EC: Technical Analysis

Shot Number	Start time	Camera	Mise-en-scene
1	0:00	Static Object focus	Alarm clock prevalent in foreground. Shows early time. Shows lack of sleep – connotes loneliness and deep thought Furniture out of focus establishes indoor living location
2	0:04	Static into track	Title overlay – brings focus to artist by taking up a large sector of the screen. Moves on a different plane to background – shows importance. Background establishes location as a single bedroom, shown to be a motel room by neon sign – connotes loneliness and isolation from real life
3	0:10	Fades from previous track into new track into static MS	His face is the focal point of this shot, highlighting his negative emotions and seeming deep thought. This connotes that he has been through a harsh experience, and is an emotional person
4	0:23	Static MLS	Shows artist in semi foetal position, connoting helplessness and vulnerability, humanising the artist
5	0:27	Static MS to track	This shows MNEK moving about in bed, connoting restlessness
6	0:31	LS track	The camera moves through the hotel room, showing two different characters with body language connoting restlessness and deep thought, the characters are not in the room together as they fade in at different times, showing that they are apart, and lonely because of it. This amplifies the lyrics “At night I think about you”
7, 8	0:40	MS track	These focus on the artist’s face and performance, showing his emotions and developing him as an emotional character
9, 10, 11	0:50	LS track	The camera tracks across the room in the same way it did in shot number 6. It uses editing to show MNEK and an actress in different locations in the room, again connoting loneliness and longing for someone
12	1:08	LS track	The same track path of the room is taken, but it is sped up as the tempo of the song rises, and it climaxes. This puts the focus back onto the song by taking it away from the performance
13	1:10	LS Shaky camera	This shows the same actors that were seen as depressed and sad dancing erratically in the hotel room. Editing cuts between their dancing, showing they are doing the same routine, connoting community and group recovery, adding a complexity to the narrative of the video and increasing repeatability
14	1:20	LS track	An actress is seen to be laying on the bed in a similar fashion to the earlier shots, but then she is shown dancing in the same room, and it cuts between her an MNEK dancing, showing the contrast between happiness and sadness
15	1:29	MS track	This is focused on MNEK, and his performance. It tracks across in a similar fashion to the earlier shots, and again highlights MNEK’s emotion in his performance, adding an emotional complexity to his star image
16, 17	1:44	LS track	This shows the actors dancing again, connoting happiness as the song climaxes
18	2:01	CU track	This again highlights MNEK’s emotion and performance, strengthening his star image
23 25	2:40 2:51	Static MCU	As the vocals become prevalent in the song, and the tempo falls, the camera movement stops to focus on MNEK. He is using arm actions and facial expressions to connote passion in his music, connoting him as a committed artist
31	3:47	Static MCU	The music cuts and the camera focuses on MNEK, showing his determined expression, showing the effort he has just put into the performance. This depicts him again to be a committed artist, and further strengthens his star image
32	3:50	Static object focus	This shows the clock shown in the first shot. It is on the exact same time, and it changes to the next minute. This suggests that the events of the music video were not real, suggesting that they took place in someone’s mind – suggestively MNEK’s. This connotes emotional complexity of the artist

10 stills mnek at night from EdChambersTWGSB

Still 1
The orange colour of the lamps contrasts with the blue colour grading of the video. This draws attention to the background and establishes location. This also creates a reading path to the overlayed title, which is central, drawing attention and creating focus towards the artist.

Still 2
The MCU draws attention to the artist's body position and face. This helps convey emotion and the connotations of these emotions. Also, the contrasting lighting can be used to set an emotional tone.

Still 3
The brightly lit window contrasts the bright room, making the viewer focus on the window, which has a sign in it to establish the internal location fully, and creating an idea as to the external location.

Still 4
The frame is split into two halves. This is done by the contrast in lighting. The warm yellow lighting on the left makes that side of the room seem inviting and safe, whilst the cold blue lighting on the right side of the room makes it seem cold and hostile.

Still 5
The scrolling between frames makes the audience analyse the same image multiple times, allowing them to read into the connotations of the image, enabling the use of subtle indicators in the video. This increases repeatability.

Still 6
The lighting makes the artist and the bed he is on seem seperate from the room due to the contrasting colours. This can be used to isolate a character and strengthen a narrative of a video, increasing repeatability.

Still 7
The fade transition of the actor against the constant background is a good method of showing that time has passed, without having to overlay text and disrupt the flow of the music video.

Still 8
MNEK is off-center in this frame, however the background is not the main focus of the frame, and is a background the audience has seen before, so MNEK is still the desired focal point of the frame. The outcome of this framing is that the audience shift their attention away from MNEK momentarily, ensuring the video is not repeating itself and 'boring'.

Still 9
The continuous tracking of the same room combined with the dancing of MNEK fits with the climaxing of the song, and builds tension.

Still 10
The central MCU of MNEK is the last shot of the music video, and so will be what ius imprinted on the audience's mind, raising awareness of MNEK, and improving his star image.