Favourite music video

Cold Mailman - My Recurring Dream

It uses interconnected tracking shots, which overwhelms the imagination. It obviously has had a lot of planning gone into it, as it has been executed so perfectly. It's a really surreal video. The Title, 'My Recurring Dream', suggests it is a peculiar dream sequence. The song is more conventional and fits into the mood of the music video. The harmonies give this song a majestic feel and decorate what would otherwise be a fairly decent guitar-pop song, transforming it into something more engaging and magical. You get lost in the video and the song, as they both feel interesting and meaningful.

It also uses reverse shots which uses a play of time with a unique editing composition. The change of location is done in a very creative way, through a TV or a picture, a portrait or a banner and introduced with a zoom to make It feel almost 3 dimensional. Unusually it does not use close ups or extreme close ups of the singers which is very rare from a normal conventional music video. Although this can be seen as a negative because it doesn’t convey a feel of closeness to the musicians, it works just as well as the narrative is so intriguing and versatile. The film also relies a lot on natural lighting eg car headlights and fire, which makes the frame colourful and not artificial. The narrative is very complex and has a deep meaning but this is a technique used to make the audience watch it over and over again to try and understand it or see if they are missing out on anything, it is used by many artists such as Avril Lavigne with ‘Rock and Roll’.

It also uses the editing tool of fast forwarding the moving image which again embraces the feel of playing with time. Using multiple locations can create a sense of high expectation on the performance, so using unique areas such as underwater with also the use of props; it catches the attention of the audiences and therefore is a successful music video. Also mismatching the theme to the location eg wearing clothes and surrounded by lampshades as props underwater and wearing a suit while skateboarding creates a contrast of mise en scene and location making it original and exciting. It takes you on many journeys by using a tracking shot; it makes you feel like you are following each character/characters into a completely contrasting adventure as the one just before, keeping it fresh and new for every scene, the reuniting of all the main characters in the scene are shown towards the end giving the video a feel of familiarity, this will be more noticeable when the audience watch the video again which they hopefully will to confirm there interest in the narrative. Ending the music video with the same establishing tracking clip creates a sense of irony with the title ‘Recurring dream’.

The hospital scene is used at the beginning AND the end of the video.

This is an example of the rewinding technique.

Using a TV as change of location method.

We do not have a close relationship with the singers but instead we follow them; creating a sense of mystery and illusion.

Natural lighting with car headlights.

Example of Fast forwarding technique.

Using unique locations to make the music video original

Contrasting use of mise en scene and location.

Using the same finishing shot with establishing shot creating a sense of irony with the song