1st Music Video Research: 'Vertigo' - U2

Shot 1 

The first shot is an establishing shot of the band in some kind of desert style scene. The band is hard to see at first as they are far in the distance. As a performance based music video, the band already reveals themselves in the 'performance zone' - with Bono (the lead singer) in a Elvis style position, the rock look, with his hand up in the air and standing at a slant. The other members of the band with their instruments, in the performance positions ready to introduce the song by playing; with the instruments playing first in Vertigo. 

Shot 2

The second shot shows a wide angle close-up of the drummer, which not also includes the performer but also a part of his instrument. The drummer is shown to be in mid-action of what he is playing, a main convention of music video's with a performance theme. 




Shot 3

This shot shows the three frontmen of the band in a diagonal line in mid-action again. The lightning is bright, with the band contrasting the colour of the shot by wearing all black. 





Shot 4

The chorus of the song is now in full swing from this high angle crane shot, with the camera moving with fast paced. From shot one, the editing was already faced paced, however it is even faster with the chorus, the chorus being the 'heaviest' and at it's fullest texture - allowing more exciting angles and quicker tempo for the shots. In the editing process, the editor has added a special effect of adding black streaks to the band members. As stated in the previous shot, the band are wearing black and the black streaks adding some excitement to the video. 

Shot 5

This shot shows a close up of the lead singer, Bono. He is, again, in mid action of performing. The light is bright with a light blue sky background. 






Shot 6 

The edge is mostly captured through a wide angle mid shot, but also capturing the drums and partly Bono. The band is currently playing the second verse in the song. The lighting has got slightly more brighter, with the pure white floor and sky. 




Shot 7

The camera captures half of Bono in a close up shot. He is in mid action of performance, with his arm up ready to sing into the mic, typically showing performance characteristic and passion into his performance.






Shot 8

In this close up, Bono is the main focus, with a blurred focus of The Edge (the lead guitarist). Bono continues with the performance image, this time showing more passion and matching the lyrics with his body language - Bono goes to touch his head near his eyes whilst the lyrics sync with: "Your eyes are wider..."



Shot 9 

The second chorus occurs at this point, and this shot consists of a low-angle wide shot. As The Edge plays the chorus, he presents a stance in his performance to show he is enjoying the performance, very 'into it'! A blurred focus captures Bono in the background on standby to be miming the next part of the Chorus.

Shot 10

This establishing/extreme long shot shows the band in the third verse of the song. The pace of the editing is slower as the verse in comparison to the Chorus has a much slower tempo.





Shot 11

In this scene/bridge section in the song, there is a tilt shot (starting from up) down to the shot we see now, where Bono is on his knees in a traditional rock/passionate performing stance. At this point, the music all fades dramatically and the pitch of the music (including the vocals) decreases to nothing. Bono's 'on his knees' stance from where he was standing is in sync with the music, where the pitch dramatically decreases as if Bono is symbolic of the music and how it works.



Shot 12