Track
Title/Artists:
The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script
Genre:
Romance, Narrative/performance built. Indie style.
Target Audience: Young people aged between 15 – 28 years. Mainly for people who like listening to band performances and its about relationships and broken hearts so people in a similar situation might also want to listen to it.
Lyrics:
The lyrics is about a man who is missing his girlfriend who seems to have left him and he wants her back, however he doesn’t have a clue where she is and by the sound of it he cannot contact her either so he is singing this song for her telling her that he will be ‘waiting in the corner of the street’ for her. ‘The corner of the street’ is the place where they both first saw each other and he mentions this on the first line when he says ‘going back to the corner where I first saw you’, this tells us that he is trying to get a message through to the audience and the girl he is singing to that he is going to wait at the place where they first saw each other until she comes and sees him. He mentions ‘I’m not broke I’m just a broken hearted man’, because he is waiting on the streets people think that he is a poor person and which in slang they use ‘broke’ for when someone doesn’t have any money.
The chorus tells us that the man has hope in him because he says, ‘cause if one day you wake up and find that your missing me…..and you’d see me waiting on the corner of the street’. This tells us what the man wants the girl to do and is hoping that she would come for him. The lyrics are quiet straight forward. They don’t have any secret messages hidden in it. It is simple and tells the story quiet well.
The language is simple and easy to understand. It seems as if someone is talking to you in a polite matter. There isn’t any use of slang or anything most people wouldn’t understand so it’s straight forward and simple.
Music:
The music is very relaxing in many ways. It’s not too loud and fast but yet not slow and boring. It starts off with a slow tune with just a guitar tune which gradually builds up with the beat of the drums added to it. The instruments used to create the music are guitars, piano, and drums. At the performance the music and lyrics are both diegetic sounds because we see the band playing the instruments but when he is on the streets the music is non diegetic as the music is not played in the scene.
Video Narrative:
Narrative:
The video is mainly narrative driven but it also can be seen as a performance video because there are scenes in which the band is actually giving a performance in an empty car park. The structure is multi stranded as it has two sections/settings in it. One is when the man is on the streets in a busy city which tells us the main story behind the song and the other is with the whole of the band playing on the instruments which gives the audience a chance to meet the band and see who they are individually.
The mode of address is the man talking to the woman he loves who is not shown in the video at all and but it seems as if we know. He is singing to her and expresses his feelings towards her which gives the audience a chance to get know who this girl is.
Themes:
The main theme of the song is lost love and a broken heart. The man feels lost and torn apart because he is not with the love of his life and would do anything to see her again, even if it meant waiting on the corner of the street for as long as it takes. It also has a theme of a busy lifestyle showing the city and the crowded lifestyle people work and live in. This tells us that in a crowded city which is so large as well, what is the possibility of him finding the girl and hi made seem so easy and simple, by waiting in the corner of the street where he first saw her.
Ideology:
The main ideology used in the video is true love and to how much it means to someone, especially if they would do crazy things to get it back. It also shows the city lifestyle and how busy your life can be just living in a city.
Representations:
The man is being represented as sensitive and broken hearted. It is usually girls in a situation like this that are left broken hearted but in this song we see it from the man’s point of view. Usually men are seen as stronger physically and mentally but in this video he is seen as mentally weak and giving up. The fact that he is waiting for her on the corner of the street makes him seem small and innocent, someone whose feelings can be easily played with.
Technical Codes:
Camerawork:
The video starts off with a low angle pan of the man’s shadow on the pavement which cuts into a medium shot of his face and back to the shadow and then a cut of a medium shot of the man’s whole body walking on the street showing that he is walking in the city and his characteristics by the way he walks and on his facial expressions. It then cuts to his feet from a horizontal angle and then a medium shot of him to show where the man is walking and how he looks like, we can see that he is young and in his mid twenties probably, also we can see that he is going through a lot of grief and pain because he looks very emotional and unhappy. There is a shot when the camera is looking up at the man and is panning around him creating an atmosphere of the city life and telling the audience that he is the main character in the scene.
This is followed by a wide angle pan of him crossing the road shows the environment he is in, a crowded busy city, most likely to be New York. There are many tracking shots of him continually cutting to him walking forward. It then zooms into him and the band performing in an empty ground floor car park which cuts connoting that he is part of the band and the main singer. Then it slowly zooms out from the band and cuts to a medium shot of the drummer playing the drums and back to the man singing. This allows the audience to get to know the band members individually and what their roles are.
The setting changes back to the city where there is a low angle shot behind the man where he sits on the ground facing his back to the camera and cuts to him back in the car park and back to a long shot of him on the streets to a close up of his legs folded and a piece of card board placed next to him saying ‘if you see this girl, tell her where I am’, this signifies him a poor man living on the street because a homeless person is known to sit on the street with a piece of card board saying ‘please give spare change’.
We see an over the shoulder shot of the man facing the public approaching him and feeling sorry. This puts the audience in to the man’s position and sees what he sees which helps them create some kind of bond between the man and the audience a gives him a sense of how he feels. There is a medium shot of the news reporter holding the mic to his mouth and on the screen it says ‘breaking news’ with the man singing on the mic making it seem as if we are watching the news at home and it cuts backs to the street of an over the shoulder shot of the man singing on the mic to the reporter. There is a close up of the watch and picture of the girl placed on the ground beside him, the time is fast forwarded and we can see the hands on the watch moving very fast, it then cuts to an establishing shot of the city at night changing into daylight also connoting the change of time. There are shots of the man fast forwarded cutting to the moon moving in the sky, cars passing on the streets, and people passing by on the streets. This gives a great effect of the time passing by and connotes that the man has been waiting days and nights for the girl to come. It then cuts into him a coat with the hood in the snow, connoting the change of weather.
There is a bird’s eye view of the cars passing by on the motor way which is also fast forwarded leaving streaks of light behind which really stands out in the dark background. The clouds moving around the sun very fast also connote the passing of time. There are different angles of the city, high, low, close up and from various directions to give a sense of the city life feels like at night. The video ends with a medium shot of the man sitting on the street with his sleeping bag beside him telling us that he is still waiting and then fades into black.
Sound:
The video includes synchronous dialogue because the man is singing but doesn’t look at the camera, he is singing to the public and himself. There is also voice over used as the man continuously sings throughout the video but at the same time in some of the scenes we see the city and night life. The music starts off with a relatively slow tune of a guitar as he is walking on the road and after 30 seconds the beat of the drums come in. these two instruments create the main tune of the music, when the man stops singing the guitar and drums are still being played. When the man gets to the chorus of the song the beats become faster and the beats become stronger but once he reaches to the bridge of the song the tone of it slows down and becomes calmer but it goes back to fast and stronger once he sings the chorus again.
The instruments used in the song are guitars, piano. At the performance the music and lyrics are both diegetic sounds whereas in the rest of the video, although the man is looks like he is singing, it may be made to look diegetic but really it could be non diegetic. The man’s voice is very sincere and calm with a light tone to it. It draws the audience closer to the man because his voice has a great tone if, perfect for singing and makes the listener want to hear more. His voice also fits in well the background music, when its slow he sings slowly however when the music gets faster and but beat the chorus gets faster as well so the tone of his voice has to fit in well with the pace of the music, both the singing and the music has to be at the same pace in order to sound right.
Editing:
The video relies on continuity editing to maintain a logic flow of events. There is action match used quiet often as he is walking on the streets, it shows him from different angles. There are jump cuts used especially when they are performing in the car park from close up of the man singing to the whole of the band showing the audience who the band is and a change of location as well. There is diegetic and non diegetic sound used in the video. During the video the song is non diegetic as it is not actually sang whilst making the video, however it is made to look like the man is actually singing so it looks like diegetic. The music played by the band in the car park seems to be diegetic as they are playing the instruments and is a performance.
Editing effects are used to create fast motion to indicate a rapid passage of time. In the video this is shown by hands on a watch, the sun and the moon, the change in weather and the cars passing on the motor way.
The screen is made to look as if the audience is watching the news the screen changes to a red caption saying ‘Breaking news’, this creates a story within the video and draws the audience’s attention to what the man is saying.
Symbolic Codes:
Mise-en-scene:
Setting:
The video is mainly set in the streets in the city, by the looks of it maybe New York City. It shows people’s daily lives as they are walking and driving on their way to work or shopping. It is linked to the lyrics; the city is a big place to find someone without knowing where they are but he mentions that he is going to wait in the corner of the street where they both first met which can be easily found. The performance is set in an empty ground floor car par. It gives a sense of emptiness which links to the man’s feelings as he feels empty without the girl he loves. “The corner of the street” id on the road side in the middle of the Big Apple, one of the busiest and well known cities in the world. This setting really fits in well with the lyrics as he mentions the fact that he will be waiting in the corner of the street and in the video he does as says.
Costume, Hair and Make-up:
The singer is wearing casual everyday clothes, jeans and a jacket, and so are the rest of the band members connoting that what they are doing is something they do every day and they don’t have to dress up for it, they are just going through their daily life routine as being part of a band. There is a policeman in his uniform connoting who he is and what is his job. The news reporter is wearing a suit and holding mic which tell us that she has to dress smartly in order to represent herself on the television screen. The key props used in the video are a watch which he places beside him on the pavement connoting the passing of time as the hands of the watch move around really fast. He also uses a piece of card board saying ‘if you see this girl, tell her where I am’ and a picture of the girl next to it. This is to reveal who he is singing about and get to know the girl more. No one is wearing anything out of the ordinary; they are all represented as normal citizens going through their normal daily lives. The only thing that is unusual is the man sitting in the corner of the streets.
Positioning of Character/s:
The man is being filmed whilst walking down the streets but he is positioned in the middle of the screen which shows that he is the main character and is important. As we look up at the character, we can see that he is standing in the middle of the city looking around and seems to be a little lost in his mind. The audience can also see that the man is the important character because the camera only follows where he goes even though there are plenty of other people around him. The people in the background are not shown as important and therefore there are not many close ups unless the main has something is linked to them or interacts with them. The band performing in the empty car park shows that they are professional musicians who know what they are doing, we see this when the camera cuts on close ups of various members playing their instruments or singing. Also the fact that the man is standing in front and singing tells us that he is the main singer and maybe the leader of the group.
When the man is sitting on the floor, we see an innocent and vulnerable side of him. This is shown by the camera looking down on him making him seem small and harmless. The position of the policeman in the car looking out of the window towards the man tells us that he is realistically more important than the man according to his job but not so important in the story the man is telling. The people from the streets surrounding the man and standing in front of the him and looking down shows that they have sympathy for him.
Facial Expression and Body Language:
The close up shots of the man’s face tells us that he is not happy; he seems to be heartbroken and lost in the world he is living in. The fact that he keeps looking around tells us he is searching for someone or something, in this case we know it is a girl. He looks at the people whilst he is walking and singing as if he is talking to the public, for example when he says ‘can you tell her where I am’ he looks at the man passing by as if he is talking to him. He shakes his head and tells us ‘they don’t understand’, this tells us that he feels no one understands him and no one can feel what he feels. He never looks straight ahead, he either looks down on the ground or up in the sky. This tells is that he is in distress and let down but the fact that he also looks up might mean that he is talking to God and is seeking help from him. When he sits ‘on the corner of the street’ he has an innocent look on his face and wants to wait for the girl he loves.
His legs are crossed and he doesn’t seem to care if he is comfortable or if his clothes would get dirty, the girl that he loves seems to be the only thing on his mind and he will wait there until she comes for him. The expression on the police man’s face shows that he is confused about why the man is sitting on the street which is not normal. The people from the public seem to feel sorry for him and want to listen to what he is saying. He looks down at him and their expression tells us that they want to help him. When the news reporter comes, her expression is serious and tells us that she knows how this man is feeling and she is directly looking at him and whilst holding the mic. She probably has experienced what he is experiencing. As the man sings into the mic, his expressions tells us that he wants everyone watching to know what he is doing and is trying to send a message to the girl. The fact that he is sitting by the road and we see the weather changing we can also see his expressions showing us his he cold in the snow and rain.
Lighting and Colour Design:
The video starts off using natural lighting as the majority of scenes are filmed during the day outside so the sun comes across as the lighting here. It is ambient and the bright sun in the busy city feels warm and welcoming. We can tell that it is around in the afternoon because his shadow is very long. When they do the performance in the car park it seems dark and there are streaks of lights coming through the spaced through the walls. Because it is a ground floor car park there are no windows for lights to get through and the light that actually does come through gives it a great effect as it reflects through the camera and shines across the men’s faces. The white streaks of light might connote a sense of hope for the man, as he is waiting for his lover and therefore there could be hope for him that she might come to him. Towards the end of the video, it is set at night time and therefore the lighting used here are the ones on the streets and most probably some flood lights as well. We can see the city changing from night time and its dark into the daylight.
Also the light of the moon gives a great effect on the dark sky as it moves across the sky showing the change in time. The streaks of light left by the cars on the roads as the video is fast forwarded gives great visual effects and tells the audience in the passing of time. The reds and yellows give a sense of warmth and comfort from the city night but it may also create a sense of danger. This gives us a sense of a busy lifestyle to everyone but to him times just passes by whilst he is still waiting for the girl.
Focusing on our target audience research, my idea was to explore what our target audience mostly expected in a music video. The ideas I came up with to use a live band and make the video into performance as well as a narrative driven. I came up with the idea of having a band playing on stage, cross-cutting to a couple together illustrating the story the band is singing. I chose to use a couple and make it into a true love story because the song is about someone singing about his feelings towards someone he loves. Another idea I came up with based my target audience is that the majority of the scenes should be set at night. Many of our target audience preferred to watch a music video set at night because they believe it makes the scenes more romantic and tells the story better.
