The first part of the music video is a convention called extended narrative, were there is no music, just story. In this music video it is done to set the scene. The lead singer narrates about what we believe is something to do with the plot whilst shots of each band member waiting for something, then a final slow motion shot of a bag in the wind with music sheets flying out. So far the audience know little about what is the relevance of these shots and narration, this could be done to build suspense and mystery on the audience.
During the video the artist is looking into a reflection and singing. They may have done this to reflect how the character is feeling, when he is looking into the mirror he is reflecting about what he has done. I think they did it to show the artist was singing about something which has previously happened. By doing this to the audience the shots which are not him looking into his reflection are in the past.
We soon find out that the narrative of the story is that the whole band are robbing a bank. When the music changes in pace and intensity the shot changes to a black and white high angle shot like you are watching it from a CCTV camera. They use this shot for that exact reason, so you really get a feel for them robbing a bank by watching them through a security camera angle. I think the use of the unique camera effect works very well on the audience but I would not necessarily use this unless my narrative was a robbery or similar.
The band may have chosen for the music video to be a robbery because crime can be seen as rebellious and often stylish to some audiences. Kasabian are an indie rock band which supports the fact they could be trying to gain a rebellious image. However it can have a negative effect as crime may reflect the band in a bad way.
The setting is in the "western". It is the mis-en-scene that gets this across to the audience. Firstly the location and props set the scene. The audience can instantly tell that the dusty setting is western America by the choice of location. Also the director has chosen to dress the actors in cowboy dressing. For example, Serge one of the band members is wearing a long back coat and black cowboy hat, and another member Ian is wearing a classic western three piece suit. We do however know that it is the present date due to that the use of the items below which you would expect to see in modern times. If I was to do my music video in the past I must make sure I remove all signs of the current day.
The director uses two props in a very clever sarcastic way. Instead of holding guns the robbers and police have guitars and instead of them stealing money they are stealing music sheets, however the actors use the guitars like they would guns and imitate that the music sheets has the same value as money hence them robbing it. This cool change of prop relates to them being a band and gives a sort of noticeable comical effect adding entertainment to the video. I will definitely think about what I can do to my video to add comedy.
Through out the video there is a constant reminder of time. They do this in two ways, the first is how the music video starts and finishes with the non-digetic sound of a clock ticking. The second is the on screen digital time counting down to zero in the bank robbery scene. I think the digital clock was counting down to when one of the robbers is shot. This is when their plan starts to go wrong, and the non digetic sound of ticking is the clock counting down until he gets caught. I think the director has purposely made the audience aware of the time to add suspense and danger.
Jack
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