the camera work looks very natural and to some extent, amateur.

                 Secondly, I noticed that the character’s presence within the video is emphasized not only by the use of long duration shots and prevalence, but the framing used ensures that when a character is on screen, they are very central to the screen, which forces the focus of the audience onto these characters.

      Another observation I made when initially analysing this video is the fact that there are no transitions after the opening. This adds to the narrative of the video of ‘No Waves’ as the music video as a whole, almost tells a story of a party that the characters are shown to be having, we feel that as a group, we could incorporate this into our music video, by perhaps attempting to illustrate our character’s day out, this could be done by minimising the amount of transitions within our production.

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