Pendulum - Propane Nightmares
Technical aspects of the video:
At the beginning of the video the scene is set with establishing shots of a forest. The use of the blurs portray a sense of mystery and the unknown. We also noticed that the tracking shots aren't always perfectly smooth, they all have a subtle unsteadiness. We think thats this technique adds to the overall eeriness of the video and almost makes the audience feel dizzy. There is also use of some low angle shots around the church, which we feel is used as a warning, due to the previous people losing their lives in the narrative. The low angle shot also hints at the church building being superior to the characters in the video. In the church theres also a lot of close-ups of the priest, this show him as a powerful figure in the music video, because he is relevant enough to have a lot of shots based on him. All of the opening shots are all tracking in the same direction, this gives the viewer a sense of continuity, and we thought this was quite an effective technique to use.
This is a low angle shot hinting at the warning from the dead and possibly representing the audience being inferior to those above them.
In the beginning of the video the pace of the editing is quite slow to match the opening pace of the song. As the song begins to get faster in tempo the cut rate speed increases, usually matching the hit of the snare drum. Lip synching isn't that much of a common occurence through-out the video. It is used occasionally during the performance parts of the video and also used quite effectively by the protaganist, the priest, and the music video's protagonist, the man with crutches. The whole video is treated to have a monochromatic/sepia tint to it, to help set the scene of eeriness. The main post production effect is towards the end as the protagonist leaves the church out the window with the stereotypical damsel in distress. As they run into the forest, a thick cloud of souls rise up out of the church to symbolise the people inside who had just taken their own lifes. The costumes used in the video are normal clothes/church-wear, all clothing is also dark and dull colours to help set the scene. The locations used are the forest, the church and at the end of the video, a street in the city.
Narrative / Genre aspects:
The genre of this music video is techno/dance, however the aspects and features of the music video are completely different to a typical techno music video. In the video, the narrative shows a group of people walking through the woods going to a church where there souls are then taking from them. This sort of effect gave us the impression that the genre was quite a dark, possibly gothic and sinister rock video.
The video had an illustrative narrative as it was easy to follow and had a good sense of continuity to it. From the beginning of the music video, it explained to the audience the story behind it. From the beginning to the end it was clear that the main focus was on the male on crutches saving some of the people from being killed. However at the very end of the music video it does involve some disjuncture. This is when there is a shot of the escapees on a street in an urban environment. This is completely seperate to the locations used in the rest of the video and gives the audience a sense of confusion.
There is definitely a performance aspect to this video, because through-out they are acting out as if there going to this run down church for a good reason, however when they get there the main protagonists realise what the priest's intentions are and 'save the day'. The priest and the male in crutches both play crutial roles in the performance aspects as they really grab you into the video as if you were there. A lot of close up shots are used on these characters to show there significance to the plot.
From looking at this music video thoroughly, we have noticed the balance between the narrative and the performance. The performance is very strong and convincing and this really portrays the narrative to the highest standard. The balance has been created well as the two factors of performance and narrative link well with each other without one overpowering the other.
Overall opinion:
As a group we have decided the music video is quite effective. It's effective because every shot and every post-production effect added, helps to convey the mysteriousness and danger of the situation that is brought across in the song's lyrics. The narrative also helps the music video to link in with the song and brings the overall experience of the production to the viewer.
As viewers, we have decided that the production really grabs you into the story of the music video and along the way this makes the audience feel un-easy and disorientated about the narrative.
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