Tuesday, 27 March 2012

Oasis - The Importance of Being Idle analysis


This song written in 2005 by the famous and unique rock band Oasis harks back to working-class life in the 1960's. With it use of widescreen camera and establishing shot over the estate, it is similar to the 1964 movie drama Saturday Night, Sunday Morning or the soap Coronation Street highlighting that the video has gained inspiration by using post-modern features.

The first establishing shot of the estate pans upwards in order to give a clear ariel view of the location and show the basic working street block structure. The opening titles are also formatted and positioned as they are like a movie with the use of wide screen also to emphasise this. Following his the shot switches to a low angle of an elderly woman at the front door picking up her milk with slowly pans up. By the clothing she is wearing, the audience discover that this depiction of the 1950's-60's as the clothing she is wearing is typical of that era. This three-second shot then switches to and upward shot towards a window implying the whereabouts of where the narrative will take place introducing the protagonist of the music video.

Furthermore as the next shot introduces the character, the mise-en-scene is in a bedroom with a medium-close up of the protagonist of his feet lying down on the bed, which then pans slowly to the left approaching his face. As the audience see the protagonist's face with a medium shot, the vocals come into the song when the protagonist opens his eyes connoting the start of the performance. As the protagonist rises from his bed, the close up on his faces captures the pain and negativity within his facial expression. In order to highlight continuity and rhythm of the video, a medium-long shot is applied to show the action of the character but after this two second shot it then switches to an over the shoulder shot with the reflection of the character exposed to the audience. The shot then cuts as soon as the tie is pulled up to the neck cutting as soon as the shot reaches a climax.

Noel Gallagher who plays guitar and vocals on this track is introduced in the music video with a still medium shot that is also a cutaway from the narrative who walks into the mise-en-scene of the bathroom which highlights that Noel Gallagher will somewhat be related to the narrative of the video or the performance. As the music video progresses, the protagonist mouths the words of the song therefore become diagetic as he is aware of the music played. More to the point this is also noticeable as the protagonist starts to dance to the beat of the song. The beat becomes harder which corresponds to the rapid shots of the main character consisting of close-ups and medium shots in order to create excitement in this part of the video. As the main character leaves the room a jump cut transition is applied because of the change in mise-en-scene because he leaves the building venturing to his car. An establishing extreme long shot is used to emphasise the period of the video, which again is emphasised, with the use of props because of the vintage car in the street.

During the solo of the song, more characters or introduced with this being the members of the band similarly dress as the main protagonist of the video. The only distinction is that Liam Gallagher who is seen in the medium-long shot at 1:39 to highlight his expression is wearing modern looking glasses which draws the video to it's own fictional nature as the realism is broken. If you annotate this even further, it could connote Liam Gallagher's rebellious image and behaviour he is notoriously famous for. After this, the mise en-scene illustrates that it is a funeral parlour which conveys more detail about the protagonist, the use of coffins and top hats and the hearse in the next shot all explain the main characters profession, which is also a working-class one. As the protagonist enters the building a rapid zoom in that becomes an extreme close-up is used to convey the emotion and response of his actions. The camera then switches to Liam Gallagher with the same technique applied, it then switches back to the protagonist creating a shot-reverse-shot method to express both of their non-verbal communication

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