Research Into Existing Music Video: Frank Hamilton - Summer

Here are the notes that I made whilst I watched the music video several times.

The music video that I have decided to look into is "Summer" by Frank Hamilton. The reason that I chose this music video is because it is by far the best music video that Frank Hamilton has made and this is the song that I am going to be creating my own music video to. Researching into this music video would help me a lot because I will be able to pick out codes and conventions to use in my own potentially.










At the beginning of the music video there is an establishing shot of the location of the artist now and then a cut to the child and the location of him as well, clearly showing the link between the characters. For the shot of the artist in the street there is only ambient sounds, which are diegetic, but as the song cuts to the beat to the child you can see there is a colour filter on the screen that are warm summer colours as he even sings the word "summer" first.






During the song there is a few times where the pace of the song gets faster and when this happens the children are running and the cuts pick up and I found that this really engaged you in the video throughout. This is the same concept when the pace of the music is slow therefore the characters are usually walking or sitting. The picture I have chosen shows at the start when the music suddenly picks up in speed and the character runs fast then shortly after it cuts to the artists and the picture projected over him is also moving fast to match the pace of the music.


Throughout the music video there are several shots of the artist singing and this is one of the more common features in a music video, being a feature talked about by Andrew Goodwin in his book 'Dancing in the Distraction Family'. Having shots of the artist like this is very good because it is good for the audience to have a visual representation of the singer and this may make them want to watch him live as they know who they are going to see and how they will perform.







The mise-en-scene throughout the music video is very good and links to the story of the music video very well. The girls outfit is a very stereotypical outfit for a young girl and this is the same with the young boy who also has a stereotypical outfit. You can clearly see the necklace of the girl and the woman is the same as well which really involves you in the love story.






Overall, I really like this music video. There are several conventions that are used in this music video from the love story sort of genre. The conventions were very effective because they kept me, as the audience, involved and interested in the story. The music video also represents the artist, Frank Hamilton, very well as he is dressed smart throughout and does nothing negative giving people a good idea of how he will perform live and will want to go watch him.