The Scientist is a single from British alternative rock band Coldplay. The song was written collaboratively by all the band members for the album. It is built around a piano ballad, with its lyrics telling the story about a man's desire to love and an apology. The song is about a scientist who is so caught up in his work that he neglects his girlfriend, but realizes it eventually and wants to "go back to the start" and begin fresh. The Scientist music video was notable for its distinctive reverse narrative, which employed reverse video. In order for Martin to appear to be singing the lyrics in the reversed footage, he had to learn to sing the song backwards.
The video opens, looking down on Martin who is singing, as he lies on his back on a mattress. As the camera shot pulls back, the mattress is revealed to be outside. A cyclist cycles past in reverse and Martin leaps up from the mattress. He walks in reverse through a city, out into the suburbs and eventually crossing a railway line and into woods, picking up his suit jacket as he goes. Upon arriving at his car, a black BMW, he gets in and briefly passes out. His girlfriend, at first shown lying dead on the ground in front of the car, is shown flying back in through the shattered windscreen of the car. The car rolls back up a hill in the woods and through a broken fence, which mends itself as the car passes back through it. As the video closes, the couple are shown driving back up the road.It is revealed that Martin's girlfriend had removed her seat belt, in order to put her jacket on, just before the car accident, causing her death.
As the entire video is shot in reverse this creates the narrative fuzz, along with an enigma code throughout. The audience cam be left anticipating what the out come of the video will be. This video will stand up to repeat viewing due to the enigma running throughout.This is a postmodern technique, and is not a usual technique to use for a music video. Also as the ending is not expected either which further reinforces the enigma. I would say Coldplay are of the Alternative music genre. Features that would make this clear to the audience throughout the video are the artists clothes. He doesn't wear anything glamorous or classy- its just plain comfy clothes, which you expect in this genre. Also the lighting is quite dull at places, which is expected, unlike the glittery brightness of the pop genre. The settings reinforce the very british feel about the video, and also fit in very well with the genre as they are not glorified. During the video, the artist walks past a shop window, which he looks at himself in, this enhances the voyeuristic feel of the video. The close ups and extreme close ups of the artists face reinforce that we should be looking at him, as he is the main feature in the video. The music is throughout the video is slow, and the over cranking used in reverse is sometimes in time with the visuals on screen. For example when the car is rolling back up the hill from where it had just crashed down from, it seems to roll in time with the music playing at that time.At the end of each chorus, the artist says the line, "I'm going back to the start". There is a relationship between this and the visuals, as the visuals are of the man in reverse, and so he is therefore going back to the start.
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