The first video I am going to analyse is Evanescence - My Immortal
The song was released in 2006, taken from the album – “ Anywhere but Home”
The video is filmed in black and white, giving it a sophisticated glamorous look which was used widely in the 1930’s and 40’s, we see the first shot of a foot wrapped in bandages skimming the water, this Is a close up shot of the foot as we cannot see who it belongs to, which could add to the mystery, this is also done to compliment the music at the beginning of the video, which is a gentle piano playing. We then see a shot of a male sat on a chair with his head in his hands, piano to the side of him, back lighting streaming in from the window behind him also adding to the mystery. The head in his hands symbolise he may be worried about a decision he is going to make, or he may regret something that he has done. We then see the main artists Amy Lee laying on a raised plank of wood, with bandages around her wrists, so the can be linked to first the first scene of the bandaged foot, the reason for the bandages could be that she is covering wounds, trying to let them heal. We then switch shots back to the male near the piano. Were the camera quickly zooms in then uses a pan shot around the piano, possibly symbolising that the male is the one that is playing the music throughout the video. The shot then switches setting to a close up shot a male hand wearing a suit, with the shirt hanging out could be symbolising he is a business man but is no longer interested, or maybe that he is in mourning. We see the street pass by as the male is walking away linking to lyrics “and if you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave”, so this could be the shot showing us that he is leaving. The shot then pans up, to a close up of the males face. We see he has his tie loosely fastened, and the expression on his face is upset. Could be showing that he doesn’t want to leave her!
We then see Amy Lee look around her whilst singing the lyrics “your presence still lingers here, and it wont leave me alone” could be a sign that she still feels his presence even though she can no longer see him, having a ghost like effect.
An establishing shot is used to show the setting that was used in the first shot, we see a water fountain, as the main focus point in which Amy Lee is dancing around, around the fountain is children playing games, boys playing football, this could be done to symbolise happy times, enjoyment. Also at this point the lyrics say “ when you cry I will wipe away all of your tears, when you scream I will fight away all of your fears” so the children could also be used to symbolise having no fear.
Throughout the video there is uses of juxtaposition, we see evidence of this in the video, at 1min 54secs where we see the man in the video looking up around him at the buildings, then the shot skips to show Amy Lee doing the same but in a different location, looking up at the trees.
The costume of both male and female plays a big part in the idea of being glamorous, with Amy Lee, wearing a long white dress, and the male wearing a suit and tie, however he does not have the shirt tucked in and the tie is loose this could symbolise, a rebellious side. We then see a high angle shot of Amy, laying on the top of a building, the reason for using high angle shots could be to show vunerablilty, the audience is looking down at her.
Then to follow the males story in the video we see a shot of a mirror and are following his movements from looking through the mirror, this gives the shot a different effect as we are not directly looking at him, purpose for this could be that it feels less intrusive as if it is a moment that we would not normally see, that the audience is secretly watching what is happening in the room.
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