Textual Analysis on:

The Calling: Where Ever You Will Go

I decided to do my textual analysis on this video because i feel it relates to the song we are doing especially with the romance and reference to love.

At the beginning of this video there is a good selections of shots ranging from the long to medium then to close ups of the lead singer and the girl, this is a good obvious start to tell the audience the two key people in the video that will be the ones to fall in love. The video is set in a under path of a bridge where there is only the band, this is a great idea as you cannot get distracted from anything else around them. As well as this the acoustic start to the video really makes the audience be able to feel comfortable. The most effective part of the acoustic start i feel is the medium close ups and slightly low angled shot reverse shot of the female character.

The song then begins with a performs close up of the lead singer with the guitarist out of focus in the background, this represents power and also makes the audience may attention to what the singer is saying leading to them focusing on the song even more. Straight cut then followed by a panning medium shot of the whole band. One specific words such as "love" the director has edited the video to make shots of the two characters together just after close ups of the female on her own looking depressed or down.

I specifically like how the director has edited the video to intertwine the band/ lead singer with the female character however they have made it so that the female character is completely oblivious to the fact that the band are right next to her. This also relates to the lyrics of "Where Ever You Will Go" as it represents that they will always be close to her. The music video is mostly performance based but has also been combined with a narrative. There is a usual concept of a rock/pop video such as close ups of the band and the instruments such as guitar, drums and bass.

The editor has used a key idea of mise en scene when placing the lead singer in strange places such as on the top of buildings and under bridges. This is a very popular song as it has a total of 3,378,987 views on youtube. The director of this view likes to make an obvious eye contact with the lead singer and the audience, this means that the director has cut and shot the video to have set shots such as close ups.

The narrative in this music video is that the female character gets her heart broken by finding out that the guy she was with slept with someone else. This shows how the song relates to the narrative as it suggests the person is there for them. This is simular to our music video as we have decided to match our lyrics to song.

Finally i feel that the emtion in the piece is really expressed by the gestures of the characters and the emtional expresstions on the lead singers face, this really impacts the video and song which makes the audience feel more involoved, as if they are a part of it. This emtion can also have a large impact on the audience as if someone could relate to the realistic narrative story.

Mark Davies
Here is a link to the music video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffP0yzMnz8&feature=player_detailpage