Case Study

THE SCRIPT- BREAKEVEN  

Directed by Aggressive

Released- 29/08/08

The song talks about the breakdown of a relationship from the guy’s point of view and how he’s dealing with the situation. The video itself starts off with Danny O'Donoghue from the script (guy) driving, then varying from different location. A shot of his girlfriend is included capturing the happy moments they had together. However the lyrics and emotion been portrayed was effective as it had to make the audience able to relate to the heartbreak he was going through.

Looking at this video there is a clear story which is been told even though they didn’t focus on just one character. The story is about a relationship which ended and the guy reminisces on the good times before the breakup. Shots varied between the guy and girl then to the band as whole. The shots varied between the past and present, it was clear that the scenes including the girl were flashbacks.  

Camera techniques featured were mainly medium, long; close and extreme close up shots. When viewing the video you realise that these are effective as it shows the emotion been portrayed. A shot was used in the beggining introducing the video then varied between all others. Also long shots were important as it showed the other members of the band and there surroundings. Another important camera technique that was used is the bird’s eye view. It captured both the guy and the girl lying in bed together making the clip realistic.  A brief moment of slow motion was incorporated. The video was filmed in both colour and black and white, capturing the happy moments in colour then the unhappy moments in black and white.

The target audience for this particular song/video may be considered for an 18+ age group due to the story its telling even though its about heartbreak the lyrics and acting in the video may be more suitable to a more mature audience. However a younger audience is still likely to understand what is portrayed.  

Lip-synching was used in certain clips of the video it wasn’t continuously used. However when there was lip-synching it came across real and natural something which is important when aiming to have an effective music video.

Ideas I may take when planning my music video is using two colour effects to portray different emotions, also using a range of camera shots.