Music Video Analysis

Francesca Emmingham A2 Media

Of Monsters and Men – Little TalksThe first shot of the music video shows how CGI has created a ship which relates to where the band originate from- Iceland. This shows a sense of identity to the band and that they are in touch with their routes and have established a clear theme already for the video.This medium shot taken from the side shows aside from the surrealism and CGI of the video that we already notice, the band plays a part in the story of the video showing that they are involved and we recognise them as the viewer.

The video incorporates colour separation with this point of view shot showing the focused element being what the individual had been looking at from the last shot linking the two together.

Close ups are used a lot through the video to create a sense of reaction and identity between the characters so us as the audience can recognise them.

The theme of surrealism is shown through the burst of colour as this character is introduced. The CGI used gives a sense of the individual genre of the music we are hearing. The way she is dressed gives a relation between the quirkiness of the song and the characters that are involved.

Another close up is used but shows a contrast not only in the colour but in the way that the character is made up. She wears colours that reflect beauty and we get the sense that she is the main theme of the video.

Surrealism is used here by completely contrasting what we would consider a normal animal and making it the opposite of what we would see in everyday life. Using a black bird here shows darkness and a sense of a sinister nature with the two heads and size enlarged to emphasise surrealism.

Gargoyles being involved in this establishing shot from the video shows a more Viking and mythical aspect which adds to the surrealism that we see in other shots. Being carved into rock also gives an Egyptian feel to how the video has been accustomed.

This shot starts to push the animation of the video so far showing this almost mythical creature towards the end of the video. Colour is introduced back into the shot as well which communicates freedom and happiness as it has a rainbow affect.

This shot shows the band again which is the only realistic part of the video that is shown, their face paints disguise who they are and portrays them as characters lost within the story. Gives the band the look that they are warriors trying to find or fight their way through the video.

This still from the video diverges away from the connotations that we would associate a horned animal with as we would normally see this as a demonic creature but seeing it with these happy connotations within the story of the video makes the reader change their normal stereotypes.

Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks

Pendulum - Witchcraft0-30 seconds- blurred unfocused shots during this time with various fades in a dark setting which connotes evil and mystery that we would associate with the title of the song ‘witchcraft’ the images are unclear and appear to move in the form of germs or mysterious beings.

The second shot of the singer shows a split screen and extreme close up with an overlay effect on the singer. This creates this unknowing and originality. The way we cannot see the singers full face gives the mysterious impression and a loss of identity – or that the singers identity isn’t important as the audience knows who they are and doesn’t need to see his face to appreciate the music.

The way that the women's body could link to witchcraft is that the pagans would say that a witch floated when thrown into water as we see here the woman rises and wears a white gown which would normally indicate purity and that she may have been taken over along with the lyrics saying this too.

The fast cutting rate building to the drop and rising of the temp repeating the shots that we have already seen which goes with the beat and the lyrics of the song. This is similar to the lighting as the strobes get faster as we notice a change in temp which suits the genre of music.

The video shows the band playing their instruments in a live performance effect which gives the viewer a tie between the visual and the musical elements of the video. We repeatedly see the woman within the video which makes us feel she is the main character and communicates the subject to the audience.

As the video nears its end we are revealed more in the way of how each shot is composed. As we barely saw the singers face in an extreme close up at the start of the video we now see the whole band in one frame which gives the impression that more and more has been visible and revealed throughout the video in a paranormal element.

Pendulum - CrushWe see a close up of the character featured as the main role within the video. The camera shakes and is almost in a twisted dream as the character thinks about things that have happened in the past or thinks about things that he wanted to do with the camera angle canted as he thinks about this indicating that this is his alter ego that is mental and unstable.

The emotions flip to when he is happy and even as we are shown that he thinks these thoughts he is still flashed forward to this canted angle shot as he looks bitter and angry at what he is thinking or remembering from the past. This may indicate that he was once sane and that he is frustrated with himself as the character.

He is shown running and is clearly the subject of the video at this point. As he is shown to run the cutting rate is faster which could replicate his heart beat and that he is trying to in a way run away from himself and what he has become in frustration.

This shot shows opposition of emotion between the two characters which could be shown as past and present as the past would now be behind him which we see as smaller and weaker in the frame and now what has taken over as the angry expression he shows as he has been taken over by someone else.

The screen flashes to red when he becomes angry which connotes evil and anger, maybe this could also represent the blood that he is willing to shed to get out his anger.

We see the female character also turn to red within this close up of her which turns into an extreme close up. This could indicate that she has been killed or something has happened to her as she appears red in his mind.

Pendulum - CrushWe see a heart rate monitor printed onto some glass which then focuses out and we see the main character on his own behind the glass. This connotes that his heart rate is rising and that he is trapped behind something and cant get out – represented by the glass in this shot.

We see a shot of dark figures which could indicate that they are evil and something is going to happen to the main character. The fact they appear dark opposed to the light surroundings shows binary opposition and that they are seen as the villain now.

The shot shown to end the video restores the peaceful setting of the beach back to its former self. The way that the sun has set in this shot also connotes that peace has been restored and its all come to an end now that the sanity is restored back to normal and no more worries are present.

Pendulum – Watercolour The black formation could be representing a planet as their music could be perceived as out of this world and different to what we would consider human.

The close up of the lead singer is repeated to be quite dark and mysterious similar to other videos by the band which connotes intertextuality.

The light shown relates to the story they are trying to portray with using the eclipse effect to connote space and extra-terrestrial activity.

This shot shows the spray effect using water we supposed to see as rain which also relates to the title of the song being ‘Watercolour’ so the water effect relates to Goodwin’s theory of intertextuality.

The lead singer is revealed towards the middle of the video which relates to the video getting lighter and lighter throughout and showing more colour, this is also a strong link to the song title and they’ve linked the story of the video well to this.

At the end of the video the full band is revealed and the video becomes shot in colour instead of the black and white we have shown to see and also becomes lighter rather than the dark along with strobe lights that we have seen throughout the video up to this point.

Outcome of analysis

From analysing the videos that we have as a group we have decided to produce our music video based upon the song Witchcraft by Pendulum. We have chosen this as we believe that we can develop our ideas and present a new exciting video for this genre as we have a knowledge on the band and the genre of music already. To do this we will further analyse different album covers and existing digital packages to get inspiration when producing our own that will be individual and based on the band we have chosen. This will make our end product of a better quality and more original to us within this topic.