Student Music Video Textual Analysis - Stuck by Canopy Climbers

Introduction -

This music video is based on the song "Stuck" made by Canopy Climbers. Overall the quality of the music video is good and its clear that the students creating it have played closed attention to framing. Additionally all content within the music video fits the genre of the music chosen and it is also evident that they have analysed the lyrics to ensure the visuals both conform and do not conform the lyrics. They have also including all the main factors of a music video such as narrative and live performance in which they have the artist lip synching.

Genre -
I think this video falls within the action genre as it shows has multiple scenes which include violence or have generic conventions of the action genre (e.g. the punching bag scene, the crime itself, the fire connotes violence and danger). Another aspect of the video that conforms to the action genre is that the actors within the music video are mainly male. This is a common trope within actions
movies and is shown here as the main characters are male.

Narrative -
It is evident that narrative has been considered implemented within the music video. The narrative starts off slow paced and shows two men sitting in a field. This is followed by quick flashes of a crime in which they assaulted a man and left him wounded. This becomes clear through the series of flashbacks that are shown throughout the music video. During the scene in which the crime happens the pace of the music video speeds up and the cuts become much more regular. This is good as it shows the pace of the fighting is fast and they have interjected it with shots of lip synching therefore connoting that it is a flashback. Additionally they have clearly colour graded the flashbacks scenes as the colours are colder and are mainly greys which juxtaposed the other shots which are in comparison more colourful. At the end of the music video there is a clear resolution as the man who was assaulted returns and spares the criminal. Through this narrative I can see some of Todorov's Narrative Stages. It is clear that at the start the music video is calm and there is a equilibrium (stage 1). This is followed by the fragmented flashback of the incident which is a disruption (stage 2/3) this also incorporates stage 4 as these events happen very quickly within the music video as the crime happens. At the end stage 5 is shown as there is a equilibrium as the victim returns and spares the person who assaulted him.

Audience -
The audience for this music video is clearly mature as it contains scenes of violence and even through they are brief and paced very quickly it is clear that the audience age range is around 16-30 as this video falls into the action genre. My decision for this age range is also due to the fact the storyline is fairly confusing and may be hard to understand for younger audiences and may be too violent for younger teenagers (11-15). The audience for this music videos will mostly be made up of males. This tends to be the case with the action genre as it is normally made up of male characters (which is the case within this video). It is clear from the video that it was intended to be aimed at a male audience and perhaps fans of the action genre as well.