This music video was directed by Bruce Gowers and produced by Roy Thomas Baker for the Queen song "Bohemian Rhapsody". It features Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, and Brian May. The video begins with the band singing in front of a plain black background before changing to shots of them performing on stage. Freddie Mercury is given most screen time and prominence as the lead singer and writer of the song. The lyrics tell the story of a man who accidentally kills someone and sells his soul to the devil.

2. This music video was…
Directed by: Bruce Gowers
Produced by: Roy Thomas Baker
Written by: Freddie Mercury
Starring: Freddie Mercury, Roger Taylor, John Deacon, Brian May
Production Manager: Jim Beach
Assistant Director” Barry Dodd

3. Lyrics of the song
The basic concept of the lyrics used in the song is based
on a young man who accidently killed someone and sold
his soul to the devil. This single became rapidly more
popular after its release which featured no chorus,
merging a range of musical styles from rock to opera.
The lyrics featured clearly juxtapose a conventional
love-based narrative to help influence the allusion of
murder e.g. “mama… just killed a man”. The music video
begins with an introduction of the four male singers
singing, followed by a piano ballad, and then a guitar
solo which then leads on to opera. Once again there is a
hard rock part which is then finished off with a coda.

4. Mise en scene
• The location and setting of this video is either on stage or with a plain
black background to allow the audience to focus on the characters
singing. The impact of having a dark background allows the singer’s faces
to look more bold and visible as they glow in the dark. Also, the
connotations of black as the background are very dull and miserable
which also connote the idea of the lyrics for the song being that he
murdered someone. When the setting switches to a stage, the song
genre changes to rock music whilst the men sing and plays their rock
guitars.
• The costumes that are worn in the video are only shown when they are
singing on stage as only their faces are shown in the other shots. They
wear white silk shirts and trousers which appeared fashionable for a rock
band to wear at the time.
• The lighting in the music video is dark to connote the genre of rock and
the theme of the lyrics/music.

5. Camerawork, shots & angles
The first shot that is conveyed is a wide shot of the band’s
shadow with the light reflecting off them. The light then
becomes brighter to focus on them singing and the camera
begins to zoom in, creating a close up. This allows the
audience to focus on the four singers rather than anything
going on behind them. The next shot is an extreme close
up of a man’s hand playing the piano which then expands
outwards to a wide shot of him singing. The camera
reveals its prevalence to Freddie as he is the main band
member, who sings and also writes the songs.
Furthermore, there are multiple cross-fades which is when
the light fades between shots. There are constant switches
between shots of a close up of Freddie singing and a wide
shot of a guitarist and drummer on stage etc.

6. Editing, cuts & transitions
In this video, Freddie achieve the most prevalence which
suggests he is the most important band member over
the other three members in the group. This is because
he is the one who writes the songs, as well as singing
them and playing the instruments. Freddie is the band
member who deserves the most screen time and he is
the most known one out of the group so it is anticipated
he has the most prevalence. Additionally, as in every
music video, there is continuity editing so that the video
flows well and the audience understand/s what is going
on. Finally, there is match on action to that each shot
fits with each other for a better quality video.

7. Star image/brand
When watching the video, it is very clear
to the audience that Freddie is the main
singer and that the other three band
members play the instruments. We
know this because he motivates the
editing and achieves the most
prevalence throughout the video. We
see a lot of close ups of the main band
member as well as many wide shots of
all four band members together. This
creates the star image as all four band
members are in a majority of the shots.

8. Narrative/performance
At the beginning of the song, the narrator
confesses to his mother, that he has killed
someone. Although he may feel regret, it’s too
late. He then narrates his case of a chorus in front
of judges and lawyers which are the people who
sing “let him go”. The attendees at the trial are the
ones who repeat the word “Galileo!” randomly.
The defendant becomes more vocal whilst begging
to be set free. Once being convicted and locked up,
the narrator becomes aggravated and sings out in
rage, wanting to be set free. Towards the end, he
begins to accept his conviction and sings out his
distresses quietly.