Music Video case study research sheet

You will need to research the two set music video case studies: a realistic music video and a postmodern music video. You
need to be aware of the differences between them as you may need to compare them in your exam answer. You should be at a
stage where you can discuss the following for both case studies with solid examples:
Case study artist: Radiohead
Realistic or Postmodern? Postmodern
Performance and/or narrative in the video? Just narrative
1. Textual Analysis: Burn the witch
Cinematography Editing

The wide shot of the empty village square shows how Cross cutting between the inspector and the scenes of the
soulless and upset the villagers are at the prospect of villagers foreshadows that the inspector will be causing
having their village visited. trouble when he enters the village.

The two shot of the mayor and the village inspector
greeting each other shows the cold and disturbed
relationship between them. This is because it is done in a
wide shot to emphasise the physical distance between
them.
The cuts between each scene and how the inspector
moves through each location, highlights his disrespect of
ordinary people and how he just gives them a quick look
then moves on.
The camera cuts from a shot of the fire being lit to a shot
of the inspector trapped in a cage, highlighting the brutality
of the villagers.

Sound Mise-en-scene

The soundtrack of the video is the song. It crescendos at The inspectors posh clothes compared to the rags of the
the end when an important moment takes place and the villagers help to contrast the difference in their lifestyles.
inspector meets his end. The fact that he is being driven also reinforces his social
class.

The bird tweeting at the start is almost as if he is sending

a warning of what is too come for the villagers.

Representations present/how is this achieved?

1. A small village The village is seen to be almost perfection throughout. The colours are
perfectly matched and there is nothing out of place, reinforcing the traditional
view of a perfect English village. There is also a strong focus on the local
woods, highlighting the strong links to nature and wildlife that English villages
have. This expectation is then subverted towards the end when the villagers
get their own back on the inspector, showing that there is always something
lurking underneath.

2. Foreigners As the Inspector walks through the fruit pickers, he appears to show
disrespect towards them. This could represent a stereotyped reaction to
foreigners as showing disrespect towards them and he is keen to then move
on swiftly. The artist’s message here should be that we should show a greater
 tolerance and respect of other cultures.

3. Mob mentality The video features many moments with characters going along blindly with
what their leaders tell them. One of these would be at the start when the
villagers are surrounding the mayor and are going along blindly with what he
says. Radiohead’s message here may be an anti-authoritarian one and are
saying that people should have their own minds.

2. Institutional information:
Record label and who else they produce. XL, they also produce Adele, Vampire weekend and Dizzee Rascal
Genre details:
The genre is a rock song

3. Video Production:
What technology has been used to produce the Stop motion animation.
music video?

Who directed the music video and what else Chris Hopewell who mostly works in music video production, he
have they made? produced another music video for radio head in 2003.
Interesting information about how the video was made:

The video took inspiration from the 1960s children’s TV show trumpton

What kind of music genre is the artist working in

and what do you know about it?

Who funds the promotion and video making? The record label
4. Distribution, exhibition and exchange:
Where might this video have been originally YouTube
viewed?
Does/did the artist perform live? Where? They do perform live at concerts.

5. General information:
Net worth of artist 45 million dollars
Who writes the music? (If band, are the writing Radiohead is just listed as the songwriter.
credits for songs distributed across all the
members?)
Biography of artist.

Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke (vocals,
guitar, piano, keyboards), brothers Jonny Greenwood (lead guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Greenwood (bass), Ed
O'Brien (guitar, backing vocals) and Philip Selway (drums, percussion). They have worked with producer Nigel Godrich and cover
artist Stanley Donwood since 1994.

6. Context – social, cultural, historical

It was made in 2016, the year that President Trump won the US presidential election and the vote for Brexit went
through.