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 -War

Why did you choose this particular video?

Until I wrote this article I hadn’t actually seen the music video for this song but I really like the track and play it on my guitar and keyboard a lot. I also wanted to look at something that was more modern by the band.

So, what is the narrative?

Deryk gets dropped off at the ruins of a plane crash in the boot of a females car which feels like the end of a relationship. It is more cinematic in it’s style and there are images being projected onto the plane.

Favourite parts of the video?

The thing that instantly stands out to you in this video is the cinematic feel to it, the video feels like a mini film and uses slow cut edits at the beginning to create this narrative that is being built up. One thing that I like about this video is the fact that the colour grade has been thought about and there are some really striking shots where the colour plays a really important aspect of the video. For example this shot above I really like the focus on the blues that sort of feel like there is emotion and depth to this character that the frontman is playing.

One of the things that I like about this video is the way that projected videos are used to create these really interesting effects on the band and also on the planes to create this sense of memories. I really like this style of effect because when you get to the editing phase of the production it means that you then have interesting shapes to work with. There are some really great shots with these shapes and styles and keep an eye out for it.

This video feels like it is the next chapter in this bands career as near the end of the video Deryck sets fire to a number of clothes and it feels like it is saying goodbye to the old style and in with the new. Some of the items look like items from past music videos which I think is really clever and makes it an interesting end to the video.