1. Coldplay - The Scientist (Music Video Analysis)

Director: Jamie Thraves

The scientist (2002) is a music video consisting of Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay) singing the lyrics to the scientist whilst everything around him being in reverse. He is walking in reverse through what looks like a lower class area towards a car crash involving him and presumubly his girlfriend/ wife. The production is filmed in a narrative and also concept form. It is narrative in the way that the lyrics link to the general story of the video e.g "oh lets go back to the start" and the video is in reverse. It is also a concept video is the way that a car crash takes place that has no relevance to the song and its lyrics. Throughout the video we see Chris Martin ellegidly singing the lyrics therefore having a performance affect. This video includes a non-linear narrative as it is not continuously obvious to the audience what is happening i.e it isn't telling a story. How the lyrics link to the visuals are misleading. The lyrics suggest a distinctive divide of two people for some sort of reason. Lyrics such as "its such a shame for us to part" suggest a break up to the audience. However subtle lyrics such as "come back and haunt me" suggest death may be involved. Throughout there is a large amount of narrative enigma as not much is revealed as to why he was lying on a mattress in the streets and to where he is going.

There is a large amount of mode of address throughout the music video as Chris Martin is seen looking at the camera lens on numerous occasions expressing different emotions. This mode of dress is used to create a sense of direct connection with the audience.

A common convention of the pop rock genre is witnessing a large amount of the band/artist within the video with hints of performance. I believe this video portrays this genre characteristic. I also believe within this genre of music, the songs tell a story and can be highly emotional. This results in their music videos being more narrative than concept. Although this video is a hybrid between  concept and narrative, there is a clear short storyline/plot. Linking the genre of music; star treatment is heavily contained. There is continuous involvement of Chris Martin (balance in the editing) i.e. keeping returning to shots of Chris Martin. A variety of shots are used to single him out during this video such as close-ups, tracking shots, long shots etc. The transition of shots is a fade technique for most of the beginning until things start getting more intense for the audience to watch and the transition is then prodomonatnly jump cuts. The song itself is a slow beat song which progressively gets more upbeat. The editing matches this as to begin with the transitions are fades and the shot lengths are much longer. As we progress more into the music video, the music starts becoming more upbeat and the shots are much shorter for a period of intensity. It then finishes much slower again with a fade out to end it.