Music Video Analysis of 'The Wild' Paper Shop Dave

Jake Maud's Final Video for Paper Shop Dave- 'The Wild'

As I have been given the task to analyse music videos, I thought I would choose to analyse another students music video. Even though this is a student video, I really do think that it is of an exceptional standard and is definitely much better than some professional music videos that I have seen. Therefore, I will analyse this video in the same way as the professional ones as I believe that this video will give me some valuable inspiration. This video was created by Jake Maud of Punchline records for a Nottingham Band; Paper Shop Dave. They are an indie band and so will have a narrative similar to what I wish to create.

The narrative 

The audience assume that the narrative is revolved around the progression of a drug prominent relationship between two teenagers. This is purely a narrative based performance, with no performance in the video, as non of the band members appear. I think this is effective because it creates a sense of a narrative the entire way through the music video, so doesn't distract away from this. The video is seen to progress, showing the relationship of the two characters develop over the 6 minutes and 5 second duration, as well as the journey they take, showing them in different settings, from a beach at the beginning as an establishing shot, to an abandoned school, and also a bedroom setting, showing the effects of being intoxicated, until the end where the audience assume for the character to have committed suicide, promoting the danger of drugs. It is really effective how there is a beginning, middle and an end.

The relationship between lyrics and visuals 

The title of the song is 'The Wild' which is represented throughout the narrative, as essentially this is what the teenagers are depicted as; being wild. They are frequently shown to be taking drugs and drinking alcohol, which has a negative impact on their relationship, as the audience sees how the relationship begins to slowly fall apart.
There aren't really any specific lyric and visual links, apart from in one section of the video. This is shown through 'Don't look at me into these eyes' where the characters are seen to be looking at each other. The fact that there isn't much lyric and visuals representation, it is still really effective that just a narrative is portrayed throughout.

The relationship between music and visuals

The music doesn't cut to the beat of the music, only occasionally but this is not intentional,it is most likely to be coinsidental. The solo instrumentals are not illustrated by instrumentals, as the band aren't present within the video, so the narrative continues during this part. In addition, the video changes pace with the music, as the shots are slow towards the beginning and then build tempo at the end. The edits and cuts become faster as the music increases, so some parts of the video are sped up for effect, again to portray an intoxicated effect.

Camerawork

At the beginning of the video, an establishing shot is used to set the scene of the video. There are also mainly two shots throughout the video, to portray the realtionship between the two characters. As well as this, there are many different shots incoorporated into the video, such as high and low shots of the car towards the middle of the video. The use of extreme close up shots are also really effective to show the detail or sheer emotion of the characters.

Mise en Scene and editing  

The editing is very effective throughout the video. I really like the cinematic techniques, for example the entire video is edited to a sepia/faded colour sceme, with effective use of shadows and colour overlap. I think this is very effective and is something I would like to include in my own video. As well as this, the effect of the distored images and overlaps of footage really emphasises the intoxicated image. 
In terms of their clothing, the two main chatacters are seen to be wearing 'indie' clothes, such as patterns and quite alot of black. This reinforces the indie feel. Moreover, props such as false drugs (talcom powder), drugs and cigarettes are used, which again promotes the dangers of taking drugs. The lighting throughout is fairly dim, especially in the indoor scenes which creates a fuzzy effect on the video, but I think this is effective. 

Intertexual References

As this is a local band who are fairly new on the scene, they only have one other video by them. Again, this portrays the indie genre. This video is called 'Next Day' but is a performance based video, which differs to 'The Wild' as the band appear and mime the lyrics. Like in 'The Wild' music video, no sexual references are made.

Conclusion 

Overall, I feel as though this video might be something I would like to take inspiration from. This is because the narrative is very creative and incoorporates different shots effectively. As well as this, it has a significant meaning which is obvious to the audience. On top of this, I like the overall edits and the cinematic techniques used and think it is very effective.