music video deconstruction of shinedown's bully

8/9/2019 Music Video Deconstruction of Shinedown's Bully

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Song: Bully

Artist: Shinedown

Publisher:Rob Calivor

Produced: Atlantic Records (in the us) and via Roadrunner records (everywhere else)

Shinedown are my example or an alternativemetal band Bully is one there more heavier songs

the themes share the dar! connotations o a air

ew music videos and similar to metallica"s video

o one they are trying to draw attention to another

social issue by using shoc! actors and displaying

more stri!ing themes that you wouldn"t oten see

on some types o music videos#$he theme %uite

blatantly plastered as the trac!s name alone

demonstrates is about bullying the music video is

a combined narrative and perormance piece

however the narrative is more o a montage to get

there point across about a theoretical situation that

can oten happen in normal society# &ost o the

ocus is on the narrative side trying to convey the

message most o the band members are blac!ed

out as i in dar!ness against a white bac!ground

to show that they aren"t the main ocus with the

exception o the lead singer who is shown in

normal lighting (still against a white bac!ground)

he isn"t blac!ed out so that you can see his acial

expressions as well as gestures which help todramatise the themes within the music video and

add emphasis as well as to ma!e it seem more

personal and meaningul as the singer who wrote the song has personal ties to the sub'ect#

diting

$he editing is extremely ast paced some o them with shots being shown and changed within

a second to ramp up the tension and generate and ma!e it seem a lot more as i it was an in the

moment sort o scenario to ma!e it seem to the audience that they are watching this in real lie

as it happening the less screen time a shot as the more rom an audience perspective it seems

insigniicant which helps the portrayal o the victims o the various accounts o bullying in the

video seem unimportant which again creates more o a shoc! based impact# $hey also have

shots that are the opposite to this where there is more o a ocus on a person as it is a longer

period o time beore another shot change which connotes the person in that shot being more

important than in the %uic!er ones as they get more screentime#

mise*en*scene


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+n the video you see a lot o dierent places particularly where bullying could occur and also

where the average person might be and see or

that matter on a daily basis e#g# an oice

representing wor! with white shirts blac! s!irts

blac! trousers ties smart shoes etc as well as the

scenery such as des!s etc# Another example areais the ocus on homes you see a childs bedroom

(again similar to what metallica did using children

to ma!e people react more to the horriic themes in

the video) and also a wie very stereotypically

waiting or her presumably abusive husband to

come home these settings have been deliberately

chosen and connoted to lin! the music videos narrative to real lie scenarios to create more o

an impact and !eep the ocus on eectively attempting to raise the awareness o the audience

and trying to get them to say intervene i that was an occurrence that they saw#

,ther aspects could be the act that all o the band are dressed in blac! which connotes death

and dar!ness and nothingness which contrasts greatly with the white bac!ground representing

purity and again potentially nothingness this has been done so that they still loo! li!e a metal

band as blac! is a common colour theme o the metal genre whereas the white being used is to

show that they are also a counter type to typical metal bands hence why they are in alternative

metal#

$here are some ma'or mise en scene based elements relating to the theme o bullying some o

the more notable ones being a hanging noose which is a lin! to the main overarching theme as

bullying is the sub'ect and bullying can be related to suicide due to its lin!s with the lyrics its alsodirectly lin!ed with the perormance part o the song and death is also a typical theme within

some metal songs so it nicely connotes several possible meanings behind its use in the music

video# $hey also use mise en scene to create a representation o a bully this being the hooded

character in blac! that appears throughout the narrative in every scene involving the bullying its

the same hooded igure he is wearing blac! which again as all o the connotations + stated

earlier but the act that he is wearing a hoodies has lin!s to the stereotype o potentially young

people but mainly o people who wear hoodies connoting that they have something to hide and

that are violent individuals you could also argue that the act the bully is a male might have

some relevance as it might connote the stereotype that only men bully however personally + eel

its unounded as rom other shots both genders seem to be represented e%ually and gender

e%uality is not the ocus bullying is which can happen to either gender# At the start the video they

also show - trees on ire trees representing the colour green normally and in turn lie ire and

red being - colours that connote danger or destruction and other more violent themes which

together lin!s bac! to the bullying scenario as well

as the lin!s between lie and death and suicide#

Sound


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$heres not a lot to tal! about with sound aside rom the act that the music lin!s directly to the

instruments being played as in shots are shown o the instruments during !ey bits in the song

e#g# guitar solo shot o a guitar and during the end scene when the !id victim is shown

metaphorically triumphing over the bully as he

throws the bully to the loor the song ends showing

the music is directly lin!ed to the narrative and isbeing used a tool to explain the story#

lighting

during the narrative aspect they oten use blac! and

white in a !ind o victim and victimi.er !ind o theme

with two contrasting colours blac! particularly with

the hooded igure but also 'ust in general shots

theres also a bit o blac! in the shots as well as a bit

o white almost li!e a ying and yang eect the blac!

representing the victimiser and the white

representing the victim this is supported by the lyrics

/seems + crossed the line again or being nothing

more than who + am0 which can be connoted with

colour white as it is purity and innocence and hope as

well as good intentions and blac! is a very dominant

colour that ta!es over pretty much anything and in a

sense the colour is a bully hence why it is used to

represent the metaphorical bully igure in the video#

At the very end they also use grey to represent a

mixture o the two sides which basically states

everyones the same and has the potential to be thevictimi.er and the victim it also connotes dullness and

loss o lie and can be used to represent an aterlie

this changes during the conrontation based shots

lin!ing very closely with the narrative as the scene

progresses more and more o the now open ield

bac!ground changes into colour to show a

metaphorical victory that moves over into real lie#

Camera Shots

Status shots are the heavily eatured in this video to help create the eeling o oppression that

bullying conotes and to add to the dar! and heavy atmosphere that is created through the

videos shoc! actors the bully in the ma'ority o the shots is shown as higher status with

upwards acing status shots which is used to highlight that he is a binary opposite o the victim

and by emphasi.ing these contrasts it adds to the eeling o isolation this is contrasted by the

end shot showing the victims eventually triumph and the victim is shown as having more power

than the bully as their statuses have been swapped# $here are two establishing shots at the


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start and end o the music video one to give the eect o the music video going ull circle by

starting and ending similar but with distinct dierences the starting establishing shots

representing lie living with bullying represented by a burning tree against a greyed out s!y and

the end establishing shots representing the victim triumphing over the Bully as a result colour or

the irst time in the video is returns bac! to normal and the burning tree eect is stopped

bringing bac! the connotations o a green tree representing lie and a new beginning#

music video deconstruction of shinedown's bully

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