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 – Hitchin’ A Ride

Why did you choose this particular video?

Out of all the Green Day songs and music videos, this has always been one of my favourites. I have just always been fascinated by this video because it was so different to anything I had ever seen in a music video before, especially the walking machine they are on, I loved that so much. Just like Green Day music videos, no matter how many times you watch it, there will always be something new to see. I like this video because the editing works so well for the beat of the song.

So, what is the narrative?

The music video is set in a location and style that is similar to the prohibition era. All the band and the dancers in the video are in costumes and dance around a theatre and a bar. Then a wasp gets in and everything goes crazy.

Favourite parts of the video?

The first section of the video completely sets up the editing style of the video, it is full of quick cut editing that introduces you into the world of the video. The first few short beats of the track and the video introduces you to the location, the characters and the mystery.

The video just like Longview uses transitions that most edited content do not usually use and it is what makes this video so effective. The video uses an array of wipes including a circle and a diagonal one (as pictured above) – they are simple but they work so well with the theme. Another thing that works well is that the wipes sort of slow down the pace of the video as they sort of divide up the beats of the song between the verse and chorus and it is really effective.

It is really interesting to watch the musical interlude section of the music video because the editing speeds up to create a dramatic impact. The quick edits also have light transitions and blurs to create impact, it may be simple edit but it is so effective.