Special Effects...

In the recent questionnaire I conducted, I noticed only four people out of the 20 had chosen special effects as one of the options for the question 'What do you think makes a music video appealing?'. One of which, Kerrie Bryce, goes to my school and is very close friends with me, so I asked if she could spare some time to expand on her reasons for choosing this as one of her three choices. I found it interesting that only four had chosen 'special effects'. This was one of the reasons I conducted the questionnaire, in a hope that i would be surprised, and hopefully given the opportunity to learn from the target audience, so i was very thankful when Kerrie happily agreed to further develop her answer for me.

Kerrie Bryce is an 18 year old student at Hatch End Sixth Form, Studying History, Sociology and English Literature. I recorded her answer in her debut interview, so i could share it on my blog.

Kerrie Bryce:

"That particular question took me a while to answer actually. I was in two minds. I had already ticked 'A blend of a performance from the band and a storyline' and having 'the artist as the actor' and was thinking about ticking 'Interesting and unpredictable storyline' but then opted to tick 'special effects'. And now you're asking why, I guess it was the right choice!
Well, I think that when you think of special effects you stereotype it instantly, thinking about all the obvious effects that are used, such as 'slow motion' or 'flames' as used in the 'Notion' video [by Kings of Leon], but there are so many other effects that are so discreetly powerful. For instance, the split screen used in Maroon 5's 'Goodnight Goodnight' or the black and white effect used in Beyonces 'If I Were A Boy' in my opinion make the video what it is. I think that it is the effects that get the point of the video's across in the ones i have mentioned to be honest and it is them which empower the video.
The video i had last watched before actually doing your questionairre was by Ladyhawk and is called 'My Delirium'. It heavily uses special effects to attract its audience, because at the beginning scenes when the artist is just in her room, there was nothing to grip me, but when the chorus kicks in and the special effects suddenly erupt into fashion, I became glued! The song is about how the hot and cold relationship with her partner is messing with her head, however i thought it could be a double entangre, and present her possible addiction to drugs as she is trying to stop her addiction because they keep 'playing with her delirium'. This theory is supported in the video, because at the chorus when she sings that line she is suddenly a cartoon, driving in her fantasy world. So its the special effects which made me enjoy the video, but also made me understand and have my own take on her song. And it was that video that actually encouraged me too go for that choice in the end!"

A huge thankyou to Kerrie for her very detailed and extremely helpful answer, which also lead me to a fantastic example of how special effects are used today. Thankyou!