Young Guns - Stitches

The video for the song “stitches” by Young Guns is 3 minutes 44 seconds long. The establishing shot is what I absolutely love about this video.

This is because straight away you can tell what central genre of music video it is. The six genre’s were identified by Joe Gow, this video however is the enhanced performance, defined as “videos which blend performance elements with other visual elements”. The special effects is the smoke coming from the guitar.

The Special effects continue throughout the video including more smoke which is great as it adds to the atmosphere of the whole video. As Young guns are quite an alternative band, with many fans being into rock music, the special effects fit in perfectly.

The whole video is shot in black and white.

I think this is an amazing technique because black and white is seen to be quite dull the video contracts completely. As a result of the special effects the video isn’t boring and dull at all, it holds the watchers attention because there are so many different shots, angles and scenes and so much going on that you can’t help but watch.

As-well as having the central genre of a music video, “stitches” also holds one of the characteristics identified by Andrew Goodwin. In this video there is a relationship between the music and the visuals.

This emphases my point as this is not a heavy bit in the song, it’s the build up. At the point in the video, the shots are not quick and focusing on a lot of action.

In contrast, this shot is showing a lot of action this coincidently is also where the track is half way through a chorus which is the heaviest but of the song.

Another characteristic pointed out by Andrew Goodwin “there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals.

In this scene they show broken instruments, this reflects the lyrics which are “decay”.

Overall I think the whole video fits perfectly with the style of the band, the genre of the band, the timing is excellent for the music and visuals and the scene – an abandoned room is perfect for the lyrics.