Genre: Horrorhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_kZb2zwQy0

My Chemical Romance.

Album: Welcome to The Black Parade

Song: The Black Parade

This video depicts life and death, and the uncertainty of what happens after death. The video focuses upon one man at first who in effect is being ‘forced’ to die. In a way he has an epiphany helped by a video and sinister looking nurses to reach the darker side of ‘pergatory’and join the ‘Black Parade’

The ‘Black Parade’ is the symbol throughout the video where it depicts, the message that after you die that we will ‘carry on’

Audience & Social GroupsIn this music video, the genre of the song is pop,punk,rock & emo. By this video you can tell who this is marketed for….

This wide shot introduces the band and the set of their music video. As you can see, they are all dressed in black with white skulls in a military uniform and parade. This would appeal to teenagers who enjoyed a melodramatic from of rock and is not remarkably heavy, a stereo typical name for these people and the genre the band is claimed to have created is Emo= emotional rock.

EMO

Story Structure & Narrative.

The video basically portrays a man dieing, being led by the lead singer onto the ‘other side’ Where he then joins civilisation in a ‘limbo’ land and a sort of celebration of his life in ‘The Black Parade’ then is left alone in a desolate land with a medal.

It shows a destroyed land, where there are no burnt out buildings and ruins as if there had been some kind of horrible war. In the video it is slightly snowing at the beginning which then fades then re-occurs throughout, this gives the effect of it being chilly and cleansing souls. After the snow black celebration paper falls to welcome the dead man.

The narrative in a way is as if dieing is not the end, but ‘that we will carry on’ (lyrics) and the marching of the parade shows that the parade never ends and a celebration of lives will go on forever.

Style and Feel.Mise-en-scene.

At the beginning you get the feeling of a cold harsh reality. Everything is looking bleak as the man is about to die and you feel alone with this video. The man then reaches out as if for help when he ‘crosses over’ he reaches out to the lead singer in the video. He arrives at the ‘other side when the walls collapse of the hospital like fabric. The lighting is also clean with white, so everything is neutral and seemingly innocent. (click now)This long and establishing shot helps the audience to realise where the dieing man is going and what he is joining, it also establishes the band and ‘who they are’ in this video. With the snow falling around and the buildings destroyed it gives the effect of their being no hope but the parade carries on with determination. The lighting has got quite a major contrast to that for the first scene, this is dirty, grey and black, with a hint of red, on the parade car, which gives the resemblance of hope.

Mise-en scene cont.

The first characters we are introduced to are the doctors and nurses who are in stereo-typical nurses outfits but with a sort of grotesque, kinky twist to it. They are short and have a large red cross on the top of their white outfits matching their red lipstick, this gives the audience the impression that death is melodramatic and hyped up, with reality being a fancy dress costume. The dieing man’s eyes play an important

role to creating the effect of ‘passing over’ before he transcends into limbo land he has a plain facial expression then. (click now) it changes to big black panda eyes which resembles the makeup some of the members the parade have and when a person dies the life and soul leaves them so making them more prominent helps the story of dieing come across to the audience.

This shot shows the band and the rest of the paraders and their outfits. The colours mainly consist of black and white making it harsh to look at. The paraders are wearing masks to make the band stand out more. Most of the paraders are in party gear and prom dresses with a re-occuring character ‘Mama’ the band created to the right (click now). This shows that it is a celebration of the dieing mans welcome to his new life.

This shot enables the audience to see the band really kick in with the music, it also helps them to see their costumes and how the lead singer is still prominently out standing to the others, with his white hair and military outfit he still stands out significantly with his theatrical movement and by being on the front piece of the parade. There costumes also match with the lighting being quite grey their blackout fits stand out, and the burnt buildings around are not blackened ash suggesting they have been their for a while and the ‘smoke’ which may have destroyed the land creates this kind of misted effect.

Shots we may use in our Music Video.

In our music video we wanted to create the same kind of effects that this video has used, and some are for the same reason.

We wanted to use this effect at the beginning to introduce the characters. In MCR’s video it shows the man just about to die, but we want to initiate the opposite as if we are giving the zombies life.

In this part of the music video the band have gone into slow-motion to create an un-realistic, supernatural effect. We also wanted this for our video when the zombies dance. It also a long shot which helps to establish more people and the scenery.

Cont.

In this part the drummer is in fast-motion creating a surrealist effect, and again supernatural, but also confusing the audience with a blink and you’ll miss it suggestion of constantly being kept on their toes and finding his drumming fast forwarded intriguing.

And in this shot the drumming has actually been re-winded in slow motion, which is another moment of ‘blink etc’, but it also astounds the audience and makes them think more about the video, which is the effect we also want to achieve to slightly bewilder the audience.

This EXCU will enable the audience to understand the facial expression and feel connected to the video being sung to directly . We have a lot of EXCU’s especially when the characters are in the graveyard and strapped tio the hospital beds. In MCR’s video the shot s seems to be swaying and constantly moving which we don’t want. We want the audience to get the point straight away and feel connected instantly as if the conversation is to them.

This last shot we also want to achieve the same effect. It is rising slowly off the ground which gives the sense of loneliness but a wondering peace for the dead man. We also want this same shot for our zombies at the end , to have a sense of peace and carry on with their life, happily in bliss at their ‘home’ which will be slightly more refreshing than MCR’s bliss.

Cont.