Music Video Analysis'
Which conventions work with which genres?
Nickelback - Far Away
Next, a hand held, blurred low angle shot is revealed, slowly moving upward and focusing on a stereotypically attractive male, who appears to be at about the same age as members of a conventional rock band, such as Nickelback. The facial expression the man conveys is in fact a gentle smile, which juxtaposes the original establishing shot as well as the present mise-en-scene – similar colour use to the previous shot, though with a noticeable deep blue shape on the man’s sleeveless top which is generally decoded as sadness. This shot could be a point of view shot from the female’s perspective who is in bed opposite the male character – the blurred vision could be a code for her having just woken up, however the audience do not know that there is another character involved yet.
The camera then cuts to a hand-held camera, held by the male character, though it is once more out of focus. As it begins to focus, it can be noticed that the screen is in fact the same blue colour as the man’s top, and the moving image is of the female in bed. The female’s body language here – sprawled under a duvet covering her face; can be read in two ways. The preferred reading is that she is curled up laughing at something her apparent partner has said or done, conversely the negotiated reading could be that she is curled up in bed crying; and through the colour use the negotiated reading is in fact slightly more dominant than the preferred reading. This could have been deliberately constructed by the video director, as due to the obviousness of the next shot the audience would feel a sense of shock as they discover that they were wrong, and the likely reaction would to be for the audience to then pay closer attention to the video – and become more engaged. Gaining the audience’s deep attention in a matter of just four shots is an extremely positive thing for any piece of media.
In the next shot the female is very clearly laughing. The mise-en-scene is a bright white, with very little shadow visible. This can be decoded as not only happiness and innocence but a juxtaposition of how things really are. The duvet covers wrapped around her can be decoded as a comfort, implying that there’s something to need comforting about. The fact that the previous shot displayed the same vision in darker more blue colours, it shows that there are two ways to look at the situation though the audience still don’t fully know what’s going on yet – again making them want to concentrate on every little detail constructed in the video.
The juxtaposed colour use conveys the ‘ups and downs’ of relationships. It’s as if the colours are almost speeding up the temporal flow of their relationship, which can be decoded as; their situation (still unknown to the audience), is: ongoing.
As the camera on a dolly zooms in on the female is veers gently from side to side, where a playful atmosphere can be decoded. The happy, bubbly seeming female then extends her arm towards the camera lens; obscuring the view. As this happens, the shot does a rounded fade to black, exactly on the first drumbeat of the song.
The next shot fades up to reveal a long shot of a new setting; a mock-up stage with a dominant use of black and red – conventions of rock and indie, and a performance taking place, which is also a convention; of any genre of music video. The camera starts from the audience’s right and gently moves across to the left, either via a low crane or dolly. The shot could in fact be a point of view shot from the audience’s perspective, is a low angle shot as if they’re watching a live performance. The camera is looking up at Nickelback, raising their profile and level of importance in the video. As the camera moves further left, bright yellow stage lighting can be seen fanning upwards behind the singer, again, highlighting his importance. With reds and yellows shining onto the stage and blending a firey atmosphere is created.
After four syllables the camera cuts to a medium close up of the singer, for the next four syllables as the camera slowly rotates around his front towards the right – back the way it came, possibly so as not to break the 180 degree rule. The change of direction could have been disorientating but as the transition is at such a slow pace it’s easy for the audience to comprehend. The fact that the camera doesn’t jump around reinforces the realism of the music video. As the artist mimes, he nods his head in time, for example, on “misused, mistakes” he nods his head both times on “mis”. Although it is a seemingly live performance, it does highlight that the actions are in sync with the audio track. His facial expression is serious, as if he shares a personal connection with the song, and he looks into the camera lens, revealing the sense that he’s performing to us individually – the audience.
The artist is wearing a white t-shirt which could have been encoded to imply innocence, and he has long, messy hair – though it is not too unkept. If his attire were to be darker and hair less tidy he would have clearly represented rock, however he’s less dark, suggesting he performs lighter rock. It is important to remember that even small parts of media language such as costume and hair, could mean the difference between a preferred reading and an alternative one.
After the medium close up, the screen once more fades to black, on the drumbeat. The image of the bedroom reappears from around 30 degrees more to the left, but still featuring the use of a dolly. The mise-en-scene involves: a stripy duvet cover, stereotypical bedroom clutter and dull green wallpaper. The curtains are open to let in the light; most likely metaphorically too, and the headboard of the bed is a series of bars, which decoded can represent prison; being trapped, not in control of their own lives, an urge to break free from their current situation but unable to. Conversely, the couple are sharing a newspaper together, laughing and joking – juxtaposition to the mise-en-scene as well as the music and lyrics.
The camera then cuts to a high angled medium close up of a mobile phone placed realistically, diagonally on a bedside table, as the lyrics sound “too”, then the screen lights up on “late”. This is a little bit overly in sync, which with further reading could represent the time the couple have just spent together – too perfect to be true. The mobile itself is surrounded quite heavily by shadow, which decoded suggests that the call is not a positive thing.
Next: a close up of the couple’s expressions as they react to the call. The male character looks left to the phone, back at the newspaper then breathes deeply in as he sits up in time to the music. He is dressed in black and has a serious expression which is obvious enough for the audience to pick up on. This can easily be subconsciously decoded by the audience to portray that he is reluctant to answer, again implying that the phone call isn’t a good thing. The female’s reaction confirms this as she shakes her head in disbelief, which leads us, the audience, to believe that it is a regular occurrence and not a one off. The drum sounds again and the scene fades to black. The fades to black could almost represent heavy eyelids; the characters are tired of their lifestyle and trying to block it out by closing their eyes, but it just carries on.
As the audience are shown back to the band, there is a mid/high angle dolly shot of the singer, still moving, with the singer being surrounded by red lights; this time with the yellow lighting to his right side, hinting at the fact that time is progressing, though it’s subtle and cohesive. The 180 degree rule still hasn’t been broken.
The next shot comes into place with another drumbeat and features a band member, again encircled by red backlighting but this time making the artist a silhouette. It is likely that the director chose this lighting as the band member is unimportant to the storyline or video, but the guitar and microphone in the silhouette expand on Nickelback’s passion for musicality, as well as the song in particular.
Once more there is a drumbeat and the setting returns to the bedroom, this time with a long shot of the male climbing out of bed whilst on the phone, and the female sat up making her appear attentive. The camera moves gradually leftwards with a plant obscuring part of the view on the right side of the screen near the male character. This could be an extremely subtle code for him getting hit by a tree towards the middle/end of the video, as could the green wall paper, and colour theme in the narrative throughout.
On yet another drumbeat the scene cuts to a medium close up from behind the male character as he hangs up the phone. There is a contrast of his black t-shirt over the pale wall, which can be decoded as the role reversal of now the dark aspect of their life is dominating the good once more; though the audience still remain clueless as to what this is. There is another plant and green shadow on the wall, subtly reinforcing the idea of a tree collapsing onto the male character in the future. The fact that he has his back to the camera and also to his girlfriend implies that he becomes distant and shuts his girlfriend out through the hard times.
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