9 Frame AnalysisLittle May - Dust

This is a long, establishing shot of were the video is set, I thought this was an important shot as it introduces the setting and gives the idea for where the rest of the video is set. The lighting is very subtle and pail, suggesting it’s around sunrise. The pale colour scheme is conventional of dream pop/ indie rock music.

This is a medium long shot of an object wrapped up on the floor, I thought this was an important shot as the full video is based on this object and you don’t find out what it is until later in the narrative. There’s a deep focus on this as it still shows the settings of the abandoned stay. The mise en scene gives the impression that the woman is homeless as of the place she is staying and her dirty clothes, the item wrapped up looks like it could be a child or an animal which may have been close to her in the solitude place. The object is centered slightly off the middle so that the attention is on the object and keeping up the rule of thirds but still showing the setting – this may be to give the audience an idea on what it is that is on the floor.

I thought this medium close up of the woman with her head in her hands was an important shot for the narrative as it shows you she is distressed about something but hasn’t given it away yet to built up the tension. The tent may be placed behind her to show us this is the woman who is staying/ living in this place, she centered in the middle using the rule of thirds so that full attention is on her and allowing the audience to realise the video is based around her.

This is a recurring shot of the band playing in a low key lighted room by a large window, there’s lighting coming from outside the room and I really like the effect it gives off. The lighting may be to symbolize the eerie setting as the song lyrics are based around something quite haunting. This is also a convention of music videos – showing the band playing the music within the music video; even though they aren’t in the narrative they are still shown in video. All the members are wrapped up on clothes suggesting it’s the winter season or that its cold – this may be to symbolize the coldness within them as death and mourning can make you feel this way. It also relates to the lyrics as it mentions spending the summer months with someone so it shows you the timeline of the narrative of the song – how they are looking back and feeling nostalgic about what they are singing about.

There’s the use of many long shots and medium close ups to show the woman trashing the place where she was staying and then collecting her bag and the object which shows the change of mood and moving the narrative shot. Even though these are two shots I thought they were both important as it moved the narrative on and the lighting used and shot from behind is very important. I really like the lens flare from the sun – it feels like the day has moved on and its towards the end of the day. It’s as if the video was focused on showing her reflecting her thoughts and then acting towards them.

All the objects she’s throwing look like camping equipment suggesting she’s alone and camping or homeless.

After the shots of following the woman through the country, it becomes very dark showing its night and we finally see this close up of the woman holding a paw showing the object wrapped up was in fact a dog. Perhaps her only companion in the wild – if you also listen to the lyrics it saying how she misses something and about dust suggesting death and mourning.

To follow this on there is long shots of the woman with fireworks in front of her, I like the effect that it gave to the lighting and the smoke making it very atmospheric. When making my music video I would like to try and experiment with lighting and smoke to create this effect. Within the lyrics it says about ‘fires’ so these fireworks and all the smoke create the relationship between the video and music/ lyrics. It also may be used to link the lyrics and music to suggest the idea of dust and cremation of the dog.

To finalise the video there are many low angle shots looking up to the sky to show fireworks suggesting the woman is celebrating the life of the dog. These props are also used to create imagery in the video as so far it’s been quite subtle lighting – there are more shots during this point as the pace of music is a bit faster so the shots and colour palette has also changed with the music.