The video that I have chosen to analyse is Bastille – Pompeii. Bastille are an alternate rock band who have four band members, Dan Smith, Kyle J Simmons, Chris Wood, William Farquarson.
Pompei is a higthly cultured city/society which was wiped out in one day because of a disaster (a volcano erupting). This could suggest that what we think of as a permanent and indestructible, society can be changed by one significant moment. Every action in his life can be seen as important.
The music video starts with an establishing shot which sets the scene of where the video has been set and also shows the audience what to expect throughout the rest of the music video. In the establishing shot, we are shown the lead singer of Bastille standing high up on top of a building/wall looking down at the camera (audience). This shot helps us to understand that the music video is going to have an urban feel about it. The camera has been placed at the bottom of the building with the lens looking up at the lead singer. This shot helps us to understand that the person that the camera is focusing on is important, and also emphasises on the fact that the person we are being shown has power and status. Also by using this shot, it builds up suspense as we want to know who the camera is focusing on but we can’t actually see the person very clearly, this gets the audience thinking about who it may be.
The barrenness of a decant decaying city makes me think of the Israeli wall that was built to separate Israel who are rich and powerful from the Palestinians who are poor and powerless. This is sort of what is going on here, the main star being separated from everybody else, he is a lot more powerful at this moment in time and has a higher status whilst he hasn't yet caught the contagion.
Pompei is a higthly cultured city/society which was wiped out in one day because of a disaster (a volcano erupting). This could suggest that what we think of as a permanent and indestructible, society can be changed by one significant moment. Every action in his life can be seen as important.
The music video starts with an establishing shot which sets the scene of where the video has been set and also shows the audience what to expect throughout the rest of the music video. In the establishing shot, we are shown the lead singer of Bastille standing high up on top of a building/wall looking down at the camera (audience). This shot helps us to understand that the music video is going to have an urban feel about it. The camera has been placed at the bottom of the building with the lens looking up at the lead singer. This shot helps us to understand that the person that the camera is focusing on is important, and also emphasises on the fact that the person we are being shown has power and status. Also by using this shot, it builds up suspense as we want to know who the camera is focusing on but we can’t actually see the person very clearly, this gets the audience thinking about who it may be.
The barrenness of a decant decaying city makes me think of the Israeli wall that was built to separate Israel who are rich and powerful from the Palestinians who are poor and powerless. This is sort of what is going on here, the main star being separated from everybody else, he is a lot more powerful at this moment in time and has a higher status whilst he hasn't yet caught the contagion.
The establishing shot then leads on to the same shot but a closer up version. This just helps us to identify the star of the video and establish the built up urban setting further. It is just a dull dirty city wall which gives me the feeling of something being abandoned and left to rot, which actually, is partly the message of the song.
The speed of the music video starts off very slow in the opening shots as the scene is being set and not much else is happening. However, as soon as we are introduced to the lead singer, the speed of the video slowly starts to speed up to inform the audience that the song is about to begin and then continues to speed up during the song to match the pace of the music. As the speed changes, so does the time of the day. At the beginning of the music video when the audience are just being introduced to the surroundings, it is the middle of the day but as the video commences further, the speed builds up and the time of day changes to night time. This is something that helps us to identify the genre of the music video as it goes from being very bright to suddenly very dull and dark, giving the video a very edgy feel. The alternative rock genre has other sub-genres such as grunge and indie rock which is why you never really know what to expect from the music.
Just after the establishing shot has disappeared which lasts for around 6-8 seconds, an over the shoulder depth of field shot appears showing us the back of the lead singer and a Los Angeles skyline view. The star is in clear focus and the skyline is extremely blurry. At this point, the camera is hand held and is very shaky. This particular shot has been used to draw in the audience and to again set the urban scene of a busy city because most people will recognise the setting and will instantly realise that it is a metaphor of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Pompeii.
We are then led on to a close up of the lead singer, this is because they want us to recognise and know his face as he is the star of the video and people listen to the music because of him. We can also see that he hasn’t yet been caught by the black eye disease that he is running from. We know this because throughout the whole music video, we can see that he is running away from something throughout and then we are introduced to the people who he is running away from whom all have black eyes. The brightness is also enhanced on the star’s face. It is also so that we can start to gain an idea for his reactions to certain things.
In the first thirty seconds of the video, the audience aren’t really given any clues about a narrative. However, the music video is about the lead singer running away from something which is contagious through an abandoned city. The star is trying to stop himself from catching the ‘black eye’ contagion which is therefore why he is trying to get away fast. This narrative does stick to the three act structure and is an example of Todorov’s theory of Equilibrium. This is where everything is fine, and then it is all disrupted, and it is then resolved and restored so that everything is back to a new 'normal'. The calm pace of the music video is disrupted by the contagious black eye zombie disease which he is running from and then towards the end of the video we see that he has been infected which is the resolution to the video.
The main narrative of the video is established by the editing used. Although this isn't unconventional, for this particular genre of music, it actually is. Without seeing the edited eyes of the main star, as an audience, we would not understand why he is trying to run away and what he is running from. This would completely destroy the main focus of the narrative.
Throughout the music video, with the lead singers neutral face and calm body actions, he isn't giving out any emotions that can be interpreted by the audience. This is very unusual as normally in music videos, artists want the audience to feel their emotions and understand what they are being put through as a way of interacting with them and including them into the video.
The main narrative of the video is established by the editing used. Although this isn't unconventional, for this particular genre of music, it actually is. Without seeing the edited eyes of the main star, as an audience, we would not understand why he is trying to run away and what he is running from. This would completely destroy the main focus of the narrative.
Throughout the music video, with the lead singers neutral face and calm body actions, he isn't giving out any emotions that can be interpreted by the audience. This is very unusual as normally in music videos, artists want the audience to feel their emotions and understand what they are being put through as a way of interacting with them and including them into the video.
The main star is wearing very dark clothing during the music video which adds a sense of mystery to the audience. The producer clearly wants the star to come across as being mysterious and very held back about something. The black t-shirt that the star is wearing could connote fear, mystery and 'the unknown' of what is going to happen next. He is also wearing black skinny jeans. This is conventional for indie rock music videos as it reflects the nature of the music genre which is 'individuality' and not giving very much away at all. However, as the majority of the video is set at night, these colours make him blend into the surroundings, and don't at any point make him stand out, which is unusual for any music video because the main focus is normally on the star.
At 21 seconds in the video, an over the shoulder perspective shot has been used. However, a short depth of field has been used outside of the window so that we can’t really see what the lead singer is actually focusing on. This particular edit has been used to make us focus on the star of the video and see things from his perspective instead of what’s outside as it makes the audience think about what he would be looking and thinking about if it wasn’t blurred out.
There are also shots of the lead singer in an abandoned building which again helps to set the decamped/poisoned feel. Throughout this scene of the music video, lots of wide long angle shots are used to help make the audience feel as if they are watching some sort of cinema movie and to also emphasise on how big and empty the city actually is that he is trying to escape from and the irrelevance of the lead singer existing in it. In this shot, the inside of the building where the star is seems to look very dull and dirty whereas when you look outside of the window, brighter colours are used which may be showing the audience the inside perspective where the lead singer is stuck and then the nicer outside perspective where he wants to be.
The lighting and colour palette are kept very natural throughout the entire music video with the majority of the music video set at night or at dusk/dawn. This helps add to the cinematic feel of the wide shots again. The colours also make me think of artistic paintings which have been created using a very light coloured paint palette. This may have been used to represent the star at the start of the video feeling relatively calm as he is just beginning his day. Also to add to the natural feel of the video, ambient lighting has been used to keep everything looking normal.
The song doesn’t actually begin until about 30 seconds in to the video. This is good because it does help us to thoroughly establish the setting and meet the star. The music video isn’t really very conventional as we only meet one of the band members whereas in other music videos, the audience are usually introduced to the whole band at least once during the introduction.
The lighting and colour palette are kept very natural throughout the entire music video with the majority of the music video set at night or at dusk/dawn. This helps add to the cinematic feel of the wide shots again. The colours also make me think of artistic paintings which have been created using a very light coloured paint palette. This may have been used to represent the star at the start of the video feeling relatively calm as he is just beginning his day. Also to add to the natural feel of the video, ambient lighting has been used to keep everything looking normal.
The song doesn’t actually begin until about 30 seconds in to the video. This is good because it does help us to thoroughly establish the setting and meet the star. The music video isn’t really very conventional as we only meet one of the band members whereas in other music videos, the audience are usually introduced to the whole band at least once during the introduction.
