1. Textual Analysis of ‘Disco 2000’ – Pulp
By
Nic, Mia and Hamish
The main aspect that we liked in the music video for ‘Disco 2000’ by Pulp, was
the use of interesting editing techniques. However, it is all of the aspects of the video
coming together that create the effect that the editing alone could not.
The camera movement in the video is all very dynamic, this allows the viewer to
see everything and keeps with the pace of the music. It also helps to balance the editing
heavy shots that surround the video. As with ‘Toothpaste Kisses’, ‘Disco 2000’ is not a
fast paced song, and the dynamic camera movement helps to slow down the editing to a
pace that better represents this style of song. The camera is also used to show a lot of
close-ups. These close-ups again help to show the reader things in detail and is also used
to add significance to certain aspects in shots, notably the tv that is present in many of the
shots.
The mise en scene is mainly used in this video to help keep the narrative going.
The narrative is almost entirely reliant on the mise en scene as it is the changing
background and the movement of the characters that really tells the story. There are also
black and white cut outs shown throughout the video that highlight the other important
shots, again such as the black and white shots of the characters on the tv. All in all, the
mise en scene is used to greatly enhance the results of the editing.
The sound of the video is very typical of a music video and never varies from the
song that the music video is about.
Editing is used a lot in the video and keeps the narrative of the story together.
Large portions of information are given to the viewer through the use of superimposed
white text over the background shots, allowing the viewer to see what the characters are
thinking without the use of dialogue. The entire video has also been cropped to give the
viewer a narrowed perspective of what is happening and has been outlined by a
superimposed background. All of this adds to the extremely retro feel of the video and
keeps the viewer focused on what is going in the shot without giving them too much
information. The editing follows general conventions in the sense that the editing in the
video is all edited to the beat of the background song, showing a sense of cohesion
between what is going on, on screen and the song that the video is about. Finally, the
most interesting aspect of the editing is the superimposition of the character on the tv
screens singing. This is clearly of importance as it is alluded to a lot in the rest of the clip,
such as the characters thoughts and the black and white cardboard cut outs.