Music Video Analysis: Bring Me The Horizon, Follow You

Pop rock song, 'Follow you' music video was released 16 March 2016, and performed by British rock band, 'Bring Me the Horizon'. The song featured on their 2015 fifth studio album, 'That's the spirit'. The video depicts a series of violent events leading to the end of the world, as the camera follows a character around a neighbour hood, seemly random acts of violence, murder, arson and property damage are encoded on screen, which the character/protagonist is oblivious to. Using the four key micro-elements i will be decoding whether the music video conforms or subverts the common hegemonic reading of a pop rock song.
The music video can be accessed globally and for free here; Bring Me The Horizon, Follow You

Mise-en-scene:

The mise-en-scene is everything the target audience see on screen, from props to lighting. A brief preview of equilibrium and disequilibrium is connoted, conforming the Todorov's narrative theory. As the music video begins with a pan where the demographic denote a male sleeping on a white sofa, in a high key lighting environment this is connoted as equilibrium as the light and white colours/tones signify pureness and safety. However as the pan continues a elderly woman with a gun is denoted, connoting the beginning of the corruption of the equilibrium as a shotgun in the possession of a elderly woman subverts common stereotypes of older females being a grandmotherly or motherly figure. Finally the camera then pans down to a dog eating the face of a dead man that's been shot in the eye, this signifies disequilibrium as it is out of the normality. As the scene progresses we follow the protagonist out of the household the audience encode that the producers were preparing the target audience for the duration of the music video, where from the very start it is signified and encoded that equilibrium is lost.

For the entire duration of the music video, all the violent situations take place in an ordinary American neighbourhood, this signifies that the producers want the target audience to decode and compare the reality in the music video to the recent corruption in society. The location of the music video throughout is an upstate neighbourhood, the common hegemonic reading of a friendly civilised upstate community is subverted, where it is replaced with the representation of a 'modern' ghetto. This ideology not only mocks the upper class but also casts a counter-type on higher classed societies.

The ideology of mocking or exposes the society to the harsh reality is conformed in the prop of headphones. Their used throughout the music video and connote that the protagonist is blinded to the corruption around him. This signifies a wider ideology of how today's generation is so trapped in the advancement of technology we are blinded by the harsh reality and truth- however an oppositional view is that it is connoted that he is listening to the non-diegetic soundtrack of the song, 'Follow You' (experiencing it at the same time of the demographic) were the emotion of love is explored, signifying that love is what is blinding him to all the negativity and hate going on in the world. An sense of irony is used in the enigma of the protagonist's black eye, conforming to Barthe's theory of enigma, the black eye juxtaposes his happy manor as his dances through the neighbour separate and distant from the violence surrounding him, this can connote how love has beaten him up, emotionally, or even mockingly signify the impact of 'falling' in love with someone.

Camera:
The camera movement and narrative of the music video links to the title of the song, 'Follow You' as demographic is forced to follow the protagonist around the neighbourhood to his connoted girlfriend's house, signifies how certain love is forced. Through the various different shots throughout the music video connotes the producer's different perspectives of love through the different shots and angles. The juxtaposition of associating the surroundings of the violence acts with love, subverts common stereotypes of love and relationships, signifying how love is differently felt for each individual and every relationship experience different situations they need to overcome. A depth of field, mid shot, during the middle of the music video, focuses on a mail box, denoted reading 'welcome'; a kind and friendly term used to comfort others in an introduction, however out of the focus range in the background of the shot is the fire and destruction caused by violence acts, this adds a sense of irony to the meaning behind the term, 'welcome'. From this denotation the demographic can connote that what is the first impression of someone or something is false kindness, however true colours begin to show behind the mask- signified through the destruction behind the mail box.

In a brief mid shot, one of the character is denoted wearing a mask, which covers his face and his throwing a bottle on fire. By the frame of the shot being a, mid shot, restricts the location of the scene/footage was filmed in, connoting how the violence is and can be experienced throughout the world and this exact situation could have been taken place anywhere. The mask denoted on the character in the shot signifies as a symbolism for the everyman where there's no identity singling the character- connoting  who can and the large number of people that can cause this violence act.

Soundtrack:
The soundtrack throughout the music video is a mixture of non-diegetic and diegetic, sounds in which take place in scene or only heard by the demographic, added in post production. Non-diegetic soundtrack of the words, 'gun' being sang directly links to the adjacent scene of a male denoted holding a gun, signifying how the producers are foreshadowing certain aspects or events, this can connote a bigger image of the target audience encoding the violence acts as foreshadowing reality in the corruption of today's community. The non-diegetic soundtrack of a reporter in the very beginning of the music video is contrapuntal to the images denoted on screen, as the news reporter announces the 'random acts of violence' taking place in the today's society, however yet the typographically on the screen are about love, this juxtaposition causes the demographic to decode a sense irony, where love is signified as a joke. 'Follow You' music video the song sings about love, however the violence and hatred denoted around the protagonist throughout the music video connotes that no matter how harsh and cruel the world is around him love keeps the character out of danger, his is brave or unaware of the violence and negativity, signified that the pureness of love has blinded and makes him in denial to the violence and negativity.

The diegetic soundtrack of the background sounds of violence occurring, connotes that the producers are trying to bring the audience away from the ideology of love and exposing the harsh reality of the violence within the music video and within society. The protagonist sings, 'drag me through hell' synchronous and parallel to the images, this diegetic soundtrack connotes a sense of irony which allows the target audience to connote him walking through hell, this ultimately mocks the society of today and labels them as violent and symbolically connoting Earth as Hell. As, 'hell' is sang the high key lighting dramatically drops to low key signifying how Earth is coming hell, through the violence acts humans are executing.

Editing:
Montage of shots is denoted in opening of the music video, the shots consist of news reports of violence acts and archive footage that has taken place over the last few months, this conforms and signifies the ideology of a corrupted society within the music video and reality, exposing how if the world continues the way it is it will only get worse. As the montage of shots is a variety of day and night, it connotes how violence can happen anywhere, at anytime, making the audience exposed to the reality they may be 'blinded' from while making them feel unsafe. The sense of irony of typography reading 'love is blind and deaf' in the beginning of the video, then followed by a character whom is connoted as oblivious to the 'end of the world' occurring behind him, signify him as selfish because all his cares about his making his journey to his girlfriend's house. Through this irony it signifies that unlike G-Eazy and Bebe Rehxa's music video, 'Me, Myself &I', Bring Me The Horizon's, 'Follow You' is of comedic purposes and doesn't hold a moral meaning, however oppositional view is that even though the music video doesn't conform a explicated moral meaning, it is connoted to have camouflaged

foreshadowing an impact on the world if society continues it's violence acts.As the music video about a character singing about love in a corrupted society it signifies that, music video contradicts the lyrics/song and mocks the ideology of love. Instead of showcasing the popular theme of love, the video acts as a, 'great awakening' where the demographic are exposed and start to see their reality of their future it is continues, audiences connote and encode that the producers are attempting to make their target audiences change society for the better.