Video Analysis Three

Song: Hurt Less
Artist: The Qemists
Director: Keith McCarthy
Production Company: Mister McCarthy
Service Company: Papaya Films (Poland)
Producers: Adrian Mocko, Sebastian Jurczek
Editor: Jens Prausnitz
DOP: Mikolaj Lebkowski

Camera:
When the video starts, the music itself is slowly passed and merely building up, presented with a selection of mid and long shots of the protagonist girl walking towards the camera, two main shots are shown the front of her face, and her upper back. When she encounters the "Bully's" their faces are shown within a series of three mid shots. Following the drop in the music we are still presented with the same two shot type combination of the front of her face and the back while she is running. When the music slows down to drop again, a panoramic view of a bridge and the characters merging from the distance is kept for a long period. A fight scene is then initiated, when conflict is made long shot shows the movement and a close up shows the impact, increasing the impact of the attack. It concludes with a close up of the protagonists face and long shots of the victims.

Editing:
The whole video is in slow motion, average clip sequencing plays out while the music builds up, when the music itself drops the clips begin to speed up with a series of fast shots during conflict in various directions, keeping up with the pace of the music, the slow motion and the music employing works elegantly adding a sense of dramatic notion. During the rest of the song the speed in which the clips progress are average with a normal 3-5 second in each, movement increases time when the impact lasts about 3 seconds.

Sound:
The music is that of a neutral drum and bass youth culture, although the actors are youths it is hard to connect the character styles with the common stereotypes of a listener of this music. The music itself builds and drops with fast passed style and contrasts but works, with the slow motion style adding a dramatic style and sense.

Miss-en-scene:
The whole video is set in a council house looking set of flats, a background connector from the root and stereotype influence from the Drum & bass style, the main character and the others present a obscured modern fashion, with a mix of 80's and art influence a obscure and strange style of clothing, the main character wearing grey tight and skirt, with a grey jacket and pony tails with blue knots. and the other character wearing clothing such as a blue suit, a floral dress with a purple blouse, and a checked skirt corset top with large old fashioned reading glasses. I believe this style reflects the obscure and broad variety in the listeners and the undefined user base of this kind of music. a neutral but art sense, not suggesting or linking to the music but instead making a aesthetically and cool looking video to coincide a good piece of music.

Directors Quotations on the video:
"'Hurt Less' and is about having two sides to your personality. There is a light side and a dark side that can be exaggerated when we drink too much, party too much or allow our fun and relaxation to turn into regret and paranoia. This video is based on the idea that we keep this little monster locked up inside us and given the right circumstances it breaks free. I tried to think of the most innoccent person I could, a young girl, and what happens when other people's fun brings out the dark side in her. There are references to Let The Right One In - I loved the idea of these relatively innocent looking actors could do angry things.

The girl was Ola Krzemieniecka she's a 16 year Polish Twae Kwon Do champion. Her father is a famous Polish stunt coordinator who helped us out with the fight sequence at the end. We shot the whole film in an estate in Praga on the East Side of Warsaw, Poland. It actually is quite a rough part of Warsaw and the crew were quite nervous about us filming there. They definitely wanted us to finish before it got dark..."