Music Video Analysis: Empty Walls By Serj Tankian

Serj Tankian – Empty Walls:

·      Opening shot a parody of the USA’s national security level. We notice the use of colour that codes for a childish like style; almost like a video game which is clear connotations his opinions on the government’s stance on war.

·      Establishing shot of the chaos that is the nursery

·      The first cut is in-sync time with the on-screen action

·      Throughout the video the camera zooms in or out to create a sense of motion and continuity, also the cuts are in fast with to help enforce the speed of the song.

·      The use of a shaky camera effect also conotates typical war scene of mid battle.

·       However at certain points like when the rubber band plane hits the tower block the use of slow-motion is used along with fewer cuts, this over dramatisation of on camera events makes us think about what the director is connotating (The events of 9/11) This use of slow-motion also reminds us were watching a music video (because its very hard to do slow motion shots)

·      After these scenes we then for the first time see the performer (Serj Tankian); we see him performing to a group of children; wearing what ironically is seen worn by undertakers which codes for death and possibly how even at a young age we all are intermingled with it.

·      Throughout the video we see the artist face from a birds eye view in a ball pit, this seems to code in the audiences mind of the bodies stacking up as it were just like in war. Its almost as if hes a spirit communicating to the audience.

·      The use of props to make code for the childishness of warfare is apparent, we see a child looking through a pair of binoculars, which then turn into night vision specs.

·      The video is in sync/flow with the music, so when the song slows down we see longer shots with fewer cuts.

·      We see the lyrics that are being said being acted out by the children this is called a lyric image match

·      In the final few segments of the video we see all the children lying on the floor as if to be a metaphor for the most likely outcome for war

·      Then we hear the only diagetic music of the video, which overpowers the song. This is the bell tower from a church. This noise usually conotates death, which is what we see later in the video clip.

·      The final clip is in my opinion very interesting. We first hear the final bell toll, which ends the non diagetic sounds to be replaced with the diagetic sound of the coffin being loaded into the hearse. And while this happens we see it from the view of the coffin/ deceased. Then when its fully loaded the camera uses a tilt to give the impression that we are bobbing our heads as if too dead.

The Embedding has been disabled for the video so heres a link to the offical video video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CxKA1uETxE