TH Technical Analysis

'The Ghost Of You' - My Chemical Romance

This music video is very similar to our concept; there are two lines of narrative which involve a band performance on stage and a separate story of a future event. I also chose this video as it is by a band I have studied throughout this project.

0.00 - Three shots of audience consisting of men and women; MLS, MCU, MCU.
0.06 - MLS of the lead singer on stage in front of an American military flag.
0.09 - Two MLS of lead, rhythm and bass guitarists playing riff; they are also all on stage
            in front of the flag.
0.11 - Two more MCU shots of the audience as they interact with each other.
0.15 - A CU of the lead singer then quickly cuts to the final member of the band - the
           drummer - and quickly returns to the lead singer as he starts singing.
0.16 - MLS of the singer is at a higher angle and shows the three guitarists behind him in
           shallow focus.
0.21 - Another high angle shot of the guitarists is followed by a lower angle CU of the singer in
           the foreground and the flag in the background. The singer is positioned in the centre of
           the frame.
0.25 - CUs and MLSs of the two audience groups - the men and women - lead to a tracking
           shot...
0.31 - ...where the audience sees the men getting up out of their chairs to proceed to dance
           with the women.
0.36 - This LS shows all of the partners dancing in front of the band performance. They are all
           wearing similar colours in their uniform and form a sea of dark green beneath the
           colourful flag and backdrop to the band's performance.
0.42 - CU of the lead singer as the pace of the song increases and changes from a slow,
            melancholy track to a faster tempo rock rhythm.
0.46 - As the chorus begins the location changes and the audience are suddenly placed on a
           WWII landing boat full of soldiers. The location is a bleak, grey and rainy day which
           contrasts the calm, pleasant dancing hall.
0.52 - Following a number of CUs of soldiers on the boat seen trembling and feeling the
           pressure and anxiety, the camera pans 90 degrees to show the lead singer also on the
           boat, with a determined expression.
1.00 - More CUs of other members of the band follow this and at one minute, a MLS shows all
           of the soldiers jumping off the boat into the sea to reach the beach.
1.04 - The chorus ends and returns to a slower paced song. As this happens, a MS showing the
           singer on stage returns. All of the shots in the narrative sequence were handicam shots;
           none of them were static and most were fairly shaky, to add to the terror the soldiers
           were facing. As the band performance returns to the screen, static shots resume.
1.06 - A LS shows all of the dancers in front of the flag again, once again portraying a sea of
           dancers in front of the artists; drawing attention to them to gain more prevalence.
1.12 - A couple of MS of the band members are followed by two more MS of them at canted
           angles.
1.17 - A third line of narrative is introduced, when another canted angle MLS shows the band
           members with some members of the audience at a bar where they all look happy and
           are portrayed laughing.
1.23 - After returning to the dance hall quickly afterwards, a few CUs of the singer are followed
           by a slow motion MCU of a band member walking away from his dance partner. This
           symbolises the men leaving to go to fight in the war.
1.29 - My favourite shot in the video follows; a bird's eye view shot that portrays the two main
            lines of narrative together in one shot. Initially with the dancers dotted across the
            dance floor shown from above, post production effects then show waves an soldiers
            flooding across the screen from the bottom left corner to the top right, effectively
            wiping out the dancers. This is a very powerful transition between the two events.
1.33 - More handicam shots filmed at MLS and LS distances show the soldiers embarking
            onto the beach. Very quickly after this, pro-filmic techniques are used to show
            explosions happening all around the soldiers.
1.35 - A low angle shot is used to transition between two different shots, covering 180 degrees.
           The camera showing the sea dips into the water and emerges facing the beach then
           remerges to show the sea again. A very slick shot-reverse-shot.
1.38 - A series of shots showing more soldiers dodge explosions is next, cut at a fast pace.
1.43 - We return to the setting of the band members at the bar. The lead singer is shown
           consolidating another member who appears upset.
1.47 - Back in the narrative sequence on the beach, an over-the-shoulder shot at LS distance is
           positioned behind the enemy as they are shooting at the main protagonist and other
           band members.
1.48 - Ten different shots are shown in the space of ten seconds from this point. The cutting
           rate is very fast and shows a montage of the fight taking place on the beach.
2.04 - The beach scene is then cut as the chorus ends and a slow motion MLS shows all the
           band members walking away from the female dancers.
2.06 - A tacking shot moves towards the dancers as they watch the men leave.
2.09 - A double shot-reverse-shot portrays a dancer and one of the band members exchange
           their last sight of each other as the slow tempo bridge comes to an end...
2.17 - ...And the faster tempo resumes as the scene on the beach resumes, with a handicam
            shot moving in towards the band member we just saw leaving the room. This frequent
            cut-backs to him connote to the audience that something is going to happen to him
            here.
2.24 - A motivated cut follows a longer clip of him struggling to get up.
2.25 - A cut back to the stage performance shows him smiling but then very soon after a jump
          cut returns to him on the beach.
2.27 - A few shots show the lead singer shouting at him to try to warn him of where he is
           running, followed by the same over-the-shoulder shot of the enemy as before and then...
2.31 - ...A MLS shows him fall to the floor as a jump cut then proceeds to show him on the
           ground in pain at MS.
2.33 - After this - his fatal accident - a cut back to the performance shows the lead singer but
           with a post production filter that makes him appear ghost like; relating to the death of
           his friend and the title of the song.
2.35 - After this, we return to the beach where to MCUs show the band member in pain, then
           showing his wound and then cutting back to his face at CU.
2.38 - A LS shows that more and more soldiers are falling all around him as another band
           member attends to him as a medic.
2.42 - Another shot similar to the one at 2.33 is shown as the section of the song finishes and
           then a cut to the bar scene follows. Here, the band are the only people left, and the lead
           singer is shown centre of shot singing with lots of emotion.
2.44 - A sequence of multiple MLS are shown next, in both lines of narrative and performance
           as filler shots during the final chorus.
2.56 - A handicam shot shows more soldiers lying on the ground.
3.04 - A CU of the lead singer on the beach is shown and he is singing here now too.
3.09 - A canted angle of the wounded band member at MCU is shown as he sighs and appears
           to be dead now.
3.11 - A low angle MCU shows the band member acting as the medic give up, denoting that he
           is in fact dead.
3.13 - The final cut returns to the lead singer on the beach at CU, as he finishes singing the
           last line.
          The song then finishes and SFX of explosions and guns can be heard as extra-diegetic
           noise.
          The handicam shot begins to move towards the singer and ends in a BCU.
3.23 - Lastly, a cut to black ends the video as the singer blinks.