SC Music Video Analysis 1

Air Traffic - Shooting Star http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2m49DoD71I

Genre and Narrative

The genre of Air Traffic – shooting star is indie/pop/rock. It conveys many typical characteristics of the genre throughout the video. For example the band dress in scruffy clothes, such as jeans and jackets, with rugged hair and faces. This is quite a typical image given to bands that perform this type of music. The clips are edited on the music video so that they fit in to the beat, and tempo of the music, which at times is fast paced – with a fast paced cutting rate, (during the chorus) and slow on the verse, with a slow cutting rate. There are frequent close ups of the band members, the lead singer in particular, establishing who he is. The video is both performance and narrative based, the performance is in a dark room with all of the band members facing one and other, passionately playing there instruments. And the performance is based mainly in what seems to be a sheik but messy room. There is another location used outside of a front door, which is in a clip that is only a couple of seconds long.
The lyrics are quite straight forwardly about how a man is in love with a girl, how she is his ‘shooting star’, and that he will do anything for her, waiting for her for as long as it takes. The narrative throughout the video is quite random and could be seen as amplification of the lyrics, but also disjuncture. This is due to the fact that I think many people will interpret the narrative differently. It is extremely artistic and could be seen as extremely random. The narrative includes a girl, often in her underwear and a man, with household items smashing around them. I linked this with the lyrics to come up with the idea that through everything, every problem and barrier that they reach, there love will rise above it. In the song there are the lyrics ‘baby if it all falls through, we can piece it back together’ this is what reinforces my idea. However there is also part of me that believes there is some sort of underline meaning to this video that is more complex than the initial idea of mine, due to the unusual and unique styles and ideas portrayed. Therefore, even though my idea amplifies the lyrics, I also believe that the visuals could be completely random and separate to the meaning of the song. I definitely believe that this video could be considered art; the camera techniques are extremely professional and original, with quirky new and beautiful ideas throughout both the performance, and narrative of the video. The lighting is also very skilled, perfectly setting the mood for the song.

Media Language

There are many different visual techniques used during the music video. The camera often does slow pans around the band as they are performing. This enables the viewer to have a good look at the band as they play their instruments. There are a lot of birds eye shots of the lead singer, this is because he is playing the piano at the same time and it allows the viewer to have a close up shot of the singer whilst seeing him expertly play the piano. As well as frequent close ups of the lead singer, there are also many close ups of the different band members playing there instruments. This shows how passionate each band member is about the song and evokes emotion, amplifying the strength of the song making it seem even more powerful. The music video has been edited so that the clips cut to match the tempo of the song. All of the narrative has been put in slow motion; emphasizing the household objects flying up into the sky and then the impact they have as they come crashing down. The band are dressed in what seems to be day to day wear, and the main girl begins wearing what seems to be a pair of old fashioned jeans and jumper – ending up in bed in her underwear. Within the narrative the people all seem to have emotional problems. They are all posed with straight faces and wide eyes which make them seem quite psychotic. In many clips people are just slowly taking their clothes off and it is as if the closer the couples are getting, the more destruction is going on around them.

Representation

The band is represented as young, stylish, attractive blokes who are extremely passionate, both about their music and emotionally. This challenges the typical stereotype that young stylish blokes are all ‘after one thing’ due to the passion they show through other aspects of life. There is one shot in the clip where there is a woman in the background of the shot with a man facing her in the foreground (with his back to the camera) the woman looks scared and this reinforces the stereotype of a dominant male, and a weak feeble woman. There are also many shots of a woman in her underwear; however she is not represented in the typical ways such as artificial look with dismemberment. Even though she is slim with a good figure, she is not the focus of attention within the clip and it gives the impression that she is having troubles and that there is more to her than is first made out. This challenges the typical representation of women in the media as objects of consumption for male please and suggests that even though she is stood in her underwear, one can still look beyond that and see a woman inside with deep thoughts, feelings and emotion.

Institution and audience

This video would appeal and be consumed by both focused and ambient viewers. A focused viewer would enjoy this because it is clearly a very deep, thought provoking video with a lot of underlying meaning that one could sit and focus on, taking in the different aspects. It has a slight love story running throughout and it is also beautiful and professional to watch. However, I also think that ambient viewers would enjoy this video due to the fact that there are a large number of shots of the band performing, with many repetitive shots. So by just glancing at the screen you instantly know the band and roughly what is going on.