The narrative for this video has been rewind. He is in the car with a female, perhaps his girlfriend and he looses his concentration whilst driving and this leads to the car falling off the cliff and killing the female, he then walks through the town passing things like a train track, a bridge, a group of kids playing basket ball, down a high street and ends up lying on a mattress in broad day light. But the narrative is presented backwards. Therefore it starts on a matress and ends with the car crash. It is a linear narrative as it goes into order but backwards. If it was to be watched from the end to the beginning the viewer will understand that from the car crash onwards is very dream like/after death as we would understand he died from the car flying off the cliff. it gives the audience a dis orientated effect and becomes promotional as the audience would want to watch it again and understand it.
Quoting from MTV
Director Jamie Thraves had a great idea for a video last year, he
just needed to
find the right song to fit his odd notion. Then he heard the
soaring Coldplay
ballad "The Scientist," with its plaintive chorus about going "back to the
start."
"I had this idea that I wanted to do a story that's tragic but
starts off happy and ends happy, and the video is about rewinding to that
happy
ending," said Thraves, 33, who has directed clips for Radiohead, Blur, the Verve
and Travis. Knowing that Spike Jonze had already done the backward video thing
in 1996 with the Pharcyde video for "Drop," Thraves needed to find a
new way to
tell a narrative story that moved forward even as the action
moved backward.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1472164/20030529/coldplay.jhtml
The setting is based in London. The majority of the video was in the woods where the accident happened and the other half was based in the actualy city and backstreets of London.
According from MTV (same site) some of the setting such as where they are unshooting hoops links into the lyrics about pulling puzzles apart and questions of science.
The lighting is very natural a
s it is based out side. In a small part of the video he is in the woods but its at night time. You can see here that there is low key lighting which is based on the left side of the camera. You can tell this because the light is reflecting off the trees too. The meaning of this is to make the artist stand out more and emphasises his white t-shirt which could represent the ghost-like/ angelic.
Close ups are used to get a reaction or emotion in the face. But this close up is used to establish for the viewer straight away who's music video this is by having the artist.
The extreme close up then zooms out and becomes a long shot. This shot is on a crane, but also could be used on a tripod but having the setting being a wall rather than a floor. From looking at the close-up , it looks like he is on a bed which would be located in a bedroom but from the long shot it's out on a street so its disorientating the audience again.
A midshot is used to give information. In music videos it could be used to tell the viewer a story by their lyrics with meaning.
This extreme long shot will be used to give the character a journey. for example, to get from one place to another instead of changing a shot.
A tracking shot surrounded him which is also at a low angle to give the character power.
Costume: With him wearing just a white top this signifies the angelness in him. Half way through the video he puts on his black jacket which could signify coming back to life.
Makeup: His make up is very neutral for the video but i would expect at the begining that he would have contacts in his eyes to make them look a lot more blue. He hasnt shaven which could mean that he doesnt really care anymore.
Soundtrack: The song used. In this case 'the scientist'.
Editing
There has been alot of editing done to this video, one of them being the backwards effect.
All transitions are faded to keep that flowy effect and some shot have even been slowed down to keep to the tempo of the music.
the Purpose of this video is to promote their band.
To watch the Full Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjPrdTNxQ0
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