Amateur vs Professional

Here I have done further research and compared the differences between two music videos of the song ‘Alright’ by Supergrass. One of these videos had been created by an amateur and the other is the original professional version.

The song in the amateur’s productions does not start until 1minute and 20 seconds has passed, during this time I had lost focus and did not understand the meaning of allowing a music video to have such as long introduction. Where as with the professional version we are introduced to the band within 10 seconds of the video beginning, this is a huge difference between the two videos. When looking at the locations of the two videos the professional version travels around different scenes such as the beach, the woods and also in a small village. The amateur version on the other hand is set mainly in one location; a football field. Things such as the location help us to identify where more money and time has been spent in these two productions.

The amateur version contains a lot more characters as a pose to the professional version that mainly shows the 3 band members. From the opening sequence we can see the clear high class media techniques from the professional version, the amateur version would have had a limited amount of resources. This shows throughout the video as many of their editing techniques and transistions a rough and jumpy, although the amatuers do try to use small techniques, many of these do not compare the that of the professionals video.  Another thing that shows from the budjet allowance is the use of props throughout the video, Supergrass use props such as bikes, a piano, phones and a pretend living room where as the amatuers use small props such as cigarrettes, a food container and an old car.

When first looking at these two videos, we can clearly see the difference in camera quality. Even on the paused image we can see that the professional’s camera is at a higher quality, it appears that the amateur’s camera is out of focus. When looking at these still images from the two videos we can clearly see the difference in mise en sene. The colours of the costumes used within these videos are very different, the professional version contains very rusty colours which is something we would expect to see in the 1990’s when this was filmed.

Where as when looking at the amateur version, which is meant to relate to the original, the costumes contain more modern day fashion with colours such as greys and blacks being worn as the main outfits. The hair sytles also relate to this century as it was fashionable back then to have long hair where as in the amatuers video it shows that it is filmed in todays modern society.

However due to the low budget and the short filming time the group would of had, their music video is of a good quality for that of an amatuer who would not of had a big, if any budget. Both videos have created a fun theme within their videos and continued to follow on this throughout the duration of the video.