Music Video Analysis- "Little Talks"...

"Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men

Original Video

My analysis of the video.

Script:

“Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men is an animated video seeming to draw inspiration from art house cinema. A mixture of both photographic and illustrated images are combined together to create a more mature looking animation. This ensures that the video appeals to the bands target audience (13years+ approx.) and doesn’t come across as childish, which would taint the songs appeal.

 The quirky plot with adventurous elements helps captivate the viewer by taping into their imagination- encouraging them to engage more in the video. The video takes place in multiple fantasy lands that are visually rich, with detailed landscapes inspired by extreme places in the real world. Each land is obviously different despite the use of de-saturated colour throughout the video. The huge variance in location absorbs the viewer in the aesthetics of the video as it gives the viewer the same sense of discovery the protagonists (band) feel as each new land is shown. This makes the use of master shots in the film crucial as it clearly establishes spatial relations between characters and identifies new lands clearly. Lots of diverse shots are used in the video to intensify the onscreen energy.

 The dark tone of the video and connoted feelings of cold, mystery and danger, are ever-present; yet the magical girl and any good in the footage is visually represented in an overpoweringly vibrant, spectrum of colours. This highlights the strong contrast between good and evil the video plays on.

The antagonist creatures are often oversized and loom over the band but are always defeated by the girl who is still small in comparison to them but is presented as more powerful.

Strong parallels can be seen between the mise-en-scene, (in particular the costume and make-up) and tribal artwork. The band remains completely de-saturated and wears thick, powdery face paint in tribal style. Where as the magical girl wears a floaty, swirling dress and head piece full of colour. They both have very theatrical make up but the band’s is very simple and the girl’s is very bright and complex.

The band’s walking is very jerky and on beat exaggerating the puppet-like movement and animated style. Parallel sound is key to this video as all the action compliments the song and a lot of the movement is synchronous to the track. For example as the song slows in tempo during a sound bridge the characters fall into an underwater world and the footage becomes slow motion to replicate the idea that they are floating.

The special effects in the footage aim to amplify the magical element of the video. The explosions of colour when a creature is defeated heighten the action and excitement as well as being visually impressive. On the other hand the inky effect connotes a shadowy danger undoubtedly identifying the creatures as threatening. There is a lot of movement in the creature designs, which makes them more artistically impressive and eye-catching.