Textual Analysis of a Music Video

Gold - Chet Faker

 

For this task I am going to analyse a music video and look into mise, sound, camera angles, narrative & performance, and editing. I will look in depth towards these aspects and see what works well and what doesn't. I am hoping this will start helping get gather some ideas and get some inspiration for my own music video.

 

Mise en scene

The majority of the music video contains low key lighting connoting the suspension of the song and setting the mood which is quite relaxed and mysterious. There is one light that is directed onto the girls from the cameras perspective which is quite effective because as it is focused on them, it draws your attention to them and you can’t see their surroundings. We only see the artist at the end of the music video but throughout it we see three girls that perform a routine on roller skates which I think flows really well with the music. The costumes are quite trendy and modern showing / reflecting that genre of pop. At the end the artist is shown sat in a car that looks as if it has crashed connoting danger to the music video and a mystery to what has happened. This allows the audience to question the narrative of the music video because the story isn't completely clear and quite confusing. There is also a stag stood with him could reference that a stag ran into his car as he was driving. The stag however could also mean something symbolic.

Sound

There isn’t any extra diegetic / non diegetic music used in this piece except the track placed on top of the video. In terms of lip syncing, the girls who are roller skating sometimes sing along with the words of the song but I don’t think is intentional or they were completely told to do so as they are performing / dancing to the song and are the main subject. When we see the artist near the end of the clip he is lip synced to the track and this I believe is the only intentional part of the music video where this happens because he is the person who actually sings the song.

Camera angles

There are only about 3 shots within the whole music video but the angles within them change. The camera is always moving as the characters are following it and I quite like this idea because it makes the music video flow well as they are travelling on a journey and it draws you in as an audience. At the beginning there is a high angle pointing down at the road connoting mystery as you can’t really tell what it is. It then tilts up to the characters as they approach the camera which I like because it flows with the music. However I do feel they take a long time to reach the camera and you can't see them very well to start with which doesn't work particularly well. Throughout most of the music video there is a single long shot focused on all three of the performers. About 2 minutes into the music video the camera tilts down and rises away from the road transitioning into a high angle in which I like this change in perspective because it keeps the audience intrigued with what they are doing and makes their performance look more effective from a different view. I don’t think the camera angles have much meaning / purpose in this music video because it barely includes multiple shots.

Narrative / performance

This music video mainly contains performance as the three girls are on roller skates and are dancing to the music. However, there is also slight narrative especially at the end where you see the artist sat in a crashed car. But I am unsure on what the narrative is specifically.

Editing

The music video is very slow paced maybe connoting how unusual the story is and slightly confusing. This is quite a unique element for a music video because the shots would normally change to the beat of the music but in this one the shot barely changes. There aren’t any transitions between shots but there are transitions between positioning the camera which has been done quite effectively. One of my favourite uses of editing in this music video is at the very beginning as when the road markings appear on the que of the music which instantly intrigues me.

 

By analysing this music video its given me some ideas of what I could include for my music video for example the lighting used and the types of shots involved. I really like how they filmed on a road and had the girls follow the camera so I may consider using something like this in my music video. This music video is quite different to most music videos and I like some of the ideas involved but by looking at it in depth I can see what works and what doesn't for example they way the girls enter the scene - they start from quite far back and it takes them a while to get close to the camera and the light so you can't really see them at the beginning. However when they reach the light it looks really effective as the surroundings are really dark and it focuses on the girls drawing your attention to them.