Black Chandelier, Biffy ClyroAnalysis

• The initial shots of the video (on the left),shown before the music comes in, gives theaudience a general tone about the video. Thefact that they all contain very low keylighting implies that the video’s narrativewill contain darker themes that a pop videomight.

• The use of a narrative in Indie-Rock musicvideos, like this one, is conventional. This isshown in the follow examples of other Indie-Rock music videos that have a narrative.

Giving Up The Gun,Vampire Weekend

21 Guns,Green Day

I Always Knew,The Vaccines

Breezeblocks,Alt-J

• The extremes close ups of black liquid shown in these early shotssets the abstract tone and theme of the video. The meaning to thisconcept is ambiguous; this attracts the audience to the video as theywant to find out what the artists are trying to represent with the useof this imagery.

• The theme of darkness is consistent in these shots with the initialshots of the city. This maintains the tones of the video as being dark,mysterious and ominous.

• Many Indie-Rock music videos make their narratives unclear to tryand get the audience to interpret them in different ways and also tobe original and portray their themes poetically.

• The lead singer (shown on theleft) is portrayed in a shallowfocused close up. This brings himclose to the audience, allowinghim to connect with them, as ifhe is directing the song at them.

• The fact that he is sweating andis not wearing a top suggests thathe feels very passionately aboutthe themes he is singing about.

• The video is conventional to othermusic videos in the way that it cuts toand from the artists performing/lipsyncing the song.

• The next shot shows the other bandmembers. Both of these are shown inone shot to demonstrate that they areless important than the lead singerand shouldn’t be focused on as much.

• The extreme long shot of the band (shown below) has an oppositeeffect to the close ups by distancing the audience from the artists.This shot makes them seem ominous and mysterious as they areconcealed in the shade of the low key lighting.

• The use of direct address(breaking the 4th wall) bylooking directly at theaudience allows the artistto further connect withthem. This is beneficial asit makes the audience feelas if the artist is speakingto them and in turn findenjoyment out of thisconcept.

• The absence of a shirt, greasy hair, various tattoos and unorthodox locationaccumulate to portray the central artist (and by extension, the band) asrebellious and atypical. This is a common theme that Indie-Rock bandsdemonstrate in their videos. Another example of this is shown on the nextslide.

• The artists of this Indie-Rock video demonstratetheir independence andrebelliousness throughmethods described on thepicture to the right.

Unusual haircutLeather jacketsUnique prop

• The unusual narrative of the people paintingin black running has an unclear meaningand therefore attracts the audience to themusic video and they are intrigued by it.These shots are likely to be symbolic of anidea or an event that is consistent with thesong.

• The tilt up used in this shot provides theaudience with an idea about the meaningof the song. Due to the fact that the tiltstarts by showing the black-painted-peopleand ends with the outside location of theband, it is implied that the people arerunning towards them. This may meanthat the narrative is about somethingcoming to get them – like an unresolvedproblem.

• This idea is reinforced by the later shotwith the singer in the foreground and thepeople in the background walking towards

• The fast pace of editing used throughout the music video are common withIndie-Rock music videos due to the fact that the tempo of the music isusually fast also. Many scenes contain more than one shot of the samefocus (e.g. a band member). This is used to maintain the fast pace of theediting without having to show something new in each shot. The fast paceshows that the genre is exciting and energetic rather than sombre.

• The destruction of all the black-painted-people at the end of the songdemonstrates the idea that at the end of the song the problem is conqueredand a new equilibrium is achieved.

• This portrays the artists are strong as the symbolically defeated the issue athand.