Music video analysis

In the opening sequence to ‘Gives you Hell’ by All American Rejects we are shown an establishing shot, indicating where the rest of the video will be filmed, this is a wide angled shot to reveal as much of the location as possible. There is a full narrative throughout and everything is acted by the band members with clear recognition of the lead vocalist who is featured in all the main shots within the video. Straight away the image on screen and the transitions are synchronized to the beat of the music to give it a steady flow as the images are shown. There is a contrast in the narrative as we are shown 2 different perspectives of different lives (however each perspective is played by the lead singer) the Mise en scene indicates these contrasts and suggests the differences by things such as beer bottles in one house, showing a reckless lifestyle and things such as board games in the other house. The contrast is also shown by colours as the house leading the rebel-ish lifestyle is shown in brighter and more attractive colours while on the other hand the other lifestyle is shown using dull, neutral colours. The audience are quickly able to relate to the genre through the effective imagery used within this music video with suggestive connotations of the lifestyle of the band members shown through stereotypical clothing of the 'indie rock' style and the tattoos, all of which feature in this music video.

A simple pan camera movement is used to introduce the characters from a blocking shot as they come into view of the camera. Juxtaposed characters are used to create a tense atmosphere directly linked to the lyrics of the song which seems to have a contrast of meaningful deep lyrics to an upbeat tempo of the music. The Mise en scene of the surroundings are particularly important in this video as it helps us to distinguish the two

lifestyles from each other by looking at things such as the decoration in the houses and many other features. There are constant close-up shots of the lead vocalist to enhance his importance in the video; this could possibly suggest his relevance to the lyrics and authority in the video. Some of the characters in the video are wearing soft pastel colours which could be suggested are normally associated with quieter, more reserved personalities which is what the characters are trying to perceive on screen. A prejudicial assumption about what a type will resemble (stereotyping) is very common throughout this video which is mostly shown through several aspects of the Mise en scene.

A zoom upon the characters face is used frequently throughout this video to indicate to the audience that facial expressions are important to understand the full atmosphere the music is trying to create. This music video uses many key conventions a typical music video would use such as a time of around 4 minutes long for the full video, the fact that they present the band instead of making a video out of un-linked actors and it includes plenty of fast edits within to keep up the pace relating to the beat of the music.