Media Studies

Tonight Alive – breakdown

The music video starts off with a medium shot of the girl (lead singer) walking forward towards an alley. Next the camera switches to a close up of the band members playing their instruments (guitar and drums). This shows a transition between a live performance and the narrative... As the video plays though we see that it is constantly switching between the two. The next shot is from in front of the actor but this shows an extreme close up of her face, which is to show emotion; it also shows mise en scene as we can see most of what she is wearing and also her make-up.

In this shot, it switches from a medium close up to a close up which is an example of editing and again shows the emotion on her face. At this point in the music video nothing has happened that has any relevance to the video, as it is just the main subject walking and singing. The next important shot shown is of her walking into an urban looking building surrounded by walls covered in graffiti.

It then turns into an over the shoulder shot of a couple who seem to be having an argument, we are shown the girl looking up at the guy and I think the main part of this scene is the expression on her face which is an example of mise en scene. The lyrics for this scene are quite relevant. As she is looking up to him, Jenna (lead singer) is singing ‘you won’t, you won’t stay the same and don’t you know it’s just not like me to wait?’ the lyrics match perfectly with the narrative at this point as it shows that the couple are in the middle of a disagreement. The next significant shot is when Jenna walks over to the girl (acting) and whispers in her ear (‘you give me your reasons, but I’ve heard it all before’). This also fits in seamlessly with the story line of the music video, the shot used here is a medium close up of the girl and singer however, it is also an over the shoulder shot which is out of focus to emphasis the emotion on the (girl) performers face.

Again it goes back to the chorus and go through the same shots as the first time, we see that it switches between 4 different shots up to now. First shot is when all band members are on the roof playing a gig for an audience, Next shot constantly shown is when Jenna is stood in a dark room surrounded by walls full of graffiti. Third shot repetitively shown is the same shot as the last but this time she is surrounded by people too and the final shot always shown is of the boy and girl who are having a dispute. The next important shot in this video is a medium close up of Benji Maddens who is featured in the song and video. There are several shots of him walking up a road towards the building where the live performance is.

The following shots are extreme close ups of Jenna and Benji singing together, it then switches to a shot of them with the crowd. The next substantial shot is a medium close up of the girl and boy dancing in the crowd who were seen earlier arguing, the narrative suits the lyrics at this point because they make up – ‘And I've done this all a thousand times, so now I know I'll be alright’. The musci video then ends with another medium close up of Jenna and Benji with the crowd cheering, then fades to black.