Noisia & Mayhem ft.

KRS One Exodus Music Video Analysis

Special Effects
It can be said that this music video could not be any more different from the other drum & bass music videos analyzed, but yet, it is just as conventional. Where the others are conventional in that they display iconic themes to the genre such as friendship, drugs, raves, this music video is the polar opposite, conveying the notion of space, alien technology and the universe. Firstly, this music video unlike the others is all special effects. It is a music video composed entirely of CGI, and the storyline follows that of an alien/machine being precipitating complete destruction to a futuristic looking universe. In this case, the use of CGI is highly conventional to the drum & bass genre when delineating the themes of futuristic technology. Costumes and actors would fail to capture the intense atmosphere that these special effects create, the depth in design, the fluid motions that are present in the music video. The CGI makes the music video far more intense and hard hitting. What is also so favorable in using CGI is that the director has complete control over the fluidity of the shots that he wants to use when capturing movement. This mean highly accurate, long tracks from all angles, and this makes for a very smooth and artistic music video.

Computer generated setting before the alien machine arrives relatively early in the video.

Screen shot of the aliens arrival on the planet, clearly far darker and eeire, foreshadowing his destruction that is soon to commence.

Camera angles, shots and movement.

Firstly, the shot that I noticed was used most in the music video were long shots/extreme long shots. Personally, I would render this relatively unconventional to the drum & bass genre where the predominant shots in the video are that of close ups, usually allowing the audience to associate and relate to the characters expressions when used to shoot a character. The purpose of a great deal of long shots in this music video however was to firstly convey the scale of the CGI universe and also because the protagonist is indeed a huge, metallic alien being that requires long shots to express the innate power this being has by showing its size. But what is conventional about this shot is that it is a shot able to convey the power of an object/person on a far larger scale, as you can see the implications such an antagonist has upon the environment, and conventional to drum and bass is an environment rich in detail and design, which can be seen through the use of extreme long shots and long shots.

Secondly, due to the conventional narrative of this drum & bass music video, of delineating themes and iconic images of destruction that parallels the powerful sounds of the beats, space and extra terrestrial activity, the conventional movement of tracking is used to a great deal. This shot allows us to follow the narrative fluidly, for example the lazar shot by the machines destructive power on the buildings is followed with one long, uninterrupted track, which seeks to reaffirm its inability to be stopped as the lack of cuts reflects this. Tracking is highly conventional to music videos of this genre, and in my music video I shall track a lot. This will follow my protagonists movement as it does here. It is interesting also how some of the tracks in this music video are of a slightly lower angle, such as this one tracking out, representing how growing in superiority and power the back up robots are in this screen shot, ready to destroy the antagonist alien machine. And what the use of extensive CGI means is that helicopter tracks can be created so easily, tracking the characters movements through the narrative from heights that would have been much more difficult to create if the music video was acted out, hence why the other music videos have very little shots from high in the sky.

Editing
Highly conventional to the drum & bass genre and seen in this music video is that of rhythmical editing. I would in fact deem this editing style as being the most conventional to the genre, behind that of jump-cutting only. It is music that spontaneously fluctuates in speed at times and rhythmical editing allows the music video to follow such changing tempo. For example, before the drop of the song the editing speed is far slower, as it builds up it increases in speed and then on the drop the cutting is far quicker, resembling the speed. The sounds of drum & bass are highly electronic, can at times mimic that of high pitched screeches along with heavy bass and kick sounds, accompanied by the filtering of the treble and synthesizers. Together, it can at times sound very robotic, as this song does. This is interesting and very conventional then when the sound follows a movement on screen directly, as it does in this music video. Here the lazar beam is being shot out and as it is being shot a certain sound from the song is heard. As soon as the sound stops the music video cuts from the lazar shot and back to the alien/robot. This is an example of fine rhythmical editing in the sense that it follows the exact rhythm of the song, and I would like to use such intercut editing when editing my own music video.

Another noticeable use of editing in this music video is that of slow motion. It seems that changing the speed of certain takes in the music video is highly conventional to the drum & bass genre as I have seen this in all the music videos that I have analyzed. Using slow- motion is highly beneficial in music videos and to the narrative, especially ones that are so explosive and detailed with actions such as this one as it allows the audience to focus upon a particularly important part of the narrative, one that may have a wider or greater significance. Here, however, it is merely used in this shot to reinforce the sheer power of this robot. The unabridged destruction he can cause. It is far more dramatic and therefore far more conventional to a genre with highly dramatic narratives.

Slow motion shot as the lazar beam erupts the ground, causing bricks and rubble to float up into the air.

Mis-en-scene
As mentioned briefly earlier in the PowerPoint, the drum & bass iconic theme of Space and the Future is the revolving subject surrounding this music video. It is central to the music video and is conveyed through the mis-en-scene. Technology is key to the future as it is developing so quickly and in this music video the technology is endless: Robots, missiles, futuristic looking railways, bullets, lazar beams, UFOs, jet planes the list is enormous, and all these images help to convey this notion of a world being destroyed that is either set in the future or in another planet. It is very conventional to the drum & bass genre to portray such themes as they are in a way symbolic of power and technology. It is a type of music so powerful as many drum & bass songs are in fact lyric less, it is powerful through the sounds and beats alone, and these themes could indeed be a representation of this, going back, paying homage to the roots of drum & bass: Synthesizers, music making machines that were so ahead of their time, futuristic almost to the early 90s where guitars and singing still toped the charts, making the genre what it is today.

Futuristic imagery

Secondly, it is the use of lighting that is so conventional to drum & bass. These two screenshots show us a juxtaposition between the light and dark: natural sunlight illuminating the futuristic city, this is at the music videos beginning before the antagonist arrives and it is established through lighting alone as being an alluring, tranquil universe. Then, after the creature arrives and begins its reign of terror we view a world far darker in colour, cold blues and dusky blacks, blues and greys now wash over the scenery. This creates a chilling atmosphere. What is conventional, then, is this notion of binary oppositions that the drum & bass genre depict so well. We see both sides of the spectrum, a beautiful world and then a darker world and this is what is so beautiful about this music video. In terms of Levi Strauss theory of Binary
oppositions the drum & bass genre always deals with such notions. Here we see both good vs. evil and the light vs. the dark, and these ideologies are clearly presented to the audience viewing the music video.