Shot by Shot Analysis

All music videos should follow general codes and conventions. One of the most effective ways of seeing whether this theory holds any truth is to do a shot by shot analysis of a music video.

For this task the music video for the Genki Rockets 2010 song "Make.Believe" as it is unique in being the world's first 3D and fully CGI music video which was presented at Sony's "make.believe" concert making the Genki Rockets the first band to ever host a live 3D concert. However, for it to be a music video it should follow the codes and conventions laid out by theorists and should be obvious in the shot by shot analysis.

Track: Make.Believe                            Artist: Genki Rockets                             Date: 2010

Shot number	Shot type	Shot length	Description	Edit to next shot
1	Close Up	4s	Zoom of woman’s face initially silhouetted then brightened by CGI neon lights	Straight Cut
2	Close Up	2s	Side of woman’s face. Entire body spinning.	Straight Cut
3	Close Up	4s	Front of woman’s face with the words Genki Rockets appearing and blowing away	Straight Cut
4	Long Shot	11s	Woman encased in the neon lights slowly spinning	Graphic match fade to eye
5	Extreme Close Up	4s	Zooming out from an eye	Straight Cut
6	Close Up	11s	Woman in white dress lip synching	Straight Cut
7	Mid Shot	4s	Woman blowing in the wind	Straight Cut
8	Long Shot	12s	Woman glowing brightly and floating down to land	Straight Cut
9	Extreme Close Up	1s	Her feet landing	Straight Cut
10	Extreme Close Up	1/2s	Her feet landing	Straight Cut
11	Extreme Close Up	1s	Her feet landing	Straight Cut
12	Long Shot	5s	Woman screen right watching birds fly off into the distance	Straight Cut
13	Mid Shot	5s	Overhead Shot of woman lip synching and pointing to camera	Straight Cut
14	Long Shot	1s	Woman pointing up to sky as lights explode around her	Straight Cut
15	Long Shot	1s	Light flying into sky and exploding	Straight Cut
16	Long Shot	6s	Woman lip synching in a forest	Straight  Cut
17	Long Shot	8s	Woman lip synching in a forest	Straight Cut
18	Long Shot	7s	Overhead Shot of woman lip synching with CGI fish flying through the air	Straight Cut
19	Mid Shot	6s	Woman lip synching as fish swim through air around her	Straight Cut
20	Long Shot	9s	Woman lip synching but with major focus on the tree	Straight Cut
21	Long Shot	7s	Fish swimming through the trees	Straight Cut
22	Long Shot	7s	Woman in space lip synching	Straight Cut
23	Close Up	8s	Woman in space lip synching	Straight Cut
24	Long Shot	2s	Woman looking at the rose petals around her as background fades to white	Straight Cut
25	Long Shot	3s	Rose petals floating up into the sky	Straight Cut
26	Long Shot	8s	Woman in a chapel lip synching but far away	Straight Cut
27	Long Shot	6s	Painting of a castle with birds flying past	Straight Cut
28	Mid Shot	5s	Overhead Shot of Woman lip synching to screen	Straight Cut
29	Long Shot	12s	Overhead shot of Woman leaping up and flying as the CGI background flashes by	Straight Cut
30	Mid Shot	5s	Side view of Woman flying and lip synching	Straight Cut
31	Long Shot	4s	Point of View Shot of CGI buildings passing by	Straight Cut
32	Long Shot	3s	Woman flying through the air	Straight Cut
33	Mid Shot	7s	Woman flying through the air lip synching	Straight Cut
34	Extreme Close Up	3s	Woman’s hand reaching out to grasp something	Straight Cut
35	Long Shot	8s	Woman leaping into the screen as background changes rapidly	Straight Cut
36	Mid Shot	8s	Zooming in on woman reaching towards viewer	Flash/Jump Cut
37	Close Up	4s	Woman still reaching out to viewer	Flash
38	Long Shot	10s	Woman leaping into the screen as the background changes	Straight Cut/Flash
39	Mid Shot	1/3s	Woman reaching out to viewer	Straight Cut/Flash
40	Mid Shot	1/3s	Woman reaching out to viewer	Straight Cut/Flash
41	Mid Shot	1/3s	Woman reaching out to viewer	Straight Cut/Flash
42	Long Shot	7s	Woman smashing through a nebula	Straight Cut
43	Long Shot	3s	Woman in white dress singing to woman in neon lights	Straight Cut
44	Mid Shot	4s	Woman in white dress singing	Straight Cut
45	Long Shot	5s	Back of woman in white with large face of woman in neon lights singing	Straight Cut
46	Long Shot	10s	Zoom in on woman in white singing	Flash
47	Close Up	2s	Overhead of woman singing	Straight Cut
48	Long Shot	4s	Overhead of woman singing whilst zooming out	Straight Cut
49	Long Shot	3s	Woman singing at a cliff edge	Straight Cut
50	Mid Shot	5s	Woman singing to camera as it spins around her	Flash
51	Mid Shot	3s	Spin around woman singing under Northern lights	Straight Cut
52	Long Shot	2s	Woman singing under Northern lights	Straight Cut
53	Long Shot	2s	Woman singing in a desert	Straight Cut
54	Long Shot	2s	Closer up of Woman singing in a desert	Straight Cut
55	Long Shot	3s	Zoom in of Woman singing on water	Straight Cut
56	Mid Shot	5s	Woman singing to the camera before disappearing to dust	Straight Cut
57	Long Shot	4s	Lights flying up from the cliff top	Straight Cut
58	Close Up	7s	Close up of Earth as light flies into space	Straight Cut
59	Close Up	7s	Woman in space holding the Earth	Straight Cut
60	Close Up	8s	Close up of woman in space’s face as neon lights slowly disappear.	End

As can be seen, this music video follows a lot of the major codes of music videos with mainly straight cuts and lots of close ups. However, "Make.Believe" was advertising Sony's 3D capabilities as well as the Genki Rockets and this could explain why there are so many long shots although this has been something that is used in lots of the Genki Rockets' videos. Also, a lot of the shots are quite long, but this is most likely down to the slower pace of the song.

However, there are other videos that break with codes and conventions too.
These include:
OK Go's "Here We Go Again" video was one shot for the entire video:

OK Go's "Last Leaf" does not include any form of lip synch or performance, it is simply a narrative told through toast:

Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" which is like a short teen film with a music video in the middle:


However, in recent years, artists have been trying to push the boundaries of creativity and as such are more willing to break codes and conventions than artists in the 60s.