Mat Whitecross 'Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall'

Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall was sung by Coldplay and directed by Mat Whitecross in 2011. 

It is a mainstream music video. The opening shot is of the city landscape which is over the city of London as this was filmed at Millennium Mills which is just over the Thames. it then goes straight into the artwork which mirrors the lyrics that the band are singing. The artwork carries on mirroring the lyrics up to 0.52 where it follows the trails of paint for 10 seconds and then paint covers the grey areas until the band come together in an LED lit room. This continues for the majority of the music video with occasional shots of the band being filmed in front of a skyscraper which is Pixilated. It ends with various long shots and close ups of the drummer using Pixilation in the background for the design on the paint on the building. 

The opening shot of the city. 

I think that the production looks modern due to the skyscrapers in the city and then when they're in the LED lit room, this is because I think that this is because the colours are so bright it suits the movement in the song. The song is also very unusual yet  it manages to work very well. I think that the music video works well for what it is, it's able to tell the story through the lyrics which is the main purpose of this video. The music video is fun and lighthearted, when watching this is because of the bright colours used throughout the video. The people in this music video are the band Coldplay the members are; Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman & Will Champion. 

The LED lights look really effective in this music video. 

I found out the idea came about when Coldplay had a photo shoot with graffiti artist 'Paris' and their photographer asked if Mat would come down with a film camera to mess around during set. While looking at the artwork that Paris did Chris thought that it would be a good idea to just film the video there and then with the artwork in the background. Mat decided that it would be a good idea to come back another day and animate the graffiti into stop-motion. Due to the lack of time they had it became very hard to film it all. I think that the idea for this video is to show the expression of graffiti art and to entertain people. Although they managed to film and make this video in a couple of days it is a high budget film, due to the success of the band. Therefore this music video had a lot of money and thought gone into it. 

Mirroring the lyrics. 

This music video was well received and got many positive reviews especially one from Rolling Stones saying "The vibrant, colourful clip is well-suited to the song, which has a shaky, excited energy and the sort of optimistic, romantic lyrics that have made Coldplay one of the world's most crowd-pleasing rock bands.'' This shows the excitement that there was from this video. 

Another review from The New York post ''the clip proves that the boys are just as interested in pushing boundaries with their videos as they are with their music.'' This comment proves that it was something that not everyone would do and them breaking out of the ordinary caused them a lot of success in the video. While The Sun calls it a ''colourful affair.''

I think that this music video was produced very well due to the lack of time they had. I think that for a mainstream band this was a risk to take but it paid off. 

http://www.promonews.tv/videos/2011/07/01/coldplay-every-teardrop-waterfall-mat-whitecross  - 18th September

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/viral-videos/469492/coldplay-gets-colorful-in-every-teardrop-is-a-waterfall-video - 18th September 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Teardrop_Is_a_Waterfall - 18th September