1. Coldplay
‘Fix you’

2. Background information on artist and
song
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris
Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London.
Achievements
They achieved worldwide fame with the release of the single "Yellow" in 2000,
followed by their debut album released in the same year, Parachutes, which was
nominated for the Mercury Prize. The band's second album, A Rush of Blood to
the Head (2002), was released to critical acclaim and won multiple awards,
including NME's Album of the Year. Their next release, X&Y, the best-selling album
worldwide in 2005, was met with mostly positive reviews upon its release, though
some critics felt that it was inferior to its predecessor. The band's fourth studio
album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends (2008), was produced by Brian
Eno and released again to largely positive reviews, earning several Grammy
nominations and wins at the 51st Grammy Awards. On 24 October 2011, they
released their fifth studio album, Mylo Xyloto, which received mixed to positive
reviews, topped the charts in over 34 countries, and was the UK's best-selling rock
album of 2011.

3. Song
The song reached number 18 in the United States Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks.
Promo singles were released for the UK and US.
"Fix You" received positive reviews. It has been widely sampled, with different covers and
sounds. The song, itself, was nominated for multiple awards in the categories of Best
Song Musically and Lyrically and Anthem of the Summer. The music video was garnered
as a tribute to the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The guitar solo of "Fix You" is currently
used as the player introduction at all of the National Hockey League's Montreal
Canadiens' home games
Taken from Wikipedia background - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fix_You

4. Background information about the
director
Sophie Muller is a London based director who has worked with various musicians to
produce some amazing music videos as well as some spectacular film sequences.
Sophie Muller attended St. Martin’s and the Royal College of art.
Muller’s career began in the 1980’s where she was an assistant director of the
horror/ thriller company of wolves. She has also worked with Annie Lenox and Blur
throughout the 1990’s.
Through Sophie Muller’s work I have noticed she likes each member of the band / or
solo artist to have a small amount narrative in the music video if possible as she
focuses on the band or artist performing live or in a set up room / studio.
Muller has directed loads of videos and has worked with artists such as Sophie Ellis-
Baxter, The Killers, Pink, Maroon 5 and Coldplay. Muller’s style is to use the band in
her videos and centre the whole video around them. She rarely puts the focus on
actors with the exception of “Mr Brightside” (above) where there is narrative
element however she still focuses it on the band throughout.

5. Genre characteristics
For any genre of any music videos there are always several characteristics
used to fulfil the theme and the idea of the genre.
In this music video ‘fix you’ follows the genre of the indie rock song as it
displays many aspects of it that people can associate with a slow moving
indie rock song. For example, the footage used that was filmed from one of
their previous concerts can make the audience feel as if they were there with
the band. Many artists use this in their music video’s as it is enjoyable to
watch and entertaining.
Footage used from a previous concert can also promote the band as it
makes people want to be part of that spectacular environment themselves.
Although this song is a huge success the music video isn’t very memorable,
instead the narrative of the video is quite basic and simple. The music video
for ‘Fix you’ follows the same theme as the bands previous music videos and
some characteristics seems to be repeated often. This makes the band an
iconic figure as many people can associate their work with the meaning of
the song.

6. Relationship between lyrics and
visuals
The relationship between the lyrics and visuals of this song has
been thought through well as there isn’t much of a narrative.
This has been done purposely to represent the meaning of the
song to the audience and also so that the audience know how to
feel when watching it. This is done by having Chris Martin as the
main character throughout the video. In the first couple of
minutes throughout the video it is slow moving and dull , this is
to capture a connection with the audience as the message is
being addressed through Chris’ actions.

7. As the song and dramatic state of the video narrative peaks, and
the tempo gets faster, the camera movements become faster
and more stimulating (such as the fast rotation movement in the
part before Chris Martin starts running down the tunnel, the
drastic camera tilts during the fan concert scene) and the
editing gets more exciting (because the duration between the
cuts between each shot), this again is to match the faster speed
of the tempo within the track.

8. As this music video does not follow a narrative the
majority of the video involves a lot of solo
instrumentals and lyrics being illustrated by Chris
Martin (this means the artist is facing the camera
and miming the lyrics). In two separate parts of the
music video Chris Martin is singing tot the audience
when he is facing us, and then in the second sings
to the fans in the crowd.

9. Due to the fact that the track ‘Fix you’ changes tempo, the video pace
follows this well. All the elements of the video such as the camera
movement, editing (cuts), dance routines and even lighting changes
with the track (as the track gets faster the cuts and shots move along
faster and consistently, the lighting get brighter and more complex as
well as the camera moments begin to get differ and superior).
“Lights will guide you home and ignite your bones and I will try to fix
you” (Referring to the live performance in the video)
“And high up above or down below When you're too in love to let it
go” (This refers to the beginning and ending of the music video, Chris
Martin shows this in the beginning when he is walking slowly in the
dark dull tunnels, to where he is engaging with the crowd at stadium
arena)

10. Relationship between music and
visuals (Also linked to
representation)
The video ‘fix you’ most definitely cuts to the beat of song
towards the end, whereas before in the first few minutes it is
all in slow motion for several shots. Towards the end of the
music video more solo instrumental parts are played just as the
music begins to build up tension. The three other band
members are on stage waiting for Chris to arrive and sing, in
this particular the band members are all seen playing their
instruments in front of thousands in Wembley stadium.
I think that Chris was the main character in this music video as
he is the lead singer and would usually stand in the front when
performing in front of people just like in the video when they’re
all waiting for Chris to arrive and perform. Because Chris stands
at the front it means his face is more recognizable to the
people who watch them. The public are more familiar with his
face than the other band members.

11. The record label are looking to sell this track by presenting a
different type of feel and theme to their previous music
videos. In this particular music video there is live footage
taken from one of their concerts, this is one of the first music
videos Coldplay themselves have done of this. I believe that
the record label are trying to sell the musical experience
rather the song throughout the music video.
Through my research a lot of Coldplay's videos are quite
similar within camera and editing techniques. A lot of the
video’s share the same amount of solo instrumental parts. I
have also noticed that in all of there others music video’s
they all follow a strong narrative, compared to ‘fix you’ it is
very different in style.

12. Camera work
A lot of the camera work used in the ‘Fix you’ music video is mainly
slow motion right up until the last forty five seconds. Numerous
shots were filmed on a dolly to create a tracking shot effect. This
causes an effect and makes the audience feel like they are walking
and follow Chris Martin on his journey. Chris’ facial expressions
during the video portray sadness and hurt.
As the tempo of the song picks up as does the editing and
different camera shots. Chris then starts to run as there is a build-
up and the footage is no longer in slow motion. As the speed of
the song is gradually increasing the camera shots change rapidly
from Chris walking slow so the audience were looking directly at
him, to following him as he’s running ahead in front.
Establishing shots are used to create the concert feel as Chris
makes his way to the stage. At this point extreme close ups are
used on the crowd and instruments. Although these camera
shots are basic a lot of editing techniques have been used as
shots jump from one to another like a pan to make the video
follow better and so also the viewers can capture the whole
experience of a Coldplay concert without actually being there.
The camera zooms out at the end of the video to show and
exaggerate the amount of people who were there to witness
their music.

13. Narrative
‘Fix you’ does follow a narrative but isn’t seen as a story as such, it’s
more a reality.
The video was filmed at the end of two concerts on 4 and 5 July 2005
at Wembley stadium in Bolton England. In the first half of the video
the band's lead singer, Chris Martin, wanders the streets of London
starting at Toole Street under London bridge station , while the slogan
“Make trade fair” is projected onto the Royal national theatre, using
the same color scheme on the cover of X&Y.
The tunnels that Martin is seen wandering within are located both in
and around St. pancreas and king’s cross railway stations, and the
filming for the video took place during the time of the redevelopment
and expansion of London St. Pancreas international. Martin is then
seen walking across Waterloo Bridge, which crosses the River Thames,
connecting the Southbank with The Strand. As soon as the electric
guitar kicks in, Martin's walk turns into a run as he darts through
streets until finally reaching the Reebok Stadium, where he joins the
rest of the band for the song's finale. Here the audience can be clearly
heard singing along, and at the end of the video Martin thanks them
for their support and wishes them goodnight.

14. Video style / iconography
The style used in the ‘fix you’ music video is a narrative and as ‘live footage’.
These two styles make the music video more interesting and enjoyable to
watch as a viewer. The ‘fix you’ video is captivating and memorable as there
are two completely different scenes merged into one. As a band, Coldplay
help and do a lot of charity work in their free time. They work closely with
Oxfam and have shown it through their video very briefly. In the images
below are screenshots found in the video. This is called Iconography.

15. Mise en scene
Is a French term meaning ‘what is put into a scene or frame’
and what is seen. Moreover it can also be defined as the
arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place
where a film is enacted. The elements of Mise en scene are
pointers of what the genre would be and as an audience what
we would expect to see in that genre

16. 1) Lighting and colour - The lighting and
colour used in the music video makes it easy
to identify what kind of video it is going to be.
Low key lighting is used to create a mysterious
or suspense like atmosphere. This is used in
the beginning of the music video when Chris
Martin is running through the tunnels. Colour
is also a key convention for mise en scene as
we associate emotions and thoughts with
different colours, red can be associated with
love, rage and blood.

17. 2) Costumes and makeup / hair - In ‘Fix you’
no makeup is used as there is not a strong
enough narrative to pretend or glamourize
someone for what they look like. It’s not what
the song represents so the music video
shouldn’t be miss leading. h How the artist /
bands presents themselves will be the way
the audience perceive them in real life.

18. 3) Setting and props - The setting can relate to
location, where the scene is being taken place
or where the scene is set. This can be an
outside location or inside. With the music
video ‘fix you’ the typical conventions of
setting would be several musical instruments
as well as glow sticks shown in the crowd.

19. 4) Facial expressions and body language - By
the use of these elements we are able to see
the emotion of Chris (the main character) in
the music video. This includes the gestures,
postures and facial expressions by which a
person can make clear by various physical,
mental, or emotional actions. With the non
verbal communication with audience is able
to assume characteristics about the character
and how they’re feeling by being directly told.

20. 5) Position of characters and objectives in a
frame - The way characters are positioned
within a frame can tell the audience a lot
about the character, levels of supremacy can
be identified, how characters are centered
and angled. In this particular video Chris is
seen walking slowly as if he has given up, to
then running and being on stage performing
to thousands being on top of the world and
happy.

21. Intersexuality/Voyeurism
Coldplay are a well known appreciate British band how
have millions of fans around the world. Their music is
adored by millions of different types of people and can
be viewed in several ways. Coldplay are not like many
other bands as they make sure there music videos are
still visible to anyone whereas some artist feel the need
to expose themselves to grab attention from specific
female / male fans. Coldplay keep their music free from
explicit language and imagery, which is why this music
video doesn’t consist of any intersexuality or voyeurism.