Analysis of two music videos

I'm going to Analyise the two music videos above the top video is Hard rock Hallelujah by Lordi and directed by Pete Riski and the other one is Dead Memories by Slipknot and directed by Paul Brown.

Mise-En-Scene

The mise-en-scene for hard rock hallelujah consists of an American high school. The central character in the music video is a teenage girl who is dressed in a black top with jeans and she carries a cassette player attached to her jeans. She presses play on the cassette player and then the song begins, the character then walks down a corridor full of other people who are pushing and shoving her the corridor is lined either side with lockers, she heads towards the gym where she stops and notices a group of cheerleaders practicing. The lighting is very low key and washed out throughtout the music video, next thing that takes place is that lighting gets even more low key almost black, and blue flashing appears as the band break down the door into the gym and take over the rest of performance. The cheerleaders then turn into zombie slaves and our heroine marches down the corridor leading her zombie slaves to get her own back on eeryone who pushed her earlier in music video. The band are all wearing masks and dressed to look like the undead. Their is intextuality used also within the mise-en-scene. The intextuality is that of a zombie film as the cheerleaders turn into zombies, the lighting becomes more violent like lighting and each of the band members dress like the undead anyway.

In dead memories however the mise-en-scene changes often from room to room as the lead singer moves through different rooms each with its own theme. Each theme differs greatly from the last one, but the one thing they all have in common is that one other member of the band is in the room with the lead singer, however as he moves from room to room they remain, almost like their trapped with a memory.

Cinematography

The Lordi music video uses a range of medium long shots, midium close ups and close ups. There is a tracking shot right at the start of the video following our lead character as she heads out of the corridor and into the gym. Also this tracking shot the camera is moving backwards as the character is walking towards the screen and so is facing the front. Throughout the whole video we never see the behind of the lead character or any members of the band. Nearly all of the close ups used are for the instruments that the band is playing, the rest of the shots are either of the band or the lead character being surrounded by the zombie cheerleaders.

In Slipknots video the camera shots are very interesting for one of the rooms the camera is set to monochrome. this is when the lead singer enters the room with guy who has spikes in his head the reason this has been filmed this way is because it makes the picture surreal and interesting to look at. In the first room one of the band members is crawling all over the walls while the lead singer walks normally along the floor.

Editing and Visual effects

Their is alot of lights flashing to represent lighting within the Lordi music video from the moment the band enteres. Before the band enter everything is in slow motion as our heroine walks down the corridor and enters the gym. After the band enter the editing quickens in pace and cuts to the beat of the music.

In slipknots video the editing varies from room to room but gathers pace towards the later rooms. All the editing is done in time with the music like the Lordi video however their are more visual effects used. The lead singer falling from the ceiling into the first room is done in time to the music beat. Also all the motion taking place is varied but mainly cut to the beat. The video also uses jump cuts and slow motion towards the end of the video, however the slow motion is used only to make the scene seem more dreamlike or surreal to continue the concept that each room is a different memory.

relationship between visuals and lyrics as well as the relationship between visuals and the music

In the Lordi video the visuals are cut to beat of the music and all the motion of the band is in time to the music, suchas the drummer druming in time to the songs drum beat, before the camera cuts to the guitar when the guitar kicks in during the music itself. The visuals have been edited together in a way that makes the lyrics seem like a speech or instruction directly from the band to our heroine in the video. All the zombie cheerleaders also dance and react in time to the beat, and before turning into zombies they clapse just before the lyrics say "all the true believers, they will be saved" represting that our heroine is the only one who gets to live as she is a true believer.

In slipknots video the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics is that each room is meant represent a different memory from the bands past. And the editing quickens in pace as the song grows more intense and each room becomes more surreal and visually busy on screen in time to the intensity of the music and lyrics. As the the lead singer moves quicker also through each room as the music builds intensity before becoming trapped by one the band members in a corridor shaped room, this takes place just as the song slows down again, however the editing now jump cuts intime to the beat making the band member come across as scary, powerful and violent. Again the visuals cut to a faster beat once the song regains it's pace.

Genre characteristics

Both the music videos feature the same genre characteristic for rock/metal music videos however they are used sightly differently. In the Lordi music video the band are clearly seen playing their instruments doing a performance within the video. This is very typical of rock/metal music videos. However Slipknot also appear in the music video however instead of doing a performance, they instead have become part of the concept of the video. Their still performing in the music video but in a completely different way to the normal performance characteristic that rock/metal music video feature.

Concept, narrative or performance

The Lordi music is both narrative and performance. The narrative is a spin on the high school acceptance storyline, where an unpopular kid tries and eventually becomes the most popular kid school. In this case our hero starts off as the unpopular kid in school, but then Lordi break into the school gym turn all the cheerleaders into zombie slaves while they do their performance. Heroine leads zombie slaves through the school corridors while everyone else runs in fear.

Slipknots video is only concept based, you could argue that because their part of the concept its could also be performance based, however they play any instruments in the video so I don't class it as a proper performance based music video. The concept is that the lead singer travels through different rooms each representing a memory or surreal event related to the band members.

How does the promo promote the band

Both music videos promote the band as dark and mysterious as both bands wear marks. It also shows that band members each have their own personia which is perhaps what the band members want to convey to their audience, and the Slipknot video in particular really shows off each of the band members personia's which promotes the bands identity and therefore the band themselves. The Lordi video also does this but instead by showing the audience which member plays which instrument so that the audience will know who does what before they even appear on stage.

Audience

The audience for both music videos would be 15-25 year olds who listen to alternative music mainly rock or metal music. The reason I think this is because rock and metal music feature lots of guitars and drum kits, and feature the band playing those instruments within the music videos for genre, And both Slipknot and Lordi feature all those factors in someform within these music videos which in turn appeals to this audience.