Music Video Analysis - Kasabian

As the music video our group are looking at is ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ by Arctic Monkeys we thought it would be useful to look at other artist who have released music videos with the similar gritty feeling which ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ possesses. As the song represents strong social realism within British culture we thought it would be better if we analysed music videos which come from a working class British background, for this we have chosen Kasabian – Processed Beats, The Enemy – Had Enough and Arctic Monkeys – Leave Before The Lights Came On.

Kasabian - Processed Beats

We found this music video was heavily performance based with little narrative. The majority of the video is taken up by performances from band members, this is matched by a lot of low angled camera angles to give the band a sense of power within the video but only when singing. Another similar camera technique was the hand held pan which helps give the music video its gritty appeal. With the hand-held motion giving a shake to the shot, the location can become more personal to the viewer. Close-ups were also used within the music video along side Extreme Close-ups to show the emotions of band members while performing, these emotion were mirrored when low angled shots were exercised to shows the band members anger, these emotion relate to the lyrics of ‘Processed beats’.

The editing was the most interesting aspect within this music video as fast cut rates that were not in time with the beat, lip-syncing used and post production effects were also evident, especially towards the end. The simple filters that were used help create a surreal feeling to the visual, as unusual shades from a range of colours were apparent. ‘Processed Beats’ also lacks a narrative and with mainly performances from band members I find the video to be simply classed as a performance video.

We found the costume to be unsurprising as the music videos location is a gritty warehouse and a forest so dirty shirts, jeans, etc would be what is expected. As the locations are gritty we felt the props being keep to a minimal is necessary but also key props such as the dirty fridge along with burned-out chairs and even cockroaches and other insects crawling round help set the mood for the rest of the video. Lighting was interesting within ‘Processed Beats’ as the spotlights in the background of the forest would normally be hidden. This was a deliberate ploy by the director as establishes a disjointed feeling, which in turn matches the lyrics of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzEbYDcUtxE