The opening scene of this video is what inspired us, especially Emily, in the desired costumes to be worn during filming of our Music Promotional Video for the song “5 Years Time”. In the video, Noah and the Whale frontman Charlie Fink wears what looks to be a wintery jacket from the 1990s, and the bright colours sparked the idea of our character in our Pop Promo for “5 Years Time” wearing bright tennis or jogging tracksuits. The video is mainly shot inside a gym where band members perform gymnastics and dance, but the video is also shot outside, where the frontman (Fink) is listening to the song via headphones. They also stand beside trophies where photographers take their picture, with the band members singing along to the lyrics.
I like the ending to the video - this best describes and shows the effect which can use in our video, I think they’re called “Super 8mm” Type film cameras. The director uses mainly Wide Shots of the band as they try to show the audience the relationship between the lyrics and the music.
From what I can see, there are only two relationships between the lyrics and the visuals which are portrayed in the video. The first relationship is shown in the chorus when the band members have their hands over their hearts. The second occurrence in the video can be seen when and the shoelaces on their opposite-sided shoes are tied together. This shows that between the two shoes the shoelaces are the ‘one heart’, relating to the “2 Bodies and 1 Heart” feel to the very basic narrative. Fink sings of a relationship between him and a girlfriend, and how similar they are to each other.The relationship between the music and the visuals can be found near to the end of the video when the band members move their arms in time with the music (dancing), and even stop their dance movements when the song itself stops.
Genre characteristics shown in this video and song relate strongly to Indie folk music. The medium toned lighting of the video shows this, and Fink’s singing voice sets the tone of the music, therefore making it easier to identify the music genre.The video is performance based, yet the ‘faint-but-still-visible’ narrative crops up in many of the shots. The band members play their instruments, similar to what they do in other videos of theirs such as 5 Years Time. To me, the small narrative is relating to the way in which we want to win but want to win smaller games such as Primary School and Nursery games which we played when we were younger.This video does in fact promote the band as the only people to appear in the video are the band members (Fink & company). Interestingly, they appear in this video more often than in the other music videos the band has released, which goes to show that the director wanted to promote them as much as possible.
I reckon the intended audience is younger adults who are fond of Indie Folk music. Because of the immediate connotations of Folk music, maybe older people (45+) would like this new era of Indie Folk music.
The song which we are creating a music promotional video for is “5 Years Time”. It’s another of Noah and the Whale’s Indie Folk songs, included on the album “Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down” and was later released as an E-Single Digital Download. It reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart a couple of years ago, so this song was a massive hit for the group, considering the fact that it was released on their debut album. As far as I am aware, “5 Years Time” has been the biggest selling song for Noah and the Whale to date. Therefore, my decision to analyse their version of the video made for the song seemed appropriate as I can then see how the band’s interpretation of the song will differ from our interpretation of the song, and possibly use some of the themes used in their video to our benefit. The notes I gather from this video will also go towards my version of the Synopsis and my initial ideas for the Treatment of the video, and also for the Cinematography Treatment of my group’s final and developed ideas.
Visual Stylistics
M-E-S: The video is located in two locations - a theatre and in a park. The minor location is in the zoo, at the start of the lyrics when “we could be in the zoo” is sung. The theatre is decorated in old, dark 20th Century (or older) colours, objects and materials. A patterned red carpet, red curtains, dark wood panel walls, and a red sofa. Each band member is introduced during the opening instrumental verse. Behind “Doug” and hanging on the yellow stage curtains is a “5” shaped part balloon, highlighting the importance of this number and the name of the song. “Love” is printed on white and purple cushions on the sofa, mirror and pictures hanging on the wood panel walls. On-stage, the performers wear blue jackets, yellow nylon shirts and red-framed and black-tinted sunglasses. Sitting on the sofa, watching the class act, is the band members, dressed in blue pullovers and pretty much the same as the class act. On “sun sun sun” the band members act-out the movements of the sun with their arms in the park, wearing scout’s clothes (yellow nylon shirts and shorts, purple scarves), and on “fun fun fun” the band members act-out the movements of having fun, thrusting their waists forwards and backwards (only lightly, to not offend the video’s audience) on stage in the theatre, wearing the blue, yellow and red-framed glasses costumes. Near the end the band perform the song with their instruments and vocals. Then the band members walk through the park about three-quarters of the way through the video, on the spoken chorus without instruments, in scout’s clothing once again. Near the end the bartenders and band members dance behind the bar in-sync with the music, then the performers on stage bow to the audience. The video ends in the park, where the band members release two party balloons, one of them is the “5” from the theatre and the other is heart-shaped. Then they run off away from the camera.
Cinematography
On each shot of the band members, Medium Shots, Medium Close-ups and Wide Shots are common, and are used to not only show us the character but to show us where they are and what they are doing in that location. When “T’Bone” is playing his violin in the shot near the beginning with the ‘5’ balloon behind him, there is evidence of Key Lighting being used at a low angle pointing up (shadow above and behind him on yellow stage curtains). There is a Big Close-up of the guitar that frontman Charlie Fink strums in the opening riff to the song. On the lyrics, he sings “in the zoo”, so a Low-Angle Wide Shot is used to show him and Laura sitting on a bench in the zoo, as if posing for a photograph. A Medium Close-up of Fink singing and playing guitar.
There is a Big Close-up of Fink and Laura’s heads (at 0.54 seconds), when in the lyrics he sings “peek through”, Fink’s hands over Laura’s eyes, moves fingers to show her “peeking through”. At 0.59 seconds, there is a slightly Low-Angled Long Shot of the four boys from the band, acting out the “sun sun sun” movements, then again but in different costume for “fun fun fun” later in the song. There is a High-Angled Extreme Close-up of one of the boy’s feet at the end of the “sun sun sun” part of the video (1 minute 8 seconds). All in all, the video hasn’t been made with very complex shots, as the video needs to be simple in a similar way to the simple nature of the music and the lyrics.
Editing
The editing in this video is superb. Various visual transitions between shots are used, and the video is really lifted by its aged film effect and look and feel of the video with this effect. The transitions look pretty basic and randomly chosen, as if edited on the home-user’s “Windows Movie Maker” programme/software found on many of Microsoft’s ‘Windows XP’ computers, and not a professional video editing programme. Also, the way the video has been edited has a good impact on the viewer. The various, seemingly random transitions add more of a light-hearted nature to the video as they have been selected to give the video this kind of look and feel, and together with the aged film effects the cuts between the shots are spaced out but at medium speed. This is important as it would look uncomfortable to have too many quick shots in a video for a slow-paced song or too many slow cuts in a video for a fast-paced song.
Special Effects
In group production meetings we had discussed the use of the “Super 8mm” film effect in Final Cut Pro, which basically adds an aged look to the video, rather like the playback of old film from 1970’s which has aged, lost some of its colour and is jerky. I discovered that this feature has been used in the other two Noah and the Whale music videos which I have analysed, yet the aged film effect seems to have been used all the way through this video.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals
The video relates a lot to the lyrics. Obvious evidence is at the start with the “zoo”, the location is in the zoo, then the “sun sun sun”, “fun fun fun”, “love love love” and “5 years time, 5 years time, 5 years time” have acted-out movements that relate to the words that are sung. The band members even sing along with the lyrics almost always throughout the video, except where they are acting out the lyrics with their body parts.
Relationship between music and visuals
The visuals relate heavily to the music in this video, as the violins are visibly played when they are played in the music, and the guitar is visibly played by Fink on the opening guitar riff (30 seconds onwards). This goes for just about any other instrument, especially in the ending when the band are together, on-stage, in the theatre playing instruments and singing. The visual cuts between shots occur on the drum beats, as expected from Noah and the Whale videos.
Close-ups of artist and Star Image Motifs
In the opening thirty or so seconds, there are various Close-ups and Medium Shots of each band member with their instruments and their names printed on-screen as titles.
Intertextuality None, but the cushions and the chair when the band members are the audience (1 minute 14 seconds) remind me of a log-wood cabin café up a mountain near Mayrhofen in Austria.
Narrative-based, Performance-based, Concept-based or a combination?
The whole video seems to be performance-based, and as I have noticed in this and the other two Noah and the Whale music videos I have analysed (2 Bodies 1 Heart and Shape Of My Heart) there is a little bit of narrative involved, where they try and relate the video to the lyrics.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I must admit that the song is catchy and the video is fun to watch, as is their Shape Of My Heart video, and this video shows signs of sticking to their Indie and Folk genres, especially their “nu-folk” style video effects and transitions that really give the video a facelift from being like a home movie or a photo album, which is the idea that I have gathered from this video. Not only does the music stick to the themes that Noah and the Whale have set out in their other videos but they have added their own touch to the video, and instead of performing in the same way as other bands in their music video for “5 Years Time”, but they also act in their own videos, which for many bands wouldn’t be the case. This video especially has given be a different perspective as to how the band themselves view the song, which gives me inspiration to complete my own video based on the ideas gathered from this video and the themes used, which relate to the lyrics and the music. Therefore, I must conclude for the analysis of all three videos which I have looked at - I am inspired by the costumes used in 2 Bodies 1 Heart, I am inspired by the humour, the costumes, and character names and relationships in Shape Of My Heart and am inspired by the themes used in 5 Years Time which I hope to engage and use in my version of 5 Years Time.
Shape Of My Heart:
The next Music Promotional Video that I have analysed by Noah and the Whale is “Shape Of My Heart”, another of their Indie Folk songs from the album “The First Days of Spring”. The rhythmic high-pitched guitar music carries with it some of the characteristics you might find in Folk music, but Noah and the Whale, as seen and heard throughout the rest of the videos which I have analysed, are indeed a ‘nu-folk’ band and have added their own, independent ‘touch’ to this known music genre.
Visual Stylistics
MES: The establishing shot comprises of the back of a wrestler jumping about with his arms raised in a kind of superhero stance, in front of what looks to be a fairground attraction - a pack of cards lined along shelves, only the cards are bigger than normal playing cards (good use of props). The character “El Corazon” (the wrestler) first is in his wrestling suit, then in the next few shots he walks towards the “El Maxio Wrestling Club” in a smart black suit, yet still wearing his yellow facial wrestling mask. The Noah and the Whale band members are all wearing similar pale blue jackets and trousers (outside the Wrestling Club) and yellow shirts Mexican-style and all are wearing traditional Mexican-style black ‘Sombrero’ hats. When El Corazon enters shot in his black suit, the camera tracks right, with him on the left of the screen in a Medium Shot, giving him looking space as he walks in slow-motion to the right, the girl using wedding-style confetti and flower-petals to throw over him as he walks by her (she is now standing), giving this character a sense of importance in this video, which we later learn more about. Interesting use of smoke when Frank is introduced near the end of the video.
Characters, their ‘Tabloid Newspaper Headline’ nicknames, (and their costumes) and location where they appear:
- El Corazon (Wrestler costume): appears in every scene (all locations)
- The Communist “the Commy Wife Beater!” (Pirate/Nazi Officer costume): appears in the boxer’s workout room.
- Wolf Boy “Puberty Bites Back!” (Normal clothes and hair): appears in gym where El Corazon is weight-lifting.
- Vamparella “Busty Blood Sucker From Hell!” (Black and green exposed-cleavage tight suit): appears in toilets after El Corazon has flushed the toilet (notices her in mirror, humour as he first focuses on her breasts.
- Mr One Eye “He’s Only Got One Eye!” (Comic superhero costume with red drape and huge eye as its head): jumps down stairs to bottom where El Corazon notices him.
- Killer Robot “He’s Programmed... To Kill!” (tin-foil and mirror-like material-covered box): seems to ‘zap’ into the scene at the bottom of the stairs, like when Star Trek characters are ‘beamed to and from the U.S.S. Enterprise’.
- Frank “Just Call Him Sir!” (tall hunchback version of Frankenstein, without the pole-through-neck): walks crookedly through mist/stage-smoke into room of the boxing ring.
Cinematography: The second shot seems to be one of the longest during the opening sequence. The camera tilts down from a Low-Angle Wide Shot of the sign at the top of the Wrestling Club, then as the camera tilts and pans to the bottom left, the frame is zoomed in so that the shot has transformed into a Medium Shot of frontman Charlie Fink playing his guitar, then zooms out to show the girl of the group, pans left to the other group members by the door, playing what looks to be a larger version of a baby’s rattle, pans right to Fink once more and zooms in to a Medium Close-Up of the girl who is clearly sitting down. This is one of the most complex scenes in the video as so many features of the video-camera are used, such as the tilt, pan and zoom features.
Editing: The first titles to appear do so on his back in yellow, the typeface looks to be the kind used in a cartoon (reminds me of the opening sequence to The Flintstones), which reads: “El Corazon in Shape Of My Heart...featuring” with the ‘featuring’ in a smaller sized yellow typeface, and underneath this appears the “Noah and the Whale” square-typeface and shaped logo which appears in many of their videos, including “5 Years Time”.
Special Effects: The first shot has been cleverly edited to look like older footage, maybe a memorable time from the past. The simple yet effective old-age film effect has been added, along with the well known sound of old film, to give the opening establishing shot more emphasis over the rest of the video. The same effect has been added at a couple of other points during the video.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals
In terms of the narrative, the video doesn’t really associate itself with the lyrics. Having said that, the band members when shown are playing their instruments and Fink is miming along with the lyrics, so there is a little bit of performance.
Relationship between music and visuals
Each cut is in tune and occurs with the beats of the song, and various comic-book transitions, including the ‘zigzag’ transition, are used between two shots, mainly to stage the end of one of the characters’ scenes (their death) and onto the next character in the next fight-scene, keeping to the traditions of wrestling.
Close-ups of artist and star image motifs
Frontman Fink and the other band members can be found singing or playing instruments in all sorts of strange locations as we follow the story of El Corazon, the fictional wrestler. The girl is kidnapped by “The Communist (The Commy Wife Beater)”, the band members play instruments in the gym welcoming the arrival of “Wolf Boy” and Fink plays guitar in the toilets when El Corazon is confronted by “Vamparella”. Basically, the band members are focused in every scene except from the scene where The Communist is confronted with El Corazon.
Intertextuality
Possibly some intertextuality to the WWE (wrestling), and possibly references to slapstick comedy such as Mr. Bean, and also the aged-film effect and Mexican costumes could be references to old programmes from the 1970s.
Narrative-based, Performance-based or Concept-based, or combined?
Narrative-based with performance in the background of each shot of the narrative scenes. There is added humour to the characters: how they are dressed, how they act and how they fight with El Corazon, our main character and hero of the day. The ending starts with a heart-shaped transition from the downfall of Frank to the girl thanking and kissing her hero, El Corazon, the other Noah and the Whale band members clapping their hands together in acknowledgement of their achievement as storytellers - using good to defeat evil.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I honestly have to say that even though I have been analysing the video, it has to be one of my favourites now, mainly because of the humour in the fight-scenes between El Corazon and the characters in the character list above. The video shows signs of sticking to the Indie and nu-Folk genres that other music videos of Noah and the Whale show signs of, including shots and close-ups of the band members as they sing, play instruments and watch as the fictional baddies are taken down by fictional wrestler El Corazon. The ending seems to be the happy fairytale ending and really does conclude both the video and my analysis.
