Carol Vernallis - Music Video Analysis

Carol Vernallis' theory about music videos is based on 4 key concepts which relate to the actual construction of music videos. These 4 concepts are:
1. Narrative
2. Editing
3. Camera movement and framing
4. Diegesis

I have tried to apply this theory to one of my favourite music videos - Coffee and TV



Narrative:
The music video's narratvie is based around a concept - A milk carton goes to the city in search of a lost son. At the start of the video, the carton is on the table of the son's family. After trying to cheer them up by dancing around, he realises they are sad because their son is missing. He then sets out on a journey to find the son, asking people along the way for help. As he wanders through the city, he sees a 'female' milk carton on the other side of the road and falls in love with it. Unfortunately, his joy is short-lived as the 'female' carton gets trodden on by a pedestrian and squashed. It then shows the carton walking down an alleyway at night time. The milk carton is scared as he sees broken cans (which are made to look like faces) and glowing red eyes from the dustbins. He backs into a corner, which has a small window. He looks through the window and sees the missing son, playing as a member of Blur. The carton falls through the window and the son sees his 'missing' photo on the side. After realising how worried his family must be about his whereabouts, he runs off and catches the bus home. As he enters the house, he drinks the milk from the carton and drops it into the bin. The final part of the song shows the now empty carton waving to the camera with a fulfilled look on his face. After the song has finished, there is a bit of comedy as it shows an 'angel carton' with wings flying up into the clouds where he meets the 'female' carton from earlier in the video.

Editing:
The video is edited to show the milk carton as the main character, as it follows it around on its journey. There isn't much editing to the music, showing how the video amplifies the song, rather than being illustrative. The editing is more revealing of what the carton may be looking at and draws the audiences attention to important events surrounding the milk carton. The shots are relatively long for a music video, which reflects the slower tempo and the 'sad' feel to the song.

Camera:
The camera follows the main character, the milk carton, throughout the video and gives the audience the idea that they are looking at the world through it's eyes. During its journey, the carton encounters numerous 'perils' such as a motorbike and broken cans on the street. To most humans these 'perils' are actually just things we encounter everyday, but to the milk carton they are shown to be quite frightening through the Low Angled camera framing.

Diegesis:
The song for the music video is non-diegetic for the majority of the video, and it isn't until towards the end of the song that we see the band performing. This makes the audience focus on the journey of the milk carton and not get distracted by the performing of the band, which would ruin the reveal that the missing son is actually Blur's guitarist. The lyrics match up with the visuals a few times during the song e.g. "There's people there who will hurt you, Because of who you are". This line is sung as the video shows the milk carton watching a pedestrian drink milk from an almost identical carton before throwing it away.