Analysis of Previous Year Groups music videos

The Unicorn Video - A02 2008

I’ve chosen to study this music video as there are several similarities between this video and our initial ideas; such as, the gloomy, dark feel; the stop start animation used and the fast cross cutting between shots.
The video begins with the front cover of a large, old book with candles surrounding it, the candles create chiaroscuro lighting giving a sinister feel. This is followed by the opening of the book, almost parodying a typical fairytale beginning, the pages open revealing a page of hand drawn images which shows a girl crawling from the grave, this has been done using stop start animation which is jerky and unsteady and fits in well with the style of the video. The book represents a story being told and also sets the scene for the rest of the music video very effectively.
The video is an even mix of both narrative and performance which all comes together towards the end of the video. After the stop start animation there is a straight cut to the band which I feel was ineffective as the lighting was too contrasting and initially the two parts didn’t seem to have much of a link between them. However the jerky body movements shown by all of the band, in particular the front man, kept the theme of being uneasy and unsure. Unlike a lot of the other music video’s I have watched from previous year groups this group cast the parts particularly well, choosing a confident actor for the front man. My favourite thing about this video is the fact that the band begin looking completely normal and as the video progresses their appearance becomes more and more dishevelled, this adds eeriness to the video and must’ve taken a long time to take all the footage required.
Towards the start of the vocals within the video there is a downward tilting shot which starts pointing towards the sky, then reveals the two main characters and then moves back away from them which I feel was particularly effective as it was diegetic to the sound of the video. Another killer shot is where the two characters are shown from behind walking amongst trees in a forest-like setting. The footage has been speed up so they travel far in a short space of time, making them seem immortal. This technique is also something that I would be interested in using for my own music video. Although I enjoyed this video a lot and took great inspiration from it I felt certain shots, for example the scene where the characters are shown feeding each other strawberries, didn’t have much relevance to the narrative. If this had been my video I would have tried not to move away from the concept too much as it is interesting enough without moving adding in extra scenes.
The mise en scene used in this video has been well thought out and is similar to that that my group are considering using. A double bass is used in the performance based shots, I feel this is effective as the double bass is one of the biggest, lowest-pitched instrument, making its presence almost over powering and the low pitch intimidating. The leaves used to cover the floor where the band are filmed give a rustic yet mystic feel as well as cleverly linking with a shot used in the narrative of the video where to two characters have a leaf fight. The female character who emerges from the grave and joins the mortal world has ghoulish white skin and is dressed in white from head to toe giving a ghost like appearance. The silver stars which have been hung behind the band whilst they are performing is an interesting way of getting around not being able to take the footage at night time but also conveying to the audience the fact that it is set after dark.
Throughout the video shots have been overlapped so that more than one shot is seen at the same time. When this is done quickly a stroke lighting effect is achieved which works well with the tempo of the song. Towards the end of the video the two characters join the band helping to connect all of the different shots. I liked that this had been done and feel it helps to bind the video however as the music video comes to a close there is almost a feeling that there has been no resolution to the problems shown in the narrative. This may have been to leave the viewer to come to their own conclusions.