I have decided to analyse the music video to will.i.am's Bang Bang, which was released in May last year. I love the song but the reason I have chosen to study this video is because I am fascinated by the way it combines a 21st century synthpop vibe with 1920s jazz. This fusion is also conveyed in the music video.
Although applying theories and conventions is essential in order to create a successful music video, I have decided to focus my analysis of Bang Bang specifically on the textual elements. This is because I am beginning now to think about my own music video and I would like to gain inspiration from the use of camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene in this video.
The video is fairly short for a music video, being under three minutes in length. One of the main reasons for this is because there is nothing additional to the song like there is in some music videos. From a sound perspective, all that is really implemented is to insert the prerecorded track and mute all of the clips from in the video. The music video is entirely performance-based, as you can clearly see the artist singing throughout and even the musicians playing in the background.
Editing
The video does rely fairly heavily on editing in order to make it work and so I have decided to take a look at that first. The first few seconds of the video show will.i.am's static advert fade into the frame. This is a nice introduction to the video and allows for the audience to see the name of the song and the artist. This is not something that all music videos do but I love this idea because it is a nice way of introducing the artist and song name to the audience.
The most obvious editing in the music video is the consistent use of a 1920s sepia-style effect. This effect is very much like how the television would have looked back in the 1920s and so I think is a great editing technique in order to give the video an old jazzy vibe. Similarly, the final frame transitions to a black screen using a zoom-in circle that closes, again similar to what they would have used in the 1920s.
The entire video uses a very slow pace of editing. It rarely changes shot and only usually does so in order to show a change in the action on the screen. The pace of editing contrasts very much with the genre of music and so this is breaking a convention of the stereotypical pop music video. I think they may have chosen to do this in order to make it feel more like an old 1920s video.
Camerawork
The video opens with a low-angle shot of will.i.am and the band on the stage. Although usually low-angle shots would be used in order to indicate power, I think that another use of this shot is to give the audience of the music video the perspective of the audience in will.i.am's 1920s speakeasy. I think that this shot could be symbolic of a POV shot from the audience's perspective. However, this shot does also indicate power and show will.i.am as being the most important person in the music video.
The next shot used in the music video is a long shot of will.i.am singing into the microphone. The primary impact of this shot is that it gives the audience an opportunity to see his costume. However, the shot also clarifies to the audience that will.i.am is the person singing and that he is the artist of this song.
Next is a high-angle shot, giving the audience the first opportunity to see the entire stage and band on it. This shot does not indicate lack of status or power at all. Similar to a lot of the use of camerawork in this video, the shots chosen appear to be less for symbolic reasons and more for conventional reasons as a way of making sure the audience sees everything that is going on. This is the case with this shot that could also double as an establishing shot.
The next shot is another low-angle shot of will.i.am and the band but also is a tracking shot. will.i.am starts to walk towards the camera singing into his microphone and the camera reacts to this by progressively moving backwards. This is the only use of camera movement in the music video and this lack of movement is again similar to the 1920s.
The next shot, when the female singer enters, is a master shot. It shows the entire scene with everything that is happening within it, making sure the audience miss none of the action with the band, dancers and singers. Master shots are more common in narrative music videos but it works in this shot because it is showing all of the action.
The next shot is a mid shot of will.i.am and the female singer. This firstly gives the opportunity to see both of the costumes up close and also suggests a potential relationship between the two singers. This supports in developing a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. It also shows both of the people singing, again to clarify to the audience who the singers are.
Another low-angle shot next, but this time a further distance from the stage and this time is just of will.i.am in the foreground. In the background you can see the banjo players beginning to get all groovy and you see the rest of the band as well. It is a good shot, again, for showing everything in the frame.
The final shot in the music video, that remains all the way until the end, is a high-angle master shot. This shot gives the audience a way of seeing everything happening as well as giving a lot of space for will.i.am to strut his stuff in a fairly open frame as he is doing his tap dancing.
Mise-en-scene
All of the mise-en-scene in this music video is related to the 1920s. For example, will.i.am's costume is like a speakeasy performer's clothes from 1920s America. Also the band were using mostly brass instruments and instruments that were traditional. The only exception is the drum kit at the back of the stage, which is very modern and has will.i.am's logo on. This is a nice way of merging the jazz music with the synthpop.
Very little lighting is used due to the old-style sepia filter used throughout the video, and so it is difficult to suggest what lighting was used. The obvious use of lighting was the use of a traditional followspot on will.i.am when he is tap dancing. It is also used at other points throughout the video. It is very traditional, like what would be used in the 1920s, but does also have the purpose that the original followspot would have had - to make the main character more obvious and track them as they moved.
The actual location also helps to reinforce the main features of the music video. It is all shot in a room that has been transformed into a 1920s speakeasy. It has a basic tiered stage. There are very few 21st century elements to the scene other than the drum kit. Most of the more modern features are presented in a more physical form, such as the break dancers.
I really like this music video. Overall it is clear how basic it is, using very few shots, editing techniques and props. However, this is all symbolic of how life would have been in the 1920s and therefore I think this video really works at supporting in fusing the two such contrasting genres of music.
Oh, and one other thing....I GOT THE DRAGON!
The plan is to begin editing the video on Monday, and this is when I will begin to discover anything that needs to be filmed, or refilmed. But I am incredibly happy with the progress that we made today!
