Music Video Analysis

Chemical Brothers: Star Guitar (2002)
director:Michel Gondry
note -also directed 'Daft Punk's- around the world' which also matches the visuals to the music, but through the movement of dancers and routines.




Genre: House music

• The electronic drums and synthesisers along with the dance feel.
• Constant drum beat and repitition of music sequences
• layering many sounds and beats which makes it a more complex piece of music.

Editing

• one long take.
• the whole music video is an animation and so objects are placed within the shot appearing from the right in time with the beat of the music.
• as the pace of the song increases or decreases so too does the speed that the train is traveling at. i.e. the speed at which the objects enter the shot.

Camera framing

• framed so that the camera is inside the train looking out the window. -audience is placed in the POV of the camera. therefore is this narrative based or concpet based?

Mise-en-scene

Train journey through industrial works, a tunnel, town, housing, coutryside, etc.


There are no lyrics however there is evidence of an illustrative relationship between the visuals and the music! i.e. the visuals are simple one dimensional representations of the music.
Examples:

• As the train appears to be going downhill into a bricked tunnel the pitch of the music lowers. . 2.26-2.41
• As a specific rhythmic beat is produced, this is sinchronised with the visuals on screen which are specific to the instrument. eg. the initial snare drum is represented by the railway cable posts. e.g. The 16 beat synthesisers are met with the railings which are foregrounded in the shot. time 00.51secs.
• Train journey, fast paced through industrial works and faster/slower with pace of song. e.g. slowing down of the song and the speed of the 'train'/visuals through the urban area, 1.41-1.55. Also there is a mixture of disjointed vocals reflected in the number of pedestrians walking along the streets.
• Beat changes along with audiences vies.- gaps in the wall of the tunnel/ supporting walls
• As the instrument pitch tlowers the day fades to night and the reverse happens when the pitch increases.
• The dramatic interjections of increased pace is matched with the passing of a faster train.
  Cut to the beat of passing objects from the train window. E.g. 4 beats with four great pillars, one beat per house or building.

Audience

• this appeals to a wide audience in the sense that all ages will be fascinated by the efort and the visuals in the MV.
• the main audience would bee for fans of the band and their style of music videos and music
• the audience would also include those who are loyal to this niche genre in which the elements of it (i.e. the beat and the traditional instruemnts) are shown in a unique fashion throughout the MV.