Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Pendulum- Showdown: Video Analysis

Pendulum’s Showdown


This narrative video depicts the life of a female who is forced to fight others for men’s entertainment and her eventual escape. The video depicts males very negatively as captors and users of women who strive for freedom.

Location:
A gritty, run-down industrial estate. Many shots are long and incorporate a lot of the jagged and sharp silhouettes of the metallic location of the music video. The director has done this reflect the sharp and heavy sound of the music. A focus on decay and dirt as a lot of the scenery is collapsed sections of the warehouse the fights are taking place and shots of rubble and broken glass are used in the background.

Mise-en-Scene:
The narrative of this music video is heavily character led and so, the female lead is frequently centre shot. In the second half of the video, where she escapes, she is often seen interacting with the gritty location, this reflects electronic music’s transition from underground to mainstream. In the first half of the video, shots often start with nothing in focus, and the characters then move into the shot. There are also many shots of the angry men in slow motion to highlight their thuggish behaviour.

Costumes:
Very simplistic and dark costuming has been used as the focus is more on the story being told then how the characters look. However, one key difference between the female character and the males is that her clothes are wasting away and are filthy where as there is very high end, well looked after outfits. This fits in with the narrative of the video, she is the male’s prisoner and as such, looks that way.

Camera Angles:
The camera often tilts to disorientate the audience and reflect the distortion of the music Pendulum produces. High angle and low angle shots are incorporated into many sequences to display which characters have dominace over others. For example, in the opening few shots, the camera is tilted down to the female and up to the males to show she is literally owned by them.



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