1. The Pretender – 9 Frame Analysis
The first shot in this music video is of the lead
singer, Dave Grohl walking onto the set on his
own with all of the instruments already set up.
The song is about rebellion, “I’m not like the
others”, and the fact that he is walking out on
his own mirrors the theme of being different
and not one of the others. The use of a long
high angle shot helps people establish how
alone Dave is in the first shot as we can see how huge the set is. This is to further
enhance the idea that he is on his own and different from the rest of society.
This next shot is a close up of Dave’s
hand, which in my opinion represents
two things. As a guitarist the most
important feature is the hand and this
is amplified with a close up of the
hand. Another thing I think this
symbolises is a fighting spirit. Before a
fight, boxers tend to wrap the same
material around there hands in order to aid them whilst fighting. Later on in the
video we see an army of people with guns attack the band so this could be a
foreshadowing theme within the video itself.
The next interesting shot is a close up of
Dave’s face. In this shot we can see a lot of
raw emotion on his face and this matches the
tempo of the song. The background is plain
red, which symbolises danger, something that
could be seen as a foreshadowing for the
later parts of the song. The fact that it is a
close up also indicates that Dave wants us to
see his expression as he may be angry at something and want to make this very
clear.
This next shot is a low angle shot of Dave as he
looks out into the distance. This makes the
audience feel like they are watching the band live
as it is the same perspective you would get if you
where at one of their gigs. This is forcing the
audience to look up at Dave, which implies that
he is a lot better than everybody else, something
that is often abused in the music industry.
2. The next shot shows that the bands are looking into
darkness throughout the whole performance so far.
This is very peculiar until we later find out what
comes out from the darkness. Nonetheless it is an
interesting shot that the audience is not expecting.
The heavy use of black so far also symbolises the
heavy nature of the genre of music and this is a
certain colour that tends to pop up in this genre of music.
We then see a black figure coming out
from the darkness as the camera is
behind the figure. This shot is
effective because it shows the
darkness of this figure that is
appearing, contrasting with the bright
lights in the background of the shot.
The song is about being different
from everyone else, and this shot
emphasises this statement. The black figure is standing out over everything else in
this shot as he is framed right in the middle of the shot.
This next shot shows this figure to be
someone wearing riot shield armour as
though he is getting ready to fight. Him
being in the centre of what seems to be a
very large warehouse makes him seem very
small and unimportant which is a peculiar
way to frame this shot. You would usually
see these types of people being made to
look very strong and powerful however the director has chosen to make him seem
very small, for the time being that is. Again, with him being shown behind a black
background adds an element of darkness and suspense to the shot as it is unknown
where he came from or if anything else will come out.
The man that has come out from the
background then raises his arm and
shouts in a way that almost seems
tribal. This links back to the start of the
video when Dave was wrapping his
wrist in a way that was almost boxing-esque.
Both of these shots indicate
that the main theme of the music video is about fighting or standing up for yourself.
The fact that a lot of close-ups of this unnamed soldier and Dave Grohl have been
used this indicates that it is something personal. However it is understandable that
3. there a lot of close up shots on the members of the band because in this genre of
music it is something that is common throughout most videos.
