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 are looking at the band Sum 41 because their music videos were a big part of my teenage years. I used to find their music videos fascinating as they had the perfect balance of Punk Rock and Comedy and I would watch their videos over and over again. I am sure one of their albums came with a DVD with the videos on as well. They were a band that you would get excited to see their music videos as they were so good and that is why I wanted to write about them as these videos I have seen sooooo many times that I feel they are one of the major impacts in why I look up to music videos so much as a great form of edit. So over the next few weeks we are going to look at some of my favourites.

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Sum 41 – Still Waiting

Why did you choose this particular video?

I remember that this video always felt like a parody and listening to an interview on Youtube it was confirmed, it was just a fun little video and had all the silliness you expected from this band.

So, what is the narrative?

I was watching an interview with the band and they were saying that this sort of video was making a parody of music videos that were being released at the time by bands like the Strokes. However to make it unique they made everyone wear Plaid with the set dressed out in it as well to make it that bit different.

Favourite parts of the video?

I think the one thing that really sets this video up is the section before the music itself has even begun as it really gives a parody and a sort of look at what the music industry was like around the time of this release. It is a fun conversation to watch as it it discussing the fact that the name Sum 41 isn’t cool anymore and it is all about the word THE and that the band need to redesign themselves to appeal to the market. The reason I like this part from an editing perspective is that it again has a similar style to the Fat Lip intro that it has this rough footage feeling to it again which again creates this world behind the music which again is really creative. I like the simple edit shots and the angles that bring you into this world and this conversation getting you ready for the main part of the video.

The thing that I really enjoy with this video is that a lot of it is a parody of music videos that were popular at the time and if you watch The Strokes music video that I have added below you will notice that a lot of the video is edited and created in the same way to create that this ‘outsider’ band are trying to fit in. The thing that I really like about this video is that the colours of oranges and yellows are really bold in the Sum 41 version that I think has been done deliberately to connote just out of place the band are in this style of video.

Throughout the video there are lot of little things that happen in the background subtly to connote that the band are not comfortable conforming to the norm of following the trend. One of the things that stand out is that ever so often these random 8 bit graphics will appear for a couple of seconds at a time and each of them have vey different graphics that I think sort of connote the destruction that the band are going through having to conform. They are really quick graphics but take a while to pause the video to have a look at them they are a unique effect.