Music Video Analysis 2: Follow You - Bring Me The Horizon

Follow You - Bring Me The Horizon (Oliver Sykes and Frank Borin, 2016)

'Follow You' is a Hard Rock song released in 2016 as a single from Bring Me The Horizon's fifth album 'Thats The Spirit'. In the video co-directed by lead singer Oliver Sykes and Frank Borin, there are a lot of death that coincide with the references to hell in the lyrics. This is very common in the Hard Rock genre and features prominently in Rock videos such as My Chemical Romance's 'Welcome to the Black Parade' video (directed by Samuel Bayer). The actor in the 'Follow You' video is not from the band, however still follows convention by miming the lyrics in certain parts of the song. The camera tracks the actor throughout the video, however the editing often cuts non-chronologically. This video has clearly had inspirations from Michael Jackson in the sense that it has a main character walking through the street dancing with what seems to be the end of the world around him. Also there are zombie like people in the video which is direct intertextuality to the Horror genre of film, as this video has been described by Emmy Mack from Music Feeds as "The whole thing is a God damn motherfucking horror movie. But at least its a blockbuster one.". No instruments are used in this video, this ma not be conventional for a Rock music video but it does emphasise its similarities to a horror film.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VISUALS + LYRICS:

In this video there is a very direct link between the lyrics and the visuals. For example, "you can throw me to the flames", throughout this video buildings are presented as being on fire from the acts of violence. Also, "I will follow you 'cause I'm under your spell". The video portrays a character walking through rioting as if everything is fine when in reality it is not. This is band member Oliver Sykes portraying how he feels about love after he left his wife (emphasised by the opening title "love is blind, deaf and fucking dumb"). However, not all of the presentations of the lyrics are literal. It is clearly a fictional story that is based upon reality and presented in a fantasy way where zombies exist.

INTERTEXTUALITY:

There aren't any direct references to other productions, however there are clear links to other concepts that feature in genres such as horror. Oust noticeably the zombies and also the opening titles. The static sound found in old TVs used in-between clips often denotes an end of the world scenario.

PERFORMANCE, NARRATIVE AND/OR CONCEPT?:

The narrative is linear, however in some sections the editing portrays some of it in a non-chronological order. But for the majority it is shown in a linear narrative because it is similar to a Horror film. The actor does not look directly at the camera lens because we are following a narrative film and therefore should not break the fourth wall and avoids a relationship between the audience and character. There aren't any direct references to other productions, however there are clear links to other concepts that feature in genres such as horror. Oust noticeably the zombies and also the opening titles. The static sound found in old TVs used in-between clips often denotes an end of the world scenario.

PERFORMANCE STYLE:

Throughout the video the character is lip syncing the song and occasionally dances. The character is not performing it to the audience though but is more performing it internally to himself, almost like singing/dancing in front of a mirror. Some of the dancing isn't too typical to the genre, although it is passionate - as shown with the reach out to the sky when on top of the car. Contrastingly from the Michael Jackson video the dancing is very simple although they share the same concept of dancing through a street walking through mayhem with/to be with a girl.

LINEAR, CLOSED NARRATIVE?:

The narrative is a linear narrative that is followed from one end of the street to the other. It is clear when relating the video to the lyrics the story that the directors are portraying. The main character is walking 'blindly' through 'hell' to get to a girl we assume he is in a relationship with but it is not certain that the love he feels for her is reciprocated. We almost get a sense that it is a closed narrative at the end but also we are left with many questions. The way the camera pans back and upwards on the door closing makes us wonder what happened when he went in her house, did he survive? Secondly, what happened to the rest of the world? Was it the rest of the world? Was everything resolved? But for he most part the story of the character was fairly closed at the end of the video.

LOOKING/MODE OF ADDRESS:

There are no attempts to address the audience in this video, the character doesn't look into the camera lens and does not appear in any on screen TVs or photographs. Thus keeping the relationship between the audience and character minimal in this sense. However, the audience can still develop a relationship with him as they may still relate to the story being told in the video.

STAR TREATMENT:

Throughout the video the main character is repeatedly in the centre of the shot and remains for the majority within the range of medium to close up in the shot. The actor playing the main character is not a band member and is also not a well known actor so he is not given anymore time on screen simply to promote the video.

AUDIENCE IN VID?:

It could be interpreted that the main character in this music video is a fan of the band as he has headphones on and dancing/lip syncing the lyrics. It could be someone who shares the emotions of the band but he is not a conventional fan of the band, often shown in live performance.

REPRESENTATIONS:

For the most part this video defies stereotypes for age and gender. For example, the older woman at the beginning of the video can be deducted to have brutally murdered the man on the floor in the living room. We can tell this because of the gun she is holding and the bullet wounds in the man's head. Contrastingly, the woman is also wearing very stereotypical clothes for a woman of her age. She is wearing loose trousers with a polo shirt. It is very much middle class middle age woman attire. Secondly, another way they avoid stereotypes is that the male main character is wearing make-up. He is wearing blue eyes shadow, this may be against the stereotype of men, however in Rock and Punk, this is not unconventional, many men wear make-up such as eye liner (also known as guy liner) and lipstick. The woman in this video appears to be a femme fatale character who is leading the main character on. She is using her beauty to 'drag him through hell' because she knows that he would do anything for him. It may be portrayed as a positive empowering thing for women, however it can also be seen as negative because it could potentially suggest that when women have the power over men they can take advantage.

PACE + ANY VARIATION OF PACE:

The intro begins with a very fast pace as there are jump cuts between scenes of violence, other gruesome images and the titles. Once again this will be another influence taken from the horror genre of film. However the first shot of the first 'scene' is around 20 seconds long as it is in slow motion and also a reverse pan. The shots following this are not as long but do range from 2-5 seconds which is still conventionally a long clip. This slows down the pace and matches the slow rhythm of the music. Continuing through the video the shots last around 2 seconds long which is more conventional for music videos as it suits a younger audience. Bring Me The Horizon fans are usually around the age of 18-30 so it makes logical sense to attempt to appeal to that audience. The shorter clips and fast pace editing keeps the attention on the video. This pace increases slightly during the chorus - some of the clips lasting less than 1 second. Finally, at the end of the video the pace returns to that of the first scene with clips lasting around 5 seconds and the last clip lasting about 8 seconds.

SHOT VARIETY + NO. OF SETUPS:

The shot variety in the video was limited. However, there were around 23 different setups. All the setups are either in the same street or in a house for a couple of shots. Also, there is a lot of use of CGI in the video so they did not have to spend too much time and money on creating props such as a crashing plane.

ESTIMATED NO. OF SHOTS:

112 shots in 4 minutes and 49 seconds. At the beginning and end there are less shots but during the chorus the shots are shorter and also therefore more frequent. The fast paced editing matches the fast pace of the chorus, similarly with the slow tempo of the beginning and end.