Product Analysis
Music video: Blinded by the Lights (song) – by The Streets
The Streets (real name: Mike Skinner) is a UK grime/hip-hop artist based in London. Blinded by the Lights is a story about a man (portrayed by Skinner) whose life rapidly changes for the worse all in one night due to girls, drink and drugs. The music video portrays this night using cinematography, sound, editing and mise-en-scene to represent Skinners disastrous night. The mise-en-scene in particular is used to represent Skinners’ culture and the identity.
Cinematography- Throughout the film cinematography is used to show Skinners status as it steadily declines and to show emotions of the characters. The first instance where this occurs is at the very start of the video where we see two close-ups of both Skinner and Simone (his current girlfriend), through the close-ups we see that they are happy, equilibrium exists in the relationship and all is well. Disequilibrium however soon occurs after a series of bad decisions from Skinner. The cinematography also represents Skinners state throughout the video, fixed, straight camera shots steadily become hand-held shots with canted angles and point of view shots as Skinner gets steadily drunk. These shots could also represent his life as a whole though with the night slowly getting worse as we begin to realise his girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend. This change is also emphasised by a number of close-ups of Skinner through out the video, the screenshot above for example emphasising the mise-en-scene in the scene such as the cigarette (representing the drugs) and the closed eyes suggesting he is not himself and perhaps doesn’t even understand what is happening. We also see plenty of 360 degrees shots as the night goes on to represent his increasing confusion. One more common convention of music videos that it shows is “breaking the fourth wall”, this is when an actor/singer looks directly into the camera as if to talk to the audience, this video focus’ on this with close-ups when this occurs.
Sound- There are only two scenes where the sound is anything other than the song itself, both at the very start and the very end, this allows the audience to concentrate on the meaningful lyrics which describe what we are seeing on screen as there is a direct relationship between the visuals, music and lyrics themselves (this is a common convention of all music videos). The start dialogue and the end dialogue represent the change in emotions over the night, from one binary opposition to another, joyful to angry. This juxta position strongly represents Skinners disastrous night on its own.
Mise-en-scene- Mise-en-scene plays a very strong part in this video as the lack of dialogue in the video means that all representation has to be created through the mise-en-scene. Through out the video it represents Skinners decline through showing the audience drugs, alcohol and the consequences of using them. We are shown a number of close-ups of whiskey bottles, pills etc. which together with the lyrics tell the audience what is happening and they both give an effect of disequilibrium and chaos. Through costume the mise-en-scene again represents the decline of Skinners status, from looking very formal and well-dressed in a suit at the start of the video to wearing his shirt unbuttoned and without a tie, emphasising the negative change he has gone through throughout the night. Lighting is also used for representation as high key lighting gradually fades to low key lighting as Skinner gets less and less sober.
Editing- The first use of editing occurs when a 360 degrees shot of Skinner is sped up to both represent the confusion Skinner is feeling and to give the audience a feeling of chaos in the club. Another instance of editing being used is when a close up of Skinner is shown in slow motion to emphasise the emotion on Skinners face at the end of the night, summarising his night by focusing on the mise-en-scene in the shot such as the cigarette in his mouth and bottle in his hand to represent the drink and drugs and the effect it has had on him. The editing is also fast paced and (using a common convention of music videos) in time with the beat, showing a distinct relationship between the sound and the visuals on screen.
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