Comment:
Any adjustments will be written in RED
The opening to the song by British band, Foals begins with a long shot of the mountains, which fades in from white, the general tone and mise-en-scene during this introductory shot gives the impression of solidarity and coldness, created through the over exposed shot with the bland white from the snow on the mountains. During this shot, to the bottom left hand corner of the shot, we notice a figure moving slowly, extremely subtly and it begins to create questions in the music video to what has happened prior to this. The editing of this shot is extremely long, lasting for over 1 minute (challenges traditional music video conventions of short cut editing) however it works well in conjunction with the lyrics, linking back to Goodwins theory of one of the five key aspects of music videos (Dancing in the Distraction Factory) are the links between the lyrics and video, in this case the song begins with "So I walked through to the haze", and the haze is visually represented here in the video with the weather.
The following scene shows Yannis Philippakis (the lead singer of Foals), the scene also cuts upon a beat but also it can be noted that it changes after the lyrics "Now I see you lying there" and puts the audience in the position of the directly addressed in the music video, as we are viewing directly the singer lying on his side. We also can begin to apply and see another one of Goodwins theories further develop from this point onwards as the bands frontman is now the centre of attention, this is used in order to portray the leading singers style and attract attention to his appearance as a young adult, potentially reaching out to their younger based audience.
He is represented as a young adult, conforming to many of the listeners of 'indie' music style, such as with the beard, stylised hair cut and clothes. He is therefore made a relatable and even given the image of a star (Dyer), therefore many of his audience base will see themselves in him.
The following scenic shots cut into the video after the protagonist closes his eyes, potentially referencing visually to the audience his thoughts, so blank but calm. The shots including the unknown plastic bag and beautifully cinematic close up of the icy ocean water. The movements within the music video are directly in beat with the tempo of the song, to the audience it creates a calm and peaceful environment to be in. This also gives the feeling of how time is passing by, made especially true by the more faced paced cutting in comparison to the previous clips.
The next shot that we see is a close up of the front man, Philippakis and again, this is a close up that is often cut back to at various points within the video and he is also the only person to feature in the video relates back to Goodwins theory of main star and protagonist from Dancing in the Distraction Factory. He is cut in and straight away the audience notices how he is singing softly toward the camera, addressing whoever is watching almost directly, as if he is explaining 'the horror' to them. This close up motionless shot allows the audience time to study and even relate to the person in view. The use of a black coat works well because not only does it broaden the potential target audience by not branding themselves to a particular social group or age but it also works well visually to balance the contrasting black from his hair and beard and the white from the background snow. The shot is extremely cramped, especially when in comparison to previous ones, when the filming location is so desolate and lonely it seems to have been done in order to create and further strengthen an idea that maybe he cannot escape from his own loneliness or even the surroundings, therefore this almost claustrophobic scene is cleverly used.
Following this, the video cuts to a scene where the protagonist is dragging what looks to be some sort of animal's carcass that is wrapped in plastic out of the water. The high angle shot makes is seem as if he is struggling with the weight of the dead animal both physically and mentally. The music video being concept based is very abstract and it depends upon the viewers understanding of the lyrics I believe in order to interpret the video. The shot is accompanied by "forget the horror here":
Forget the horror here
Forget the horror here
This has become a reference in modern literature such as Kurtz's last words from Heart of Darkness with a concept that there is nothing after death, the horror is the nothingness.
Leave it all down here
It's future rust and it's future dust
The terms combined create a meaning that to me signifies that the future will fade.
The use of repetition in the lyrics at this point, emphasises the loneliness once again possibly, the idea that nothing new has happened, the horror is still gripping him, the repetition is also in the video as he struggle to pull the carcass up the stones.
The music fades back down to the chorus and once again we get a glimpse at the cinematic close up scenic shots, they movement once again calm but slightly more vivid than previous shots and this is a response to the music. e.g the vocals have become louder and further instruments have been added to the backing track and they relate back to this with "now the waves they drag you down" (become more aggressive than before).
Goodwin has stated that "the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist" and this is particularly relevant to our video, considering he is the lead singer and the only person featured.
As he struggles to climb the mountain with the animals weighing him down however he perceivers onwards. To me, the dead animals represent the trauma that we as human beings endure through from time to time and this whole idea of being alone, eternally with the 'horror' of nothing after death, the nothingness. It's a very powerful and gripping idea that is proposed in this video and presented very well visually too as it represents the themes of fury and this idea of a nightmare place.
When he reaches the top, he proceeds to burn the animals, to me releasing the trauma and horror that he has been confronted by, a release to him. The images we see are no longer so washed out and the (small) contrast between scenes is there and begins to show how the character is improving and just letting himself release from these energies, a potential reminder not to saturate himself so much later in life.
Using Stuart Hall's audience reception theory, which suggests that the producer of the media encodes the text and then it is the job of the audience to decode it, depending on their social identity, age, gender amongst other individual circumstances they will likely form a different reading. I have found personally that this is a very difficult medium to decode unless you know about the genre.
No comments:
Post a Comment