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Mise en Scene/Action Cinematography Editing Sound

1 2 The background, which is the huge room Christine McVie is stuck in, is a rust red color, which contrasts with Christine’s com-plexion and white blouse, and sets the focus on her. The rust red colored background goes along with the central idea - the passionate but desperate longing for love and to be loved. Also im-portant in the shot is Lindsey Buckingham, who appears in the larger end of the telescope she is looking through, which signals that Lindsey is who she is look-ing at (literally) and looking at (figuratively) for love. Christine’s makeup palette is soft and neu-tral, for the most part, except for her eyes, which are played up - dark and sensual, but also slightly sad. The focus on her eyes connects to the fact that she is longingly looking through the telescope at a love interest, Lindsey. The setting during this shot fits with the lyrics that are being sung at the time: “There’s nobody in the future, so baby, let me hand you my love.” The melody that is being sung there becomes higher in increments of pitch, driving on that feeling of desperation.

Christine is framed by the red room she is trapped in. The large end of the telescope is near the upper left hand corner, and the camera is angled view-ing down the telescope to Christine. There is a medium-heavy focus on Lindsey at the large end, and also a heavier-type focus on Christine at the other end. The way the camera is angled down the telescope gives an illusion that it is quite long, but it isn’t. The left side of the frame is shadowed and darker, while the middle and right side of the frame (where Christine is positioned) is shown in a slightly brighter light. There is no camera move-ment.

Prior to the shot, the se-quence was a shot-re-verse shot of Lindsey (close up view of face), Mick and John (the ar-chaeologists dusting off pianos and guitars they had just dug up), and Christine (stuck in the red room), and then moved into the shot with a hard cut. After this shot, the sequence con-tinues on for several more seconds with hard cut shot reverse shots between the band mem-bers.

At the time of this shot, musically, Christine are singing a close two-part harmony and are in the climax of the verse. As noted in the Mis en Scene/Action section, the melody is being sung in higher increments of pitch, which again drives that sense of desperation and urgency.

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2 3 This shot is of Lindsey wandering through the desert, as if he is looking for someone. He’s carry-ing something in his hands, which seems to look like painter’s tools. All that is visible is the blue sky above him and the desolate desert below him. The monotony of his surround-ings amplify the feeling of being lost. The view of Lindsey is actu-ally the view that Christine sees through her telescope.

The shot is a long shot (through the telescope), which causes Lindsey to appear to be tiny. This makes sense because he is being viewed through a tele-scope, which is needed to view something that is far away. The desert could very well be flat, but the angle of the camera gets lower and lower, which makes Lindsey appear to be on the top of a dune, and the in-creasingly lowering angle causes him to gradually appear to be larger and more in focus as he walks down the dune. There’s a connection between the low angle and the telescope - telescopes are usually used to look up into the sky, and in the shot, the telescope is pointed sort-of upward. The contents of this shot are just the muted blue sky, Lindsey, and the desert below his wandering feet, which creates a natural but very obvious focus on Lind-sey. The camera movement is increasingly upward (to make Lindsey appear larger) and moving horizontally in the direc-tion that Lindsey is walking (Christine is following Lindsey with her telescope).

The sequence before is the continued style of the shot/reverse-shot be-tween Christine, the ar-chaeologists, and Lind-sey. The editing is dis-junction style and the cut going into the shot is an-other hard cut.

The shot is taken at the end of the verse. The harmonic duet between Lindsey and Christine makes a gentle descent down a pentatonic scale, and into the chorus. The sound matches up well with Lindsey’s actions - walking down a the dune while singing a melody that is moving in the same direction - down-ward.

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3 2 The shot includes Mick, the ar-chaeologist, frantically sweeping sand off of the keys at the bottom of the dune, while Lindsey is scene in the background walking down the dune, which is what he was doing in shot 2. This is just a different view of what was hap-pening with Lindsey in shot 2. Beside Mick are archaeological tools: a brush and a pickaxe. Also laying on the ground beside Mick is a painter’s palette that looks just like the one Lindsey is holding off in the distance. In this shot we can draw a closer con-nection between the archaeolo-gist, Lindsey, and Christine. Ob-viously, we know that Christine and Lindsey are desperately, and at this point, even frantically searching for love in a vast place where they feel all alone and ev-erything is monotonous. This is the figurative part. Similarly, the archaeologists are desperately searching for artifacts in the mid-dle of this huge desert, where they feel alone. The connection is that both groups of people are searching for something, and and seem desparate.

The camera is positioned at a low angle at the bottom of the sand dune. Mick is seen sitting on the ground uncovering the piano, and it seems that the camera angle is so low that it could even be shot from the ground. This positioning makes Mick and the depth/height of the sand appear larger/taller. In the upper right hand corner is Lindsey, who is far away on top of the sand dune and appears very small. The shot is framed so that little sky is seen - it’s mostly the sand dune, so this too amplifies the size of the sand dune. The shot is a long shot. In foreground and left is Mick, and Lindsey is on the right in the background. The low positioning of the camera sets a soft, natural focus on Mick, but the silhouette Lind-sey stands out in the in the background. In this shot, the camera is static.

The editing is essentially the same as that of shot 2. The sequencing is the shot/reverse-shot style that moves along with blunt, hard cuts and little transition.

At this time in the video, the song is right between the verse and the chorus. No lyrics are being sung, but there is a piano and drum break at this time. The sounds of the piano feature in the song fit with the imaging in this shot of Mick trying to re-trieve the piano from the sand.

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4 1 The time of day is just before the sun sets. Viewers can see the sun moving towards the horizon. In the center of the frame is a painting on an easel sitting in the sand, off in the distance. Coming out from either side of the frame are two hands,struggling to reach each other. The time of day - dusk - sets a slightly sensual mood and tone, and the hands reaching for each other add the feeling of yearning. The lighting is natural light, and since the sun is behind the subjects that are being shot, the objects in the shot (the reaching hands and the painting on the easel) appear as silhouettes.

This shot contrasts with the previous shot, in terms of what the camera allows viewers to see. In the previous shot, the camera was angled up from the bottom dune, but the frame re-stricted viewers to seeing only the sand dune and very little sky. In this shot, This shot is shot at a frontal 90 degree an-gle towards the horizon, and the framing allows viewers to see almost equal amounts of sky and sand. The focus is meant to be on the portrait, but it is ever so slightly blurred. The camera is static.

Over the course of around 3 seconds, the sequence continues in a fast shot/reverse-shot. This shot is the first one. Next, a closeup of Chris-tine appears for about half a second, and then the shot returns to the two reaching hands and the portrait at dusk. There is little smooth transitioning in this music video. This shot se-quence continues the same style of hard cuts with the shot/reverse-shot.

The chorus of “hold me, hold me, hold me” has just begun. There is a strong bass note before each line of “hold me.” The mise en scene of the reaching hands fits per-fectly with the with the lyrics being sung at this point in the video. Also, the shots over the follow-ing three second se-quence change with each bass note and new line of “hold me.”

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5 4 In this shot, a new band member is introduced, Stevie Nicks. Ste-vie appears lounging comfortably on a luxurious green chaise in the middle of the desert. Her long, deep red dress and match-ing platform boots, along with her position on the chaise set a sen-sual mood. The patterns of the wind have created what looks like waves in the sand that is be-low her. As viewers look from left to right in this shot, the color of the sky fades from a light blue to a deeper shade of blue. The blurred view of the desert on the horizon informs us that it is in-credibly hot, and Stevie is seduc-tively framing her hair away from her face in response to the heat. The literal heat of the desert matches with the figurative “heat” that Stevie gives off in her seductive manner of this shot.

The cinematography is the same as the shot before. The camera is positioned at a frontal 90 degree angle. The framing allows viewers to see equal parts of sky and sand, and the framing of the shot places Stevie directly in her center, making her the obvious point of focus, standing out among the sky and sand in her bright red dress. Stevie is nei-ther really in the foreground nor the background in this shot. She is an estimated ten feet from the camera, and similarly there is an estimated ten feet of desert and sky visible in the frame from either side of her. The camera is static.

This shot breaks the con-tinued style of the previ-ous shots and se-quences. The shots be-fore were rather short, about 1-2 seconds in length. This still shot of Stevie lasts for four sec-onds. The only thing that remains the same is the hard cut used to bring viewers to the shot of Stevie Nicks.

This shot falls at the mid-dle break of the chorus, right before the chorus is repeated again. No lyrics are being sung at this point. The chorus has just finished its note-by-note move up a penta-tonic-style scale, and the last note of the scale is being held during this longer shot.

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6 2 A mosaic of broken mirrors is pieced along the ground of the desert. The reflection in the mir-rors is of the hands reaching for each other. Although viewers know from previous sequences in the video that there are only two hands reaching for each other, the mosaic of mirrors makes it appear as if many hands are reaching for each other. The color of the desert (the sky is not visible in this shot) is darkened and muted so that the the fragments of the mirrors are the focus. The mirrors create the illusion that there are more hands than the two viewers saw earlier, which sets a tone of con-fusion.

The frame only allows the bot-tom of the easel (in the back-ground) and the mirror frag-ments to be seen in the desert sand. The camera is pointed in a downward angle to make the mirrors look larger and to keep the sky from being in the frame. The shot is a close up of the mirror fragments and the focus is medium on the mirrors. Static camera.

Repeated hard cut into the shot. No movement.

Beginning of repeated chorus. Hands begin to reach for each other at the first sung line of “hold me.”

7 2 Stevie is pictured on the luxuri-ous chaise, again wearing the same red dress. This shot is much more of a close up of Ste-vie. She has a seductive facial expression and runs her fingers through a strand of her long, wavy hair. She leans her head up as she does that and breaks the fourth wall by making a glance at the camera.

The camera is at a frontal 90 degree angle, and Stevie is framed by the sky and desert. This shot provides a medium close up of her, showing her from about the waist up and only showing the top part of the chaise she is lounging on. Static camera.

Hard cut and no move-ment.

The shot only lasts long enough for the second “hold me” in the re-peated chorus. The cam-era cuts to another shot at the end of this line.

8 2 Lindsey is walking towards the camera and breaking the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera. He is wearing a khaki

The cinematography is different here than any of the previous shots. Here, Lindsey is shot close up and the camera is an-

Hard cut into shot. See cinematography for cam-era movement details.

See mise en scene.

Shot Time (s)


colored button up with a match-ing desert hat, which he tips at the viewers as he sings his line of “hold me.” He gives a seduc-tive look similar to Stevie’s but more aggressive and urgent.

gled up at his face to make him appear larger and more power-ful. As Lindsey moves forward toward the viewers (and the camera), the camera keeps a constant (but close) distance from him and moves back-wards at the same pace he is walking.

9 2 Refer to mise en scene of shot 4. Same setting and subjects, but this time, the hands finally are able to grasp each other.

Refer to shot 4. The editing is similar to that of shot 4. The se-quence style coming into the shot are hard cuts into the shot/reverse-shot style between Lindsey, Stevie, and the hands in this shot.

Refer to shot 4.

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10 5 The background is black. Mirror fragments form a mosaic. Chris-tine is seen in each of the mirror fragments, in the same red room where she was pictured earlier. Again, she is wearing white. Be-hind her is a surrealist painting of a majestic white horse in the desert. Christine is breaking the fourth wall by looking straight into the camera at the viewers with a serious look. As she sings her line of the next verse “I don’t want no damage,” she raises a hand and shakes her fingers at the audience to make her point. As she sings “but how am I go-ing to manage you” she points her finger at the audience before moving down and out of the shot.

In the mirror fragments, the camera is pointed at a flat 90 degree angle at Christine from her waist-up. She is framed by the red room and the focus is on her.

No movement. Hard cut into shot.

See mise en scene.

11 3 Lindsey approaches a painting in the middle of the desert. The painting is of the chaise Stevie is lounging on. What Lindsey doesn’t appear to see is that Ste-vie is actually off in the distance behind the painting. He ap-proaches the painting eagerly, with interest. As he approaches it, he lifts his paintbrush, as if he is going to add to the painting, maybe even painting Stevie, her-self.

Lindsey and the painting are in the foreground and Stevie’s sil-houette is in the background. The camera is angled again at a 90 degree frontal angle. Lind-sey and the portrait are cen-tered in the frame and there is a medium focus on Lindsey.

Hard cut into shot. The camera moves backward as Lindsey approaches the painting.

The lyrics of the second verse shared by Lindsey and Christine “I’ll be waiting for you, if you ever want to be there” have just been sung. The lyrics are fitting because Lindsey acts as if he is waiting for someone to appear as he adds to the painting.

12 2 Same as shot 7, except this time Same as shot 7. Same as shot 7. Same as shot 7.

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instead of breaking the fourth wall, she lifts her head as if she notices Lindsey’s presence and gazes over to the side a little.

13 2 The shot is a close up of Chris-tine’s face. She runs her fingers through her hair as if she is frus-trated as she sings her line of “hold me.” Although only her face and upper body are visible during this shot, she begins to kneel while she is singing. It is like she is begging for someone to hold her.

Christine is framed by a peachy colored background. The focus is on her eyes and the camera is angled at a flat 90 degrees at her face.

Hard cut into the shot. No camera movement.

See mise en scene.

14 3 Christine is shown in the red room again, but now much more can be seen. Two more surrealist paintings (both of a man in a suit) and a gold bust of Beethoven can be seen surrounding Chris-tine as she gazes out the window into the desert. However the “window” is not a window at all. It is another surrealist style paint-ing. She stands barefoot and tall in her white gown and gazes into the window as if she can see Lindsey, Stevie and the archae-ologists. From the eyes of the viewer, they are just subjects of the painting. Christine’s hair and dress are blowing in imaginary wind coming off of the desert in the painting.

See mise en scene for framing. The shot is filmed at a 90 de-gree angle. Natural lighting and medium shot that makes Chris-tine the focus.

Hard cut into shot. No camera movement.

Same as shot 5.

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