Roberto Manfredi's A2 music video
This music video starts off with what sounds like diagetic sound of a tape recorder being put on, with visual faded lights on the screen. I think this starts the music video off very well indeed because it adds a realistic feel to it, making us, the audience, feel as if we are being "plugged in" to a different world. What accentuates this even more so is that you can see a human figure in the background fiddling with the tape player, which I believe is effective as it makes the viewer almost feel as if the soundtrack is "live" and there is effort being put into it. Then, as the acoustic instrumental begins, the audience are started off with a blurry blue coloured shot of some fingers plucking at some guitar strings. As the camera pans up the guitar, the blurriness gradually begins to fade, however watching this almost made me feel like a lot of it was mysterious. I liked this because I think one of the most important aspects you could have in your music video is to persuade the audience to question it.
Then, we are presented with a reoccurring shot of half of a boy's face miming to the music which we now establish is the performance-based part, however it is only half of his face, he looks like he's lying down staring up at the cieling as he mimes, and around him is blood smeared on white walls. The shot overall has a red effect to it, representing a morbid, dark feeling to it which really matches the song's dark vibe. Then, the narrative kicks off. A man in a suit walks into a white bathroom, chucking his blazer on the side. I really love how a very high camera angle is used, because there is almost a distance created between the audience and the actor, highlighting the mystery I had mentioned at the beginning. Meanwhile, there are reoccurring shots of what looks like music equipment but it is hard to make out, with a very red and black effect added to it, again exaggerating the aloofness and morbidity. There are some really smart, interesting camera angles Roberto has used which I find particularly inspiring. These are for example a fish-eye camera sort of effect, where it is only videoing the bottom half of the actor's legs, yet it is so effective because the audience do not know what his top half is doing, and this adds to that mysterious feel because the song is so dark. There is also a slow motion effect added to when the actor's legs begin to move, which suits the slow pace of the start of the song.
The audience are brought back in and out of the performance and narrative shots. There are shots of the piano playing, the music tape, lights, the guitar and more are used to create a feeling that the song is being performed "live" which is really effective. If you look closely, Roberto has also paid very close attention to the mise-en-scene of his shots to create a strong contrast between the performance and narrative ones. In the performance shots, a lot of blue and red is used, whereas in the narrative ones, a lot of red and white is used.
I particularly loved the shot where Roberto must have used an under-water camera to film the actor cleaning his hands in the water. This was quirky and different, and it portrays that a lot of effort and thought has been put into the music video. As this shot is being filmed, the camera sort of shakes around a lot to represent uneasiness and loss of stability. Aswell as this, now there are links between the blood shown on the walls and the washing of hands, things begin to make sense - maybe there is a reason why the actor is washing off his hands. We can see now how the narrative is slowly building with suspension, adding in clues on the way through. This slow, tension-filled narrative is extremely smart.
Roberto has also used Andrew Goodwin's theory of a correlation between the lyrics and the visuals in a lot of the shots. However this is particularly highlighted in the shot where the lyrics state "got someone waiting at home for me, staring at the door" and the audience are presented with a dark, quick shot of a man in a suit in a small room, staring into space. This shot is fast but effective as it is quite "freaky" and again, it makes the viewer question "why" and what's happening.
The suspension is built up as we follow the main protagonist character on their journey to a place we do not know, the shots dark and mysterious, and inbetween we are shown performance shots of an actor miming, but they are only ones of half of his face such as his lips. I noticed something more than half way through the video, too, that the song always refers to "shadows", and this is exactly what Roberto portrays in the video. He is constantly showing shots of shadows and darkness, and this correlation is really effective because the song suits the visuals so much.
During the build up, the audience are almost informed that the "beat is going to drop" because we are shown shots of buttons on the music equipment being turned up etc., which leads up to a massive climax. Suddenly, there are loads of fast shots used with the red effect on them, and most of these shots are finally performance-based. The idea I took from this is that perhaps suddenly the shots are all performance-based is because he wants the audience to really enjoy the music through being shown these different instruments and to accentuate that it's "live". I also noticed that now there has been a climax, we are suddenly being shown the actor's full face in the red effect as he mimes to the camera. It is almost as if he is finally being revealed to us. On the final shot, there is a hand-held shot of the corner of the bathtub we were shown before, with blood all over it. There was no resolution to the narrative of the music video and we as the audience never really find out what actually happened in the narrative, which I think really adds to the mystery about it and it makes you question it.
Overall I think that this music video was brilliant. I believe Roberto really put a lot of thought into it and the ideas he put into the building of tension to the final climax was really effective. The miming was successful, and the pace of shots was brilliant because each shot fitted each beat perfectly, and everything was synchronised. Finally, the fact that Roberto used only one character throughout the music video is great because it means you can focus on one person and the tension is accentuated. Overall, a really successful music video. It kept my attention the whole way through.
Then, we are presented with a reoccurring shot of half of a boy's face miming to the music which we now establish is the performance-based part, however it is only half of his face, he looks like he's lying down staring up at the cieling as he mimes, and around him is blood smeared on white walls. The shot overall has a red effect to it, representing a morbid, dark feeling to it which really matches the song's dark vibe. Then, the narrative kicks off. A man in a suit walks into a white bathroom, chucking his blazer on the side. I really love how a very high camera angle is used, because there is almost a distance created between the audience and the actor, highlighting the mystery I had mentioned at the beginning. Meanwhile, there are reoccurring shots of what looks like music equipment but it is hard to make out, with a very red and black effect added to it, again exaggerating the aloofness and morbidity. There are some really smart, interesting camera angles Roberto has used which I find particularly inspiring. These are for example a fish-eye camera sort of effect, where it is only videoing the bottom half of the actor's legs, yet it is so effective because the audience do not know what his top half is doing, and this adds to that mysterious feel because the song is so dark. There is also a slow motion effect added to when the actor's legs begin to move, which suits the slow pace of the start of the song.
The audience are brought back in and out of the performance and narrative shots. There are shots of the piano playing, the music tape, lights, the guitar and more are used to create a feeling that the song is being performed "live" which is really effective. If you look closely, Roberto has also paid very close attention to the mise-en-scene of his shots to create a strong contrast between the performance and narrative ones. In the performance shots, a lot of blue and red is used, whereas in the narrative ones, a lot of red and white is used.
I particularly loved the shot where Roberto must have used an under-water camera to film the actor cleaning his hands in the water. This was quirky and different, and it portrays that a lot of effort and thought has been put into the music video. As this shot is being filmed, the camera sort of shakes around a lot to represent uneasiness and loss of stability. Aswell as this, now there are links between the blood shown on the walls and the washing of hands, things begin to make sense - maybe there is a reason why the actor is washing off his hands. We can see now how the narrative is slowly building with suspension, adding in clues on the way through. This slow, tension-filled narrative is extremely smart.
Roberto has also used Andrew Goodwin's theory of a correlation between the lyrics and the visuals in a lot of the shots. However this is particularly highlighted in the shot where the lyrics state "got someone waiting at home for me, staring at the door" and the audience are presented with a dark, quick shot of a man in a suit in a small room, staring into space. This shot is fast but effective as it is quite "freaky" and again, it makes the viewer question "why" and what's happening.
The suspension is built up as we follow the main protagonist character on their journey to a place we do not know, the shots dark and mysterious, and inbetween we are shown performance shots of an actor miming, but they are only ones of half of his face such as his lips. I noticed something more than half way through the video, too, that the song always refers to "shadows", and this is exactly what Roberto portrays in the video. He is constantly showing shots of shadows and darkness, and this correlation is really effective because the song suits the visuals so much.
During the build up, the audience are almost informed that the "beat is going to drop" because we are shown shots of buttons on the music equipment being turned up etc., which leads up to a massive climax. Suddenly, there are loads of fast shots used with the red effect on them, and most of these shots are finally performance-based. The idea I took from this is that perhaps suddenly the shots are all performance-based is because he wants the audience to really enjoy the music through being shown these different instruments and to accentuate that it's "live". I also noticed that now there has been a climax, we are suddenly being shown the actor's full face in the red effect as he mimes to the camera. It is almost as if he is finally being revealed to us. On the final shot, there is a hand-held shot of the corner of the bathtub we were shown before, with blood all over it. There was no resolution to the narrative of the music video and we as the audience never really find out what actually happened in the narrative, which I think really adds to the mystery about it and it makes you question it.
Overall I think that this music video was brilliant. I believe Roberto really put a lot of thought into it and the ideas he put into the building of tension to the final climax was really effective. The miming was successful, and the pace of shots was brilliant because each shot fitted each beat perfectly, and everything was synchronised. Finally, the fact that Roberto used only one character throughout the music video is great because it means you can focus on one person and the tension is accentuated. Overall, a really successful music video. It kept my attention the whole way through.
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