Textual Analysis
The student’s song choice is not very well-known; written and sung by an American indie-folk band called ‘The Mountain Goats'. The song, ‘Sax Rohmer’, fits within the genre of indie-rock and can be interpreted as a very sombre song with its depressive descriptions of elements of life and history. An evident theme running throughout the song could be death or being trapped (in a dark world). Despite this, however, there is an underlying sense of optimism and hope (conveyed through the lyrics).
The song’s verses have a melancholy air: “And a rabbit gives up somewhere, and a dozen hawks descend / Every moment leads toward its own sad end", however the chorus is quite the opposite and portrays a somewhat romantic meaning: “And I am coming home to you / If it’s the last thing that I do”. It is clear that the student has used the lyrics of the chorus as a foundation for the music video concept, since the video’s narrative revolves around the journey home of a teenager, presumably from school.
The narrative - the long walk home after a father is unable to give his child a lift - fits well with the genre because, just like indie bands, the music video focuses on the narrative and explore’s the meaning of the lyrics instead of showcasing the band’s image by means of performance. The student’s decision of conforming to the typical conventions of an indie-rock means that it should appeal to the niche audience and keep the video interesting for people who have never heard of, and possibly have no interest in, the band itself.
The location chosen for the music video fits the indie-folk music genre, since its location (busy high streets and quite suburban streets) suggests that it is a low budget video; exactly what an indie band would be. The location. The start of the video is shot at a lake-side setting which is useful at showing creativity and good knowledge of camera use (in regards to light exposure and positioning of the camera to combat this). The gradual changes in location are also effective at reflecting the narrative: the student starts off in town, then walks through the suburbs, and then finally walks though a more pastoral setting before he arrives at his country-looking home. This emphasises the main focus of the narrative: the long journey home.
Something that stands out as particularly professional in the video is the 3D text that appears by the side of the boy’s phone which shows his father’s text message. This, again, is something that an indie band with a low budget would still have access to. It makes the video more realistic and interesting for the audience. To add to this, the home screen on the phone features the movie poster for ‘The Rabbit Proof Fence”. Although seemingly unrelated to the narrative, it could be reference to the previously mentioned lyric, “And a rabbit gives up somewhere, and a dozen hawks descend”. If this is intertextuality, it is not explicit enough to be noticeable or effective.
At 1:18m into the video, there is a shot which attempts to change the depth of field by altering the aperture of the camera manually. However creative, this shot was not pulled off as effectively as it could have been, resulting in a very beginner-looking shot. The cross dissolve just before this shot also appeared messy, since the two shots either side of the cross dissolve were from the same angle (the 180 degree rule was broken). Here, there is no evidence of match-on-action and causes the editing to look unfinished. A great deal of planning and creativity can be seen by the variety of shot types which have been used by the student. For example, there is one shot where the actor is seen walking by in the reflection of a shop window, and another where he passes by an alleyway. This keeps the simple action of walking a lot more interesting to watch for the audience.
The over-the-shoulder shots are effective at connoting the isolation of the character, but the aggressive shaky movements of the camera appear quite clumsy rather than make it more immersive. The visible editing technique used a lot is cross dissolve. While this is a good technique at showing that a length of time has passed, it is used quite excessively throughout this project and makes the otherwise effective ones seem invaluable. The normal cuts often do not flow, and this makes some cuts difficult to watch or even comprehend. There is also a point at which slow motion editing is used to make the action seem more dramatic, but the slow motion is not completely obvious and it could be argued that this is an unnecessary or wasted attempt at using the technique. Overall, though, the variety of camera shots and movements - such as low-angles, wide angles, long-shots, tracking and panning - keeps the narrative interesting and enjoyable.
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