Music Video - The Script - Nothing

The Script - Nothing - Official Video found on Pop

Music Video Analysis - Tinie Tempah - Written in the Stars

Genre - Hip Hop, Pop
'Written in the Stars' by Tinie Tempah tells the audience the artists story and journey to success. The track is obviously influenced greatly by his own life and experiences.
The music video begins with a low angle shot of the artist, instantly representing power and success. The way the artist is looking out onto the city from the roof of a building just gives the impression that he is looking out into a dream he is aiming for.
The shot jump cuts to a plain white, bright, empty room. The camera zooms on an angle towards the second artist featuring in the video. At this point, we think the video is performance based from both artists in different scenes. The camera cuts back to Tinie Tempah again, building up to his part in the performance. The video then goes into multi strand narrative with a medium close up of a small child, cut again to Tinie Tempah in the same location as the boy. The child appears to represent Tinie Tempah through a stage in his childhood, acting out the moments in his life which are rapped out in the song. E.g, 'I used to be the kid that no one cared about', as he is been made to sit outside his own flat on his own. This line is further emphasised through other acts of the narrative in the video.
The artists mostly stay in one location during performances with a variation of camera shots and angles. This enables the audience to view the artists in different ways while they are performing, in turn giving them pleasure from doing so. During the song, edits are quick, mainly jump cuts with shots not much longer than 5-6 seconds each at the most. This represents the typical conventions of music videos where the edits match the beats. About 2 minutes in the video, performances by Tinie Tempah switch between 3 different locations within the same verse. The other two locations - basketball court and flat corridor can be seen as cutaways from the main performance stage - the rooftop - which Tinie Tempah is seen mainly on throughout the video. At the end of the video, the shot returns to the one seen at the start. This relates back to how he is looking out into the stars for his dream - the whole video was just an act out of the dream Tinie Tempah has in mind from the beginning of the video.


The music video portrays Tinie Tempah as a child throughout through the narrative which uses a child aged about 11 acting out Tinie Tempah's personal experiences. From seeing this, the audience know that the lyrics are close to the artists heart and represent his struggle to success from his childhood. The boy writing in his book whilst listening to music instantly shows characteristics of someone destined to be an artist as they could be scribbling lyrics to beats from a young age. The way the boy is pictured in each of the same locations as Tinie Tempah backs up the view that the child is representing the artist. For example, the boy is seen dancing on the same rooftop that Tinie Tempah is performing on throughout the video.
Furthermore, the narrative presents a child whose obviously struggling through life at the point. He is represented in an emotional state of depression, sadness and anger. The way he is lonely and bullied by others strengthens this and the music is the only part of his life which makes him feel like he is someone (seen through the last scene of the video on the rooftop).
The music also includes Eric Turner who features in the song. Him and the piano both are in contrast to the clean, white room during the chorus and he is not seen anywhere else than in that room on the piano. The artist is represented as quite a lower class man with just a black vest, long hair and in the close ups we can see he is sweating. Maybe this is because the artist doesn't believe success needs to be portrayed through image and background but by their lyrics and how their lyrics show their struggle in life to success. This contrasts with the usual codes represented in R'n'B videos, e.g. flash cars and money.


This type of music video definitely differs from those produced by artist such as The Script and Coldplay. Often in alternative rock videos, the artist is seen acting out the narrative and performing whilst in this video actors are used to act the narrative. Furthermore, I think that Mise en Scene has been paid a lot of attention in this video, especially locations and the director has thought carefully about how he wants to present the lyrics to the audience. The edits are also a lot quicker, matching the fast paced beats used in hip hop.