Edited version

MUSIC VIDEO CASE STUDY TEXTUAL ANALYSIS By Dimitar Zlatarev Style of music video: The genre of this music video is experimental. The reason being is the fact that it sounds different in comparison to the usual genres which we can slightly relate to. The following video is not so typical for an ordinary pop song hence it is hard to guess its style. Content of music video: The content of the video is live action where real people are performing and no digital animation can be seen. The reason being is because of the concept of the story which is actual based on real events. Form and Purpose of video: The video is quite unique as it is not just narrative but quite conceptional as well as it shows us what is happening in the other part of the world and even further, it shows us the things we wouldn’t usually see on the news as it might not be considered such a major problem however it does affect a large popularity of people all over the world. The narrative of the video is linear as it shows the story of Japan's "lost youth" which is also a part of 15 min short film focusing more in depth on the matter whereas the music video only portrays a small portion of the matter whereas the music video only portrays a small portion of the matter. The film captures restless chase for happiness in all its occasionally disturbing, tormented and dark expressions. It showcases the everyday life of some of Tokyo’s teenage citizens and how the grim scene is developing. The director Taichi Kamura is focusing on showcasing Japan’s life through his own vision and exposing it’s dark sides. The footage which he streams isn’t that much explicit however it still shows us Japan in another light which we haven’t seen before. The director also showcases the locations in a very delicate way with subtle pans and tilts to set the scene. As he is a film director which has also made some music videos such as the one being analysed. Taichi’s establishing scenes always show a human subject and its emotions while slowly tracking or panning towards the landscape to show the location and establish the scene in a delicate but yet obvious enough way. Techniques: The video itself is a really creative piece with exceptional camera work and different camera angles being used throughout the entire video give it depth and atmosphere. As the video is narrative, it tells a story and it sort of focuses more on it rather than entirely on cutting scenes to the beat. We can however still see a lot of frames which are being cut to the beat and those scenes are usually the very strong ones. For example the beginning of the video is really slow paced hence the scenes are longer without cuts in order to match the beat. Later on, the pace slowly progresses onto being a little faster and even though it is still quite mellow, it cuts multiple scenes in seconds in order to match the beat. This creates a very subtle “cut to the beat” effect which may not be really obvious to the audience as they would more likely focus more on the story of the video but it is still there indeed. Effects such as CGI, miming and lip syncing are not present in the music video due to the genre and story. The camera movement is very subtle, it flows nicely throughout the footage with quite a lot of panning showcasing Tokyo’s nightlife. The panning emphasizes motion, it introduces a sense of tension and is a good way of showing the surroundings. The range of shots consists mainly from mid shots, a few close ups to occasionally using long shots. The reason for the wide usage of mid shots is the fact that it is a suitable focal length to showcase both the characters as well as a bit of the location as well. Something like the 50mm could’ve been possibly used as it is not so wide and not too tight to give just enough view of the details without getting distracted in either the background or somewhere else. Close ups are used when the faces of the characters are shown, the close up emphasizes the emotions and brings the characters and audience together. In the video we can see a couple of close ups where they particularly focus on the eyes as they tell a lot about a character’s emotional status. Mid shots were used to mainly focus and show the character in comparison to Long shots where the purpose is to fully stress and centre our attention to the environment or setting of the scene. There is a variety of camera angles being used with primary a lot of high and low angles. The first high angle shot can be seen in the first scene, with the appearance of a male character being looked from a higher level emphasizes vulnerability and weakness towards the character. From the beginning, the audience immediately becomes curious as to why this character’s face is not shown yet and why is he being looked down with his facial expression showing sadness. There are occasional eye levelled shots which are usually filmed when showing the location or tracking the subject as it can be seen on the screen grab below Primarily, High, low and eye levelled shots can be seen throughout the entire video however there is a good amount of tilted shots which are mainly being used to show the Tokyo streets and night life. Due to the concept of the video, chroma key (green screen) is not present as the video does not need it. The lyric of the actual song is in Japanese language and it pretty much talks about the night life of Tokyo’s youth as well as love.