Camera
Many high angle shots have been used to represent the young boy in the narrative to make him look somewhat more diminutive, vulnerable, insignificant, weak and inferior. This is definitely something I will look to incorporate in my own work should I choose to use the theme of children in my narrative, as it only exaggerates how they can be presented as isolated and this will give me the subject of binary oppositions to talk about in my evaluation. When the vocalist features, he is centralized within the frame and funnily enough does not receive as much screen time as the characters in the actual diegesis of the video, which connotes that the band are proponents of minimalism and would rather allow the narrative of the song to be continuous than use up all of the screen time themselves. However, when filming the man bearing a pigs mask, the camera represents him through the use of a low angle shot to connote superiority, and also make the figure look more formidable. Also, long shots are used to show the difference in stature between the boy and his father to elicit a sense of empathy and compassion from the audience, and with the way the lighting has been adapted it presents the characters as mere silhouettes which creates an element of iconography within the video - an image that will stick with the audience and remain in their mind until they spot similar references of intertextuality in other texts. At one point, a canted angle is even used to connote that the scene is a memory or that maybe even that the audience are viewing something they should not be looking at, whilst also making the audience themselves feel isolated to help them empathize with the protagonist in the narrative/diegesis.
Mise en Scene
Throughout the video there is low-key lighting used, which is interesting considering the theme of the song and in fact the diegesis is about the relationship between a a young boy and his father, which creates a binary opposition between youth which we normally see as carefree and enjoyable and the dark lighting which casts far more negative connotations about the general feel of the video. This low-key lighting works well in conjunction with the clothes worn by the band - the vocalist in particular sports a very dark shirt as this goes hand in hand with their identity as a rock band and as a subculture, this is a binary opposition to the characters in the diegesis such as the child who wears slightly more vibrant colours that are made out as ostensibly dull by the low-key lighting. This lighting is more apparent when the vocalist features on screen, he is given slightly less time on screen than the characters in the narrative which goes someway to connoting that the band are more focused on the narrative of the song and making music than 'showboating' in the video, which is a performance/narrative video. In terms of the chiaroscuro elements of the video, it is shaded quite darkly when referring to the narrative, this in turn gives the impression of a distant memory or nostalgia and gives an incredibly psychedelic effect, however, this is slightly more to do with editing but can be made applicable to the mise en scene. In addition to the notion that the band want to exhibit the narrative rather than take up all of the camera time themselves, the vocalist is at times (notably at 01:44) obscured by branches of a tree/plant, which goes even further in showing that the band are trying to avoid allocating themselves all the screen time which is done to signal that they are not interested in taking all the 'glory' in terms of the video and they merely want to focus on producing music, which will earn them fundamentally respect from fans and other artists alike.
Editing
A blurry and almost 'watery' effect has been added to the video in post production to give the effect that the footage is a distant memory in the recesses of the protagonists' mind, and also connotes nostalgia successfully through this editing technique. There is also an obvious use of inter-cutting between the vocalist narrating the diegesis and the narrative itself within the text to ensure that the narrative develops and unfolds quickly so that the audience do not become bored by the video which may otherwise seem mundane. Slow motion has been employed at times to give a more dramatic effect to the footage, whilst in the editing process it has been maintained that there should be a synchronous relationship between the audio and the visuals, this is why when cuts are made to different parts of the narrative corresponding to what is being sung (e.g. 01:08 when the vocalist sings "could you teach me to throw?" footage of the boy playing with a ball and then throwing the ball follows, maintaining a good relationship between the audio and the visuals corresponding to the lyrics). A dip/fade to black is used at 01:39 to connote the end of one part of the narrative and the beginning of a new and also this happens to be when the chorus ends - again, maintaining this good relationship between the narrative, visuals and audio.
Sound
In terms of sound, as I have previously mentioned, there is a distinct relationship between the audio and the visuals, but other than this, no sound effects or non-diegetic sound is used and it is merely the original "Cats in the Cradle" soundtrack that was released in 1992 that gave the band exponential growth in popularity and great commercial success.
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