Research; past students work analysis

As well as researching and analyzing music videos that are already out there in the music industry, it would be really helpful to also look at some past students work, as we'll be able to relate to this easily and so take notes of what did and didn't work!
I've chosen a video by students not from my school, to the song 'Mr.Brightside - the killers'.




So when the video started I didn't think it was going to be great - but it was actually one of the best student music video's i've seen! It was well planned, fantastic editing and a good storyline!

Strengths:

* The storyline was easy to follow, it was something a lot of people can relate to and it was set out well.
* The actors were actually believable! I see a lot of terrible acting in student films, but these guys were really good and I was pretty drawn into what was happening throughout the music video!
* I thought the editing was really really good, there was a huge range of long shots, faster shots and some really fast shots which changed about ten times in a few seconds! It was impressive that students were capable of that!
* The band were also believable, again a lot of the time in student made videos the lip syncing is pretty terrible, and you can tell that the band aren't actually playing the songs; however in this video the band all looked pretty good, there were no noticeable mistakes, and the singer looked like he was singing it.
* The mise-en-scene was also really good, they had a number of 'the killers' posters in the room that the band was playing it which I thought was a good idea! Also the locations all worked really well with their ideas, and the costume for both the characters and the band were effective and relatable!
* The actors were our age so I found I could relate to them more easily.

Weaknesses:

* The lighting at times was too dark to see! The shots which used natural lighting were effective and easy to see, however some shots were so dark it was hard to make out what was happening - they perhaps could have figured out some sort of light source to use to make it lighter! 
* The two boys looked similar and so it was difficult to tell which was which at times, this could have been avoided by some more close-ups of the main characters.
* There could have been a slightly larger variety of shot types - although there were a lot, there could have been some establishing shots, extreme close ups and also for extra points maybe some birds eye view shots?

What I'll take away from it:

Like I said it's a really impressive music video, especially for students to make - I didn't cringe at all which often happens at lip syncing and bad acting when I'm watching other students work! The storyline fit in really well with what was going on in the song and music video which is another bonus, the characters were planned well, the costume was relatable as were the actors due to them being our age and the clothing being fashionable and in trend. 
One thing I will definitely try to avoid is the bad lighting shots, as I feel this really did impact the music video and bought it down a few notches. A lot of our shots are using natural lighting however the few that aren't I think I will make sure are well lit so the audience doesn't have to strain to see it. 

It was really helpful looking at this past students work as it was easily relatable as they were under the same time and technology limit that we will be under so it was useful to see what mistakes and how they overcame problems!