Analysis of a music video

Blink 182 - Feeling This

The video opens with close up high angle shots of boys having their hair shaved off. The mise-en-scene represents them in a prison and they are wearing school clothes. A relationship is being made between schools and prisons showing that the pupils are being controlled. As the music begins the scene cuts to a high angle long shot of a prison with two lines of girls who are marching in time with the drum beat. Andrew Goodwin says that there is a relationship between music and visuals in video promos.

Then we cut to an enclosure that is fenced in and this is when we are introduced to the band. High angle circular shots are used to represent the band as a unit and to show off their performance skills. This is really conventional in rock music videos particularly bands like Guns n Roses as these bands make a lot of money from touring so they need to sell their performance skills to the audience. There are low angle close up shots on the lead singer as he sings into the microphone. His body language is really aggressive and this fits well with the mood of the song. Smoke machines have been used to create the sense that they are in a desert setting and to show how strong their performance is. There are lots of mid shots on the drummer because he is a very famous drummer who is a main selling point of the video. A fish-eye lens is used at some points to emphasise the trapped in feeling as the band perform inside the enclosure.

The scene cross cuts between the bands performance and the narrative that is taking place. A boy and girl are positioned on either side of a screen and guards are all around them. The more exciting the music gets the more active they get too which helps to build up the excitement of the song for the audience too. A worms eye view is used to show one of the guards shouting at a classroom full of students. She is an old woman which represents people in authority being fierce and out of touch with the students. The colour wash over the scenes in the classroom is green to give the sense that it is set in an army like environment. Then the school children start to rebel against the teacher giving the message that children should be free and not restricted by rules.

Towards the end of the video the pupils break free from the classroom and surround the enclosure that the band arep playing in making it a party. They climb up the fence and behave in an outrageous way. This makes the band seem like heroes that should be worshipped. This is really important in the rock genre and can be seen in other videos for bands such as Busted. It also shows that the band are rebellious like the pupils which helps the audience to identify with them.

There aren't any obvious intertextual references however there have been films that have had similar themes such as 'If' which was a very controversial film set in a school where the pupils rebel with violence consequences. One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest could also be a reference in this video because the patients there break free from the nurses who try to control them.