Inspiration: (Carol Vernallis Analysis)

Coldplay - Paradise

Our idea involves a Panda and Coldplay's use of an Elephant is a huge, but very useful/inspirational coincidence. We hope to involve some of their ideas in our final piece.

Narrative

The song is all about pursuing Paradise and the video is a visual response to the music, which involves an Elephant pursuing 'Paradise'. The majority of the video is narrative-based, with some performance towards the end. The video is very much a story and disobeys some charactersitics of a typical music video, such as for example some continuity rules are still obeyed. There are many un-answered questions which is a typical convention illustrated by Vernallis; why is the video about an Elephant? why does he need to take so many methods of transport? how is he getting from place to place? why is he separated from his family/friends?
Their is a constant theme of a pursuit and a mission, but this is portrayed in a montage style, for example on the train the shots are very montage-like.

Editing

On the whole, shots are cut to the beat/lyric. This makes for predictable cuts, which are pleasing to the audience's eye. The video features LOTS of jump cuts/jumps in time which are an example of a conventional music video's discontinuity. For example, the elephant jumps from being on a train to pursuing a plane, etc.. The pace also has extreme changes, the pace frequently changes from sprinting to stationary shots or very fast camera movements to slow motion.

Camera Movement/Framing

The video involves many establishing shots for new settings, which are a feature Vernallis has outlined as particularly important in music videos. Close Ups of the elephant are also often use so that the audience can see the important detail in the video. There are many extreme jumps in shot types in terms of distance, for example the camera will jump from a long shot to a close up, this is conventionally used in music video and rare in film. Framing is very tight and clostrophobic at the start when the Elephant is trapped and it becomes much more open when the elephant is free, this is very personified film-making.

Diegesis (the world of the music video)

The diegesis is the idea of an elephants journey to its homeland (Africa). The diegesis is outlined almost instantly, but it's quite vague, as we just see a tree in Africa so it may take time for the audience to fully grasp the diegesis. There are many holes in the diegesis through un-answered questions, but this is not a problem in music video production. Certain elements are emphasised, for example the shot when the elephant sees his pals in Africa through a slow focus-shift.