Radiohead – High & Dry
At the start of the
video for High & Dry we get an establishing shot of a restaurant called
Dick’s and the actual quality of footage is very poor, this appears to give it
the vintage American diner feel which comes across more and more prominent
throughout the video. At this point, there is very little to suggest they are
following Andrew Goodwin’s framework for music videos. We also see at this
point that the video is disjunctive as the lyrics have no reference to the
diner feel. Once we see inside the restaurant, the costumes fit in with
American diner mise en scene as well, therefore re-enforcing our initial
thoughts on the video.
When the lyrics start, we see more reference to Goodwin’s
framework. The visuals start responding to music as we see cuts on the beat of
the song. The camera pans across the restaurant into a close up of a briefcase,
but is handheld at all times. This is possibly to deviate away from perfection
to represent the deep, dark theme of the song as the handheld camera gives it
the roughed up DIY look, which is something Radiohead are going for here. This
is another explanation for the poor video quality. This arguably ties in with
Goodwin’s reference to genre characteristics. The indie rock genre isn’t
perfect and does try to be different so they could be trying to reference that
with this footage which is full of connotations of authenticity. The cuts are
also poorly made, they are obviously there to join with the beat but some are
noticeably out of sync with the song, which amplifies this imperfection even
more so.
Later on in the video we see various close ups, still with a
hand held camera of various actors, extras and band members singing the lyrics
in a lip sync, a popular convention of music video. We also see some shot
reverse shots of two parents looking at each other over a table among other
pairs, and over the shoulder shots which both support Goodwin’s theory of the
notion of looking, the idea that looking in music videos is key to direction of
the artist and the theme of the video. (Take Madonna as an example, the aspect
of looking in her videos makes us view her as not only an objectified, sexual
woman, but one who is willing to be viewed like that.)
Other than the video cutting on beat with the song and the
lip syncing, there is little use of synaesthesia in this video as the theme of
the song has no direct link to the video. The video follows its own disjunctive
narrative that is not at all related to the lyrics and the video is very
minimal. Most shots are long takes which fits with the slow paced song but it
doesn’t really go any deeper than that. However that works well because of the
style of song that the video is responding to. They’re not a mainstream pop
band and this video is able to show that. The persona and showmanship is not
shown in this video at all.
If we look at this video and compare it to other music video
theorist’s ideas, we can see that actually it is a relatively broad video and
doesn’t fit other theories besides Andrew Goodwin’s. It was generally believed
for a long time that all music videos fit into two categories, performance or
conceptual. Sven E Carlson challenged and said that not all videos fit into
these two categories and a more vast range of categories should be considered.
This video however goes against Sven E Carlson by being a completely conceptual
music video. Supporting the idea that this video goes against many theorist’s
ideas, Michael Shore says that all music videos are recycled styles that
contain an information overload and reflect teenage male fantasies of girls,
which is very much not the case from this video. It is worth considering that
this is due to authenticity and deviation from mainstream culture being key in
the indie rock genre. They will purposely change their way of doing things to
stand out as individual, and it appears that is the case in this video.
Foals – Bad Habits
Just like in the Radiohead video, this starts off with an
establishing shot, this time in a desert with one lonesome man (also Foals
vocalist) on the floor at the end of a trail of footprints. The establishing
shot zooms in as the music begins to play but never gets closer than a very
long shot until the next cut. It follows the character as he stumbles around in
the sand before cutting to a medium close of his face as he walks and as before
in the last video; he is lip syncing the lyrics. It’s at this point where you
begin to realise the common characteristics in this indie pop genre. The lip
syncing appears to be key and once again the camera is hand held. A third
common characteristic is that the shots are long takes. Most of the reference
to Goodwin’s framework that we saw in the Radiohead video is also showed in
just the first part of this Foals video.
At this point he is lip syncing the lyrics ‘don’t follow me’
and we can assume that he is running away and asking his friends and family not
to follow him, which in Goodwin’s framework can be seen as illustrative, but
then the shot changes to anther very long shot from behind him and this is the
first time we see him following a girl, and we realise that the ‘don’t follow
me’ lyric was something that she was saying to him. This can also be seen as
illustrative but at the same time, viewed as amplified as well because it’s
adding a double meaning to the fact that the male character is singing it.
As shown in the photo above, this references the notion of
looking as well. He is looking at her as she walks away and he is following
her. This is the first major difference to the Radiohead video in that the
notion of looking supports the aforementioned Michael Shore theory that music
videos are to support teenage male fantasies. Although at this point she is not
viewed as a sexual object, we see her as something he is lusting after. However
after a few more repeat close ups of the male character and a close up of the
female character, we see a long shot of her and see she is completely naked,
totally changing the aspect of the notion of looking in this video. Laura
Mulvey argues that females have to watch music videos through the eyes of men
due to the male gaze becoming more and more dominant in media even when the
target audience is predominantly female. This is shown in this video by the
various close ups which establish her as a sexual object followed by the long
shots showing her entire body which leaves the male viewer feeling dominant as
the figure is now small and in the distance.
It’s at this point in
the video where the visuals start to react to the music and as in the Radiohead
video, the shots cut to the music. This is another feature of both that I will
look into applying to my video when the time comes, then the next few scenes
show the ground opening up in front of him as if to say he has walked too far
and he can’t go any further. This is an example of video where visuals amplify
the meaning provided by the lyrics because at the time of this happening the
lyric is ‘would you pray for me?’, and the ground opening up in front of him
could be a suggestion of hell below him, especially as he is on his knees as if
he is praying.
The idea of hell is later amplified by the male character
finding the bones of a dead man in the sand using an aerial shot, and this
could also mean a similar story of a previous lover lusting after this girl, to
which the outcome is obvious. The close up of the skull and bones shows the
emotion and the intensity of the discovery.
Later on, they use a fade out – fade in shot to represent
time going by as he is still on this search for this girl, before a serious of
extreme long shots as he runs into this newly formed area of structures where
this girl is standing. This shows the idea of creation and the centrepiece of
this newly formed area is a huge overpowering cross, resembling the idea of
heaven, hell and religion. This is an example of amplified music video because
although the video and song are really about him loving this girl and following
her, it adds a second meaning of religion into the mix.
This is the final scene of the video, at which point he has
travelled this distance only to see this girl and this new village crumble to
sand in front of him. This doesn’t strongly tie in with any of Goodwin’s
theory, it doesn’t represent genre characteristics and doesn’t tie in with the
music or the lyrics, but we do see him looking so it slightly resembles the
notion of looking, as is a running theme throughout the video.
At this point, the previously discussed element of Laura Mulvey’s work
suggesting that she is seen as a weak, controllable object is discarded as we
see that she had managed to get this male character to follow her all this
distance only to break his heart and them subsequently disappear herself. The
extreme aerial long shots (shot at establishing shot distance but without the
function) where they are both pictured show that he is no more dominant than
her in this video.
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