·
Using Goodwin’s critical theory in relation to
our production, we have successfully attempted to conform to the genre
conventions of our piece. Being a folk track, rural and naturalistic themes are
a regular occurrence in our video, with a colour palette made up of mostly
autumnal colours such as reddy browns and greens. The costume we used is also
highly conventional, with the male protagonist wearing a quilted burgundy coat,
jeans and brown leather shoes, which also worked to bring the folk genre into a
more modern setting. There were also elements of an older time, for example our
pianist wore a blazer, and the bassist wore a tweed jacket.
·
As well as this we see a clear illustrative and
amplified links between lyrics and visuals, and audio and visuals. An example
of the former being one of the first shots in which we see the male protagonist
dunking his head into a sink on the lyrics ‘Cold is the water’ which helps to
bring more meaning to and clarify the lyrics, an example of this in a real
music video by Mumford and Sons is in ‘Hopeless Wanderer’ where we see shots of
the band aimlessly walking around, or ‘wandering’. An example of the latter
being the shots of the guitar and the banjo playing in sync with the track,
which was inspired by the music video to ‘Bloom’ by the Paper Kites, in which
we see many examples of instruments syncing to a track. We also made the
majority of our cuts on the beat, to add a sense of impact and melodrama to our
production. We also made cuts off the beat at times in a bid to add to the
sense of disjuncture and confusion as the male protagonist looks for the
enigmatic female in the video
·
We also used a large proportion of CUs in
comparison to other shots, with a repeated breaking of the fourth wall. This
allowed the audience to properly grasp a sense of the emotional content of the
video, and created parasocial intimacy between the artist and the audience.
·
The notion of looking is present in the opening
shots in which we see the male protagonist looking at himself in a mirror.
·
Our video is voyeuristic in nature, as the male
protagonist and lead singer of the band is given prevalence throughout the
video.
·
The video is a fifty/fifty split between
performance and narrative, as is the case with many Mumford and Sons videos,
for example Ditmas.
Form
·
The form of a music video is apparent in our
music video through the use of montage editing to cut between shots of
performance and narrative. We have also used a relatively fast cutting rate (as
appropriate to the tempo of the song) which changes as the rhythm of the piece
changes in order to reflect the excitement towards the end of the track
Polysemic/ Closed
·
The texts are polysemic in nature, as it is
possible to interpret the music video in a few different ways because of the narrative
fuzz of the video, for example the relationship between the male and female
protagonists isn’t completely clear, which means that it is relatable for
audiences as they can apply what is occurring in the video to what is happening
or has happened in their own lives.
Binary Opposition
·
A binary opposition is created between the male
and female protagonists, particularly through the use of costume. The white of
the girl’s dress suggests innocence and purity, almost comparable to an angelic
figure. This could lead to the reading that she has passed away, leaving the
boy alone. The dark colours that the boy wears connote loss and sorrow, however
it is clear that he is very much alive, contrasting with the ethereal and
enigmatic female protagonist. This boy/ girl relationship is extremely conventional for the genre and can be noted in 'Bloom' by The Paper Kites.
Semiotics/ Signifiers
·
Some examples of semiotics and signifiers are:
·
Water
– New beginnings and moving on. Evident at the start of the video representing
how he has to move on from this girl
·
White
dress – This has multiple readings. It could represent the girl’s innocence
which links to the lyrics ‘It will steal your innocence’ which suggests that by
losing the girl, the male protagonist has lost his innocence. An alternative
reading is that the girl is dead, and the white represents her pallid
ghostliness.
·
Rural
Landscape – A key signifier of the folk genre, this has connotations of an
older time and a slower, more agricultural way of life, which reinforces the
band’s metanarrative of being slightly off the wall and having their own style
and musical voice. This is clearly displayed in both 'Ditmas' and 'Hopeless Wanderer' by Mumford and Sons.
·
Acoustic
Instruments – Another key signifier of the folk genre, this again connotes
an older time, with use of the banjo having links with bluegrass and folk
music, reinforcing the genre and the band’s metanarrative of again being
independent in their style. These are extremely conventional of the folk genre and are shown in the music video to 'Babel' by Mumford and Sons.
·
Colour –
We desaturated our image and gave it a green-ish tint in order to give it a vintage style which is typical of the band. A similar use of colour grading to give the footage a vintage style can be seen in Mumford and Sons' 'Babel' where the image has been clearly desaturated. The colour palette is fairly vibrant, until at the end, as the female protagonist fades
out, the image becomes black and white, showing how the loss of her has taken
the colour from the male's life.
·
Cross –
Our digipak depicts a cross in the background of the front cover, this clearly
has religious connotations, which are a strong theme in a lot of Mumford and
Sons songs.
·
Our piece is postmodern in nature due to the use
of narrative fuzz, which adds to the videos repeatability and interest. We have
also faded out the female protagonist in one of the shots whilst leaving the
male protagonist in the shot. At this point the image also desaturates,
creating a sense of postmodernism.
