As you may know, I am a Video Editor – and one of the things (probably the main thing) that inspired me to work in television post production was actually music videos.

Music videos are one of my favourite things in the world and I spent hours and I MEAN literally hours when I was growing up watching them Even now in the modern world, I can find myself getting lost on YouTube watching music videos for hours on end – they are an addiction.

This month we look at a band that I spent a lot of time watching their music videos when I was growing up. I used to love going to the music store on Saturday mornings as a kid / teen and would always use my pocket money to buy a new album and I used it once to buy a DVD that was full of Green Day music videos. Like I have said I was obsessed with music videos and I spent a lot of time watching this DVD, there was so many videos I loved and there were so many reasons why.

A lot of the videos in this months list are the old school Green Day because these music videos inspired me a lot growing up. I watched them so much and was fascinated by them and thinking about it now I strongly believe the editing of them has a strong role to play. I owe Green Day alot, they were the band the that used their songs to learn the guitar and they were one of the first punk rock bands I really listened to. So if you are used to only newer Green Day videos, you are in for a treat.

Green Day – Longview

Why did you choose this particular video?

If you think of Green Day then this is an ultimate staple in the band. Also the video is such a classic and it really interested me growing up because the use of space and the basic style of the video is really effective. I would watch it over and over again just to see what I have missed. Even now I watch it and see something new. 

So, what is the narrative?

The video is the first one by Green Day, set in the basement of a house that the band used to live in. The band deliberately wanted the video to look grungy. At the end of the video Billie starts to tear the place apart. 

Favourite parts of the video?

Lets first begin with the colour grade of the video it is really brown and sepia style tones and really does have a grungy theme about it. Having this colour grade really reels you into this world. It has a real punky vibe about it and I really like that.

The one thing I adore about this video is the way that it has a claustrophobic feel the whole way throughout. The dark tones and the quick editing of the close up shots really create a certain feel to this video that really heightens the lyrics of the song. I really adore the close up shots because even though it is such a pacey song this style of editing really portrays the boredom that the lyrics connote.

I love the brightly coloured shots of the band in the chorus, it really does create a heightened punk styling to the song. It also creates a bolt of energy automatically to the usual shots and the editing is really fast paced. Even though the chorus is still full up of the close ups, the bright colours and the full colour grading brings the emotion to the song and really effective on the eye.

The final thing that we need to talk about is the transitions. Dissolves are not really used very much in editing unless you are showing the passing of time or trying to bring sentiment. The dissolves used in this video are used really well and the whole video has the ideology of feeling bored and this creates a strong impact on that message.