Music Video Deconstruction 7, Dance, Dance, Fall Out Boy

The music video is a narrative/performance based music video. The band plays are a high school prom in America which changes the life of a student.

Before the music starts the narrative plot is set up, the stereotypical American way of asking a girl to prom is by sneaking up to her window at night and asking her while she looks down upon him. The next scene is just before they go into prom and she takes off his glasses which could represent that he is slightly ‘nerdy’ and needs to relax. When the band starts on stage the dancing begins and the camera swaps between the couple and the nerds friends dotted around the room.

The camera flicks quickly past the group of ‘nerdy’ guys standing together and then over to the benches where there are a small group of girls who haven’t got a date. Between these happenings the camera moves between the band playing and the rest of the students watching someone dancing in the middle of the circle.

The Mise-en-scene is set for an American homecoming, they have props and designs set as like a prom, with things draping down from the ceiling, balloons smart suits and dresses, banners and a performing band.There are very little special effects added to the video but the cuts between the various stories going on help the viewer to understand what is happening. The verisimilitude of the video is well done and anyone watching the video would believe that it was a very stereotypical American homecoming.

The ‘cool’ students pick on the ‘nerds’ by pushing them into the circle and watching them squirm in the middle while everyone watches them. This brings the plot of the narrative together when one of the ‘cool’ guys pushes the guy from the beginning into the crowd and he ironically manages to pull off some really good dance moves and so much so that other people watching join in.

There is a great range of different camera shots. Mid shots are used for conversations, and high angled shots are used to show the crowd dancing to the band performing. Close up and over the shoulder shots are used to show reactions to different events.

To conclude this music video is a good example of a narrative/performing based music video and has influenced the type of transitions and camera angles that I could use in my final music video. The fact that no special effects have been used has been seen in a number of music videos I have seen which would suggest that I need to think about using little if none in my final music video production.