Textual Analysis of Seven Nation Army

http://youtu.be/WDwIly7Y8l4

In class, I completed a Textual Analysis of the official music video of 'Ben L'oncle Soul- Seven Nation Army. It portrayed a different type of music video, set in an American Vintage Laundrette. This theme is portrayed through the use of the high key lighting, to create a shadow effect throughout.

This music video is based on both Abstract and performance, where you see the main star playing a part in the video, either singing or playing a variety of instruments; this is known as the Star Image. The main star has been flourished using stock motion, which is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on it's own. This is achieved successfully, as the stock motion runs smoothly within, and creates a jerky and function rhythm with the star images body to match the quirky rhythm of the song.

As the Female walks in, you realise that it has been edited to match the rhythm of the music. This is called Rhythmic Editing. This has been done to achieve the pace of the music and the coordination between the female and the music to ensure that it applies to one another, and the actions don't fall out of rhythm with the music.

A jump cut is taken quickly and sufficiently in the beginning sequence showing the female. A jump cut is a cut in film editing in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This sees a shot of the female entering the camera mid shot from the right, placing her items onto the washing machine, to a quick jump cut to a low angle shot, placing her items into the washing machine. This is done to create continuous editing, which aims to give the appearance of continuous time and space in the story-world by de-emphasizing editing.

It portrays voyeurism in a specific shot, when a high angle shot is focused down onto the female to flourish her femininity. It does this, by blocking off her face, and focusing on her main female genitals, which the male audience will attract to. A high angle shot is used in this scene to make the female look vulnerable, as it is as if the audience is looking down onto her. The use of high key lighting is used in this shot to create shadow,to enhance the realism of the shot, but as the camera pans round to capture a front view of the woman, high key lighting is no longer used, and instead low key lighting is used, to dim out the shadows, and enhance on the woman's facial features.

The use of leading lines is very important, as the viewer needs to be able to see the lines within an image that leads the eye to another point in the image, or occasionally, out of the image. This gives the shot a surreal atmosphere to it, therefore to make the viewer know exactly where the person has come from,and where the person is leading to. Ben L'oncle Soul has used the rule of the leading lines and has also successfully used the rule of the third person.

Third person is best described, when you picture your screen being divided into 3rds, and the person is within the first 3rd. This is best presented when the female walks back to the washing machine, as her body is placed within the first 3rd.

There is a shot within this music video which homages; pays tribute to the original version of Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. In this shot,you see Ben L'oncle performing on the trumpet and the drums in front of the famous black and white triangular background, which was previously used in the White Stripes video.