Textual analysis of Chase and Status ft Jacob Banks - Alive

In our analysis of Chase and Status ft Jacob Banks - Alive; we will be analysing the first 47 seconds of the music video, then skip to 1.54 minutes in until 3.07 minutes in and then skip to 6.05inutes to 6.16 minutes.

Ø    Opens with a warning saying ‘Parental Advisory Explicit Content’.

 

 Ø     Establishing shot of an iron eagle, suggests that the content is set in America as the golden eagle is often associated with America. This also connotes that ethnicity and nationality will   be important during the music video



 

Ø      High key lighting is used when there is a shot of a cross. This could be suggesting that someone in the music video may die and that they are of importance.

 

Ø      Several  close up shots of drawings, photographs and paintings of Native Americans are used, this links back to the eagle at the start of the music video and also suggest ethnicity and nationality will be of importance.

 

Ø     A head and shoulder shot of what appears to be a teenage Native American boy is used. This reveals his emotions, which seem to be angry as well as sad. He looks like he is in deep thought. The high key lighting in this shot also has connotations that the boy is a main character in the narrative music video.

     

     Ø     A straight cut is used to show a close up of his hands in which he is holding drugs.
            It then cuts back to a close up/head and shoulder shot of him smoking the drugs.

 

Ø     Establishing shot of an elder woman; presumably the mother, sat at a table.

 

Ø     The father walks in and sees the drugs on the table. A mid shot is used to show the father pushing his son around the kitchen in anger. the farther may be angry due to the fact that Native American's lives are very cultural and they live strict lifestyles.

  

    

Ø     The high key lighting in this shot suggests that the boys mind is alert and awake. This links to the genre of the music video; dance. Dance music is usually fast and upbeat. The fact he is holding a gun shows why his mind may be alert and awake.

 

Ø     The low key lighting and graffiti on the walls shows that the teenage boy is in with the wrong crowd and further links with the drugs his mother found at the start of the music video.

 

Ø     Over the shoulder shot of the teenage boy’s girlfriend shows that she is dead. The music isn’t playing at this point to emphasise the death. This suggests that he will see that he is living the wrong lifestyle. In this genre of music is it stereotypical for something tragic to happen during the music video.

 

Ø    High key lighting and slow music shows despair.

 

Ø     At around 4.30 minutes there is a sequence of cross cutting. This is used to show different narratives and settings; this being the teenage boys old life and the new cultural one he is about to embrace. Our group would like to use this idea in our own music video.

 

 

 

 

Ø     The scarlet red blood against the pure white shirt could suggest that it is the end of the teenage boys bad life and the beginning of a new, better one. The high key lighting shows that he is good again. The use of high key lighting throughout the music video is similar to how we would like to film our music video.