Similar Text Analysis The prodigy

The prodigy- Invaders must die

Spider symbolises his territory and don’t let them have it means don’t let them take what’s yours and show them that this is yours by tagging it with the spider symbol. Don’t let anyone get in the way not even the police as the black man looks concentrated and feels strongly about his decisions. Man on a mission is what I would describe the young black man in the video. As he looks so concentrated and powered by this one symbol.

Camera work

The video starts off with an establishing shot which is quickly followed by a quick montage of different objects and places within the area around the house creating a flashing/fading effect which as part of the audience I thought it was interesting given some of the objects that are shown such as the army men and the signs such as the unauthorized signs and one particular symbol which was of the spider first on the front door then on the arm men’s flag. I think that the army men represented invasion and war which gave the message to fight. This particular part with the army men is one of the bits in the video that I found interesting and creative as there was a wide shot of the army men on a blank, dirty/old white surface where one of the men are holding a flag with the spider symbol on the front. It then starts to pulls out into a canted high angle which then reveals that the army men are stuck onto the side of the abandoned house with an ink drawing of the spider symbol below them. It then starts to pan to the left slowly and then flashes on a plank of wood on the abandoned house that has got a phrase craved onto it, which says ‘let no one take it’ this to me links in with the lyrics and the army men sending a message to the audiences to fight for your countries as the lyrics are ‘invaders must die’ which links to the army men who support and fight for their countries. It then carries on with a fast montage of flashing images of different signs and then the door opens and the young black man starts walking towards the camera as the camera pulls back cutting to different shots of the man creating close up and mid shots where it then flashes to different objects and animals such as the front door with the craved spider hanging and then back to the man to then flash the two dead birds hanging upside down in the fields.

The way that they have filmed the man is interesting as they have cut up what would have been a long shot of him walking around field. They broke it down with insert shots and different angled shot of him such as high angle shot of just his legs and feet to the spider symbol that was hung on the door which had a special effect on it making it look like it was coming out of the screen to lead onto a close up of the man’s face showing his expression which looked concentrated and angered.

Close up of this arm which is bandaged/casted up it then panned up to his faced to then cut to a long shot of him walking in the field, this is when the montage of slow images starts again this helped to cut the long shot to different angled shot of the man walking where it flashes on the man setting a pole on fire which is then interrupted by more shots of him walking and it then comes back to finish the shot with him throwing the lit pole in the bin which had a spider symbol cut out of it, making it standout with a pull focus on the bin. The shot ends with the man walking off but the camera stays focused on the bin that’s on fire. It then cuts to the man walking with a flash of a dead rat on the floor showing ‘invaders must die’ the rat was an invader. It then cuts to him walking with different angled shots such as long shots close up and a low angle shot making him look bigger and more dangerous, this part also had a special effect worked into it which matched the beat and words which made it sound like diagetic sound making the shot look like it had a computer error and reminded me of CCTV cameras. This is one of the locations which the video was set.

It then cuts to him walking again but this time it looks like he is being filmed by an intruder. He then starts to make a new spider symbol out of branches and nets which is filmed in an interesting way to create a number of different and abstract shots, with a final pull focus shot from the power line in the distance to the spider symbol. It then flashes to the man to show him walking then it flashes to the hanging spider symbol carving on wood, where it pulls out four times with flashes till it goes back to the man walking into the field where the sign keep out flashes with close ups and extreme close ups, it then flashes back to when the man came out of the door at the abandoned house, jumping back to the satellite field where he has a spray can and the shots start to jump/flash again showing him get closer and closer, to the satellite shaking the spray, this is shown with a side profile mid shot of the man. When he is spraying the satellite there are a number of different shots such as close ups of the spray can and high angle of the man spraying the symbol creating interesting shots to keep the audiences entertained. Showing the masterpiece with a wide long shot revealing a phrase under the symbol saying ‘invaders must die’ showing him walk away and then jumping back a step to then carry on walking. He comes to a different part of the field where he finds the paper cut out of the spider which is shown to us twice as he is backtracked again repeating the walk by the symbol with different shots added in.

There is then a panning shot of the white patrolling officer/man with the binoculars and then back to the man walking this time past the abandoned train tracks, where it goes from a long wide shot to a close up of his boots kicking up the gravel. It then pans right and up to show the audience fish heads on poles where the man is walking towards/pass and away from focusing on one fish head while the man is walking toward the camera and walking out of shot which moved the camera to a wide shot of the man walking from left to right of the shot showing that the fish heads on poles have been place to create a pathway. At the end of the path the camera pans down slightly to show the man bend down and pick up a net which he then make a spider symbol out of. Showing that he then pats the ground sorting out the rocks to create the symbol this is shown using a panning shot from the symbol to the man and then a sudden jump back revealing the symbol and the man walking away with a high angled shot. The man is now standing staring at the sprayed white spider symbol when the patrol officer comes up from behind him and a flashing and circling effect starts to happen as the camera circles in from behind the object that was sprayed to the patrol officer and the man there are flashes of the sprayed board and then the two men creating a rotating cycle of shots, which I found very effective and goes to the beat of the song. As the patrol officer starts shaking the man it starts to flash back to all the different spider symbols from before, also a image of a flying bird which could represent freedom and how the young black man feels as he stars at the sprayed board. It then starts to go into a flash backs and you also see the band the prodigy in one of the flashes showing them in a group with a low angle, close up and mid shot of them rambled together in flash flashes. This is all combined with the shots of the patrol officer pulling and pushing the young black man in different shots some with special effects which made the shot look as though the scenery around them was moving but they weren’t.
The video ends with a repeating motion of the young black man jumping on a pile of rope and scraping a long bar in the gravel where it then cuts to a mid shot which zooms slowly into a close up of his face as he says ‘we are the prodigy’ the sound was now computerised and non diagetic, it then cuts and the shot know starts to pan up and left over the sea to reveal stations metres above water level propped on wooden legs. The shot then changes to a high angle panning shot of the station revealing a white painted spider symbol and cuts to a mid shot of the black man standing on the station and then pans away slowly and circles the station. It then does a small montage of different level shots of the stations and the colours of the video have now changed and the sun is setting giving a natural orange effect to the setting, it then fades to black.

The Hair & make-up/Costume

The young black man has a very simple and natural look. He is presented as an ungroomed, which is created by the beard/stubble. He has a leather hat with side flaps. The hat is lined with dark fluff making it warm. The man is wearing a thin black jacket, hood down and sleeves rolled up letting his black hoodies sleeves show from underneath. This created a warm and layered look to finish off his top half keeping the base of his wardrobe to basics which were a white t shirt paired with black jeans and a pair of biker boots which had just been slipped on quickly as they wear untied. He also has a white cast on his right arm creating a sense of vulnerability and injury. Around his neck he has a pair of pilot styled goggles.

The white man who seems to be a police officer/ patrol officer is wearing a black and orange water proof jacket with black trousers and a black hat (standard police hat). We first see him in a close up of his head but with a part of binoculars checking what the young black man is doing spraying the satellite in the large field. He looks fresh and natural with no makeup creating a raw look.

Lighting

The lighting that was used throughout the whole video was all natural lighting. This created a bright clear sky and had to depend on the days that they shot because of the natural light. As some shots could have been gloomy and almost had polluted if they chose the wrong day to shoot on. So for this particular video the lighting was the key element to bring everything together and make the video look professional and well thought of.

Props

Some of the props that were used during the shooting were what made the video stand out from others from the similar genre and created a atmosphere of confusion within the audience, leaving them think what was that and why was it part of the video. I think that it is interesting the way they have left the interpretation of the different props such as the fish head on the end of the thin poles for the audience to work out and come up with a variety of meanings. There was a number of different objects and materials that were used to create the spider symbols in the different locations, such as the spray can was used in the satellite fields and the wood carving was used in the location of the abandoned house, where as the card and branches/nets were used in the fields with a few buildings and the rocks and the nets were used in the field with abandoned train tracks and the pathway marked by fish heads on thin poles.

Locations

There were a number of different locations that the video was shot it started off at the abandoned boarded up house and went through the different locations where you would see the young black man create the same symbol of the spider out of different materials such as brunches, netting, spray paint, rocks, cravings and cut outs from wood and card. Along the way there was a second which is a phrase that was carved into a plank of wood which was nailed to the side of the house, it said ‘let no one take it’ I think that this sends a positive message to the audience to fight for what they want and don’t let anyone take it. Some of the other locations include large fields with power lines and satellite and abandoned and old train tracks. The last location that the audience see is at the beach which is spill into two different shots one being a long wide shot of the black man almost hip deep in the sea until it cuts to a panning worms eye view of the sea, which leads to the camera pulling out and carrying on panning left towards station platforms where on one of them is standing the black man and a spider symbol sprayed in white.

Colours

The colours within the video were desaturated but there was a hint of some orange within the police/patrol officer’s uniform but the rest of the video was set on a palette of black, greys and whites creating different shades and compositions from the lighting which made the different scenes come to life and created the different shadows and tones. This gave the scene an older look and made the field look free and emptier/abandoned creating a world in which the young black man lived and wanted to express his freedom and keep it that way.

Sound

The music was heavy beated and the video matched up to the beat with different and interesting shots which created an abstract video that the audiences want to watch to see what is going on and what will happen next where will he go?. I think that the reapeating effect toward the end was extremely impressive and added a sense of time in the sense of they thought about the beat when it came to the editing.