Snow Patrol - 'Run'

Snow Patrol are a big Indie rock band in the UK, this is one of their biggest tracks, it was covered by X-Factor winner Leona Lewis in 2007.

The video begins with a fade in from black, to an establishing shot of an evening flat landscape with a lone man pushing a motorbike silhouetted against the sky. This shot fits nicely with the sober atmosphere and context of the songs lyrics. The long shot cuts to a close-up shot of the man's feet walking, this shot then pans up to his face; during this time narrative enigma is created as the audience doesn't know who the man is. As the lyrics begin he starts lip syncing and looking directly into the camera, this signifies to the audience that he is the lead singer of the band. As is typical for music videos in the rock genre, the focus is predominantly on the front man.

The following sequence of shots follow the front man as he walks along with his bike, the shots are long takes, varying from close-ups to medium shots. As the pace of the song is slow the shots are cut more to any changes between instrumentals and vocals than to the beat. The lead singer then discards his bike in the bushes and continues to walk on.

The shots become darker, signifying that time is passing into the night. The lyrics match the concept of the visuals as the song reaches the chorus. On the line 'Light up', the lead singer lights a flare which brightens up the shot, the audience can see that the the lead singer is stood in water, he then discards the flare in the water. This repetition of discarding objects could be a message for the unimportance of material goods.

There is more elliptical editing as the sun has risen to signify morning, and the lead singer is back in the forest, and suddenly again it is night-time. The main focus of all the shots up until this point has been the lead singer until this point when there is a cutaway shot; a medium close-up of another man with his hood up, this signifies youth. Another flare is lit by somebody else in the background, and now the lead singer is not longer alone.

The lyrics of this song are about a goodbye, therefore this video would be classified as a concept video because the visuals don't match the narrative. A possible alternative to this video could have been to signify a relationship between two characters and have them say goodbye to each other, possibly in an airport or at a train station.