Codes and Conventions Of a Music Video

Kasabian
Empire



Kasabian - Empire (Official Music Video) - Watch today’s top amazing videos here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSKxXu05aOE

Mise en scene

The music video is narrative based with a storyline and has partial performance aspects, the video is based like a film narrative that is set like a period drama. We can tell this from the props such as the costumes and weaponry which are dated and suggest that the video is set back in the 1800s-1900s. The costumes imply that the video is set in a war the British Empire against France/Spain as all the characters are wearing uniforms and dressed up as soldiers.

The war symbolises the youth, the children and soldiers dieing for their cause, The camera cuts to the generals eating which represents the aristocracy/politians who don't take notice or don't care about the people dying for the war, the video has a theme which all ties into the storyline aspect.

Editing

slow motion is used when the child dies, the slow motion is used to show the sudden dramatic impact and to emphasise of his death. The child is wearing a bag containing milk which has the connotations of babies and children this represents the innocence being ripped away. The milk which has connotations of being white, pure and angelic is the complete opposite of war, which symbolises evil and death.

Seamless editing is used which shows that the cuts between the shots are very smooth and barley noticeable.

Superimpose is used when the lady blows out the flower and the boys from the band get blown away from the cannon fire, they do this by merging both the images together to create a layered effect, which shows the contrast of the images. A dissolve is also used at the end of this clip which implies a passage of time and place.

Camera Angles and Movement

A pans is used when the young boy is running through the fields, the camera becomes shaky and wobbly to demonstrate the frame of mind the boys is in and to show how realistic is it that the boy is running across the field. The camera also tilts up to show a woman who reaches down to pick up a flower, the camera cuts to a close up of the flower so that she is not the main focus of the \shot, she then walks away leaving the camera focusing upon the grass. This leaves the audience to figure out what is happening.

A medium close up is used showing an elderly man giving a letter to someone else, the man seems quite happy for himself which seems quite odd as there in a middle of a war, this could indicate that he is one of the aristocracy and is in charge of what is happening. The view of the camera shows only the back half of the man who has received the letter, this could indicated that the medium close up is used to show how important and significant the man is in the video. After this shot, an establishing shot is used while the boy is running through the field, the audience can now see the background which has a dead soldier lying on the ground and a group of people.

The video show a close up of blood running into a pool of water this is then followed by a series of other close ups from the band showing their emotions as the boy has been killed. The camera cuts to a close-up of the blood with the connotations of evil, death we then see the raw emotions of the characters face. Other close ups are used of the main man performing the song which reinforce the fact that this has conventions of a music video which has partial performance and is narrative based.