Chase & Status - Time ft. Deliah Analysis

Following on from my analysis of The Killers - Somebody Told Me, I decided to Analyse the video Time by Chase & Status. I felt I should try looking at analysing a variety of videos from different genres to see how each genre differs and how their approach to videos changes as well as the different conventions they portray. 

Chase & Status produce electronic music such as Dubstep and they are originally from London. The band was formed in 2003 and since then they have produced two studio albums. Time is taken from their second studio album titled "No More Idols" and features british singer songwriter Deliah. The story within the video is about a teenage daughter who witnesses her mother being abused by her father. As the video progresses and as the abuse gets worse it effects the daughter more and more until she eventually takes action to protect her mother by phoning the police and having her own father arrested. The beginning of the video starts off with an a close up shot of the girl texting with a worried look on her face, however this is quickly contrasted by establishing shot of the family, you are given the impression that the family are happy as through a variety of medium and close up shots the family can be seen smiling and playing together. There is use of high key lighting to bring out brighter colours within the opening few shots and the Mise en Scene also gives the impression that the family are happy or content, all members of the family are seen to be wearing average clothes implying that they aren't short of money and live comfortably. Having said this the older daughters hair is quite messy, giving the impression she may be stressed or concerned about something. The mother is seen to be wearing a yellow jumper, yellow being a warm colour giving the opposite impression in that she is happy. As the video progresses the mood of the video changes, the lighting as well as the Mise en Scene suddenly become much darker this is to coincide with the escalation of abuse. The older daughter can be seen wearing very old and and scruffy clothes, bruises appear on the mothers face and the father is portrayed as being very aggressive. All this is shown through a variety of shots such as close ups, long and medium shots as well as high and low angles shots also giving the video great diversity with it's angles from which to display the action effectively. The cutting rate between the scenes of abuse is fast this compliments the fact a fierce confrontation involving violence is taking place, in contrast to this the scenes in which the there is no abuse taking place such as when the family are sitting down for breakfast the cutting rate is much slower representing a feeling of calm, the lighting and Mise en Scene also brighten up, brighter clothing can be seen again. All through the video their is younger daughter who is made out to be oblivious as to what is taking place, this could represent the fact that no-one knows about the domestic violence taking place. There are three locations within the video, one is the family home and the other is a prison. The third is a series of shot's In which the audience see Delilah singing the lyrics to the song, this is the performance aspect of the song and Is shown through mainly close ups and medium shots. There is emphasis on certain lines such as "I will wait for you, if thats all you need" this maybe because certain lyrics relate to certain parts of the video. An example of this is when the father is portrayed as an alcoholic and the mother always seems to forgive him for what he does to her, the lyric could represent the fact that the mother believes the father needs help and is willing to wait for him to change if that will make things better. At the end of the video, the father is seen being carried into a jail cell, there is a birds eye view of him within the cell and this gives the audience the impression that he feels isolated in prison, this could represent how the mother would have felt, trapped in his world of hurt and abuse.

As previously mention I believe that It is important to gain an understanding of how music videos work and what the difference in genre can mean a difference In a music video, the video seen above is very different to the rock performance In the desert by The Killers and I will take this into consideration. Analysing a variety of videos such as this one will be hugely beneficial when it comes to creating my own.