Music Video Analysis.

Artist/Band: Bullet for My valentine
Genre: Rock, Metal
Song Title: Tears don’t fall
Album: The Poison
Director: Scott Wining / Tony Petrossian
Year: June 2006
Location: Studio, London
Audience: 14 – 20 yr olds (Male & Female)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdSzt0r0ydI

After briefly watching the video for the first time, from my first impressions I can see that the video is very stylistic, the video is washed with the colours green and blue, Green in the narrative parts and blue in the performance parts. This gives the video a very dark and mysterious feel to it, making the watcher wanting to watch on and also is a type of exhibitionism, as it makes the band look ‘cool’ and ‘stylish’. The video also has strong stereotypes of the rock genre, the video plays on emotion, love, anger and revenge through the main protagonist a woman, who is dressed in ‘rock fashioned’ clothes. Furthermore the usage of ‘black magic’ and voodoo dolls to get revenge shows reinforces the view that most people have outside the genre that rock music can be ‘dark’ and ‘evil’, this contrasts with the lighting, which is very dark and again help sets the tone for the music video.

Also I notice that the video has been cut down in length from 5:48 to 4:37 and that also the lyrics have been changed, as in the original album version their is swearing in it and furthermore in the music video there isn’t. Both of these changes can be explained by ‘commercialization’, by making the song less offensive and shorter it makes the video more likely to get played on music video channels, however this risks upsetting fans of the original version of the song. Overall this music video doesn’t interest me that much the narrative isn’t very compelling and as a whole quite boring. Although the performance side makes up for this as we see the band playing in the rain, smashing things up looking ‘cool’, it is clear that to make a good music video you need both performance and narrative to be of a good, watchable standard. Furthermore the mise-en-scene and iconography is very tidy, with nothing out of place and things like the clothes the actors are wearing to the equipment used by the band all help to reinforce the music’s genre category.

Looking at the video in more detail, the opening is very good. It uses the music intro to build up tension and suspense and shows close up shots of at first fire, then rain then the band in the rain. This is all done in slow motion, and when the intro ends and the screaming beings the shaking effect on the camera releases that tension and suspense allowing for the verse to build it up again.

In the 1st verse the cuts have slowed down and there is use of tracking, point of view, medium and close up shots. And we also see the narrative part for the first time. Washed in green, the narrative part is cut, to the beat and singing of the music with the performance side, washed in blue. And although the cuts are about the same in numbers, the performance cuts last a lot longer making it easier for the viewer to grasp what’s going on, although here it isn’t done very well, in the verse, it is trying to show to much at once, 1 second we see the main protagonist, a woman walking up to a car that’s steamed up and can see hands at the window, then it cuts to her handing over a torn photo of her and a guy, and then it cuts to that guy in the car with another girl. All this, plus cuts with the performance will leave the viewer not understanding what is going on.

At the bridge, before the chorus we see the return of the shaking effect, therefore correlating with the lyrics and performance it gives the effect of anger and emotion, which is being released. The shots used, again are limited, with mostly close-ups used on the band. The correlation between the music, lyrics and visuals is very fluid; they match up well and give the viewer a good understanding of what’s going on. For example in the chorus, the lyrics (“your tears don’t fall they crash around me, her conscious calls the guilty to come home”) and the visuals of close up shots of the female protagonist seen in distress and anger with fast cuts of shots of what is believed to be her boyfriend making love to another man is a very good way to perceive the song to its audience. I believe the audience of this music video would be 14-20 year olds how are familiar with this type of music genre and its lifestyle.

At the end of the song we see the main female protagonist getting her own back on her boyfriend by enlisting the help of ‘black magic’/’voodoo’ and is a type of voyeurism, cuts from her stabbing the doll to the guy in pain are fast and happen more often as the music is building up to its climatic ending. As the song is finishing the band is seen smashing the equipment up. This is a very notorious and common trait with the ‘rock star’ lifestyle and again is a type of exhibitionism.

Overall the video leaves a good impression on the viewer and definitely is re-watchable. There is no use of CGI and any evidence of intertextuality. I believe that I can take some good ideas out of this video that have worked effectively for it. Technically it is a very simple video that follows a structured format that is tied to the core of the music and lyrics.