that is very much 50/50.
Narrative Shoot
An example of a strong narrative is in his music video for 'Figure It Out' by Royal Blood. The music video follows a female protagonist as she runs around a shopping mall. However the change of colour between blue and red shows to the audience different pieces of information, some of which can only be seen with certain colour lights. The music video has a clear beginning, middle, and end, which makes it very reminiscent of a film rather than a music video. This is a clear theme in Doff's music videos, as they seem more like films accompanied by music, rather than a music video, which demonstrates just how strong the narrative is in his music videos.
Another example of a strong narrative in Doff's music videos is for the song 'Sometimes I Feel So Deserted' by The Chemical Brothers. This music video follows a female protagonist who is walking aimlessly through the desert. At first, we as the audience think she is a good character, however it is soon revealed that she is a zombie, or a walking corpse, when we see her eat another person, and pull off her own broken leg to attach a metal one. There is a very cinematic feel about the music video, and it is clear that Doff has focused on making the music video look good, as well as synthesising with the song. 
Samuel Bayer has an extensive list of music videos that he has directed, ranging from artists such as Green Day and Good Charlotte, to Maroon 5 and Robbie Williams. It is clear that over the past 25 years of directing music videos, he has worked with a lot of alternative and rock bands, including names such as Metallica and Nirvana. Although he has worked with artists that fit more into the pop genre, he has definitely spent the majority of his time with these heavier artists, which could be a reflection of his style when directing.
A noticeable feature in a large majority of Bayer's music videos, particularly in his earlier videos in the 90's, is a focus on the depth of field. In his music videos for 'Hold On' by Good Charlotte, and 'American Idiot' by Green Day, he has shifted his focus in several shots to emphasize the depth of field he has used. This strong depth of field is something that makes Bayer's music videos appear quite cinematic, and beginning to cross the line between film and music video.
Following on from this, his most recent music videos including two for Maroon 5 are very cinematic. Both of the Maroon 5 videos are a mix of performance and narrative, allowing Bayer to turn these music videos into something that appears more like a film. This can be particularly seen in the music video for 'Payphone', as the narrative follows the lead singer (Adam Levine) as he is being chased by the police, as they have think he has robbed the bank, even though he was the person that managed to escape being held hostage at the bank. Depth of field is also very prominent in these music videos, however their isn't any shifting of focus like there was in Bayer's earlier music videos.
Daniel's music videos are very well constructed, and he uses some interesting techniques when creating his music videos. 
On the other hand, the music video to the song 'King' by Years & Years clearly matches the sound with the visuals, although it does also incorporate some of the lyrics within it's representation in the visuals. About two minutes into the music video, the lead singer Olly falls into water, surrounded by bubbles. The sound in the song matches this visual perfectly because at this point in the song, the bass and the drums are removed, leaving just the lyrics and the keyboard. This therefore makes the song sound reminiscent of the effect being underwater has on your hearing: making everything muffled and slightly echoed. 
Another example of matching lyrics to visuals can be seen in the music video for 'Animals' by Maroon 5. The song itself is about a man trying to get a woman to love him, but he refers to animal like natures with which he hopes to get the woman. The opening shot of the music video takes place in a butchers which clearly links to the animal theme throughout the music video. Also, latter shots take place in an abattoir, with one of the shots showing the lead singer Adam pretending to be a lump of meat by hanging from the bar in the abattoir. The story follows him stalking a young woman that has come into the butchers, and he appears to be quite masochistic in his attempt to 'trap' the woman, a characteristic which is quite animalistic, and something you would typically link with a predator in the animal kingdom.
The first song we listened to was
a song called ‘For Your Love’ by an artist called Josh Record. My initial
thought when I heard the song was a man with a guitar and a beard, sat on top
of a big hill. I definitely felt it was a solo artist, hence the man alone, and
I also felt there was a theme of isolation in the song. Due to this theme of isolation, I thought he would
be alone somewhere far from civilisation; somewhere he is able to escape to. When I heard the song, I began to think about the opening shot in 'Donnie Darko', where Donnie can be seen sat on the top of a hill in the middle of the road with his bike, reinforcing this idea of isolation. I also imagined a story book, as I felt that the song itself was a story being told to someone. I felt like there was a sense of darkness to the song, however there was also something quite 'glittery' about the song, so I imagined a dark night sky with twinkling stars.
The next song we listened to was called 'Intro' by The XX. My initial thought was someone riding along a street on a skateboard in slow motion, as I felt that the beat throughout the entire song would fit well with the motion of a skateboard. The entire song is instrumental, so it focuses on the use of rhythm, rather than relying on the content of the lyrics. Due to this focus on rhythm, something that came to mind was soldiers marching in rows, so I drew twelve stickmen, in a square 3x4. Following this theme of rhythm, I also imagined someone bouncing a basketball in time with the song. So a clear focus through my images was on that of rhythm, and somehow representing that visually so it matched with the pace of the song.
In the music video for 'I Found', the narrative is of two men who kidnap a young woman, and are holding her for ransom. However, one of the main lyrics in the chorus is 'I found love where it wasn't supposed to be', and throughout the music video, it is clear that some feelings have developed between one of the kidnappers and the young women. The techniques when it comes to the editing of this music video are very similar to that of the editing techniques we used for our film opening last year. Match on action has still been used in this music video, as it is needed to make the sequence make sense. Also, eye line matches have been used to communicate the chemistry between the kidnapper and the young woman.
The idea of expanding time has been used quite a lot in this music video, furthering its cinematic look. At times throughout the music video, decreasing the frame rate has helped signify the effect of the drug on the characters, but it has also been used at times to build the tension as to what is going to happen to this young woman. Shrinking time has also been used to signify that this young woman has spent a whole night out in the cold, as a time lapse of the sun rising has been used.
There is a total of 156 cuts in the music video, which fits with the genre of the song, however I feel that slightly fewer cuts have been made to fit with each musical theme. For example, there was lots of cuts in the 'Grease' sequence, but there was fewer cuts, and the use of expanding time in the 'Mary Poppins' sequence. They have chosen to expand time when the song starts to reach the bridge, and the pace of the song slows down slightly, so expanding time in editing makes sure this change in pace is clearly evident visually.
The music video for 'Hopeless Wanderer' by Mumford and Sons is a concept based music video, in which 4 famous actors have been cast to act as the members of the band, and these actors are the ones performing the song. There is a total of 194 cuts in the music video, which is a clear communication of the pace of the music video: although it starts quite slow, it builds to quite a fast pace.
The process of expanding time has been used towards the end of the music video, as the frame rate is decreased to see them destroying their instruments. By slowing down this part of the sequence, it becomes far more effective as you can see all the details of the instruments as they are being broken.
