On May 24th, 2005, Alkaline Trio released the album 'Crimson', which featured the single 'Time To Waste'.
The music video represents the band as a band following the 'emo' music conventions, both through their music, as well as their style. It does so in multiple ways, which I will explore further later on in this post. The overview of the music video is that the band all arrive at an abandoned hangar, in which they set up their instruments and play the song, doing so in smart attire with a gothic edge to it.
I have chosen to research this video is that there is not a narrative, and so the whole video is focused around making the band appear as stylistic as possible, and so there are aspects of it that we can bring forward into the making of our own music video.
Here are the lyrics to the song, which I shall be referring to throughout the post.
There's someone down below blowing you a kiss.
They watch from their windows
as all arms fall to their sides,
and all eyes fix on the death of tomorrow.
And you found everything you need
to make a life complete,
completely revolting and they have safety and relief
For sale down the street.
I see you in line every day
You had time to waste and I'm not sorry,
such a basket case, hide the cutlery.
I had time to kill, it's dead and buried.
You've got guts to spill but no one trustworthy.
These creatures are waking up in these dark trees.
Awaiting like vultures.
Eyes roll back turn white in time to feed
They salivate in hunger.
for you, and everything they need
to make a death complete,
completely unnatural and salvation lies
behind those dead eyes that watch you while you sleep every night, and
You had time to waste and I'm not sorry,
such a basket case, hide the cutlery.
I had time to kill, it's dead and buried.
You've got guts to spill but no one trustworthy.
You had time to waste and I'm not sorry,
such a basket case, hide the cutlery.
I had time to kill, it's dead and buried.
You've got guts to spill but no one trustworthy.
The video starts with the three band members arriving at an empty hangar, all in 3 separate black cars. The band are smartly dressed, wearing smart attire with a dark theme (black shirts, dark suits etc). The camera shots as they're arriving at all smooth panning dolly and tripod shots, inferring the sincerity of the occasion. As they arrive, people are setting up the instruments and equipment, and the band walk in a line towards all the gear. They put on their instruments and are poised to start the song, and as the main riff of the song comes in bright lights come on and they thrash around, playing the song. In this section of the video, all of the camera shots are handheld, naturally to enhance the energy of the band shots. As the song progresses in to the verse, the music has got quieter and the camera shots follow suit, becoming steadier handheld shots as well as dolly shots. As there are bright lights behind the band, the shots of the singer flare behind him and illuminate the back of his head, a very stylistic shot which is something we would want to imitate, explore and develop in our own media production. An interesting factor to take into consideration with this music video is that the band is facing the entrance to the hangar, and as the camerawork is all inside the hangar the entrance is over exposed and appears on screen as bright white, representing the band almost facing the unknown, reflected in the lyrics: "and all eyes fixed, on the death of tomorrow".
The band shots like this continue for the majority of the song, with mostly dolly and handheld shots, revolving around the band and looking at them from different angles, both with the flare of the bright lights behind as well as the overexposure from the entrance to the hangar. In the middle of the song, the hangar doors close and the lights get brighter inside.
In the bridge of the song as all the instruments cut out to just the piano heard in the intro, all of the lights go off in the hangar, shown in a tripod shot facing lengthways down the hangar, representing almost a CCTV like bit of footage, perhaps introducing a theme that what they are doing is illegal, that they shouldn't be in the hangar. The action of the shots slows down to very slowmoving handheld shots. In this bridge, there are bursts of all the instruments to break up the piano, and in these a bright white strobe like light illuminates the whole hangar as well as the band, and this is effective as a huge curtain is falling down behind the band, and with the strobe is appears to be falling down in a stop-frame fashion. This is a great, stylistic and haunting image, but something we would not be able to include or reflect somehow due to our budget.
The band then proceed to play the last chorus, illuminated by these flashing lights, with even more energy than before, and this enhances the progression in the video. The music ends on a sudden note, and the video fades out to black, on a shot of the whole band.
Overall I think this music video is mediocre, but this is from the perspective that it does not include any form of narrative, and so is not very interesting to watch. Despite this, the band shots are very nicely filmed and are very stylistic, with great and relevant mise-en-scene. These elements I would like to carry forward and explore in the making of our music video, except making it our own by adding a narrative.
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