Welcome BACK to the Magic of The Music Video feature! We have been having a break from this but now it is back and this time it is on the new day of Saturday afternoons! Every month we will take a look at the music videos of certain artists and bands more in depth to explore just why I love them.

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 delving into the world of Machine Gun Kelly (or MGK, whatever you prefer) and taking a look at some of the videos that I personally feel have some great editing techniques.

Cliché – Machine Gun Kelly

Why did you choose this particular video?

This was the video that inspired me to write about Machine Gun Kelly as I found it weird that he had gone from rap, punk rock to then dancing. The dancing routines that he uses in the video were also shared online as TikTok Challenges to that makes sense as well as to why it was created – to go viral. It is a video as well that is quite clever if you really analyse it.

So, what is the narrative?

The song is made a up ofcliché lyrics, and cliché beat, so the video is intended to expand on this and create it to look like a cliché boy band, video with dance routines and a girl that he is singing to.

Favourite parts of the video?

The first thing that stands out in this video is the cinematography, the whole video is a cliche and it plays on clips you see on standard boyband videos and even predominantly female ones (such as the car wash as if you look at the back of the shot you will see that the garage is called Miss Sunshine). The way that the lyrics match up to the image on the screen also creates a cliche – for example the lyric draw your face – he draws a face on the windscreen.

The colour plays a key part in the video and helps stage the scenes. In the car lot orange is used to screen the scene on the train red is used to frame it and create symmetry and on the highway yellow is used to create framing. It is very clever and very fun to look at the way it is used.

The use of light comes across as another source used to create an impact and highlight the factor of cliche. The shots become brighter when they are focussing on the imaginary world of the video, becoming the most bright on cliche shots. On the more realist shots the light takes a back seat and is more angled – such as the car park night scene at the end.

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