SC Technical Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2m49DoD71I

When analysing Air Traffic – Shooting Star, i realised that there are a vast amount of shots, much more than i had first anticipated. The average shot length was around 2seconds continually throughout. Air Traffic have a similar genre as the Kings of Leon so i felt it would be an effective and useful track to analyse, as many of the conventions for a video of this genre would be apparent in the music video for Air Traffic’s song shooting star.

The majority of the video is made up of performance shots, however does have a narrative running through. The performance shots often jump between close ups and midshots of each individual band member playing their instruments, and the lead singer has more shots than any of the other band members. The close ups make the music more powerful; it shows the passion that each band member has about the musical instruments they are playing. The performance shots are also made up of a slow pan around the room, moving round the outside of the band as they are all stood facing inwards whilst playing. This helps to establish where the band are playing, and shows the unity of the band all playing together and facing one and other.

All of the narrative is in slow motion, it consists of an initial establishing shot of a girl in a room (in which most of the narrative takes place) followed by many mid shots and long shots of different characters in the room. A bit into the video, objects start mysteriously rising in the background of the room (for example alarm clocks, lamps), there are also close ups of these objects, they then come smashing down where the band is performing. This helps to link the narrative with the performance.

This video has been extremely useful as i have learnt that it is made up of no less than 50% close up shots, which i will definitely have to take into account when creating our music video. The frequent slow pans of the band are also very effective and help to give the audience a full view of the band and the location in which they are performing in.