Music video performance analysis

Video 1 – Bullet For My Valentine ‘Tears Don’t Fall’

In this music video for the metal band Bullet For My Valentine’s Tears Don’t Fall, the camera mainly uses shaky mid-shots and occasionally long shots of the whole band. The camera focuses mainly upon the lead singer/rhythm guitarist Matt Tuck, this is because the singer is the band member which is mainly focused upon throughout the music industry. The repetition usually cuts from the drummer, to the singer, then to the bassist for the majority of the time.

In this music video the performance shots of each band member is focused upon with mid shots and close ups to show each of their expressions, which can relate to the narrative story.

The performance shots throughout the first minute of this music video foreshadows the ending to the narrative part of the music video, which will set the overall mood for the music video.

This type of music video is the typical music video that is used for metal/alternative music as it features dark lighting and a desolate setting in the performance shots.

Video 2 – Foo Fighers ‘The Pretender’

For the Foo Fighters’ ‘The Pretender’ the camera makes use of a lot of side on mid shots. Again, this video’s performance shots mainly focuses upon the lead singer Dave Grohl. He is focused upon with more variety of shots than other band members. The repetition is loose, but mainly has every other shot focusing on the singer.

This music video differs from the traditional music video for the alternative rock genre as it mainly features performance shots of the band. As with the previous Bullet For My Valentine video, the performance shots mainly use close ups and mid shots throughout the first minute of the video, showing the viewer the expressions of the performers.

The majority of shots that are used are side on shots, this is used because the narrative is included within the same setting as the performance shots so the 180° rule isn’t broken when the narrative is introduced.

The props in this video is very minimal, consisting only of the instruments and the guard’s armour. This is probably because the director wants the viewer to focus upon the band and the band only.