Music video research - Yeah Yeah Yeahs, 'Heads Will Roll'

This is the music video for 'Heads Will Roll' by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs', an indie pop song by one of our influences. It is a performance based concept video and also has creative representations of reality, making it appropriate to analyse for our own video.

The editing pace changes with the tempo and climaxes of the music - getting faster and becoming more of a montage as the song gets more intense, starting with a 45s shot. Different techniques such as cross dissolves and rapid fades to black were used to echo the music, with cross dissolves in the slower parts and the fades to black in the chorus the make the action seem more dramatic. This is echoed by the camerawork which begins very fluidly and as the song becomes more climactic the video becomes more shaky and the camera moves faster and at more extreme angles. I really liked the smooth camera moving around stage in the beginning and would like to use movement like that in our video, especially for the "tell them" bit.

Only one set appears to be used. Although the wolf man appears from some sort of alley, it leads to the stage. This is revealed after the wolf man is introduced and the lack of connection between him and the performance creates mystery before it is explained. The band and wolf man are all dressed smartly, however all the men wear black whereas Karen O wears an extravagant red dress. Mise-en-scene is also used to create a representation of blood, using glitter and instead of people bleeding, glitter is strewn everywhere in the carnage. This is an interesting way of representing a scene and we will think about this when we come to construct our hospital.

In terms of Goodwin's music video theory:

• There are strong links between lyrics and visuals, though in an unexpected way, since the wolf is ripping peoples heads off, the people are running not dancing, although the lead singer does literally dance till she is dead
• The tempo of the editing and movement changes as the music climaxes
• The concept video is a common characteristic of the indie genre

And in terms of Vernallis:

• Editing - there is non-continuity editing, plenty of jump cuts and changes in pace of editing
• Camera movement and framing - the camera is constantly moving and the framing begins with establishing shots which become less frequent towards the end
• Diegesis - a world is very much created in the music video where the wolf is on a rampage at the concert, actions are often not completed because the shot jumps to different events or places
• Narrative - the narrative is simple but not necessarily linear: a werewolf turns at the concert and hunts everyone down, but we continue to fragmentedly watch the performance