1. By Katherine Gill
MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

2. I have chosen to analysis one of Coldplay’s music videos, “The Scientist”
because it is one of my favourite music videos and I believe that it’s also a
good music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWLpTKBFcU
COLDPLAY-THE SCIENTIST

3. This music video is a mixture of styles. It has a narrative story but as the video
is reversed we never really understand what the full story is until the video has
finished.
It is also a concept based video as it focuses on the technique of reversing
the whole video which is developed throughout the video.
The genre of the music video is alternative/pop-rock. I think the style of the
music video goes well with the genre and lyrics of the song because the song
is quite personal and has a bit of emotion so the mixture of narrative and
concept suits the song quite well.
THE STYLE

4. The settings are varies places outdoors for example down alley ways and walking throughout
town streets and through the woodlands. These locations are quite common and every day
locations which could show how after the accident the protagonist just went through, he’s trying
to go back to normal life to try and forget what just happened to him, which relates to the lyrics
“Going back to the start”
When the protagonist gets to the woods, the lighting is slightly darker to represent the mood he
must be feeling after the car crash and how he must be feeling upset as well.
The protagonist is wearing black and white colours. The black could be used to represent his
sadness after the accident and loss of his partner and to also represent the guilt he may feel after
the accident. The white could also represent his innocence as it wasn’t actually his fault that the
car accident happened.
MISE EN SCENE

5. Camera- there are a lot of close ups that zoom out and pan across the scene
which are often used in narratives to express motion and emotion. It almost
seems like the camera is tracking and following the protagonist on his journey
back to the start of the scene, which relates to the song and concept in the
video.
Editing- The concept of the video is that it starts at the end of the story, and
reverses itself back to the start. This relates to the whole idea and lyrics from
the song and is also a clever use of editing as the singer would have had to
reverse the words that they sang as well. As well as the reversing of the clips,
there is slow motion used as well which emphasizes the protagonists actions
EDITING AND CAMERA

6. I personally think that this music video is very good because of the clever use
of the reversed editing and how it links to the song. I also like how it starts at
the end of the story so it creates questions that the audience start to ask for
example “where is he walking from” and “what happened to him”, which are
then answered by the end of the video. I also like how they managed to
cleverly reserve the song and still manage to lip sync to the reversed music
pretty well as in some music videos people struggle with lip syncing when the
song is just normal.
Overall I think that a clever concept has been used which relates well to the
video but there is also a good narrative story that also relates to the song. Also
the various range of camera shots and techniques keeps the image moving and
keeps the audience interested which is good.
WHY I THINK THAT IT’S A GOOD
VIDEO