OasisOasis Wonderwall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc

Wonderwall was published in October 1995. It was written by the rock bands main guitarist and main lead singer, Noel Gallagher. It was their third single released from (What's the Story) Morning Glory? In October 1995 the song peaked at number two in the UK

singles chart. This song then reached number 8 on the hot 100 singles chart in America. It also reached number one in Australia in February 1996. Personally I think Wonderwall is their most successful song released thus far. It has sold over a million copies in singles and downloads in the UK where it then went platinum, and the album the song is from is now the second most successful sold album in British history. The original title of this song was ‘wishing stone’ and at the very end of the Wonderwall, the introduction of another of their songs, ‘Supersonic’ can be faintly heard playing on the acoustic guitar.

The video is about an imaginary friend who is coming to save you from yourself and all the bad things you’ve put upon yourself. I think this video is kept fairly simple, it has no extreme colouring to it yet it still draws you in, the video constantly flicks around the warehouse type room that the band are in, to random shots of guitar heads and saws, random ladies dresses in moulan rougue type outfits, which could perhaps be suggesting to us some of the dangers you can come across in life. One of my favourite pieces of the video is roughly around 1:23 minutes into the video, the camera is panning around the artists face in a mid shot of him sitting on a chair with a bulls eye background edited in behind him. This draws more attention to himself as he is in the centre of it, the camera then fades out into an image of a hand playing a guitar and back to him again, I think they fade the guitar in so that the shot of him doesn’t seem too long.

The camera skills that are used are all kept simple and are just photo shopped in after the shooting is finished, for example the video flicks from a long distance shot, to a medium close up shot, to a close up shot, then to an extreme close up of one of the band members playing the guitar sitting on the stool. The video is made to look really at ease, almost as if there isn’t even a video being shot. The whole structure is as simple at some points as just the

band members walking around in the background to give some sort of a lively effect happening in the distance. Another simple shot in the video would be the shot of one of the band members chewing gum, like an everyday thing, not being particularly polite because he’s being filmed, whilst the other band member is reading a newspaper with his legs crossed like he’s sat at home on the couch or waiting in a bus station not caring about who’s around him or what he looks like. Again its as if there acting like a video isn’t even being filmed, which perhaps helps give the video such an easy laid back feeling. Other obviously simple shots such as the close ups of someone playing a guitar help to give a simple effect to the video too. When the main singer in the band sings he is singing directly to the camera, which emphasizes that he’s perhaps singing directly to us, drawing you in to the video and helping you to relate to the lyrics more than you would perhaps do so if he wasn’t. The video seems to really relate to the lyrics and if you concentrate on the lyrics being spoken whilst

watching the music video you can pick up on parts that relate to each other, such as; when the part ‘there are many things I would like to say to you but I don’t know how’ is sung at one point the clown is shown holding his puppet and when ‘I don’t know how’ is sung he turns his head

way almost hiding from us because he wants to tell us something but can’t – relating to the lyrics. Another example would be when the part ‘and all the lights that lead us there are blinding’ is sang, the lead singers close up of his face flashes from a negative to normal to show the effect of the lights on him.

Throughout the video there are many random shots thrown in every so often, of guitars and drum players and the band looking relaxed and laid back. But perhaps the most random of them all are the circus type shots, like clowns and puppets, dart boards, pool tables, women in moulan rougue type outfits and machines that you would be likely to find at a fair of some kind. This could be to liven the video up and give it some kind of a fun factor, or to draw into attention . Personally I think its related to things you will come across in life, gambling paired with the machines, clowns as all sorts of different personalities pairing with the types of people you meet in life, women being relationships an so on. The video is in black and whit but when looked at carefully there are a few items that are shown in colour, this gives it a simple effect almost to show that they have forgotten that its in colour whilst the rest is in black and white. Some of the items that are in a bright colour while the rest is plain black and white are things like the clowns hat is blue and the guitar is also blue. The few colours that do appear don’t show until roughly 1:33 in the song to perhaps indicate happiness in the song and video hence putting colours in to show more than just depressing black and white. The guitar changes colours throughout from blue, a duller colour to green, to yellowy orange, suggesting a happier colour. But the guitar is upside down when it’s the yellowy orange colour perhaps meaning although it looks bright and cheery not everything's perfect. Towards the end of the video its apparent that there has been a lot of photo shopping used in the video, with the guitar player having a spit screen so there appear to be four identical images of him. This could perhaps be to give a bit more ‘eye candy’ to the video, to liven it up towards the end. Also towards the end of the song the lady dressed in moulan rougue type outfits is no longer seen standing

next to swinging saws but swinging guitars, and the band members are shown laughing too, suggesting things are becoming

better maybe? The clown walks away from the little chair he has been trying to figure out and when the band member gets out of his chair its left on the wonk and straightens by its self, reflecting the fact that things can sort out by themselves sometimes. I like

this video so much because I believe it’s a 4:40 minute long video that reflects all of the struggles and difficulties you can

come across in life.