Superheroes by The Script will be the first music video that I myself will be analysisng. It was directed by Vaughan Arnell. The single was released in the United Kingdom on 31 August 2014. The song belongs to the pop genre.

 

The music video and lyrics celebrates the everyday heroes of the city, in particular, in the video a father on his workday trying to look after his daughter and the extent to which he would go to to do that. The lyrics are powerful and meaningful and help create an emotional video. The main storyline of the lyrics is about the people in this world who've been fighting all their life and working day and night to make things work. Danny O'Donoghue told The Sun: "We are good at sitting around and talking about issues late at night. That song came from that.""There's people being bullied and sold to the sex slave trade, yet they remain optimistic and positive," he added. "They're unsung heroes."

 

At the start of the video it shows Johannesburg in South Africa. I found this out when I looked at a behind the scenes video of Superheroes to know where exactly the video was shot. The area looks dry and broken and just this opening begins to tell the audience that the video will be narrative and that there will be a story to this song and therefore a deeper meaning with the lyrics. 
For this section of the video all the footage looks like it is filmed on a handheld camera. This type of camera movement can give a sense to the audience that these locations are poverty stricken and very run down. The editor uses many wide-shot takes to show the location and the day to day lives these people live. This beginning gives the audience a little in-sight to the lives these people live and what sort of story the song is likely to be about. This links to the song's name Superhereos, as they are living in poverty areas and still all smiling. 

When the band enters the street and comes into view, the camera steadies which could connote their healthy wealthy lives as opposed to the run down areas these people live in daily. The band are dressed in casual clothes to try and fit in with the setting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the beat drops for the song to really begin, the camera pans to the band, which are now all set up for their performance and on the final beat drop it is in sync with the lead singer jumping to the beat. This is a nice attribute to make the editing seem seamless and in sync.

There are quick cuts between the band members before the singing begins which works well with the upbeat song, the editing matches the pace of the song.

 

The editor has used a range of techniques. One of the most striking editing techniques used the fast paced takes. By editing this video this way, it matches the song's pace. So when the chorus is being played the takes are very quick and when the song slows down the scenes are edited much slower. By matching the takes with the song it makes the audience more engaged with the story. The editor uses this rhythm throughout the video and keeps the editing matching to the pace.

Additionally, mise-en-scene plays a huge role in the video, for portraying the true meaning of the song's name 'superheroes'. The story is truly beautiful, inspiring and eye-opening. In the scenes of the narrative of the dad and his daughter, the story is really easy to understand which makes the audience easily engaged because they do not have to sit there trying to work out what the real message of the story is. 

In my eyes the most significant and effected piece of mise-en-scene is the use of costume. Half way through the video the dad is dressed in a suit saying bye to his daughter as he goes too work. All emotions are portrayed across his face, the audience can tell how much the daughter means to him but also we get the sense of unease in his face which we later find out why as he takes of his suit to put on old dirty clothes to work on a landfill site. This infers to the audience that the man is 'ashamed' of his real job. This reinforces the meaning of the song that although they're ashamed of their job they still work hard to provide for their children which is what the song is about and that these people are the 'superhereos'.

As the dad finishes work it shows the dad and daughter running along the bridge to eachother which is matched with the beat of the song and for the audience creates tension until they meet and hug and we exhale our happiness for them after witnessing what the dad does each day.