The Pretender – 9 Frame Analysis

The first shot in this music video is of the lead singer, Dave Grohl walking onto the set on his own with all of the instruments already set up. The song is about rebellion, “I’m not like the others”, and the fact that he is walking out on his own mirrors the theme of being different and not one of the others. The use of a long high angle shot helps people establish how alone Dave is in the first shot as we can see how huge the set is. This is to further enhance the idea that he is on his own and different from the rest of society.

This next shot is a close up of Dave’s hand, which in my opinion represents two things. As a guitarist the most important feature is the hand and this is amplified with a close up of the hand. Another thing I think this symbolises is a fighting spirit. Before a fight, boxers tend to wrap the same

material around there hands in order to aid them whilst fighting. Later on in the video we see an army of people with guns attack the band so this could be a foreshadowing theme within the video itself.

The next interesting shot is a close up of Dave’s face. In this shot we can see a lot of raw emotion on his face and this matches the tempo of the song. The background is plain red, which symbolises danger, something that could be seen as a foreshadowing for the later parts of the song. The fact that it is a close up also indicates that Dave wants us to see his expression as he may be angry at something and want to make this very clear.

This next shot is a low angle shot of Dave as he looks out into the distance. This makes the audience feel like they are watching the band live as it is the same perspective you would get if you where at one of their gigs. This is forcing the audience to look up at Dave, which implies that he is a lot better than everybody else, something that is often abused in the music industry.

The next shot shows that the bands are looking into darkness throughout the whole performance so far. This is very peculiar until we later find out what comes out from the darkness. Nonetheless it is an interesting shot that the audience is not expecting. The heavy use of black so far also symbolises the heavy nature of the genre of music and this is a certain colour that tends to pop up in this genre of music.

We then see a black figure coming out from the darkness as the camera is behind the figure. This shot is effective because it shows the darkness of this figure that is appearing, contrasting with the bright lights in the background of the shot. The song is about being different from everyone else, and this shot

emphasises this statement. The black figure is standing out over everything else in this shot as he is framed right in the middle of the shot.

This next shot shows this figure to be someone wearing riot shield armour as though he is getting ready to fight. Him being in the centre of what seems to be a very large warehouse makes him seem very small and unimportant which is a peculiar way to frame this shot. You would usually see these types of people being made to look very strong and powerful however the director has chosen to make him seem very small, for the time being that is. Again, with him being shown behind a black background adds an element of darkness and suspense to the shot as it is unknown where he came from or if anything else will come out.

The man that has come out from the background then raises his arm and shouts in a way that almost seems tribal. This links back to the start of the video when Dave was wrapping his wrist in a way that was almost boxing-esque. Both of these shots indicate

that the main theme of the music video is about fighting or standing up for yourself. The fact that a lot of close-ups of this unnamed soldier and Dave Grohl have been used this indicates that it is something personal. However it is understandable that

there a lot of close up shots on the members of the band because in this genre of music it is something that is common throughout most videos.