North Country Boy

For my third music video analysis, i have chosen North Country Boy by The Charlatans. I based my star image at the beginning of my blog on Tim Burgess from The Charlatans and linked it to the Madchester Music Scene. Along with analysing this music video, i will link it with Ian Brown's Stelify and Nirvana's Heart-Shaped Box which i previously analysed. I will then state how they all link with out current band "Under The Influence" and will compare the different genre's that the music comes from.

The mise-en scene of the setting in the North Country Boy video is similar to that of Ian Brown's Stelify. The trait of walking through Manchester just like on Stelify occurs and as both Ian Brown and The Charlatans originate from Manchester similar codes and conventions were included. Also, both North Country Boy and Stelify are more concept based videos with no performance, albeit there is lip synching. Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana however was heavier and included a performance piece, this is why i feel that is is relevant to add a performance piece to our music video to Vs The world. As Vs the World is a more heavier Rock than the songs by The Charlatans and Ian Brown, we feel that we should follow the convention of including a performance and a narrative in it.

There are numerous close ups of the lead singer Tim Burgess in the video, this ties in with my star image as Tim Burgess is the main star from the video which fans relate to the most. As for editing, as the chorus of the song begins and the music gets slightly heavier the shot pace changes. The pacing of the shots becomes very quick which makes the music coincide with the visuals as they complement each other during the heavier and lower parts of the song. There is a red fill light during some of the shots where there are close ups of Tim Burgess singing, usually red fill lights would be used in movies, particularly Horror with the red lighting indicating danger or blood. In this instance the red fill lighting is used to make Tim stand out in the streets of Manchester. It objectifies him to the audience who relate to him the most out of the band.

Above an example of the red fill light in the video to North Country Boy. Tim Burgess is made to be the stand out figure.

Ultimately i have learned from the analysis of the three music videos and my star image that we definitely should add a performance piece to our video. I also think that it is imperative that we add more close ups of our main character when he is outside, as we currently have little close ups. lip synching will need to be perfect to match the visuals and as the song is quite heavy, especially at the chorus we cannot afford to make a mistake while lip syncing. Lighting is something that i have mentioned little of in regards to out music video of late, that is because i thought it was of little significance to our song. By analysing North Country Boy by the Charlatans i have come to the conclusion that i was wrong and we definitely need to concentrate harder on lighting. I feel that we need to use lighting during certain close ups of the main character that we implement into the music video to convey specific emotion by him while he is in a hurry and running.