American Authors – “Best Day of My Life”

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS 2

The video opens with a mid-long shot that shows the band from behind. The shot is fuzzy but we can tell it features them walking down a street. Next there is a two shot that shows off both the main protagonist of the video and the bartender handing him a drink. This establishes a connection between the two characters. It also establishes the setting. Next there is a close-up to the protagonists face. Despite the fact we are angled slightly behind his face we can still see his down expression. Immediately as the song starts we cut to a extreme close-up of the band’s lead singer. The shot starts empty but the singer’s head moves into the frame. We see the side of his head which creates a connection between him and the protagonist as they were both shot from similar angles. This shot is also badly framed which connects to the opening shot of the band which was also badly shot in that it was fuzzy.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Next we have a mid-shot which is played for comical effect. We first off see the protagonist sitting, still looking down, in the bar. The camera then pans across to reveal the monster. The character finds out about the monster the same time as we do which establishes a connection between the audience and the protagonist. Another two shot shows the monster and the protagonist and immediately establishes a connection between the two characters, showing them knocking their beer bottles together. The first time we see the band shot clearly is after the monster has shown up. This could represent the monster helping to get the protagonist out of his down emotion, again establishing a connection between the performance and the narrative.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The first mid-shot of the two characters in the strip club has the two characters in the background while the stripper appears in the foreground. This can relate to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory as the woman in the video is being shown off in a revealing costume. Also the shot is shot so that the woman’s head is not in the frame. This again helps to back up the theory as it is saying that who the woman is does not matter, she is only there to be something for men to look at. The close-up shots when the two are in the photo booth are shot as if the camera man is stood looking into the booth, instead of being shot from inside the booth. This creates the idea that we are on the outside viewing the two protagonists instead of being part of the video. The shot is also shot at an angle that shows off the cramped space in the booth which creates a sense of realism in the video.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The long-shot that shows the two characters sat on the side of the road is used first in the sequence as a way to establish the location of the characters. The opposite to this is then done when the two are in the tattoo parlor. The first shot in the sequence is a close-up of a tattoo being applied to the protagonists arm. This is because this action can establish the location of the setting, whereas the last sequence could not. The shot where the two characters are running down the street is used for comical effect. The two have been put into slow motion and the camera pans up to reveal their faces. Both of these things are common used elements in the shooting of a comic piece of media. Slow motion can be used to make a situation otherwise not funny, funny. A pan can be used to build up the moment before the surprise comical reveal.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Towards the end of the video when the two characters are going to the bar, shots are used to establish a connection between the narrative and the performance until the two are merged together. There are many close-up shots used in this sequence to show off each of the bands instrument/the lead singer. We cannot see the location in these shots as a way to keep the location hidden until the beat of the song signals for the shot to move out to a mid-long shot and reveal the location of the bar. The long shot of the two characters walking outside the bar is used to establish a connection between the scene and the previous one. We immediately know the two places are the same, despite the fact it never having been said so. This is because of the expectation created by other music videos. The long shot featuring the band and the protagonists in the bar is the first to create a connection between the narrative and performance. The last shot of this sequence is a mid-shot the protagonists enjoying himself. This creates a correlation between the beginning of the video and the end of it.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The setting used for most of the bands performance is a street. The video features the band walking down the street, performing the song. This creates a feeling of the people in the band being plain and like everyone else as they are not being featured in a special location. The use of the bar for their performance at the end of the video also helps to create this connotation. The use of the bar also does this for the protagonist while also creating a connotation for the guy being a drunk as he is seen sitting in a bar in the day light. The lighting used in this clip is dark and dreary, reflecting the characters mood at the beginning of the video, as well as following what a conventional bar is thought to look like. One of the settings featured in this music video is a strip club. This plays on Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory as women are seen in revealing clothing, dancing for men. There is a correlation between the use of lighting during the narrative and the use of lighting in the performance. The lighting used during the narrative is usually darker and even in the light sequence (the basketball game) there is still shadows over the characters. This could have been done to reflect the depression of the character.

MISE-EN-SCENE(SETTING/LIGHTING)

The main protagonists costume is very plain and has nothing special to it. This could have been done so that he could represent many people as the song is not specifically about him. The band are wearing clothing that is typical of the genre. The use of button up shirts is very common in the genre as well as boots which most of the band members are wearing. The band also has instruments in their hands to represent the fact that they are the ones playing them and also because it shows off what the other band members of the group do as sometimes only the lead singer of the band appears in the music video. During the scene in the strip club the dancer is seen wearing lingerie which is what you would typically expect to find a dancer at a strip club wearing. This can relate to Laura Mulvey’s theory as the woman is shown in a sexual way, having a job which is very sexual. The monster in the video appears nice as opposed to scary as you would expect from a monster. This is because the video is aimed more towards being funny than it is being scary. The monster adds a comical effect because of how it is portrayed as an opposite to what we expect.

MISE-EN-SCENE(COSTUMES)

The editing throughout the video is much like it is in other videos. It fits to the beat of the song, going faster at when the beat of the song is faster. The part of the video we can see the fastest editing is during the chorus. The video switches between the narrative and performance before the two end up in the same place at the end of the video. The most used type of editing throughout this video is cuts and this is the only editing used to change from one shot to another. However, there is another type of editing used, slow motion. At points in the video slow motion is used, mostly in the parts of the video when the song has slowed down as this fits in with the pace of the song. Slow motion is not used to chapter emotion like it conventionally is, it is instead used to add comical effect to the video as the shot of the two characters jumping could be seen as quite comical. Towards the end of the video, the editing is the fastest it is throughout the entire song. This is because this is the fastest part of the song. Overall, the editing in this video is very basic and there is not much special about it.

EDITING

Throughout most of the video the only sound that can be heard is the song being played. There is no other use of sound during this time. The song appears both as diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound, with the parts when the lead singer is lip-syncing the song during the performance portions of the video being the use of diegetic sound. The use of non-diegetic is when the song is being played over the top of the narrative as we cannot see the source of the sound. Other than this the only other sound featured in the video is at the end of the video when the protagonist says the word ‘sorry’ to the bartender. This is an example of speech being used in a music video, something which is quiet common in narrative heavy music videos.

SOUND