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Thursday 8th October
11. Coldplay - Trouble
Coldplay is a British four man band, primarily playing alternative rock music. 'Trouble' was released as Coldplays third single from the album 'Parachutes', the song was released late October 2000 reaching top ten in the UK singles chart, the bands second top 10 single.
The opening shot of the music video for 'Trouble' is an establishing shot of a house on a large hill/mountain. This suggests importance based around the house whilst letting the audience know that the next shot is going to take place inside this location, this also sets the tone of a narrative based music video since there's a clear location involved. During this shot there's ambient sound of bird singing, connoting morning and new starts, themes that come into the video largely later on. The next shot is a long shot of a female character who begins to water the ground. These two shots in conjunction firmly suggest a narrative based video as well as introducing elements of the narrative and drawing in the audience to make them interested/curious about where the music video is going to go. During this shot the ambient sound continues with the track having yet to play at all. This accumulates curiosity around where the actual band will be in the music video.
This particular music video features a narrative, conceptual elements and also some performance from the band, lyrics and visuals complementing each other both telling similar stories (amplification of lyrics). This is seen in the very beginning where the visuals are setting the tone for the story creating interest. The instrumental introduction of the song creates a kind of melancholic tone to the video, very simplistic and mellow in its sound. This suggests that the video is going to be sombre and look at a serious topic. This topic is then revealed in the next few shots, there's several close up shots of flowers growing and leaves sprouting, this suggests topics of progression and the natural sequence of events. The title of the song 'Trouble' reinforces sombre themes and suggests to the audience that the tone of the music video is going to be gloomy and somewhat wistful. Serious themes such as the ones features in this video are conventional in music videos of this genre, many dealing with life and death as a topic. I think because of this we should involve some darker themes but try to present them in a sort of whimsical or lighter way such as the videos I have analysed do for example 'Trouble' includes themes of apologies and mistakes presenting them in a 2D style heavily focused on nature giving the video a softer, nicer feel despite the themes.
This particular video has a unique style in the fact it's 2D and looks like the images are made out of paper. It's minimalist and allows the band to create their own world. Despite this the band are presented as down to earth as they're not the main focus of the video and are riding on a cart; an item typically associated with poorer places and lower class people as car is the primary mode of transportation in modern day. Through this they are displaying one of Richard Dyer's paradoxes, through the video they ride on a cart presenting themselves as humble and putting focus on their talent (Dyers seven common values: Creativity/Talent) and so suggesting their normalcy and presenting the idea they're ordinary people. However in the music video they've created their own little world using a unique style, being impressive and extensive in their use of editing technology that the average person does not have, reminding us that they are famous and are also extraordinary.
Their normalcy is also suggested through the themes and message behind the song. The music video tells the story of somebody having/dealing with a problem, in doing this it provides a visual metaphor for dealing with issues, much like the 'You're Beautiful' video does. At 1:44 we see a close up of a small bird, there's then a tracking shot (broken up by close ups of the lead singer) of the bird flying somewhere at 2:34 he lands on the windowsill of the house seen at the beginning of the video. This bird represents a situation/person, seemingly of no harm, it's quite small are pretty, it has a red breast which could connote danger and foreshadow the plot. Foreshadowing to some effect appears to be quite common in music videos I've analysed I think that we should try to fit in some small foreshadowing in our video.
The establishing shot introduces the main location and the art style of the video using its unique style to draw people in.
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Shot reverse shot is used between the bird and woman in the house suggesting a conversation between the two, this represents an argument/issues coming about. The bird then at 2:51 flashes and transforms into a large crow like bird, this represents the issue becoming bigger and an actual problem for those involved. These visuals are amplification of the lyrics “I never meant to cause you trouble” (the lyrics heard at the time) suggesting the issue was not caused on purpose giving reason for the woman looking worried and unsure of what to do during the shot reverse shot. The large crow then flies away from the house and into the sky, getting bigger in size as it flies, at 3:06 the bird is as big as it gets and becomes a large black cloud in the sky. This represents how one issue can seem huge for a person and get bigger for seemingly no reason. It then begins to rain from the giant crow, the rain (could be acid or fire) begins to burn holes into the setting below, including the shots of the band riding on their cart. This represents the level to which an issue can affect a persons entire environment (burning holes in everything) however be unnoticed by those outside of the issue (the band in this particular scenario). I think that this narrative with a much deeper meaning is a good way of expanding the music video and making it more impressive and interesting, I think this is something I want to look into doing with our music video.
As we see the effect of the rain on the environment (burning holes into everything) we also see that the holes themselves begin to sprout small crow feathers out of them. This represents the idea that once a problem is made the effects of it are seen everywhere, everything will remind a person of that issue and they won't be able to forget it for very long periods of time. At 3:27 we see two unnamed characters disappear in the rain suggesting the idea that other people no longer matter or can affect a person with a problem. At the end of the music video there's an extreme long shot of the setting and we can see as the rain sends a colourful kind of wave sweeping across the entire landscape, suggesting long term effect of an issue. The house first seen in the establishing is then picked up in a tornado (Andrew Goodwins music video characteristics: Intertextual references to popular culture: A reference to the Wizard of Oz) and moved from the large countryside location to what looks like a tightly packed neighbourhood. This suggests the idea that unsolved problems can cause permanent effects on a person and presents the idea that you should solve them or lose other good things in your life (for example the flowers and the beautiful scenery that was lost. The movement of the house also brings back the idea of rebirth and moving on, perhaps not natural progression giving reason for why the house is move to a neighbourhood instead of the countryside.
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Another interpretation of the video states the crow to be depression, and being a visual metaphor for how it affects life and causes victims to have to move on to new places and things despite not wanting to. This is a much less widely accepted version since the band members wrote the song because of issues the lead singer was causing to the band, all members of the band worked on it surprising for how little variation of lyrics there are compared to the average indie/acoustic rock song. This adds to the emotion caused by the video as there are lots of close ups of the lead singer (Andrew Goodwin music video characteristics: Lots of close ups) he uses NVC in the form of eye contact a lot during shots of him throughout the videos helping the audience to channel his emotion and bring the artist and the audience closer together through similar feelings/situations (Uses and Gratifications: Personal Identity/Relationships).
The music video is largely in low key lighting with only a few nature shots at the beginning of the video using high key lighting suggesting that natural progression is positive and that perhaps nothing but the actual land and nature of the setting is pure. This is shown through the mise en scene of the video too, none of the characters wear purely white clothing, the female character wears a black shirt connoting darkness and an off white skirt/apron suggesting attempts at purity or purity that has been tarnished. All of the band members are wearing black or dark grey clothing suggesting off morals, this could be down to the fact that the song is based on an issue the band themselves had suggesting the idea that they did not deal with the issue in the correct way and perhaps the music video presents that as it has what can be perceived as an unhappy ending.
The editing pace of this music video follows the majority of the others I've analysed, with slow paced editing at the beginning of the narrative (Torodov: Equilibrium – Setting the scene) before speeding up considerably so there's fast paced editing during the arising of an issue (Torodov: Disruption – Something alters equilibrium and Conflict – Trying to solve the issue) and slowing down again towards the end. This video however fails to reach resolution and the new equilibrium as the issue is not technically resolved the house is just swept away. This creates a kind of cliffhanger and unsatisfactory ending for the video as we don't know what happens to the female character or find out where the band are going either. This is relatively unconventional for music videos of this genre as the majority have a clear ending and leave the audience understanding the meaning of the music video. I think in our music video we will have a clear meaning and a resolution so that the audience can clearly interpret the video in what will be the primary interpretation since I hope to add additional possible meanings and interpretations.