1. Laura Axten
15th July 2010
A2 music video review
Kings and queens by 30 seconds to mars.
Kings and queens is a song by the band 30 seconds to mars which consists of four band
members, the lead singer being Jared Leto. The music video is filmed early in the morning in
the streets of Los Angeles. The music video was released to the public on November the 12 th
2009 and has now reached 5,890,769 hits on YouTube.
The music video is about a crank mob (gang of bikes) taking over the city of Los Angeles. The
video involves over 100 hundred people riding on bikes of all different shapes and sizes. The
people that riding the bikes are also dressed and wearing makeup which is unique and
different to portray their differences in the group as well as portraying their personalities to
an audience.
The music video involves many different shots to give certain effects on the audience as well
as allowing the audience to see all the action at one time in one shot. There are shots of
many locations in Los Angeles include in the video for example the Broadway, downtown,
Santa Monica pier, Hollywood boulevard, sixth Bridge Street.
I personally liked the shot when the band are performing on the roof with the sun behind
them and all you can see is yellow and their shadow. I think this shot looks very effective
and professional.
Other than the hundreds of bikes this music video uses little props and makes do with its
surrounding and in twines them into the video to make it look effective and give
verisimilitude.
Many people have the opinion that this particular music video looks like perhaps a short film
as it involves some codes and conventions of film such as titles/credits at the opening. It’s
also slightly longer than the average music video therefore another reason why it may be
mistaken as a short film.
Overall this is an effective music video as it is interesting to watch as it is entertaining and
the use of the outstanding shots on specific locations in los Angeles are sure to catch the
attention of the audience. It is also unique as it challenges typical codes and conventions of
music videos and follow some codes and conventions of film therefore it can be mistaken
for either.