Music Video AnalysisMusic Video Analysis

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30 Seconds to Mars – Kings and Queens

‘Kings and Queens’ by ‘30 Seconds to Mars’ is a fantastically directed, well thought up and brilliantly put together work of art.The nearly nine minute video starts off much like a film, as the band name fades in presenting the music video, “30 Seconds to Mars presents”. The video then follows on to a screen showing “A Bartholomew Cubbins Film”, Bartholomew Cubbins is the supposed director of the music video, when in reality it is actually the lead vocalist, Jared Leto, directing under a pseudonym.This stylised music video makes sense with Leto as the director, as Leto himself was/is an actor, so this style of filming and directing is likely to be all he has ever known when starring in films.

The video then carries to a few continuous clips of the two main themes of the video or “short film”. The cyclists, of which the band are part of, silhouetted against an L.A. sunset and the band situated on the edge of a cliff overlooking the night scene, skyline of Los Angeles.

The cyclists involved in this music video are not only fans of the band but are also members of different groups of fixed gear, masked night bike riders. These bike riders gather in the masses at night across the world and ride throughout the night just to ride through empty cities at night for an experience.Leto himself and the other members of ’30 Seconds to Mars’ take part in these experiences regularly, which is where the idea of the video came from the begin with.This video is focused heavily around the ‘riders’ with short clips of the cliffside band cut in between, promoting the band subtly, and also their way of life.There is also a brilliant shot of a masked man throwing a wine bottle of flowers. This is a deliberate spitting image of the ‘Flower Chucker’ graffiti work of the artist Banksy.

The whole video is quite an abstract, but normal sequence of ‘riders’ and shortclips throughout apart from two scenes.One at which three stragglers from themass group are cycling down a street,one of the three ends up getting hit bya car after getting ahead of the others,cracking the windshield and plummetingto the tarmac only to get back up againand get straight back on the bike and rides off. Watching this, I’m confused as tohow this ties in to the normal setting of the rest of the video. Whether the rider isactually unscathed by the event or because of the setting of L.A., ‘The City of Angels’, gives the rider that second chance, is all unclear and is a big surpriseto come in the middle of the video.The second scene takes place during the previous, transitioning betweenthe two for a few seconds, where awhite horse gets filmed galloping inslow motion, down another street. Ican’t be quite sure what this signifies,but at a guess I would say the horse isthere to symbolise the ‘rider’s’ secondchance, as he is hit by the car. Thiswhole scene is quite a strange additionto a seemingly ‘normal’ video.

As the music video reaches its end, the riders, the band included, finish their journeyat the end of a small pier in time for the sunrise. Then as the shot of the pier fades out, credits start to fade in and scroll up the screen. This feature of the video trulyturns the “short film” aspect of the video full-circle. The credits aren’t simply a shortfew lines, these credits take up nearly two and a half minutes of the remaining video.

From this video, as a spectator, I got the sense that the band, Jared Leto mainly,made this music video for the purpose of not promoting the band and showingthemselves off, but to promote a sense of living life to the full. This video, in a wayveers away from the convention of having a rock/pop band at the centre of the videoand have the focus on aspects that are important to the band itself.

Blood Red Shoes - Heartsink‘Heartsink’ begins with a long-shot of a group of people, clutching onto a single possession of theirs. The idea behind this video matches well with the lyrics of the song. As the idea is that ‘Heartsink’ is the feeling that you get when you lose something you hold close to you or having said possession destroyed.Though the irony behind the video is that throughout the video the owners of the cherished objects are in fact destroying the things they hold close. Whether it be smashing a guitar on a pile of rubble or setting alight a signed shirt by your friends.

The band are very much at the centre of the video. There isn’t very many shotswhere the band aren’t in the foreground or background. This factor is a statementto say that the video is very about the band and advertising who they are and isas important to the video as the actual meaning of ‘Heartsink’ portrayedthroughout the video.The setting for the video is very well chosen. The idea of destruction throughoutseems to be carried on from this into the setting of the video, a torn downconstruction area where to colour, or lack of colour, from the setting really centresthe eye on the band and the group of people surrounding. Yet again seeming asthe band is very much the point of focus throughout.A nice feature throughout the video is the camera work. Not only is there very cameramovement and nice medium close-ups of the band and surrounding people, as eachobject gets destroyed and slammed to ground the camera judders quite frantically,making it appear that every object getting destroyed has had a sudden impact uponthe owners, even though they show no emotion at all after destroying their possessions.

Fat Boy Slim – Weapon of Choice‘Fat Boy Slim’s’ video for ‘Weapon of Choice’, directed by Spike Jonez and starring Christopher Walken performing some fantastic choreography. For these reasons, there is no prizes for guessing why this is one of the best music videos around and won six MTV awards.The video is just focused on Christopher Walken from start to finish, though ‘Fat Boy Slim’ never actually makes an appearance in this video.The camera angles are mainly long shots and medium close ups through out as Christopher Walken dances around the empty hotel lobby. Though these types of camera angles are basic and used continuously they work really well to capture every aspect of the choreography. The choreography itself is fantastic and Walken keeps in time continuously in the video.

Though the video in my mind has no relevance to the music, I can’t help but think of it as an iconic piece of music video royalty. The simplicity of the video that manages to seem so original is astounding.For me there are really three main iconic areas of the music video of which I love. The first is at the beginning where Walken dances his way up an escalator to then run down after reaching the middle, the next is Walken running up to a table to then kick off a stack of magazines towards the camera and starts to perform whilst standing on the table. Then finally, the segment of the video where Christopher Walken has learnt to fly and does so around the lobby for a small time, swooping down over a long marble and landing firmly to the ground in the lobby.Though a strange and awing video to begin with, the segment of Walken flying around the lobby seems a bit out of nowhere and spontaneous. But even as strange as this idea seems, it fits quite comfortably in the whole video. For me the video has everything,great director, actor, camera work,choreography and definitely originality.