"For the First Time" - The Script, Textual Analysis

“For The First Time" is the lead track and is the inspirational key to The Script’s second album Science & Faith. “For The First Time” was released in September 2010 and within weeks was in the top 5 of the UKs music chart. The song lasts for 4 minutes and 42 seconds and is has the codes and conventions within the pop/rock genre. I chose this song to do a textual analysis on as it acquires the same codes and conventions as “The Scientist” by Coldplay. The two music videos hold similarities in not only the genre but the camera style, lighting and editing.

The video starts with a close up of a girl on the bed writing a letter and crying. The non-digetic sound of the song, starts playing when it cuts to amid shot of her room with the curtain being blown in the wind. It then cuts to a close up of the singer of the script in black and white, lip syncing. This is what we plan on doing in our own music video. We will use black and white to represent a different time and George (our actor) will lip sync whenever he is on screen.  The next clip of her still on the bed, looking up at her boyfriend rushing around on the phone is a clip we are going to use in our video. We will have Jess (our actress) sitting on the bed while her boyfriend answers the phone and leaves her.

It then cuts back to the lead singer (Danny O'Donoghue) and the guitarist and pianist playing. While in black and white on stage, the lighting is perfect which is what we aim to achieve when filming George playing the piano on stage which is a classic convention of the pop/rock genre. The close up shots of playing the piano, singing and using other instruments are effective shots that we would like to use in our music video.  When it cuts to the couple back in the bed room, the camera is hand held and rushed allowing the audience to feel the same impatience and aggravation. Another shot also conveys happiness and the good times. This is shown by more radiant and brighter colours. The characters are having a good time while drinking and laughing which illustrates the reason they are together. This will also be used in our video by using flashbacks and bright lights to show the good times between a couple and the reason they stayed together.

The camera suddenly goes back to an extreme close up of the girl crying with her eyes closed when the non-digetic music gets more dramatic and stronger. The lighting becomes whiter and natural showing she is lonely; however when the camera then cuts to another shot of the couple being happy and kissing the lighting becomes warmer.  During the chorus, the band suddenly goes from black and white to original colour. This conveys they have come back to life and are energized by the music. The constant cuts between flashbacks, real life, and the music is exactly what we are going to do in our music video. However our flashbacks will be in black and white rather than warm radiant colours but the music and instruments will be in the same lighting and atmosphere. They both holds the codes and conventions of a pop/rock genre by using musical instruments, close ups of the artists, low key lighting, ambiguity and disorientation of time and space.