Thursday, 21 July 2011

"Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box" Music Video Analysis



Sound - the first instrument heard in this song is a guitar, it gives the song a moderately paced feel which creates a nice sounding opening. The drums are then added to the sound allowing it to become more fast paced. The singers voice is then also added to the piece, his voice is soft and quite but coarse making it sound relaxed but dark. The combination of these three components creates a steady sound, however, they soon each being to build in pace and volume allowing the sound to become more intense. The male vocalist's singing becomes more like shouting and the two instruments play harsher sounding notes, futher adding to the intensity of the song. This song would be considered a 'rock' genre.

Editing - this video demonstrates fairly simple editing skills as there are no particularly complicated transitions between shots and no editing techniques used within the shots to allow them to look visually more interesting. However, at the beginning of the video the shots flash from one to another making the picture more shocking at is appears on screen. This creates an ambiguous atmosphere making the video appear creepy and bizarre.

Mise en Scene - the opening scene reveals a man in what would appear as a hospital bed, this image only consists of floor length curtains, a bed and drip, a cross on the floor and a chairs where three other characters are sat. Following this, the next scene is set in a field where a wooden cross is stood. Fake crows are sat on the cross and the character in the scene wears a santa hat. These simple props create a surrel effect within the scene as they show little reseblence of a message or ongoing theme. The following scene stays the same with the addition of the band members playing their instruments. This places them within the narrative, furthermore creating an ambiguous situation.
Placed in the the next scene is a tree with foetus's hanging, with a large woman dress in wings walking toward, but never moving foward. This is a dark scene with grotesque images which shocks the audience. Finally, there is a small child dress in all white running through each scene, this could resemble an angelic figure, as they appear pure. Each of the props, backdrops and characters interlink between scenes, thus merging all of the themes and messages. This could create confusion as there are no specific narratives, creating an ambigious and mysterious feel to the video.








Camera Work - this video consists of simple angles and shots as the attention would want to be placed directly onto the mise en scene. Most of the shots in this video are mid or long shot meaning a clear image is shown from a regular distance. This creates simplicity and the mise en scene can then clearly be regocnised. Close ups are often used on characters or band members faces to show their facial expression thus putting emphasis on the mood of the video and song.

Lighting - in the first scene (a male character lay in a hospital bed) there is no lighting except what would be considered as natural lighting creeping through the space between the curtains. This leaves the room fairly dark and badly lit as many shadows are created. This suggests the scene is dark and the lighting refelcts upon the mood within the room.
Following this, in the scene where the wooden cross is stood the lighting is fairly surreal as the colour within the screen appears unnatural. This would suggest editing has been used to enhance the colour and lighting has been used to create specific shadows and highlight other areas. This makes this scene appear more dream-like, further enhancing the surreal feel to the video. Later on, the sky in this scene turns from blue to red, making the image appear darker and more evil. This contrast could be considered as the difference between day and night or good and evil. The video carries on this way switching between the two colours, making the narrative and meaning of the video more ambiguous, which would be a substantial theme running through out. In the final few scenes where characters are shown in a bedroom, the lighting is coming from the walls which can be easily viewed by the audience suggesting there is nothing to hide and there are no hidden meanings behind the scene.

Overall this video demonstrates a surreal and ambiguous theme as the narrative is bizarre and there is a large contrast between light and darkness shown creating a strange and mysterious feel for the audience. This is a dark video, which means each of the discussed factors must be taken into great consideration when creating this piece to inject the correct components in order to represent the right amosphere for the video.

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