The video i have chosen to analysis is "Empire" by Kasabian. This video was made in 2006 and Kasabian's album was named after this song. The song "Empire" is seen as indie rock and became very popular in the charts in 2006 till 2007.
The beginning of the music video is a boy running towards the band Kasabian who then gets shot down, this is referring to there other hit single "shoot the runner" and they add this in to represent there upcoming album. At the beginning of the video shows a woman dressed in fine Victorian according to the bands website, this woman picks up a dandelion which puts you in a sense of calm, but then it cuts to a boy running, and by his clothes you can tell he is in a war environment. The video is narrative and performance'd based; the video is based on the idea of a British colonial war most likely the Crimean war which was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the conflict took place on the Crimean Peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in western Anatolia, Caucasus, the Baltic Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the White Sea. This is shown through the costumes they are wearing; old fashioned military uniforms, carrying rifles. The scene starts off in a battle field, a large open field with various special effects such as smoke and gunfire, which leads to the young boys death.
One shot is very effective as it shows the boy running through no mans land which is baron and filled with old wagons and shows the devastation of the land. The variety of camera angles used are mid angle far away shot is used to show the young messenger running across the field, this suggests panic and the cutting down of innocence.
As the boy runs towards the band he is shot down and dies in the arms of the lead singer, as the beat comes in the boys blood merges with the mud, with close ups of the boys face as you can hear him take his last breath, this connotes the doom and gloom of the backing music and the visuals being put across in the bands lyrics. This also shows there are indications of an anti war ideology with the death and relief. This also shows how the there other song "shoot the runner" had died down and now it was time for a new song.
Juxtaposed to this is a scene of typical countryside, a woman walking through fields dressed in 19th century . She blows on a dandelion and the scene switches to the battle field with the soldier each being shot down, this may symbolize the butterfly effect; every action no matter how small has a greater effect elsewhere. The message boy "shoot the runner" is carrying a carton of milk, which connotes innocence through which he is ultimately killed; the milk and the blood merge together in the mud. This suggests that it is the innocent who suffer the most.
There are close ups of key images such as the dandelion, facial expressions and cannon fire. Pans show the vast expanse of land they are fighting across and help to show a bigger picture.
Most of the editing relies on jump cuts between scenes, this suggests edgy atmosphere, and adds quite jerky feel to it, as the woman is blowing the dandelion it shows lots of explosions and the band members and other solider's getting blown up, this connotes the idea of social class, where the rich are playing in lush meadows while the poor are fighting to save there lives in a torn up battlefield. The soldiers die for the "Empire", then as the woman finally blows the dandelion its as if she is blowing them away.
some of the images are superimposed this creates a sense of urgency which is commonly used in videos which feature war and it also shows how many things are happening at once, confusion and chaos. The editing also uses dissolves this shows the passage of time, to suggest they may have been fighting for days or even weeks. Slow motion is used to emphasis certain elements of the video and allows us to focus on details, such as the explosions going off and the woman blowing the dandelion.
The British flag is used a lot and so is the salute to the queens army, this brings in the British feel to the video, letting viewers know that this video is predominately British.
At the end of the video it has a close up of a gun about to be fired at the lead singer, the scene then switches to the lead singer with his hand up to his head saluting the man about to shoot him, the British flag scattered around give off the idea that he is being killed by his own men and people, as the soldiers behind the man with a gun hold there head in shame with an over the shoulder view, as the beat stops the man with the gun who seems to be a general for the army, shoots the lead singer dead and walks off.
