Analysis of Music Video #3

The next Music Video I will analyse is for the song '16 Military Wives' by The Decemberists.
The song is 4:45 long (seconds) and was published on 17/02/05
For the purpose of this analysis I will use italics to show which words are presented as text in the Music Video.'

The initial shot used, which is the case for many videos, is an establishing shot. The shot shows a tall building with a few trees around it. The trees do not have leaves suggesting the scene is set in Winter, relating back to the bands name 'The Decemberists.' Subtitles then appear in white font at the bottom of the screen, centrally placed in the middle. The text reads 'The Barger Rothery Academy'. The next shot introduces our first character, showing a long shot of a man wearing a suit walking up stairs leading into a building, presumably the building the establishing shot presented us with. The man opens the door and walks inside. The camera shot that follows introduces more characters as the same man walks down a corridor, accompanied by two people behind him both female and wearing skirts, ties, shirts and jumpers. The mise en scene in this video, after only 9 seconds, clearly illustrates that the characters are at a school. This is achieved by a combination of the text, giving us the name of the academy, the costumes used and the scenery. The people in the video however all appear middle-aged, therefore are not of school age. For the purpose of this video the viewer must assume that adults were used rather than children for practicality, effect and potential humour.

The man, who is actually the lead singer of The Decemberists, continues to walk forward. Text appears at the bottom of the screen providing the viewer with the characters name in the Music Video 'Henry Stowecroft'. A woman, also dressed as a student, walks towards him however he raises his hand to her face to show he is ignoring her and walks past. The woman looks disappointed. A medium shot is then used to show the man stop in the entrance to a classroom and adjust a badge of the American flag pinned to his chest. 'He represented the United States of America in the Schools Model United Nations'

A long shot shows most of the classroom, showing middle-aged students sat at desks as well as one young girl. The man, Henry Stowecroft, sits at the front of the desk in the traditional teacher's desk. Another long shot then shows us that there are 13 people sat at desks looking towards the front of the classroom. Henry looks towards one side of the classroom. A point of view shot shows that he was looking at a man. A medium shot, which slowly zooms in to become a close up, shows a blonde male sat at a desk with a female stroking his arm. 'Jude represented France.' A long shot is used as the scene briefly changes to a racing track. Jude and several students run past, Jude in front. 'Jude excelled in athletics'. The scene returns to the classroom as a bearded man points towards Jude as he seems to answer a question correctly. 'And trounsed Henry in academics.'

Henry is once again seated at the front of the classroom and appears angry and serious. A medium shot showing his shoulders and facial features is used. and follows his movement as he stands up. Shot reverse shot shows us his audience as they place headphones on and the camera returns to Henry as he bangs a judges mallet on the table. The close up shot then effectively and swiftly zooms out to become a long shot as the camera shows the classes reaction. A man seated at the front presumably a spokesperson, speaks into a microphone. Writing at the bottom says ' I declare war.' He is dressed similarly to the others however his grey hair, glasses and expression combine to create an ordinary appearance to him. This is perhaps intentional as he does not represent any nation in the story and is merely a spokesperson for a more important character in the video.

A medium shot portrays one class members reaction to this statement made by Henry. Molly represents the neutral Republic of Ireland.' The woman is sat at her desk. Surrounding her is a name plate that reads 'Ireland'. On her desk are stereotypical objects such as a book on Ireland and an Irish flag, as well as the headphones she used earlier. This reinforces the feeling of nationality within the video and individualism. The scene changes to what appears to be a music room in which Molly is playing a piano. The plain wallpaper and flooring means that the viewer focuses on the objects inside the room e.g. the musical instruments and Molly on the piano. In her spare time she wrote musicals.' This text is another example of how the writing supports what the clips are showing. I believe it acts as non-verbal dialogue. As the song is playing it would be inappropriate to interupt the song with a speaker talking over the singer, therefore the written subtitles are used instead. Once again the same long shot is used to show the running track outside. Molly is now dressed in a cheerleaders outfit and jumps up and down. 'And she was the schools only cheerleader.' We again notice that the weather is typically winter weather and assists in creating a certain mood to the video. Dark clouds connotate for sadness and seriousness, therefore the weather is potentially fitting as the video is tackling serious political and social issues, even if it is in a humorous manner.

'Jack wanted to be a reporter'. A long shot establishes a new room showing a man sat cross-legged on the floor. The scene quickly reverses back to the classroom. The man is stood in front of the class with a microphone, as though a reporter and begins singing part of the song however is interrupted by the Antagonist of the video, Henry. Stylistically, Jack the reporters scene starts at 1:20 in the song as the lyrics say 'And the anchorperson on T.v...' This is obviously intentional as it relates to the character wanting to be a reporter for television. It is also an example of how editing of the clips was carefully arranged to ensure that the onscreen imagery matches to auditory lyrics of the song.

The audience are then introduced to more characters. Close-ups show us the representatives of the Republic of Korea, Maurilius and Poland.

A close-up is then used to introduce Karl, the Republic of Luxembourg. Two previously introduced characters, (Korea and Polands representatives) are now dressed as security guards and chase Karl out of the classroom. Several sequences show how the Republic of USA and his friends are violating Karls human rights. Humour is seen as they throw balls of paper at Karl and the subtitles 'A bombing campaign was started.' are shown.

The actions of the characters closely match the lyrics in the song. For example, the lyrics 'America can say no' are heard as the American character shakes his fists and mimes along. His friends, who are dressed as security guards, seated at either side of him also move their batons up and down in synchronisation with the beat of the song.

Colour is important as it helps create stereotypes for each nationality. For example, colour is used to portray different flags for each person. Furthermore, colour is used to portray identity and unity. The school dress code is blue, red and black and each person wears these colours. However the Republic of France wears a multi-coloured scarf and the Republic of Korea wears a lighter shade of blue. With regards to the scenery and props the main colour used is white. The walls, floor, corridors and lockers are all white giving connotations for purity, cleanliness and blankness. It also visually means the audience focuses more on objects in the rooms.

The video continues to show Molly giving out instruments to others as they prepare to stand up to Henry. The last chorus of the video shows some characters with instruments playing them individually as they stand up from their desks and play towards Henry. The camera slowly zooms in as each person stands up and sings part of the song. The close-up shots are used to easily create recognisability between the characters and to represent expressions in more detail.

The video ends with the Antagonist being attacked with paper and sat on the floor surrounded with paper balls. His glasses are lopsided and the other characters are walking away, proving that the music video is reaching a conclusion. The last shot is a long shot showing him sat on the floor and a young girl leant against the wall near him confirming the video and song have reached a conclusion. The video is possibly addressing certain political and social issues, suggesting that nationality and political representations are childish and that the 'superpower' country, in this video America, can be defeated if other countries join together- .suggesting equality.

Here is a link to the video-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK3Ce9md96g