'Emperor's New Clothes' is a Pop Punk Rock song. The reference of the afterlife is a conventional theme in the Rock genre. However, the abstract surrealism of the video is unconventional for Rock and Punk but instead applies to the Pop aspect of the genre. Additionally, in Punk videos the artist can be often seen performing and miming the song in the video. There appears to be an inspiration taken directly from Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' music video, the use of skeletons links to the undead zombies in 'Thriller' which also references the Horror inspiration in the video. The camera is tracking the performance, the angles are for the majority a mid angle and are also a close up of the character's face or hands. It is filmed in what looks to be a limited space with a green screen therefore the shot variation was limited as the lighting would have become too complicated. Even though there are no instruments used in the video, the lip syncing looks genuine. However, the dancing/movement is unrealistic as they have sped it up in sections to emphasise the abstract and supernatural elements of the song and video. It also complicates the movements even though they are relatively simple in regular speed and could be recreated with amateurs. Complicated movements are not usually seen in Pop Punk videos, however are more implicated into Pop videos. The features of the video are not necessarily typical of a music video of this genre as there is no performance to a crowd or to the camera using instruments.
The narrative appears to be linear as we follow the progression from the human becoming a devil but it is not a proper story in which we can follow and fully understand the meaning of from one viewing.
For the majority of the performance the singer/character is making direct eye contact with the camera lens, creating an uncomfortable relationship between the character and the audience. This is because of the appearance of the character and also the lyrics of the song. The singer features through out with exception to a couple of shots where again it is a Thriller-esque Vincent Price voice over that is the voice of a skull.
The abstract nature of the video can make it difficult for fans to relate with the video. However the darkness of the video could reference the older fans who followed the band when they were seen as more Emo than their current music. The singer often appears in his music videos and performances shirtless which could be a link to the female gaze but is also contradicting Laura Mulvey's article on females being used as 'eye candy' in videos. In this video it is a narrative being created by a male who could be presented as being sexualised.
The video features long takes but sped up as the music's tempo increases, for example at the chorus. This is achieved by the actor (Brendon Urie) learning the song first in slow motion, and performing that way. Then play it back at normal speed so it appears faster in the sections it needs to.
There isn't a large amount of shot variety throughout the video. There was a total of 18 setups in this music video, which relative to other music videos, is not a large variety of setups. A lot of the steps were reused/repeated throughout the video. The character from the beginning only goes from the operating table to what is assumed to be 'Hell' and there aren't that many different setups used other than for the skulls, CGI and the lighting at the end with costume.
70 shots in 3:39. This equals to be an average of a different shot ever 3 seconds. However during the middle section there were lots of long continuous shots. Which is a contrast to the beginning and end that had the majority of the fast paced editing with short clips.
70 shots in 3:39. This equals to be an average of a different shot ever 3 seconds. However during the middle section there were lots of long continuous shots. Which is a contrast to the beginning and end that had the majority of the fast paced editing with short clips.
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