1. Music Video Analysis
Martin Garrix & Jay Hardway - Wizard
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The music video for Martin Garrix’ & Jay Hardway’s ‘Wizard’ is a performance video, shows
the two house Dj’s flying to an unknown destination and performing live to huge audiences
which have a big and passionate love for the atmosphere they are involved in. The narrative
of the video is non-linear due to the way the video has been edited together. A collection of
different scenes have been formed together to create a montage of shots, this creates a fast
pace speed and continuity to the video. This is extremely conventional of a music video of
the house music genre. In this video it is easy to see that the main protagonists of the video
are the two artists, other than people in the audience at the concert no other characters are
introduced. When looking at the stages of equilibrium the video does not follow the typical
conventions, this is because the video is a performance video and instead has a positive/opti-
mistic outlook on life surrounding this genre of music. This equilibrium is continuous
throughout the video, which again is typical to most music videos’s surrounding the house
genre.
When looking at the characters within the video we are introduced to the two DJ’s Martin
Garrix and Hardway as well as the large audiences watching them perform. The way the
characters are represented to the audience watching the music video is young, modern and
polished in comparison to the modern culture of today. Because the video is a performance
video the two DJ’s visually look the same they do on a day to day basis, this helps create more
of a reality to the video. Within an opening scene of the video we see Garrix on a plane us-
ing his laptop and then also in the performance scene’s using modern DJ equipment. This
shows that he is a modern young adult who is in touch with the latest technologies within the
world, this helps connects a younger audience watching the music video in comparison to a
much older person who is not stereotypically up to date with modern technology.
The way in which both Dj’s performs represents that they are both in control with the world
they are in, this is shown through the way they control the audience at their live shows. The
first screenshot below show’s Garrix with his arms up in the air making his body look visually
2. bigger while making the audience dance while doing so. This show’s his authority he has
gained within house music industry.
When looking at the miss en scene of the music video we can first analyse the colours used. A
dark palette of colours has been used throughout the video, this is because much of the video
has been shot at night when the house music scene starts to explode. Within every shot of the
video there is bright strobe lighting, this is not an added effect, instead this is due to the live
performance lighting being used, this creates a very realistic visual effect of being at the con-
cert, this helps connect the audience watching video even more as the realistic live feel makes
the audience want to be inside the video experiencing the music.
When looking at the cinematography of the music video there are a wide range of different
camera angles and techniques which have been used to create a fast moving music video. At
the start of the video there is a short sequence of establishing shots which are all long wide
angle shots of a house music concert, this automatically suggests the video is going to be
mainly based at a performance. This then cuts to a shot of Martin Garrix on a plane flying to
somewhere, this close up shows him looking at a laptop screen smiling. This shot of him smil-
ing is then faded into another shot of him playing at the concert, this is interesting as this
could change the whole outlook of the music video. Maybe the music video is actually of a
live performance, or maybe the rest of the video is actually what Garrix is imagining what the
rest of his life may one day turn out to be like, so instead instantly changing the video from a
performance to a narrative dependent on which way you look at it.
Overall the music video for ‘Wizard’ does not break conventions as it is very typical to what a
house music video would contain, this is because house music is a very real genre and it is
created for clubs and big arena’s, as shown within this music video. This can be compared to
a genre such as pop, instead pop need to be sometimes controversial such as the likes of Mi-
ley Cyrus, this is because pop music is not just about the music, instead it is about the celebri-
ties within that world. Whereas the house music industry is purely about the music, and not
3. the artists behind it. This is why I think Garrix’ and Hardway’s ‘Wizard’ is a brilliant repre-
sentation of what the industry is and should be about