analysis of student music videos

I am doing an analysis of Gunslinger by Avenged Sevenfold. This is a video of the rock genre, and I really enjoyed listening to it. It followed some of the conventions of a rock video as there was a big element of performance and there are many close ups of the band wearing traditional rock clothes and their instruments.

There is also a strong narrative element in the video. Overall the narrative and the video link together, however there are some points where the music doesn’t quite fit the tone of the narrative.

Mise-en-scene

The video begins in a forest scene. There are two people walking through the forest in military gear, showing that they are army combatants. They have guns at the ready which connotes danger.

The forest is very quiet and eerie, again connoting danger. When the enemy appears, there are close ups of the soldiers face denoting fear. Close ups of the dead bodies bring home the horror of the situation. This also helps to create a sense of realism to the viewer of the horrors that can happen in war for the viewers at home.

This scene is contrasted by scenes of his wife at home. She is shown sitting by a hospital bed with her husband lying in the bed. She is also shown in the church praying. It is very quiet and the atmosphere is spiritual and very sad.

She is shown in the graveyard putting flowers on the grave.

She is shown in a sitting room alone on a sofa with a photo of herself having just given birth to a child.

Sound

There is non-diegetic music heard throughout the video, with some lip-synching. The main lines that stand out is ‘I’m coming home to you’. This connotes that it is a message from the soldier to his wife, where is reassuring her that he is on his way home. It also connotes that all soldiers fighting miss their lives back at home and are looking forward to the day they return home to their families.

However some of the lip synching was a bit out of timing with the video but overall the song fitted with the narrative of the video.

Camera Angles 

The video opens with a fade in shot to a close up shot of a pair of army boots and army trousers. This draws us straight into the scene and gives us a feeling of danger and makes us realise this is an important character in the video.

There are many shots of the singer himself. Some are long shots showing him standing on the hill. This is stereotypical of rock videos, where the band and singer are the main focus. There are also lots of close ups of the singer, and again this is stereotypical as the record company would want as much advertising as possible for the band and the singer. There are many shots of the instruments which is again stereotypical of the rock genre.

The shots of the band members in an open and quiet place contrast the shots of the soldiers in the forest being shot at by the enemy. It connotes how the war is perceived by the people fighting and the people who aren’t fighting.

There are long shots of the soldiers walking in the forest, and the enemy is seen in the distance.

There are close ups of the dead soldiers which bring the horror home to the audience.

There numerous shots of a church and a church graveyard. Churches are considered a place of hope and faith. So the shots here are used to create a sense that the woman is desperately hoping for her husbands’ safe return. When the woman begins to pray for her husband, this again reinforces the faith and hope she has that her husband will be ok.

At the end of the video there are shots of the forest with the band playing with shots of the church superimposed over them.

Narrative

This video has a strong narrative content which runs throughout the video. It tells of two army personnel who are ambushed while on duty. It tells of the grief of the wife as her husband does not return.

The two army personnel are ambushed as they walk through the forest by a mystery character, possibly a Middle Eastern freedom fighter. As they are shot in a forest, this shows the realism of the war, as at any moment another soldier may get killed by any person in the Middle East. The first is shot outright, the second surrenders but is shot anyway at point blank range.This connotes that in war no-one is safe and anyone can die at any point.

Titling

There is an acknowledgment at the end of the video which reads

‘This song’s for all the men and women serving in uniform, protecting our country, protecting our rights. We pray they come home safely.’

M Shadows 2007

The letters are a plain font with white on a black background. This shows that the video is paying tribute to all the brave men and women who are fighting for their country and their families.