Stephen (also know as Stephen Swartz) is an american singer/songwriter who specialises is indie rock and R&B and is signed to the record label Halfway House. He blends seamless electronic beats with smooth R&B to convey a message to his audience and all of his music video's have secret meanings to them. He is a self taught artist and does everything from sing to play almost every instrument you hear within his own music. Not a lot is known about the artist himself as he is very secretive about his personal life but what we can see is that his music always seems to have a political agenda. Within Crossfire there is no lip syncing which goes against all the conventions of a music video however a story is still told. There are a range of different camera shots used within this music video and camera movements specifically establishing shots and close up shots of the four individuals in glass boxes. The expressive use of these shots are to establish a clear narrative. A story is told even within this closed environment of just a crowd and four people in the dark. For indie music this is usually a pretty standard convention as indie music is more bout symbolic meaning rather than spoon feeding you the story. Some examples of this are the establishing shot of the four people in the glass boxes. The people are there to show the difference in society and how we always look at them from the outside and never unify as a society. As an audience member this would cause feelings of conflict to evolve as the prejudice between difference races and genders are still held up today, Stephen just has the bravery to point them out. This is depend by the mid and close up shots of the individuals inside the glass boxes, further showing their individual personalities even without saying a word.
When looking at editing we look to the theorist Keazor and Wubenna. There are a set of conventions every music video no matter what genera adhere to such as editing to the beat. Because the music video is indie we cannot really say that the footage was synchronised with the lyrics as all the messages shown are subliminal. When looking at editing to the beat however, we can clearly see Stephen wanted us to feel conflicted. This is very prominent when the lyric "pop culture" is said in a very aggressive manner whilst a vibrating synth sound is made. When this vibrating synth sound is made the camera shakes aggressively as to suggest struggle but also makes the audience feel like this vibrating sound is affecting the camera as well which is a pretty nice effect. In contrast looking at Kaplan's theory the music video does look a lot like what it is meant to be. It is edited in such a way that Mise-en-Scene is held together.
Talking about Mise-en-Scene, the music video flows incredibly well and is edited rather smoothly. It's about how society segregates against different races and gender but children such as the little girl in the video don't see the societal barriers put up and see people for people. The dark surrounding is used to convey an overall mystery to the music video which it does especially well. The red velvet rope is representing the social elite judging and categorising people for their own amusement looking at the people in glass boxes like zoo animals. This creates an overall sense of sadness to the viewer as it raises issue that are still around to this day. Everybody is also wearing black except the people withing the glass boxes. This could symbolise their corruption however the little girl who runs up to the man in the box is also wearing black, this could be seen as her tainted view because of society. When looking at costume we can see Vernailles' theory come into play. We can clearly see each of the people in the glass boxes come from a different social class just by what they are wearing. Like the lower class black man fighting for rights wearing loose clothing to the rich white upper class male wearing a tightly fitted custom suit.
When looking at Goodwin's theory about a relationship being present between the video and lyrics is sometimes show although hard to pick out because of the type of music video we are seeing. The relationship is quite loosely connect as every message within this video is symbolic but one time where it is really obvious is when the lyrics say "a path of righteousness" is a very sarcastic tone and the shot goes to the rich white male which is clear referencing to how most men in a position of high power hold a self righteous banner over their head. Finally when looking at Sven. E Carlsson's theory we can see that Stephens video is very conceptual but it is hard to pin point wheat he actually is. The title that closely fits him is probably a televised bard. Although never present he does use images to try convey a message or story across to the audience in order for them to understand the song.
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