Texual Analysis 1 - Shake Me Down by Cage the Elephant

  The song 'Shake me Down' is about nostalgia, regrets, and phases of happiness and sadness in life.  The message of the song is, that despite how testing life may seem, you have to have try to stay strong and positive, grasping onto a glimmer of hope no matter how hard it is to find. // ''Even on a cloudy day, I'll keep my eyes fixed on the sun''  

The video's narrative is closely linked with the lyrics, telling the story of an aged man's death, showing his life flashing before his eyes in a series of memories, before he reaches the end of the vision and meets his deceased loved ones 'on the other side'.  I've decided to analyse this video in particular for several reasons.

i) There are overlaps in the genre of this band and RHCP, therefore I can identify conventions within the music videos of the 'alternative rock' style of music, and apply them to my own product.

ii)  The two songs' meanings play on a similar theme; having regrets in life, reflecting on things, death and loss, nostalgia etc.  Furthermore, the moral of Shake me Down is something I would like to incorporate into my video. Through analysing this video I can find interesting ways to represent these themes.  

The first scenes are shot at the beach and have a vintage effect over them, or have been filmed on a vintage camera.  This is a representation of the band's style as their music and image is inspired - like many alternative rock bands - by old styles and vintage music.  

  Not only this, but old footage is a device used in film making to represent nostalgia/the past.  This paired with the image of a man stood looking out to the sea is most likely a reference to one of the lyrics: 

"In my life, I have seen

People walk into the sea

Just to find memories

plagued by constant misery"

This is a deliberate use of media language devised to represent both the lyrics and plot, and the style of music along with its ideology; something from which I can take inspiration in planning my video. 

On closer inspection, you can see that the people posing in the photographs are actually the band members.  Through this, the band are integrating themselves into the narrative and creating a connection between the two.  I will discuss this more later.

Filmed during winter; a season symbolic of death.  At this point we think the character is still alive, but subconsciously we may start to understand the plot through the messages that the location is giving us.
I'll be filming my video during the colder months so this will work for me in a similar way.

Different shot types are used to keep the viewer interested, and develop the narrative.  We see his facial expression which shows that he's becoming more tired from running.  Seeing the character's face also helps the audience to connect with him as we can empathise more easily.  We can also see the change in location as he moves from the clear way of the road into the woods.  This could symbolise his journey into the unknown, and the viewer becomes stays hooked as they want to know where he's going.
The camera movement also become more shaky and it seems to be a handheld camera.  This matches the movement of the character and creates a sense of connection between him and the viewer; like the viewer is running along with him.
It should also be noted that at this point in the song, the sound is loud; the movement of the camera connects what we see on screen with the song.  This creates cohesion between the audio and visual.

There is then a close up shot of the man's face.  The camera is moving much less and we can tell that he has seen something.  This shot comes onto the screen and at the same time the music goes quieter.  This adds suspense, develops the narrative along with the song and further establishes the connection between the viewer and the character.

We are then introduced to the location where main part of the narrative takes place.  Again, there are shaky camera movements as we follow the man through the narrative at the same time as him.  This reinforces the relationship between the character and the audience as they feel like they are going on the journey with him.
There have been shots on this location prior to this point in the video; however they were shots of the band and the location was still out of context in relation to the character.  This is the start of the cohesion between the band and the narrative, as it puts the man's journey

Again the use of the vintage footage is representing the vintage influence on the style of music.