Music Video deconstruction 1

Band: The National
Song: Fake Empire
Director: Scott Cudmore
Year: 2008
Genre: Indie Rock
Audience: 25-34

"Fake Empire" is a song by Brooklyn-based indie rock band The National from their fourth studio album, Boxer. The song was released in June 2008 as the album's third and final single... Source: Wikipedia

• This video is filmed and edit very differently to a traditional music video. It is mix of random shots of different scenarios, filmed on what appears to be old footage. 
• You can tell through a lack of poor quality, and there is a slight black border surrounding the image with rugged ends.
• All the shots at first seem to be filmed with shadows across the faces of all the people in it. This creates a dark and mysterious/hidden affect for the viewer. This fits in well with the slow beat of the soundtrack. 
• Non of the band appear in this video.
• At 1.44min' we get a female lip sinking to the lyrics, half of her face is in the dark. This singing lasts for 12seconds' which is a very long time for a single shot to be kept on screen in a music video. We see a repetition of this. This is a close-up shot. 
• At 1.58mins' we then see a clown lip sinking with his head sideways to the camera. The colour remains dark. This last a further 13seconds's. This is also a close-up shot. 
• Finally, we see another women lip sinking facing the camera. This lasts for a further 8seconds' till 2.19mins'. This is a close-up of her head. 
• The image colouring then changes and becomes lighter. It is as if at the start of the video it is night, and then as the song picks up pace it becomes happier and more colourful. This could signify that dark colours represent dark and bad places. Whereas light shades, such as; yellow, show times of happiness and life. 
• The image then has a burning away affect that old video players use to do. The image changes to Black and White and then man playing the piano walks away, signifying the song is over.