JB - Video analysis 1

Music Video Deconstruction - Baby, It's Fact by Hellogoodbye - Justin Bishop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7pXE-KwoUo


Genre and Narrative
The genre of this song is Power pop. This genre normally consists of electric instruments, usually a piano or electric piano is involved, strong melodies and crisp vocal harmonies. Videos of this genre will usually be upbeat and quite lively. This is evident in this video. For example at the end there are a lot of people running around after the football players are chasing around the high school band. The electric instruments and piano are all shown clearly at the end of the video but are also shown throughout the video at random places. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This can be seen when he says 'its true, the part about my love for you' and it cuts to him looking at her in a loving way. This is done may times throughout the video. During the voting scene he says 'The word black is black and blue is just blue' and the colours in the background are black and blue. There is a very strong relationship between the music and the visuals. Though most of this video is double narrative it is also heavily performance based. You can see Forrest singing a lot of the time in this video. Also there is a performance part at the first chorus, and at the end where you can see the band playing their instruments. There are a lot of close ups of the lead singers, Forrests, face throughout the video. There are also some close ups of the other band members. This would be just to show the fans that they are there and to also show the realism of them playing their instruments. There is a little bit of notion of looking in this video. One example would be when they are promoting Forrest to be president and one person licks a picture showing the singer. This video is mostly narrative based because it clearly shows a love story narrative and a narrative about him running for class president. It is heavily performance based though because at the end the band can be seen performing. This video would be amplification because it has a link between the lyrics and the actual video, but it does also have some creativity and run away with an idea that has nothing to do with the lyrics. I do not think that this video would be considered art because I feel that this video is made for commercial reasons. It fits in with the bands normal music video conventions of doing videos based on not a lot. This could be considered art though because it is like a mini movie and is well made.

Media Language
There are a lot of close ups and meat shots shown in this video. The main reason for these would be to show off the stars appearance and to also show some reality in him singing as well as realism with the band playing their instruments. There are close ups on the main character showing his nerdy shows and his short shorts and different attire. This is supposed to show that he is a nerdy character who that attractive girls would not really go for. There is a zoom from mid shot to close up on the girls that he likes face. This is to show how she has an attractive body and then to show how attractive her face is. There are long shots of Forrest looking at the girl in a loving manner. This is to show that he has a definite attraction towards her. There is a close up around three quarters of the way through of Forrests face in an angry manner after showing a midshot of Blake being crude towards the girl he likes. This close up is used to show that he has love for her and that he needs to do something about it. When Forrest is waiting at the girls locker for her it shows a midshot of his head and then people walking very fast past him, obviously sped up. This is to show that he would have been waiting for her for a while and furthens his lust for her. After Forrest finds her book and is waiting outside to give it to her when she is talking to her friends, it shows a close up of her looking at the camera and then cuts to a close up of him appearing to give her back the book and talk to her. Later you find that they are a fair distance apart and that he hasn't quite worked up the courage to talk to her. This video is set in a high school showing typical high school love. When in detention it shows the band playing instruments though their are no amplifiers or a drum kit. Also it shows Forrest playing a picture of a guitar in a book. There are special effects shown at the end when they are performing. There is some fireworks behind the band playing. This is used to liven up the performance and make it seem more happy and upbeat. There is a reference to popular culture in this video, which is a reference to the typical high school love where a nerd falls in love with a pretty girl and gets her in the end. This is like a lot of high school love movies and could in some way be a parody of one.

Representation
The band are represented as quite fun and lively in this video. This is shown in their appearance. For example on of the band members is wearing a cowboy hat throughout the video which could be seen as eccentric seeing as he doesn't live in Texas and isn't a cowboy. Also when Forrest is shown promoting his running for presidency he is seen wearing ridiculous and outgoing jewelry and the band member next to his is shown eating a piece of paper. Also one of the other band members is shown messing around with the ballot people whilst voting. This should help sell the song and the band to a younger audience because it shows that they are a fun band and quite outgoing like most teenagers seem to be these days. In this video Forrest is seen as a geek. Geeks are represented as the worst people in the school in this video because he is seen as losing the class president election even though his friend put a lot of votes in for him. Blake is put across as quite mean because he is seen taunting Forrest. The football players are put across as being quite mean too because they are seen chasing the school band around the football Field and beating them up too.

Institution and Audience
This video would be consumed by more of a focused audience. The reason for this would be because it has a narrative that you may have to see from the start of the video and people flicking through channels may not be able to understand or may find the video uninteresting. Also this video would be for fans because people watching this video who don't know about the band from previous may think the video is stupid. This would be viewed on a mainstream channel such as Kerrang because Hellogoodbye have quite a large fanbase. The record label would have a big role in the creation and promotion of this text because this is one of the bands hits from their newest album. The record label would want to capitalize on the bands recent success by pushing money into a video for their latest song so that their fanbase can grow and current fans would be left happy.