As the Director I looked at the music video for the original version of 'come up and see me (make me smile)' by Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebels. I thought I would list every shot used to get an idea of the kind of shots we could use in our music video.
The first shot we see is a close up (it is blurred to start with and becomes clearer) of some sort of bracelet on his wrist. The hand this is shown on is the one he's strumming the chords of the guitar with. The shot zooms out so we can see part of his arm and most of the guitar.
There is then a right to left transition effect of a triangle that wipes into the next shot, a simple medium close-up of the lead singer standing behind a microphone; this carries on for 8 seconds. The transition is then the same (the triangle type swipe) that goes from right to left across the screen. There is then a wide shot from the side of the band with the drum set in the right of the shot. In my opinion this shot is not very good as only one of the Cockney Rebels is visible as well as some of Steve Harley in the background. They keyboard or drum kit to the right are not being played so there seems to be no significance of having them in the shot.
From this shot the camera zooms into the band, still from the side. It carries on zooming onto Steve Harley who looks at the camera as it is doing so. The shot ends on another close up of the lead singer. The transition again is the triangle swipe thing so this is probably a recurrent transition throughout the music video although it doesn't seem appropriate or very professional. The next shot is a lot like the last, a wide shot of the whole band from the side but this time further to the right. We're now introduced to a man behind the keyboard that we couldn't see in the previous shot. The shot pans back to the left slightly and then zooms and pans back round to the front of the band this time carrying on and as it does this we can now see a man behind the drums. The camera then comes to a halt and zooms in to Steve Harley once again. The next shot has no transition but is a quick cut to the band from the left. The shot is still and the main focus of it is a man on guitar although Steve Harley is still visible in shot. This shot is held for seven seconds. It's the first time in the video anybody except the lead singer has had any screen time over a second at all really. Then a close-up of Harley is given again except it's a bit closer this time. The next shot is from behind the band as though someone backstage was filming. I think the lighting throughout so far especially in this shot is terrible as it is a bit too dark to be able to see properly. The camera zooms into a mid close-up of Steve Harley from the back and then transitions back to the guitar player who had the seven seconds of screen time earlier on. The camera pans around him and makes its way back into another close-up of Steve Harley. It then quickly cuts to a wide shot with the microphone in the middle of the screen, the drums in the background, Steve on the right and the man who got the seven seconds (in a flat cap) on the left. The camera zooms into the guitar the man in the flat cap is playing and we can then see the bracelet on his wrist that was the establishing shot of the music video. The shot then fades to a mid close-up of the keyboard with the player’s hands slightly visible. It carries on showing him in a clearly visible mid-shot of him sitting behind the keyboard with the drummer in the background. This then fades back to the shot of the mid close-up of the man’s wrist as he plays the guitar. The next shot is then a fade to the keyboard being played from the side and then again back to the guitar being played. Again the transition is a fade and the man playing the other guitar is shown playing from the side in a medium close up. Then again the shot is back to the man with the bracelets arm and wrist as he plays the guitar. The shot zooms into his fingers where he has a ring like the bracelet he's wearing, this then goes blurry and fades in to a wide shot of Steve Harley with the drummer in the background. It zooms in to a close-up of Harley; the shot is shown for around 17 seconds!!! There is then a quick cut to a close-up of the man on the right of the bands guitar and this zooms out to show the man singing as well. It pans round the side so we can also see the lead singer in the background of the shot. The next shot then quickly cuts to the other side of the band where the man in the flat cap is and a mid shot of him in the middle of the screen is shown. There is a pan around him for 4 seconds before Steve Harley is visible again. The camera continues to pan and then starts to zoom but right past Harley and into a close-up on one of the lights which fades into a different close-up shot of the lead singer. After 14 seconds of a close-up on Steve Harley the camera begins to zoom out to a long shot of the whole band from the front. This is the first time the band has been established in the video together and it's the last shot in the video.
In my own opinion I didn't like how the video was done at all. I felt the band should have been established early on instead of at the end. The lead singer, Steve Harley was given too much screen time. Although he is the lead the Cockney Rebels had barely any screen time to themselves and most of it was a close-up of their instruments. The colours were very dark and bland and dull. That may have been just the colours people wore the time the video was set but they aren't nice to look at and the video was slightly boring.
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