Coldplay - Hymn for the Weekend

The camera angles used are often low angle for Chris Martin to show his importance and dominance within the song. The low angles are used with close up shots of the Martin to show him as being the centrepiece of the video. In the music video, the camera operator has a vest stabiliser on him with the camera strapped to it, and this is used at the start of the song as the camera moves out of a tunnel and moves toward the main actor. The stabiliser allows the camera to move in a smooth and unique way with more advanced camera movements, limited to human movement but more stabilised than if it were handheld. This movement is used in the sequence to show the backdrop of the main actor by moving from high angle shots to low angle shots. The camera moves downwards when Chris Martin sings “when I was down”, but as soon as he looks up to the sky, the camera follows his path of vision and moves up along with him.

Throughout the video, there are lots of high key lighting shots, which emphasise the bright colours used through the whole video. This has an impact on the viewer’s impression of Indian culture, presenting it as ecstatic, vibrant and free. Freedom is shown when the children are see running from around the corner and then alongside Chris Martin, covered in coloured paint powder; this is something we wouldn’t see every day in the UK and therefore it contrasts our vision of society with theirs. Establishing shots from many different angles and eye-level shots are used thoroughly throughout the video to further express the freedom and fun that this culture contains, without any recreational limits.

At the beginning of the song, diegetic sounds such as bird noises, small instruments and general background sounds are also used along with these establishing shots to set the scene and adapt the viewer into the video. Furthermore, at the beginning of the video the pace of the clips are slow as the music is slow. The pace of the music then starts gradually speeding up and therefore there is more going on visually, the cuts are less spaced out and clips are shorter. Also, the characters in the video are moving more vigorously, in contrast to Chris Martin sitting on the ledge of a building at the beginning when the music was slow.