Analysing 'Lightspeed Champion - Tell Me What It's Worth' by Owain Anderson

In this video, there is only one shot used for the entirety of the song, one long, gliding shot that follows Dev Hynes on his journey through London. This is used to show the progression of him from homeless person to what looks like some kind of superhero, complete with cape. This kind of long take is quite common in music videos by indie bands or musicians who often try to look as creative as possible with only subtle editing done digitally, going against the traditional conventions of a video for something like pop music.





These clips show evidence of synchronised action in the video, where in this case, the pace of movement in the shot goes with the pace of the music. In the first clip it is fairly slow, where as in the second it is faster to keep up with the song and create feelings of hope and excitement for the audience, which are then suddenly left unfulfilled by the negative ending.

Another point that can be made about the two clips is the use of mise-en-scene to reflect how the lead character is feeling. As the song starts, he is less well-dressed, and is walking down a back street, whereas in the second clip he looks much less like a homeless person, and is running through Piccadilly Circus.



This clip shows how digital effects are used to manipulate the video, in this example, various different signs shown throughout the video are digitally altered so that they show different messages to do with the video, instead of the usual shop signs and company logos. This is done subtly to look more realistic and more subliminal.

There are several characteristics of the indie genre that are evident in the music video, for instance, the unconventional style of editing i.e. only one take for the whole video, as well as the kind of quirky outfits and overall unprofessional, unrehearsed feel that many videos in the genre try to convey, possibly to seem more spontaneous and therefore creative.

It could be said that the video has some of the aesthetics of a TV commercial, though turned on their head slightly. For instance, the entire video is focused on the star, though the camera work is fairly shaky and Dev keeps walking around the shot. This could be to show how he is the main focus, though not in an egotistical way, purely because of his music. The mise-en-scene could show some elements of his life, such as the type of area in which he lives, busy, grey London.

There isn't a choreographed 'dance' though there are many people who are choreographed to appear at certain times, and do certain things to interact with Dev. This makes the video more impressive visually as everyone performs their roles within one take and in time with the song, so that Dev starts running at the right time with the music at the end.

Overall this is a fairly impressive, if low-key video that works well with the pacing of the song, I think that I could take some ideas from this in terms of how to fit a video with the intensity of the music.