Yellow (song) - Music Video

Music Video

The music video for "Yellow" was filmed at Studland Bay in the county of Dorset, South West England. The video is minimalistic, featuring only Martin singing the song as he walks along the beach. He is seen wearing a raincoat with his hair wet, suggesting that it had just rained. The video is one continuous shot with no cuts. The entire sequence is in slow motion.

It was conceived and produced by Coldplay. Originally, it had been intended for the whole band to appear in the video, in a sunny setting. However, Champion's mother's funeral was held on the day of the shooting, so it was decided that only Martin would appear in the video, which was also the immediate explanation of his mood during this part. The weather also opposed the original plan, with harsh winds and rain instead of the sunny day that had been envisioned. It had also been originally intended for there to be moving stars in the sky, as if in a time-lapse. The directors however agreed that the moving stars would distract the focus of the video from Martin. The plan of time advancing was still kept, however. The video begins with the beach being somewhat dark until sunlight arrives nearly at the video's midway point.

The video was directed by British directing duo James Frost & Alex of The Artists Company. It was shot at 50 frames per second, twice the regular speed. At the shoot, Chris Martin had to sing the song at double speed so that the audio and visual content would be in sync, a common yet difficult practice of music videos. The final product is slowed to 25 frames per second, giving the slow motion effect of the video. The transition of the video from night to day was achieved during the telecine process. During the transfer from film to videotape, an operator manually adjusted the amount of lighting for blue in the beginning, red in the middle, and yellow at the end of the video.