The Smiths - How Soon is Now? analysis

This eighties independent-rock song by The Smiths uses an element of working class life in its video to highlight the means of production. The first establishing shot introducing the music video is grainy and noisy suggesting industrialisation but also production in motion from this long-mid shot of a factory. It suddenly cuts to a diagonal pan of several cooling towers that could connote the actual importance of industrialisation but also highlight the bands roots. The narrative is introduced as the mise-en-sene has been established; this is a shaky tracking shot of a woman character that looks right down into the camera.

As the first beat of the drum is applied to the song, a burst of colour appears with a side medium shot of Morrissey in motion of his performance. As the camera switches shot, the audience get the feel that the band are being secretly watched because of it's CCTV feel to the effect of the camera, the shot then slowly zooms out so that the audience can see the band playing and gain more information of the locations setting. The burst of the colour blue could insinuate the fresh feel of the band because of their mass cult following. Following this a low angle shot of the protagonist in the video shows her exiting a door which is repeated twice but the third time it is edited in real time colour but keeping with the videos constant grainy feel. The colour focuses on red in this shot, as the front door is blood red and so is her item of her clothing. This could connote danger or even love about this character.

During the progression of the video it cuts to and from the aged, grainy black and white shots of the factories in production. Rapid zoom ins on the band is also used in order to prolong the close-up shot to create suspense for the audience as the zoom slowly moves itself inwards. Again as the band are in motion of the performance a high shot of Morrissey is used make the video interesting by using these conventional shots of a music video but also quickly moves to a low angled shot at 0:46 to imply dominance and importance of the guitarist as the limelight is on him during this shot. As the narrative comes away from the cutaway of the bands performance, a close up which is also a tracking shot is used showing the movement of the character but also rapidly cuts and returns to the shot keeping its continuity. Furthermore it is also used to create an old, oppressive atmosphere, which is constant to the nature of the video. Freeze frame shots of the same protagonist are used with the same mise-en-scene and camera angle but rapidly cut as soon as the drum fills are applied to the song.

At 1:13 in the video, the extreme close up of the main character uses the technique of slow motion to really capture the facial emotion of the woman, it is slightly distorted the shot so not much is given away but the audience do see a clear contrast of yellow in black which both connote negativity, pain and depression. This sequence of techniques and the same shot is used three times in order to emphasise this to the audience. Connotation and colours are use frequently throughout the video and also changes to black and white often. At 1:30-40, the girl again is seen wearing a red jumper but as the shot cuts away to the band performance the colour red is also exposed on Johnny Marr's guitar despite the faded nature of the shot. This colour interestingly crops up a lot and could suggest the feeling of the band at the time of writing this song.

The cutaway also illustrates the band out of performance with Morrissey and Marr having a conversation in the video. Marr typically wearing his rock n roll type glasses and Morrissey jokingly playing the guitar. The video has no narrative or structure that is not uncommon amongst music videos. It can infer that the music is more important than the image portrayed so a distinct colour scheme is used instead to highlight emotion and attitude. The camera effect again is re-enforced with more distortion to create a grimy effect, same is applied to the extreme long shot lasting one second of a factory corresponding to its dirty hands on laboured working-class work.

Although the cutaway of the band and the main protagonist do not meet they do repeat each other’s actions implying the bands way of thinking inside this character. This is seen by the medium-close up of the woman spinning around then cutting to Morrissey repeating her actions as the camera zooms in on him from a high angle. Following this, as the camera zooms out from behind the stage at 2:22, the video becomes self reflexive as the amps, microphones and wires that make the performance of the band are exposed to the audience, the means of production and performance both relate to each other as they both remember and relate to their working class roots with the constant uses of shots of industry. Furthermore it could also instigate the mass unemployment of the working class mass in the 1980's under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government that affected the bands hometown of Manchester.

At 5:33 many high shots that pan from left to right highlight working -class life conditions and the mass amount of people who live in poverty, the high shot shows the buildings overhanging the camera to highlight the dominance of the masses. At 5:52, there is a distinction between the social class divide as an element of satire is used in the video illustrating the snobbery of the upper classes. This is shown with the dress that the woman is seen wearing but also the purple splotchy over layer of colour representing royalty. It highlights a working-class perspective of the upper classes with the use of a stuttery mid-shot of the protagonist.