Kasabian - Music Video - Empire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSKxXu05aOE
The third and final video i have chosen to look at is 'Empire' by kasabian filmed in the form of a narrative based on the 'Crimean war'.
Outline- The video begins very differently from the majority of music videos i have seen, it starts with a film like opening where we see a women roaming dressed in old victorian style clothing. The camera then cuts to a young boy recieving a letter off a man which he must deliver, the camera contiues to follow the boy as he runs across a battle field where he delivers the letter to a group of men these being the band members. The boy is then shot signalling the start of the music, the following shots then consist of the band marching back to where the letter had come abandoining the front line and disregarding an order, resulting in the eventual the death of all the band.
Camerawork- The opening seen is a medium shot of a lady raoming in a grass plain, the camera then cut in to the ladys hand where we see her pick up a dandelion. The camera then cuts to a new scene, to an over the shoulder shot of a young boy recieving a letter from what appears to be a general type figure, cuttin away from this we then follow the boy running in the form of a tracking shot through an abandoned battlefield we know this with the camera cutting away to a establishing shot where we contiue to see the boy run , the unsteadyness of the camera helps represent the form of movement. The Band are then introduced in the form of a long shot, where the camera cuts in to a close up of one of the band members, as one band member is singled out i believe it help represents there importance therefore him being the lead singer. As the camera cuts away to a close up of the young boy the speed of the shot slowens to an action shot where the boy is shot. As the boy begins to fall all background music stops and the song is finally introduced a minute into the video. The following shots are close up reaction shots of the band members helping to create empathy and portray emotion one shot did this really well, this was where the blood of the child is seen running into muddy water. The scene then changes to be back where the boy started with the army general acting as though nothing has happened this helps represent him as the 'bad' guy. The follwing shots are all edited on the beat , the camera cuts away to a cannon firing to start the chorus and as the song hits it's peak there is an influx of tightly cut shots that help portray the battlefield atmosphere and the adreniline and emotions felt by the soldiers. One important shot in which i piked up on was the close up of the worn torn Union Jack flag which i believe could signify the end of the British Empire. The following shots is a medium shot consisting of all the band members marching amongst a full blown battle bring defining the sense of a music video over a narative as it breaks away from the sense of realism, the camera then cuts to a point of view shot from the genereal peering dwon his telescope again like in the first video the shot is reduced to a circular shape representing the telescope. The follwoing shots highlight the death of each band member, this is shown beofre they actually die therefore giving us an insight of what is to come. The way in which this is done is that the camera focuses in on a specific band member in the form of a close up of their face followed by their instrument, the camera then cuts in to a shot of the band member dead; in serge the guitarist's case we see his outstreched arm in the shot of him presumebly lying down with the instrument in his hand, the camera continues to do this until we are left with the main character played by the lead singer as he is the forefront of the band. The next shot highlights the characters rebeling shot as a long shot we see the band members marching the opposite way to the rest of the soldiers. The scene now chages back to where it begin with the women holding the dandelion, the camera cuts away from this to an army officer giving the signal to fire and then cuts back in the the women blowing the dandelion representing the members of the band being 'blown away' by the cannon fire a cross dissolve transistion is used showing both the women and each member of the band being 'blown away'. The lead singer is now the only man left and there are several side on, close up, long, point of view shots of him and from his perspective, thjis particuarly works well when the camera is shot from a point of view shot at first there is a deep depth of field with the soldier's face holding the gun in focus this then changes however to a shallow depth of field where only the gun that the soldier is holding is in focus. The next shot is an extreme close up of the lead singer lip-syncing the end to the song, attention is given to the lyrics as when the camera cuts away to a extreme close up of the soldiers aiming at the lead singer they begin to think about what he is saying. As the song has picked up tempo again the rate in which the shot chages are made increases, and the message of the British empire coming to end is made again when the lead singer drops the Unoin jack representing his lack of belief in the army which as a result lads to him being shot, before he is shot the camera cuts away to the recent memories is which he has encountered these two combined help bring the video to an end.
Editing- To help portary the music video as a film, editing plays quite a vital role. With the inclusion of gun fire,cannon fire and shouting of other soldiers that surrounded the band and the slow motion explosions that happen during the instrumental of the song, like that seen in films, together it help create that battlefield atmosphere and help create a greater sense of realism. Editing on the beat was used for example the soldiers that are featured marching march to the tempo of the track and another editing factor also was the lip-syncing of the lead singer.
Mise-en-scene- All of the characters that feature in the video are dressed in very old emperial period clothing this helps fit in with the genre and inspiration for the song and the song/album name. As the band are featured as soldiers they feature in emperial army attire, with whihc one member carrying the 'Unoin jack' wich i believe may represent the end of the british empire. The video has been shot at early dusk therefore the majority of the lighitng is very bright, although there are several shadows cast either by the objects hindering the the lightflow or in the instance where the band are covered in smoke. There is alot of detail gone into the making of this video and due to the inclusion of many props i would say that the production cost of this video was very high.