Analysis -

Pencil full of lead

The song ‘Pencil full of lead’ is by the

Scottish artist Paolo Nutini. The music

video and song was released on the 20th

October 2009. This music video is a

somewhat contradictory music video as the

lyrics do not relate to the music video, if

anything they are basically the opposite.

Also if the video were to be put into one of

Firth’s 3 categories of music videos it

would be performance. This is because the

video a rehearsal or a recording, with the

artist as the main feature of it.

The setting for this music video is inside a live

performance studio that is empty, therefore it is most

likely that the video is trying to show a rehearsal of a

performance. It features backing dancers and a girl band

throughout the music video as well the artist himself.

However there is a bit of twist to as he is in clay motion

form, unlike the rest of the people.

The location of this music video is in the same

place for the whole of the video. It is base within a

‘live audience’ studio, however there isn’t any

audience in the. This gives the impression that in

this music video they ae doing a rehearsal of what

the live performance would look like, meaning that

the video is a performance video (according to

Firth’s beliefs).

It also seems that as well as a practice for a live

performance that in the music video, Paolo Nuitini

is also being filmed for a music video. This is shown

in the first two opening shots of the video, the fist

being an ‘On Air’ light coming on and the other

being in a filming or editing studio.

This is a contradictory because Paolo Nuitini is singing

about basically having a good day and everything going

right. As the song starts and the rehearsal begins in the

music video everything is going well performance wise.

This could almost relate to the lyrics of the song as

things start of well. However when he is on the stage

rehearsing, which already has nothing to do with the

lyrics, and then things start to go wrong for him. Part

of the video that could be said is related o the lyrics is

when he starts to get a bit cocky due to all of the

positive thinking and lyrics, nut the soon ends.

“I got a nice guitar and tires on my car

I got most of the means and scripts for the

scenes

I'm out and about so I'm in with a shout

I got a fair bit of chat but better than that”

These are lyrics from one of the songs verses

and it is talking about all positive things such as

being in with a shout, but in the video he comes

are across bad events. The first of which is

when he gets slapped in his ‘Claymation’ face

after being a bit too confident with the backing

dacners.