Sam Smith's song "Writing's on the Wall" was released in 2015 as the soundtrack to the upcoming movie title of James Bond's Spectre. This straight away opened up an enormous market to people as they would listen to it if they were James Bond fans, even if they were not huge music or Sam Smith fans because these James Bond themes are so famous and iconic. They have been previously sung by large stars such as Adele, Duran Duran, Madonna, Louis Armstrong and Shirley Bassey. Within the music video itself, there are several clips taken straight from the film "Spectre" to obviously promote the film further to viewers who were viewing the music video before going to see the film in cinemas or purchase it on DVD or Blu-Ray.
This image in particular shows not a clip from the film, but in-fact in terms of what mise-en-scene is used for the set, it is a set which is present within the film "Spectre." This suggests that there was further advertising intent wanted from this music video, Sam Smith is also seen to be wearing a suit which is exactly what James Bond is well-known for wearing also and therefore this links in well with the singer and the film that he is singing the theme for. It also suggests that he is trying to act as his own version of James Bond within his own "mini film" by dressing like him and singing surrounded by everything James Bond is associated with in the film. Within the image, a medium shot is showing Sam Smith's upper torso and setting. This is to aim most focus towards his mouth because he is obviously singing and that is what he wants to be the main attraction within this scene.
It is also very unconventional for a music video to sometimes feature other actors who are not anything to do with the singer who are the main character within the music video. However, it can also be said that it is also very conventional for a music video which is dedicated to a film, to feature clips form the film in question. This is present in other music videos such as Busted with "Thunderbirds are Go" and Eminem also does it with his music video for "Survival" which was the theme for Infinity Wards's Call of Duty Ghosts back in 2013, however I believe that the same principles still apply.
The lyrics of the film obviously have a direct link with James Bond as it follows his past going into this film talking about "there is no more use in running, this is something i've got to face." This narrative helps to create a story and familiarise people with James Bond's erratic lifestyle. Bond girl's have also always been a huge part in Bond films with lyrics in this film following with "when you're not here I'm suffocating." The narrative also points towards the iconic Bond girl always being apart of anything James Bond. This is the main spine of the chorus which it keeps coming back to with versus leading up to this point, the Bond girl is clearly the main focal point of the song. Goodwin's Theory of there being a relationship between lyrics and visuals suggests that this music video was indeed following Goodwin's theory because when the chorus is being sung involving the lyrics of a Bond girl, she is shown in several different shots in several different courses during the music video. In relation to Goodwin's theory there is obviously present an intertextual reference between the music video and film.
In my own opinion I do really like this music video in terms of its greta narrative and lyrics. However, I am a huge James Bond fan so this could be seen as me being bias but from analysing this music video I have learnt some interesting things especially to do with the narrative of a song in the music video which I will surely be able to take with me when it comes to me constructing my own music video.
No comments:
Post a Comment