Music Video Shot List - With Timestamps
0:00-0:10 - A long shot of a bus stop in an urban area with a man waiting at it. Various jump cuts show the passing of time.
0:10-0:20 - A bus arrives, and the man steps onto it. The camera shows a mid-shot of the man getting on the bus, and follows him to his seat.
0:20-0:30 - The bus begins to move, and we are shown a close-up shot of the man looking boredly out of the window. The shot switches to a first-person view, jump cuts again showing the passage of time, and the change in location as the sun begins to set.
0:30-0:50 - The bus slows down and arrives at the character’s destination, and he leaves it, putting a jacket on as he walks down a now-dark suburban street. The camera rotates around him as he walks, headphones on, down the road - occasionally switching to long shots taken from across the street. Progressively, the different parts of his clothing are given rapid close-ups as he walks.
0:50-1:00 - The man’s walking falls in time with the music, and on the word “tonight”, the scene cuts briefly to a clip of him dancing.
1:00-1:20 - As the man begins to sing, the shots become more focused around a montage of different shot angles from around his face; while still not completely dancing, he is walking in time with the music, occasionally addressing the audience directly as the camera switches to a close-up of his face. From 1:10 onwards, low-angle full-body shots are interspersed into the close-ups.
1:20-1:35 - The pre-chorus begins, and the shots of him walking are complemented by shots of him standing still and moving his arms in time with the music while singing directly into the camera - almost as though he’s performing to an audience.
1:35-2:05 - During the chorus, the man’s movements and dances will become more focused, and take higher priority over the walking sequences. On all of the “oh”s, there will be a mid shot of him singing, and on the hand-claps, there will occasionally be close-ups of his hands clapping. The sequence will be composed mainly of medium shots, with the artist’s singing being clearly visible in most of them. Camera movement (panning) will be necessary on the chorus repeat to keep the scene varied and interesting.
2:05-2:35 - The riff will be entirely composed of shots of the character dancing; mid-shots of spins, close-ups of foot-shuffles and hand-claps, and some brief full-body shots for variation (this is a long sequence). On the second half of the riff, the dance moves will be combined with the walking as we lead into the next verse.
2:35-3:40 - The second verse, pre-chorus and chorus will be largely the same as the first, but simply with more exciting and extroverted dancing, more frequent cutting rates and a few more extreme camera angles (and on the chorus repeat, maybe some slow-motion effects on some of the dancing).
3:40-End - During the fade out, the main character sees something out of the corner of his eye, and immediately stops dancing. The camera cuts to an over-the-shoulder shot of a smiling girl, and the pair immediately run to eachother and embrace. The camera fades to a long shot, with the pair slightly off to the side of the shot - and a few seconds later, fades to an even further shot, eventually fading out as the song does.