Textual Analysis of a Music Video

I am analysing Nirvana’s video for the single ‘In Bloom’. The video was released in 1992 and was directed by Kevin Kerslake. The genre of this band is Alternative indie rock/Grunge and the video characteristics for them genres is generally playing instruments and acting like they don’t care. This video is performance based but the performance is based into the narrative as they’re performing on a show. It has an early 1960’s feel as it’s filmed on an old camera and is continuously in black and white. 

There is a relationship between the lyrics and the video made for this song. The title of the song ‘In Bloom’ is also featured in the song lyrics. This phrase could suggest that they’re the prettiest and most presentable they’ve ever been and will be to the general public. This song is about the fame they’ve received after their breakthrough single ‘Smells like teen spirit’ in 1991 and how people like them because other people do, yet they don’t understand what their music is really about. This is where the lyric ‘He’s the one who likes all our pretty songs’ comes from. Additionally, Nirvana are shown described as ‘thoroughly all right and decent fells’ which is completely different to how they actually are shown.

This video is split into two parts. The majority of the video is the band being shown dressed in suits and playing their instruments normally while the second is them dressed in dresses, tearing apart the stage causing havoc. The second part of the video, they’re shown as how they are majority of the time to the public. This video shows them acting differently to how they normally would, which could suggest they’re putting on a front while dressing in suits when they actually feel like being reckless and tearing the stage apart. Since this video is set in the 1960’s it could be referring to how even though their songs are just becoming popular and they’re just being noticed on the radio they’ve been around for a long time, obviously not as long as the 1960’s but I feel that’s what they’re trying to show.

This video is like their other videos in the sense that all of their videos have a performance based plot with a narrative as well. The video for ‘In Bloom’ has been shot with a 1960’s feel and in black and white, which none of their other videos have. Their video for the song ‘Smells like teen spirit’ also has a crowd but in that video, the crowd seem livelier because they jump up from their seats while in this video they just cheer throughout the video. There is close ups of the leader of the band, Kurt Cobain which is how the label can sell the track because people remember faces rather than names.

Overall this video is mainly a typical music video for the genre of this band with a few differences like them dressing smart and having a 1960's feel to it. It's similar to their other music videos as well, as they all have a performance base.

Evaluative Analysis

The typical poster conventions I have used in my poster are the rating, this will make teenagers who are around the age of fifteen want to see this movie because it’s commonly known that teenagers like to see how their generation is displayed in the media. Another poster convention I have used is making the title of the movie bigger than the rest of the font; this makes the name stand out so hopefully people will remember it. My poster has the information about the movie on the front and the release date. The representations in my poster show that the title and the picture I have used link.

I think my storyboard of my trailer for my movie idea is good because it uses the trailer conventions, I used the correct time line and I believe I have successfully portrayed the genre of the movie in the trailer. My storyboard of my trailer has the title of the movie in the beginning of the trailer and at first the movie is presented as light and it seems as though it doesn’t have a deep story line, but as the trailer goes on you find out that the film has a dark tale. My trailer follows the life of two teenage girls and as the target audience is teenagers above the age of 15, I think my advert displays that perfectly. Teenagers are interested in watching movies displaying how they are portrayed in society today. I chose paramount pictures to produce and distribute my film because I know they have produced other teenager movies like Clueless.

Mock Up of Final Poster

Storyboard Analysis

I think my storyboard of my trailer for my movie idea is good because it uses the trailer conventions, I used the correct time line and I believe I have successfully portrayed the genre of the movie in the trailer. My storyboard of my trailer has the title of the movie in the beginning of the trailer and at first the movie is presented as light and it seems as though it doesn’t have a deep story line, but as the trailer goes on you find out that the film has a dark tale. My trailer follows the life of two teenage girls and as the target audience is teenagers above the age of 15, I think my advert displays that perfectly. Teenagers are interested in watching movies displaying how they are portrayed in society today. I chose paramount pictures to produce and distribute my film because I know they have produced other teenager movies like Clueless.

Film Plan

Fight Club Trailer Analysis

A trailer includes important moments from the movie and they don't have to be organised in the same order as the film. They can't give anyway the most important plot details of the movie as that would ruin the film plot. Majority of the time the title of the movie is shown after the trailer with the release date and the names of the main actors/actresses are usually put at the beginning. A lot of movie trailers include the names of the director and a powerful voice-over to catch the eye of the audience. Also, music seems to be essential in trailers ­because it can suggest the genre of the movie, the style and the plot of the film.

The target audience of the trailer would be adults who like drama/sci-fi and who can follow a confusing plot as it does have a confusing plot. The unique selling points of this movie are that it's different, you can tell from the trailer it's not the usual plot and it brings something different to the film industry. The main stars are in most of the scenes in the trailer. By watching the trailer, you understand that the plot is about the main character having insomnia and then meets Tyler Durden on a plane and starts a fight club with him. This is where the main plot begins and you can see the movie includes lots of violence and is very aggressive. The trailer doesn’t include any information about the release date.

The narrator’s voice-over is used in the trailer, and he’s saying random lines in the movie which basically describe the plot without giving away the ending. You get a much better idea of what the plot is from the trailer than the poster. I find this because the trailer gives more of the plot away with what the main characters are saying and the scenes you see you get to understand that this movie has a complex story line which intrigues the viewers quite a lot.

 

In this clip of the trailer, you can see a fight scene which tells the audience the movie is violent and the title does have a link to the movie. A lot of the scenes used in the trailer are very dark which could show that the movie has a dark story line, also this could add to the genre which is drama. Also, the main music used in this trailer is a song called ‘Where is my mind?’ by Pixies. The title of the song, which is also the repeated many times during the song, gives off the characters minds are messed up.

Fight Club Poster Analysis

Typical codes and conventions of film posters are the names of actors/actresses, eye catching images, critic review, production blurb, a tagline and a large title of the film. This film poster has a tagline, a large title of the film, an eye catching image and the name of the main actors.

All audiences expect to see these aspects on a film poster. The genre of Fight Club is Drama/Thriller. From the film poster I can tell the genre of the film is a drama/thriller because one of the supposed main characters (Tyler Durden) on the cover looks aggressive, angry and ready for a fight. He looks aggressive because of his clenched fist and tightened jaw.  The other character is also the narrator of the movie (he is unnamed but is played by Edward Norton) looks very mischievous like he has a sick, mastermind plan. In this poster, Tyler Durden is holding the bar of soap (which the title of the movie is engraved into) very tightly and aggressively. You get the vibe that the movie is a very violent movie based on fighting hence the title.

The title has been designed this way because it shows the character/characters are very skilled with soap and know how to create things from it. It also shows that soap will be featured in the story line somewhere. Like I said before, Tyler Durden (who is played by Brad Pitt) is clenching the bar of soap aggressively. Since the bar of soap is bright pink it stands out from the rest of the movie poster which is dark tones of the colours green and black. This makes the title an eye catching image. The poster also includes the tagline, ‘Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.’ This tells the audience viewing this poster, that the movie would be about causing chaos using soap as the substance.

This movie is based on a book by Chuck Palahniuk, even though the movie poster doesn’t say this. I think the people who would be interested in seeing this film would be people of an older age group, seeing as the movie is an 18 and it has an interesting but complex and confusing story line. The main selling points of this movie would be the well known actors, and the fact that the movie is based on a book. So the people who liked the book will see the movie.  Also, on the poster it says ‘A David Flincher film’. This is a very good selling point because David Flincher is a very experienced and well known director. He’s worked with a lot of famous movies so if people have liked his other movies, they would want to see this one.

I like this movie poster because of the contrast between the colours. The name of the movie really stands out and obviously gives something away about the film. I like both the character’s expressions and the way the poster is set up. If I saw this poster on a bus or billboard, I would be intrigued to see it.