Music Video Deconstruction 13

Song: Bleed
Band: Meshuggah
Year: 2008

• Meshuggah is an experimental metal band formed in Umeå, Sweden in 1987.
• Meshuggah first attracted international attention with the 1995 release Destroy Erase Improve for its fusion of fast-tempo death metal, thrash metal and progressive metal with jazz fusion elements. Since its 2002 album Nothing, Meshuggah has used downtuned eight-string guitars.
• They have become known for their innovative musical style, complex, polymetered song structures and polyrhythms. They were labeled as one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands by Rolling Stone and as the most important band in metal by Alternative Press. Meshuggah has found little mainstream success as yet, but is a significant act in extreme underground music.
• "Bleed" is a single from their most recent album, obZen, released in 2008.
• The video begins with a little extra audio that's not in the song, but is added for atmospheric effect. 
• There is a variety of extreme close ups of a clock's mechanics and cogs, as the wind in the non-diegetic sound continues to play.
• The pummelling, heavy main riff of the song begins and the shot changes to a series of extremely surreal opening cuts. There is a man laid on the floor, shown in a mid-shot, then a fisheye lens. 
• There are also some strange close ups of what looks like a cockroach writhing around on the floor. 
• Opening shots such as this give the video an extremely feel, especially as there is no performance aspect to the video at all and is purely narrative concept.
• The camera alternates between this man panicked and afraid, and the bug in the sand, which is really creepy.
• There are often shots of EXTREME extreme close-ups, such as the man's eye. 
• The editing for "Bleed" is very quick, and the shots change every half-second or so, so the viewer is shown more. 
• After these shots, there is a two-shot featuring the man and another man, on all fours in terrifying make up, in a collar behind him. The man on the ground is dressed in traditional "black metal" facepaint that is a big scene in Sweden, where Meshuggah are from.
• The main protagonist of the video is slowly slipping into insanity; this is characterized by the use of distorting the camera lens so it bends the shape and alters his appearance. 
• There are also lots of flashes used in the lighting, especially when the two men are screaming at eachother. Similarly, there are plenty of recurrences of similar shots used throughout.

There is a reference to the album cover of obZen as well, as
this figure is the same as the art.

• The narrative follows the protagonist quickly being taken over by darkness as another strange character turns him into his slave using his mind.
• I think the lighting is the most imporant feature of this video; most of it is dark apart from light focused on the light fixed on the main characters, though there are flashes of red as well to reinforce the song's message and title, which is about a brain aneurysm. 
• The filming style carries on in this hectic way up until the point where the man becomes the mysterious entities' slave, becoming so which is depicted through a series of strobe lights and mid shots. This video focuses heavily on the mindset of insanity. 

Our protagonist exhibiting a massive amount of rage, another key theme of the video.

• The video ends with the man slowly transforming into another one of the creatures that first pursued him; this is shown through another series of flashes and shadows, and the man is shown below his master, almost identical to the design on the album cover. 

Music Video Deconstruction 12

Song: Meddler
Band: August Burns Red
Year: 2009

• August Burns Red is an American, Christian metalcore band, from Manheim, Pennsylvania, formed in March 2003.
• The band is primarily known for their heavy breakdowns and odd-meter riffs. They state Between the Buried and Me, Misery Signals and Hopesfall as their main influences.
• "Meddler" is taken off their third album, Constellations, and was released in 2009.
• It is the second single to be taken off, after "White Washed".
• "Meddler" is both a narrative concept and a performance-based music video, with the band playing in one location and other events happening elsewhere. 
• The video begins with an extreme long shot of a hill's horizon set against a burning orange sky, with a man holding what seems to be a massive balloon.
• There are a few following shots of various members of the band (you assume so, they are all silhouettes, shadows) creating a narrative enigma, toying with the balloon and examining it, all on the horizon.
• The vocals come in and the performance of the video begins; the band begin playing in a corn field at night, but there are huge lights burning down from the sky in the backdrop. 

• The two sets of narrative begin; the band start playing with lots of close-ups and panning shots to include every member, and the surreal narrative concept begins again as well, people running around brandishing balloons.
• There are lots of shots involving the camera encircling a band member, normally at a close-up range, in order to focus on everything they're doing.
• In addition, some of the footage is obviously done with a hand-held camera as there is lots of shaking shots, especially during heavier parts of the song.
• During the first solo, the camera is focused almost entirely on JB, the guitarist. There are a few intermittent shots of the strange narrative as well. 
• There are many shots as well of Jake (Luhrs, vocals) performing his role against the same backdrop as the narrative concept, i.e. the sunset and the bright orange sky, yet no other band members are shown this way.
• There are a few moments where the film is tilted to the side anti-clockwise, such as the men running with the balloons about two fifths of the way through.
• Dutch angles are also used frequently when filming Matt (Greiner) on his drums, yet the tilts are subtle and not overbearing. 

More of the video for Meddlers' strange narrative; there is also a constant narrative
enigma as to who the figures are, yet I assume it's the band. This part of the video
doesn't seem to have a storyline either, just a series of random occurences.

There is also a large focus on instruments during certain areas, like this close-up of
JB's guitar whilst playing his solo.

• There is also a varied mix of lighting, the orange skies often blend with the bright white lights of the band's performance area, giving the video a more striking feel. 

Music Video Deconstruction 11

Song: The Bloodening
Band: Johnny Truant
Year: 2006

• Johnny Truant was a British, Brighton-based metalcore band, formed in 2000.
• The band recorded their debut release The Repercussions of a Badly Planned Suicide (which featured three remixed songs from their second demo) in 2002 which was released on Undergroove Records. Their second album, In the Library of Horrific Events was produced by Killswitch Engage guitarist, Adam Dutkiewicz. The band have toured the UK, Europe and Canada with the likes of Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Cancer Bats and Alexisonfire as well as playing Download Festival in 2005, 2006 and 2008.
• They were set to support Bring Me The Horizon in the US with Misery Signals and The Ghost Inside, however on October 31, 2008 the band unexpectedly announced on their Myspace that they were to split following their December UK tour.^[1] The band played their final show on December 17, 2008.
• The video for The Bloodening is taken from their second album, In The Library Of Horrific Events, released in 2005.
• It begins with an extreme long shot of the band as the guitarist plays the opening notes of the song; in the second bar, it switches to a regular long shot of the band.
• They are all wearing white t-shirts and black jeans in this video, and all instruments are darkly-coloured.
• The lighting is very limited as well; the only light in the room shines on the band, with the rest of the area in darkness.
• As soon as the drums, vocals and bass come in, there is a very brief flash of lettering across the screen, the title of the song. It appears for about a fifth of a second, and it was very hard to get a picture of on YouTube! 
• The camera begins to focus on Olly Mitchell, the vocalist, as he begins the vocals of the song. The camera is on a crane due to the height of some the angles used.
• The high-angle pans across the band as they play, following the guitarist, vocalist then bassist. 

• The camera often zooms back out to its establishing shot, i.e. the extreme long shot that shows all the band playing.
• In the parts where Olly isn't screaming, and he's singing, a handheld camera is used, either that or a camera that's being shaken. There is a close-up of him that is repeatedly shook to add atmosphere to the song and video.
• There are a few over-the-shoulder shots used, especially when focusing on Paul (Jackson, drums) that are done using a crane as well.
• Similarly to the title card used extremely briefly, there are frequent flashes of shapes throughout the video, such as fire and rain. They only appear for a fraction of a second. 
• The shaking camera style is used extensively when focusing on vocals, and at both low and high angles it is used as well. 
• A brief bit of narrative concept is implemented around halfway through the song; various members of the band are seen running through series of grimy, stony corridors. The shooting style here is done using a handheld cam, and a lot of blurry effects are used to hint at the slipping of sanity.
• In the middle part of the section, with the clean guitar break, a strange orange tint is applied to the film, giving it a more atmospheric feel again, even though it is subtle. 
• Once the song lurches back into its metallic start, the same hectic style of filming is applied again, once more with a quick flash of text, this time displaying the lyric "BURY THE CORPSES". 

Another flashing title, this one only came
up for about a third of a second.

The pyrotechnics used.

• The video ends with the band playing the end of their song as a ring of fire and smoke engulfs them, adding a pyrotechnic aspect, and atmospheric one to the video, using the same ELS style of shooting as they had done before. 

Music Video Deconstruction 10

Song: (Threw It) On The Ground
Band: The Lonely Island
Year: 2011

• The Lonely Island is an American comedy troupe composed of Akiva "Kiv" Schaffer, Jorma "Jorm" Taccone, and David Andrew "Andy" Samberg, best known for their comedic music. Originally from Berkeley, California, the group is currently based in New York City. The group broke out due to their collective work from 2005–2011 on Saturday Night Live. Samberg and Schaffer continue to work at the show, with occasional input from Taccone.
• "On the Ground" (album version known as "Threw It on the Ground") is a song sung by the band The Lonely Island from their second studio album Turtleneck & Chain, and an SNL Digital Short which aired on Saturday Night Live on October 3, 2009. Andy Samberg is the lone member of the band who appears in the video. He plays a character who is extremely cynical and possibly in some sort of quarter-life crisis, walking down a city street and throwing things he is given on the ground.
• The video begins with a fade-from-black transition and a medium-long shot of Andy Samberg sitting on a stool. 
• The lighting of the performance piece of this video is immediately noticed, as the only light in this part is on Andy and his microphone, and the whole rest of the room is in darkness. 
• As he begins singing the lyrics to the song, the camera changes to a mid-shot and the lighting and his face become more clear. 
• He describes in his lyrics exactly what happens in the narrative concept of the video; Samberg is shown "walking down the city streets" and he refuses an offer made by a salesman by literally throwing the product on the ground in an enraged and comical fashion; every time he does this, the object, be it energy drink, cake, a hotdog or a phone, is shown careering towards and smashing on the ground in slow-motion.

Samberg refusing to accept a free hotdog.

I threw it on the GROUND!

• Samberg sings the lyrics in the video to the startled vendors and salesmen at frequent points, such as the lyric "I ain't gonna be part of ya system!" in their face. These are normally shown with close-ups to reveal the expression on the characters faces.
• The chorus of the song always begins when Samberg throws something on the ground, as it is emphasizing the anger in his voice and the energy of the song.
• A few over-the-shoulder shots are used, like the picture above, as an unsuspecting employee tries to do something for him.
• The camera often focuses on Samberg after he's literally "thrown it on the ground" to capture the bad temper with use of a close-up.
• The lyrics are often shared between the performance cut and the narrative concept; such as him exclaiming after refusing a free hotdog "You can't buy me, hot dog man!" both sets of video sing this lyric.
• The video puts forward various clichés that would be found in serious types of this music; such as the double shot of the same person, singing in two camera angles, one a side-shot close-up and the other a mid-shot. 
• Even though Andy Samberg is a fairly renowned celebrity himself, the video includes cameos from two major actors, Elijah Wood and Ryan Reynolds who are having dinner at a restraurant when Samberg comes up to them, calling them "Hollywood phoneys" after being apparently asked if he wanted their autographs. He then proceeds to walk up to their table and flip it upside down in slow motion, much to their dismay. 
• The "phoneys" then proceed to chase Samberg and violently punish him with a taser, as the performance and the narrative fade to black. 

Music Video Deconstruction 9

Song: All I Want
Band: A Day To Remember
Year: 2011

From the top, left to right: Ed McRae from Your Demise, Vincent
Bennett from The Acacia Strain, Sam Carter from Architects,
Winston McCall from Parkway Drive, Jake Luhrs from August Burns
Red and Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon.

• A Day to Remember is an American rock band from Ocala, Florida. Founded in 2003, the band has released four studio albums, nine singles and eight music videos. They are mainly known for their unusual amalgamation ofmetalcore and pop punk as a musical style.
• On January 6, 2011, the band showcased the official music video for the first single taken from the album, "All I Want" through an MTV premiere.
• The video for All I Want is taken from the album "What Separates Me From You", released in 2010. 
• There are two parts to the video; one is the performance, and the other is kind of a mix between a narrative and a performance, as it is lots of members from other bands singing ADTR's lyrics.
• The video begins with some extreme-close up and panning shots of the band's flyers and posters advertising their band name and various shows, while a mono copy of the pre-chorus is heard playing quietly in the background, as though it was on a radio. 
• The camera then is blurred but then zooms out to focus on a microphone on the floor, and another shot of Jeremy (McKinnon, vocals) writing something in a notepad or book. It is a close-up without you seeing his head, then the camera changes again to a mid-shot of Jeremy, then to an ECU of what he's writing, which is "Thank You", which is for his fans. 
• For a split second here, you see a superimposed scribble on the paper, which has been done with CGI, and is used a lot in the video. 
• The song begins properly, and the band are shown playing in a small room with their posters and flyers plastering the walls and floor. It is mostly shot with mid-shots and close-ups, and more focus is put on the instruments when certain parts are played, same goes for the vocals. 
• When certain lyrics with a lot of emphasis are sung by Jeremy, the lyrics themselves often appear superficially on screen, like in the picture above.
• There are a few tracking and panning shots used during the band's performance, especially when following the vocalist's movements.
• The lyrics are often shown not just as words but as shapes as well, such as the words themselves being inside a musical note.
• This is where the most unique part of the video begins; many, MANY different bands, but all in the same vein as ADTR's genre, start singing the lyrics at alternating parts in the video; the bands are: Crime In Stereo, Tom Denney (ADTR's old guitarist), Veara, Bring Me The Horizon, Silverstein, Parkway Drive, The Devil Wears Prada, Andrew WK, Fall Out Boy, Millencolin, As I Lay Dying, The Red Chord, August Burns Red, Comeback Kid, Seventh Star, Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster, Architects, MxPx, Your Demise, Trivium, Pierce The Veil, The Acacia Strain, This Is Hell and Set Your Goals.
• These bands, or members from these bands, make an appearance each throughout the video, and are often shots with extreme close-ups or close-ups, so more emphasis is applied when they're shouting the lyrics at the camera. 
• The video ends in the same way, with the band ending their performance with a mid-shot, and Jeremy walking away. 

Music Video Deconstruction 8

Song: Early Grave
Band: Architects
Year: Late 2008/Early 2009

• Architects are an English hardcore band from Brighton, England, formed in 2004.
• Architects was founded in 2004 and are currently signed to Century Media Records worldwide and Distort Entertainment in Canada. The band has toured the UK and Europe with bands such as Bring Me the Horizon,SikTh and The Chariot. They have played at a number of independent UK festivals, as well as the Download Festival 2007 and 2009, and Sonisphere 2009 and 2011.
• The song "Early Grave" is taken from the band's 2009 album, Hollow Crown. This was the last album considered to be a typical Architects record before they vastly changed and revamped their sound with the 2011 album, The Here And Now, which takes a much more radio-rock turn as opposed to their conventional tech-metal sound, employing the use of intricate guitar and drum lines and specialist methods of guitar playing. 
• Early Grave is the first single off Hollow Crown, with a second single, Follow The Water, released later on.
• The most striking thing about the video for Early Grave is the way it is shot in ALL black and white, there is absolutely no colour.
• The video begins with absolutely no sound; there are a few shots to open the video, and the first of which starts the narrative for the video, as it is performance and narrative based.
• The band start playing the song suddenly, so it is quite shocking and jumps out at you/
• The style of shooting is immediatly recognizable; it is shot by a hand-held camera, and you can easily tell due to the constant shaking and moving about.

• There are also lots of zoom shots too, especially when Sam (Carter) starts the vocals of the track, as the camera focuses on him.
• This is also where the narrative begins; there is a masked man who is shown walking around the cityscape, seemingly lost and alone. He wears a suit and a bandage around his whole head; this may be reminiscent (or just a coincidence) of the Funeral For a Friend video I deconstructed earlier. 
• The band are often shown also from quite a distance while playing, and often a panoramic shot featuring the whole band using a long shot.
• Once again, this is another video that has a great deal of quick transitions and editing, between members of the band and the band themselves, and the man in the narrative, who is often depicted in long shots and close ups.
• The makers of the video used a special technique for filming the drums; there was a camera and monitor mounted on a chair next to the Dan (drums) and it was remotely operated with a joystick, and the operator zoomed in and out extremely fast. 
• It may be interesting to note at this point that Adam Powell, the director if this video, often works with bands such as Architects, including Bring Me the Horizon, Johnny Truant and Young Guns.
• At this point, the man in the narrative has put on a mask and wrapped it around his head; giving the character an extremely creepy feel. He is often looked at in these scenes through close ups so you can see his "face" more clearly.
• There is a constant continuation of switches from performance to narrative; the performance shots are never more than a second long, whereas the narrative often stays in the same shot for more than a few seconds, but not long enough to become boring. 
• After a while you begin to notice that the man in the narrative is totally alone in the video, there are no other people at all. This is acts as a metaphor for the message of the song.
• There are a few bizarre moments where, during long shots, the performance cut changes angles, such as being shown upside-down or to the side, which is rather unconventional. 
• Once the melodic part of the song begins, the narrative pace changes, and the man is shown sprinting through a forest; this is done with a handheld camera as well, and it changes the atmosphere of the video and song as it is more uplifting.
• For the performance at this part, a lot of mid-shot low angles are used to show Sam, who is doing clean vocals for the first time in the song and therefore needs the focus. 
• The heaviest part of the song, the end, begins and the man is seen at a high angle, signifying weakness and failure, taking off his bandages, yet a narrative enigma is created when the face is not shown. The performance is focused on Tom (lead guitar) at this point as he is the only one playing in the beginning. The video ends with a spiralling high angle shot of the man zooming out, and the band fading into darkness. 

Music Video Deconstruction 7

Song: Mothership
Band: Enter Shikari
Year: 2006

• Enter Shikari is a British post-hardcore band with elements of electronica, dubstep, and drum and bass, formed in 2003 in St Albans, Hertfordshire.
• They have become notorious for their fusion of the aforementioned genres, something which has never been done before. 
• "Mothership" was released as a single in 2006 but they only printed 100 copies, and it was also released as a digital download, and did very well in the iTunes store. It is from the album Take To the Skies. 
• The video for "Mothership" was shot at The Underworld in Camden, London on July 2, 2006 at a live performance and was filmed by overhead cameras, angled from the ceiling.
• The video begins with Rou Reynolds, the vocalist, operating kis keyboard and electronics section on stage as the song begins; obviously the music is perfectly asynchronous as it is a live show.
• The next camera then shows the live audience, obviously enforcing the fact that it has been recorded at a venue and at a concert. 
• The cameras alternate rapidly between each band member as the song begins, and the opening power chords is then played; this provides a binary opposite to the angles used already as it is a mid shot of the guitarist taken at a human height, rather than on the ceiling. 
• The vocals come in very soon as well, and Rou is shown shouting the lyrics into his microphone, this is shown through a close up low angle taken from what looks like his keyboard stand.
• The song gets in full swing and each band member as well as most of them in one shot are shown, in a series of midshots.
• The audience are also shown having fun and getting pumped over the music, moshing, headbanging; all archetypical ways of acting at an event such as this, and these are shown through midshots looking down.
• There are also a lot of lighting effects used; obviously it is a live performance so the lights on stage would act as the lighting for the video; there are lots of strobes and flashes of red, green, blue and yellow as the video progresses.
• The camera also often shows more than one person, such as this shot where Rou and Chris Batten (bass) are on stage together, doing vocals. This is a two-shot technique, and a midshot. To film this, there was probably a cameraman in the audience. 
• Editing for this video is extremely rapid and fast paced, no shot remains on screen for more than a few seconds, and the camera angles change all the time.
• When there is a guitar break about a minute into the song, the camera focuses primarily on Rory, the guitar player, in a variety of shots, such as close up, low angled and high angled. 
• The camera shots are cycled often seeing as they are in fixed locations; some show Rou's keyboard setup, Rob (Rolfe, drums)'s overhead camera, one near Chris and one near and in front of Rory, mostly providing close ups and mid shots for a more intimate feel. 

  

  Bassist Chris Batten with one of ES's iconic glowrings.
  

• The cameras often get the recieving end of the live show as well; there are often frequent moments where they get wet due to water being thrown about or hit by the audience or band members, and this too adds to the feel of the show.
• Enter Shikari, at least in their earlier videos, sported glow rings on their fingers, which are small devices that emit a coloured light, often blue or green, to add to their lighting of the shows; for example, as well as the video for Mothership, they also wore them (but unlike Mothership, the audience wore them too) in the video for Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour which again contributed to the rave feel they are well known for, and to the energy of their songs and videos.
• The video ends with the band finishing their live performance and them applauding the crowd; Enter Shikari are well known in addition to their interactions with their audience.
• I believe there is now strict method to how the director (or indeed the band themselves) filmed this, they simply put a few cameras around the venue at certain intervals and points and swapped between them, with no proper direction as a detailed one is not needed during videos like this. 

Music Video Deconstruction 6

Song: You Want Romance?
Band: Funeral For A Friend
Year: 2006

• Funeral for a Friend are a Welsh post-hardcore band, from Bridgend. Formed 2001, they have released five studio albums, five EPs, sixteen singles, one DVD, and one compilation album.
• This song is released from one of their early singles as a B-Side, the Escape Artists Never Die EP. 
• The video for You Want Romance? is entirely narrative base, with no band performance at all.
• The video itself continues a theme that Funeral For a Friend used to implement quite a lot during their early years; the front cover for their first proper album, Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation, depicts two figures, a man and a woman sitting on the Welsh countryside (FFAF's home area) facing away from each other, "Casually Dressed" and with cloth masks over their faces; the band continued this theme with a few single artworks, such as their singles for Juneau and Bullet Theory. 
• The video itself begins with some very brief establishing shots, there are two shots of the moon under a grey skyline, and the camera quickly transitions to a long shot of a car driving up a country lane in the grey environment, reminiscent of the band's album cover.
• There are several shots following the car, both close ups and medium shots as well, and we then see the driver, who is the masked woman from the band's album covers and other videos. 
• Very soon after she is shown, the second character from the band's ongoing theme is depicted, shown by a close-up low angle of his legs as he walks directly in front of the car.
• Another thing that this character does is use his index and ring fingers to make a gun with his hand, as if it was a real weapon, and threatens the woman driver. There is a distinct over-the-shoulder shot of the driver here, and also a long shot of the man. This metaphor for weaponry has been used in Funeral For a Friend's video for Bullet Theory as well. 
• A tracking shot is used here as the camera follows the man as he gets in the car and forces the woman to drive. There is absolutely no speech or dialogue in this video, yet it is still very apparent what is happening during it. 
• There is then a high angle shot depicting the car driving off into the distance, with the sun shining over the horizon, shown through a long shot.
• The two then get out of the car and recreate the album cover for the single itself, i.e the mirror on the docks picture. Here, CGI is used, as the reflection is different to that of the person standing in front of the mirror. The pair then also recreate the cover of FFAF's album Casually Dressed In Conversation, as they strike the same pose as is done on the cover. Similarly, the two masked figures also dance in a way reminiscent to the video for Escape Artists Never Die, except the dancers in that are dressed normally. 
• The lyrics of the song also tie into the video, as Matthew Davies-Kreye sings "And you heels look so beautiful against the carpet" as the woman dances with heels on.
• The two then proceed to kiss intermittently in a series of strobe-lit flashing close ups, and the cloth masks are removed subtly, revealing another mask below, which seems to be a porcelain one, once again similar to the one in the Bullet Theory video. This, of course, creates a narrative enigma as the two figures are never identified or shown properly. Bizarrely, the next masks are then taken off then lit on fire, yet the identity is never revealed. 
• The man wakes up with his mask back on, and, shown through a variety of tracking and panning shots, searches for the woman, then, in slow motion, takes off his jacket and shoes and jumps into the nearby lake, perfectly asynchronous with the drummer hitting his snare and cymbal as the last part of the song plays. 
• A number of transition shots showing the man struggling in the water with some sort of box are done with quick cut editing, and then using a zoom-out shot, the man opens the box, showing, even stranger, a faceless baby boy; the masks and the facelessness obviously show some connection and link between identity.
• The man then staggers backwards in shock after he opened the box (again using slow mo and asynchronous editing, and slams the box shut as the song ends, with no transition out, in place a straight cut to black.