Comparison Of “the Scientist” By Coldplay And “bad Blood” By Taylor Swift
Music is one of the important entertainment elements in our lives; it has the ability to deliver positive messages to the audiences as it become a good way of communication it has been found in every culture in present time, as there are various types and genres of music with different languages and cultures. Everyone wants to listen to music to get some enjoyment, not only music can be a meditation or can relief our mind but also it can be music that we can dance on it and feel happy and cheerful. The first music video was released in 1965 by the beatles. I decided to compare and contrast between two music videos with two different genres. The first music video is “The Scientist” by “Coldplay” which was released 2002, the second music video is “Bad Blood” for the famous singer “Taylor Swift” and the rapper Kendrick lamar which was released 2005.
This essay will compare and contrast the filmic properties in any music video, diegesis, editing and shot transitions, camera movement, screen space, screen time, and mise-en-scene. Firstly the degesis, Carol Vernalis states that diegesis means the “world” created within the music video. The “The Scientist” song was diegetic as each sound in the music video belongs to the world of the video, but the “Bad Blood” song was diegetic and non-diegetic as there was non-diegetic music in the first scene the scene of fighting but this non-diegetic music helps to create suspense.
Secondly the camera movement there was pan camera movement in both videos. At the beginning of “Bad Blood” song there was an establishing shot of London skyline and panning camera movement used when Taylor Swift and her friends moving left and right towards each other, “The scientist” song also have panning camera movement as the camera pans around the singer and this make the audience have the chance to see Chris Martin from all angles. Moving to the shots close ups was mutual in both music videos as the close up is a type of shot that tightly frames a person. There is many famous actors in the music video of “Bad Blood” and in order to make the attention on Taylor Swift there was many close ups shots and extreme close up shots of Taylor Swift’s face likely to “The Scientist” music video as close ups are used throughout the video to get reaction and emotion in the face, and this make us deduce that carl vernallis’s theory of how close up shots are commonly used within a music video is been proven to be true. “Bad Blood” used also extreme long shot and the mid long shot. ”The Scientist” music video is the only that have a crane shot as there was an extreme close up then zooming out to form a long shot.
Thirdly, shot transitions is the movement from one shot to another there is not many shot transitions in “Bad Blood” music video but there is a common transition between the two music videos which is dissolve it used once in “Bad Blood” and used more than once in “The Scientist” dissolve mainly used to change the location and it’s the easiest transition. Moving to the fading, there are two types of fading, fading in which turns the shot to black and fading out which is opposite turns the black shot into bright and both is used in “The Scientist” music video. Moreover the composition, there was different angles in the two videos, “The scientist” display the high angle and the high angel makes a character appear smaller or weaker. “Bad Blood” display the low angle and the low angle makes the character more powerful and dominant.
Furthermore screen space and screen time are so important, the screen time is greater than the real time in both videos as the tow videos were using the slow motion more than once, for example the fall of Taylor Swift throughout the window with the crashing glass all over her. The scrren space has two parts on screen and off screen, all the two videos were on screen as they can be perceived by the eye.
Finally, the mise-en-scene it cover everything that the director control from the set to the actors. It includes most of the things location, set design, costumes, makeup, Actors and Lightening. It is one of the most important elements as it control our emotions it is considered as the most source of attraction to the music video. Let’s start with the costumes and makeup the costumes and makeup in both videos was totally different as “Bad Blood” was heavy makeup and as dark color as the costumes as they are trying to make it suits the environment and the revenge, they wearing the costumes to signal that they are one team. In “The Scientist” the costumes and make are all bright. Moreover the two videos have totally different locations the “Bad blood” was in various places in London and in a city but the “The Scientist” was in a forest which happened in it the accident. Moving to the light the light in “Bad Blood” was dark to be in the mood of mysterious and suspense and editing was used rapidly. “The scientist” used bright light to let the audience be emotional towards the video.
To conclude music is the language that all people all over the world understand it and feel it, and because of that there are same elements that apply on every music video even if it is from different genres, country or even different culture. The two music videos that I compared and contrast contain the same language but they contain different genres with different analysis because they contain different stories, and that what we called the taste of music as everyone has a different taste of music than the other and that because of the different analysis and elements of each song.
