Music Video Analysis 1

Video Analysis
Mumford and Sons – Little lion man

The first thing we see at the start of the video is an empty stage with two light bulbs hanging down. The two light bulbs are flickering and then become bright, at the same time as this the music kicks in. This will grab the audience’s attention and let them know that it has started. They decided to have to light bulbs flickering at the start as old lights used to do that before they turned on. This could signify that the band have just arrived and are getting ready to play. When the lights are on we see the rest of their surroundings, which looks to be like and old western building dues to the wooden flooring and old style décor. This is used to help represent the bands genre, folk rock. It then cuts to an extreme close up of Marcus, guitarist, playing the guitar. It then show extreme close ups of all the other instruments, like the cello and banjo, and also other members of the band. We then see a long shot of the entire band together on the stage when Marcus starts singing. This lets the audience know who plays what instrument. After a few seconds it cuts back to extreme close ups of the band members and the instruments that they are playing. Then the chorus starts and we go back to the long shot of the band and all of them are singing. This shows that each of the whole of the band are involved in the chorus. During the chorus the tempo slows down and the camera slowly zooms in. This has been done to show that they are building up to something, it also create a little bit of tension and suspense. The tempo then speeds up quite a bit and the camera cuts become more sudden and more frequent than they were before. This adds to the fast tempo of the music as it doesn’t allow much time for the audience to focus on what is going on. This is repeated throughout most of the song.
This video is a performance video and shows the band standing on a stage. The difference between this video and other performance videos is that there is no audience. The building that they are in has been set up ready for a performance as it has lights shining on both the floor, where the audience would be and the band. This could connote that this is just a practice for when the audience actually get. The effect of having no audience makes it personal to the viewer who is watching, as though the band is playing for them. This engages the audience more than it would if there was an audience present.