Textual Analysis

Aerosmith – I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing

The video begins with an establishing zoom beginning the other side of the moon and ending in a city on Earth; this fades into the singer’s face. The closeness of the shot creates an intimate feeling for the audience; it is personal as though he is singing to them (stereotypically romantic). This shot takes the audience away from reality and puts them in a studio-style situation.

They have used extreme close-ups of professional performance lighting, these are switched on flooding light into the room, giving the audience more of an idea of what the room looks like.

A voyeuristic shot of a door knob reflecting the room and the band makes the audience feel as though they should not be watching, as though it is a private performance or rehearsal, this furthers the idea of intimacy, romance and privilege. This is furthered by using shots of the sound technician changing shots and moving sliders.

There are also shots of people watching the video on their own TVs; this illustrates their popularity. These shots also show audience’s reactions to the song; some are shots of couples that are affected with a positive, loving emotion. Others are of single women who look sad as though they miss their partners or wish they had them.

The Fray – Heartless

This is the song that we are creating a video for, therefore, to study the original video would be useful; we can either follow a similar idea and use some of the same conventions, or we could take these ideas an invert them totally.

The video is based in a classroom setting. They have portrayed this image cleverly, without using an establishing shot. The close ups are of a partial ticking clock, a hand holding a pen, a note pad filled with doodles, all of these icons are stereotypical of an American classroom setting often portrayed in films.

The doodles on the note pad begin to move and represent the lyrics in a cartoon form. This shows the children’s boredom and creates a sense they are daydreaming and fantasising. A common character in the doodles is a walking heart that is put through a lot of torture, yet survives though battered and bruised. For example, the heart is attacked by a bird but dropped from a height, which saves it from being eaten. This emulates the idea of heartbreak.

There are close-ups of a young boy’s eyes as he looks towards a girl, the shot cuts to an extreme close-up of the girl’s lips and cheek, as though he is thinking about kissing her either a fantasy or reminiscing the past.

The doodles are released from the note pad when the boy screws up the paper and throws it on the floor. The camera then tracks the doodles as they expand and travel the length of the wall. This represents the hallucination entering reality.

The children do not move in the shots, they are almost stills for the most part, the most movement is in the animation. This draws the audience’s attention to the dream state the young boy seems to be in.

Finally, the girl is shown to be angelic, the last shot is of the back of the girl’s head as the doodles surround her. The drawings can be seen as wings expanding from her body and a crown and beams of light leaving a beating heart that represents a halo. This idolises the girl and illustrates the boy’s love for her, and so hints at how huge his loss is.