Task 8 - Analysis of a music video (Nirvana)

 The video that I am analysing is Nirvana's song Smells Like Teen Spirit, this is the music video for it:


 Camera:
- Nirvana's music video has a lot of straight cuts and camera pans throughout, the camera pans and straight cuts are present clearly when the tone of the music changes. You can see this at the start when the music and beat is slower the video has straight cuts but most of the shots in-between have camera pans as the music is slower and smoother and is reflected through the pans, however in the chorus the beat starts to get faster and the camera stops panning and starts to do just straight cuts as the beat is faster and therefore "jumpier" and is reflected by the straight cuts. Goodwin's theory states that the beat of the music can influence the music video and that is seen quite clearly here.


Sound:
 - The beat of the song changes throughout the video as it starts off smooth and when the chorus kicks in at 'With the lights out, it's less dangerous' the beat starts to get faster and inturn the actions in the video start to become more frantic along with the camera shots. The lyrics and the tone of the song get reflected well in the layout of the set as it is very dark and creates a negative atmosphere. This can be proven through Goodwin's theory that the actions in the music video match the lyrics or sound either in tone or in what the words are trying to say, you can see that is present here as the lyrics and beat of the music clearly powerfully dictate the music video.

Mise-en-scene:
 - The costumes worn by the band and the audience in the stands are mostly dark colour which reflects the emotion the song releases as it creates a dark and gloomy effect, this complements the lighting in the shots as well. The main props throughout the video are the bands instruments, this is common for a band of their genre (rock) as this is the common theme across most rock bands music videos for example in Muse's video Uprising.

Editing:
-For this video to match the darkness of the props and setting of the video they added a brown tint to the video to make the video seem like they were in a dingey and dusky building, this effect gives the video connotations that the band playing there should not be there as if it is an abandoned building. They also used a slow motion effect when the drummer flicks his hair up and down when playing the drums at 1:09, this is to put an emphasis on the drummer and the passion that he puts into playing his music and this is 'head banging' which is a dance move of this genre of music.