The music video for Bastille's "Send Them Off" features intertextual references to their album marketing campaign. It continues the narrative established in previous videos and keeps fans engaged. The lyrics about demons are represented visually through a shadow following the main character and strange hallucinatory events. While Bastille are not the main focus, close-ups maintain the connection with audiences. Technical aspects like camera angles, effects, and fast cutting establish an unsettling tone and the character's vulnerable mental state.

1. Bastille – Send Them Off
Video Analysis

2. Intertextuality
The music video for Send Them Off by Bastille which was included in
their 2016 album Wild Worlds features a lot of intertextuality. In the
opening scenes you briefly see many links to their marketing
campaign for Wild Worlds called WWCOMMS. This links into the
marketing campaign which involved the fans on social media by
leaving clues for them to discover the names of the new tracks pre-
release. This continues the whole narrative though from the pre-
release of the album through to the signal and eventually the release
of the video. This keeps the audience dedicated and involved which
creates a close connection to the artists which is a key part of
Andrew Goodwin's theories.
The ways in which this is linked in is through what is shown on
screens around the streets. On screen you see the WWCOMMS logo
which is very noticeable to any Bastille fan that follows them on
social media.
Another place that they make these links is through the WWCOMMS
official that is speaking on the large screen above the characters
head. He is a leading member in the organisation and features
heavily in Bastilles music video Fake It. Fake it was released a month
before Send Them Off so in this video we see how the video that was
filmed in Fake It is being received by the character.

3. Links Between Lyrics and Visuals
In the chorus of Send Them Off it say “I’ve got demons running round
in my head”. This is displayed thorough the visuals in the video in
multiple different ways. The first way that it is shown is through the
demon like shadow that follows the character around through out the
whole video. This is a very obvious representation of the lyrics as he is
literally being followed by a demon however there are other more
subtle interpretations. Though out the whole video lots of very
strange things take place which suggest that he is hallucinating which
would link in with the demons running round in his head. In one shot
you see a woman (who is not wearing much which conforms with
Goodwin's theory of voyeurism) smoking and then breathing out
flies. This is obviously not possible to supports the narrative of him
hallucination and the demons in his mind playing tricks on him. This is
also used in another shot where he enters a room which is on fire to
find couples kissing seemingly un-aware of the danger. This
juxtaposition of the love and the danger could suggest the reason for
his demons and why everything he is seeing has been caused though
a breakup or loneliness.

4. Close Ups of Artists
As Bastille aren’t the main characters in this this
video you do not see them as much as you in
some of their other videos. In Send Them Off they
are shown as almost the people controlling all of
these strange things which are happening to the
character and therefore the demons. They are
always shown in a passive way spectating what is
going on. However, although the narrative is not
focused on them you do still see some close up
shots of them and especially of Dan which follows
Goodwin's theory. This keep the connection
between the artists and the audience even
though they aren’t always on screen. By doing so
it builds a relationship between them and will
make the fans more loyal. In this video you see all
member of the band where as in some of the
other Bastille videos you only ever see Dan as he
is the lead vocalist and the front man.

5. Technical Aspects
Send Them Off features many technical aspects which help
to make it a very high quality video. The video opens with a
low angle shot of the main character which shows his
surroundings towering above him representing how alone
and vulnerable he is. Camera work like this continues though
out the video and maintains the feeling of threat that the
character is under. As well as camera work a lot of special
effects are used in this video to show his hallucinations. This
allowed the creators of the video to be much more creative
and allowed them to put things into the video which are not
physically possible. By using special effects it creates a much
more interesting and intriguing video which allows for
multiple different interpretations. An example is in the
screenshot provided where all of the faces are disguised my
a circular blur. This could be seen as a way of showing how
our character is separated from society and isolated. Other
ways that effects are used is to distort the image and change
the colour of the shot which helps to show that he is
hallucinating. It could also be seen as he is on drugs as it
sometimes looks as though he is hallucinating due to drug
use.

6. Technical Aspects
Send Them Off has a continuously fast cutting rate which shows how
frantic and panicked the character is about the threat he is under. The
fast cutting rate syncs with the beat of the music and keeps the
narrative flowing as fast as he in moving. There is also features used
throughout the editing of the video which helps to add to the idea of
hallucinating and the franticness of the character. Lots of small jump
cuts are used in this video which give the video a glitchy look almost
like his brain is unable to function. This fast cutting rate and glitchy
editing with effects like distort on all help to build and add to the
narrative and make it look as though his vision is being impaired and
also that as spectators we are unable to see everything clearly.