Don't Lean on Me- The Amity Affliction

            This music video is I think has many pros and cons that really shape it into a very cool and well edited video. The first thing that I think the editor did really well was keep the pace of the cutting with the emotion of the song rather than with the speed of the song. At the beginning of the video the boy is walking and there are very few cuts. Even after the band begins playing the cuts still aren’t really to fast. After the boy gets angry suddenly we not only see a huge increase in the cutting speed but also see the camera to become less stable then it was in the very beginning. Secondly, the editor does a really cool effect of cutting on the beat. During parts of the song where it builds up, such as the screaming right before the chorus, the editor cuts on every quarter note then increases to eighth notes and ends by holding a clip for a half note. This doesn’t stop there the effect is also used in other parts of the song and it works really well. The editor also does a similar editing technique during the clean singer’s chorus. The editor pretty much cuts on every snare hit during the chorus, causing the pace of the editing and the emotion of the video to change from chaotic to almost heartfelt. Finally, the coolest thing I think about this video is how the band moves with the boy from room to room with the boy. The best part to show this effect is at 1:24-1:27 in the video. I don’t know for sure but I think the editor cuts right when the camera goes behind the boy to give this illusion. Either way it’s very cool in my opinion.

            There were a few things I didn’t like about this video. One was the flashes over the cuts in some parts of video. I found they were sporadically placed and really just made me more aware that there was cutting happening, rather than disguising each cut. The second thing about this video is the way it was formatted. I understand that they were trying to make it almost seem as though it was filmed like a home movie or something, but I don’t think it really made any sense with the song or the storyline video itself. I just found it strange and more distracting than anything else. Finally, the thing I disliked the most was the storyline itself. The whole teenage angst thing has been popular for way to long and has just become more of annoying trend rather then actually addressing real problems of adolescents. Also in the end we found out it was dream. Basically the story was about a kid who comes home, is ignored, freaks out, cries, and then wakes up to realize it was some sort of nightmare? That’s kind of a ridiculous storyline that is just very flat.  

            Although the storyline was horrible in my opinion, the music and the effects used in this video were very good and were applied well.