Rival Sons Keep On SwingingDirector/Producer Dave Cobb Date of
release - Sept 17, 2012Publisher - Earache RecordsGenre - The Rival
Sons are often compared stylistically to blues-rock bands from the
1950s-1970s, particularly bands like Led Zeppelin, The Animals and
Free.The purpose of this music video is to promote the artist and
the song. The video needs to fit a clear genre, which is in this
case is classic rock and should be attractive to the target
audience, namely rock fans. It does this by creating elements that
are recognisable to the target audience for example the focus is on
the band playing their music. In this case there is a narrative
that tells the story of a small community church, with a girl who
is reluctant to join the church and is singled out from the rest of
her family.
The video opens with a fade from black to a vertical shot facing
upwards into the branches of some trees where we see the bright sun
breaking through reminiscent of God shining down on his flock. We
hear the diegetic sound of an organ and people cheering, clapping
and shouting Halleluiah and praising God, which is used in a sound
bridge to help link this shot to the next shot of close ups of
people at church. The style of these shots is handheld and the
focus tends to drift to emphasise the spirituality. Straight away
the audience can identify that these people are very religious and
passionate about church, setting the scene for a little Evangelical
American church congregation. For a rock video, church isnt
typically what is expected. So, to open with such a scene throws
off the viewer and makes them question and think about why this has
been done.
After a few more shots of the people of varied ethnicity, we see
the preacher in the form of a long shot from one of the pews which
place the audience in the action, as if they were sitting in the
church. It then cuts back to more close ups of the people with the
same loose style framing and focus, this style of filming implies
the presence of god and that these people are being touched by
their religion. It continues to switch between these shots for a
sequence until, a mid -shot of the preacher with a low angle is
used to empower him, making him seem important to the audience. As
he continues to preach to the people, again the loose framing is
used along with some match on action as he gestures with his hands.
After he has finished his piece, he introduces guests.
A tracking mid shot runs down the length of the pew as each
member of the band stands and walks on stage, in this case the
altar of church, where at this point the tracking shot transitions
into a crane arm shot. The shot follows the band smoothly as they
walk up to the stage and ends up framing the band with a long shot.
This is done to again make the audience feel as if they are in the
church and watching the band play, it engages with them more.
As soon as the song starts, the drummer is framed with a low
angled mid shot and then the lead guitarist, this empowers them and
follows the theme of presence on stage and within the church of
god. After another mid shot framing both the drummer and the
guitarist with the use of the rule of thirds to compose it, there
is a fade to black and a cutaway to some narrative. We see the same
vertical shot as the opening with the addition of a close up with a
slight high angle looking diagonally at a young girl walking whose
shoulders are on fire, but she doesnt seem concerned. This shot
coveys to the audience that the fire is a metaphor for rebellion
compared to the church like setting. It also suggests that this
girl is a wild card or that she is reluctant to accept god.
Fading back to black there is a tracking shot advancing down the
aisle towards the band, which draws focus upon their performance
and again glorifies then in the light of god. To enforce this idea
it then cuts to a close up profile shot of the preacher nodding his
head and smiling, which shows his agreement with the intensions of
the band and their song.
The video then cuts between shots of the congregation and the
band. When it cuts to the band all of the shots are low angles
which make the audience feel that they are idolising the band in
their elevated status. Throughout their performance there is
diegetic sound from the crowd as if the band is preaching to them
and they are responding enthusiastically. We cut away from the band
and see the same girl again with what appears to be her family
walking along a sunny road with her. The words Where theres a
willtheres a way are being sung by the lead singer which suggest to
the audience that she is going to do something.
Frequent cut aways move from the narrative of the girl to the
band. Close up shots of the familys faces show their over exuberant
happiness which contrast greatly to the blank expression of the
girl who looks at them with disbelief. The environment they are in
has a very high key lighting, which relates to the idea of purity,
Jesus and god. All the cut aways are in slow motion to further
emphasise their movements with close ups of them chorally clapping
and rejoicing. Cutting back to the church, ironically the
congregation sing along with the chorus Keep on swinging, rather
than Singing, which is rather unexpected for a stereotypical
religious, view of church. Going back to the band a few whip pans
are used to exaggerate the lead singers provocative gestures as if
he were preaching to the people.
Again cutting away close ups are used to show the girls concern
when she is looking around at her family and her surroundings. The
flock of birds overhead could be symbolic of the gathering of
church goers and the fact that she does not want to be part of it.
Although the girl is dressed in white her dark nail varnish
suggests that normally she wouldnt dress as such and this is being
imposed on her by her family. As she is being baptised it cuts away
back to the band where the whole church congregation is up on their
feet dancing which is illustrated with a long shot of the band with
the crowd in the foreground which is stereotypical of a concert. As
the song builds to a climax there is a low angled mid shot of the
preacher holding up handfuls of snakes to the rest of the group in
slow motion. This is symbolic of their triumph over evil if the
snakes are representing Satan.
Its at this point that the girl is immersed under the water as
part of her baptism. The fire on her arms is extinguished again of
the family and religion trying to oppress her and change her. After
her baptism it cuts back a fast tracking shot down the aisle to a
close up of the lead singer who is also holding fistfuls of snakes.
The frequency of the shots of the girl and the church people
increase, whilst the pace of the editing gets faster. By this point
all of the shot arent static, the girl rejects the baptism and the
camerawork is thrashing around much like herself in the water.
The people are all up dancing and feeling god, which is helped
with the odd shot with slow motion to capture their raw emotion and
excitement. The variety of angles and shot lengths here helps the
occasion seem manic and full of movement, whilst the girl does the
same when trying to break free from her families grip. To finish
the track a long tracking shot sliding away from the stage and back
down the aisle is used to illustrate the toning down of the energy,
as if you were leaving the church with a fade to black. Finally
there is a long shot of the landscape with the same flock of birds
in the sky as it slowly fades to black.