SP - Deconstruction: Editors - Bones

Artist: Editors

Song: Bones
Genre: Indie Rock
Director: The band's bassist Russell Leetch.

Year: 2008
Audience: 15-24

"Bones" was the fifth and final single from An End Has a Start, the second album by Editors. It was only released in Continental Europe under the PIAS label as a download only single. It was released to help promote the band during the festival run and their support of R.E.M. in July during their German shows. "Bones" was one of the first songs off An End Has A Start to be performed live, along with "The Weight Of The World" in 2006. It has since gone through many changes, most notably the bridge and outro of the song which was previewed via a short video made by the band months before the album came out. (Source: Wikipedia)

The Editors Bones is a mixture of both a performance based and a narrative based music video. The performnce element features all of the way through the music video as it contains footage of the band playing their instruments and the bands frontman, Tom Smith, lip-syncing the lyrics to the song. However some of the music video is a narrative based idea as its not just a video including on stage footage, there is also alot of behind the scenes footage shot during the European tour in March and April 2008. It was directed by the band's bassist Russell Leetch. What tells us that it is not a concept music video and it is a narrative idea is that it is not a completely random idea that they have though of. The music video has a storyline to it and it is centred around the band and what they are doing on tour. 

The opening sequence of shots are of of the veunues where The Editors have played on their European Tour in March and April in 2008. The shots are filmed from a point of view and it is meant to feel like amatuer filmimg. This is because the start of the music video is sort of like a diary. It is showing us the places that the band have been in their tour. There are not just shots of venues like my two pictures show, there are also shots of countryside and city centres of the cities the band have been exploring whilst on their tour. The camera shots used for these shots are extremely shakey but this is intended. It is showing there fans what they get up to when they are not playing on their tours. It is an interesting start to the music video beacuse at first we do not know what the shots are of until we see that the actual band members have taken these shots of the places they have been. It all becomes clear that they have taken these shots as a diary entry. That is the effect they are trying to make here.

There are several cut shots away from the original sequence of shots of venues and locations the band have been on their European Tour. These cut shots are of the actual band this time not of where they are playing and looking around. Just like the first sequence of shots there is a very laid back and relaxed atmosphere created here. Again the shots are not staedy and is obiously wanting to shows us what the band get up to. It shows everyone watching the video that these famous people are human and do live normal lives. Alot of people think that because they are famous and have alot of money that they always have to be proffesional. This music video shows that they are allowed to have abit of fun and the harness allow them to do this. They are all good mates and they are all messing around together. There are plenty of shots of the band behind the scenes in thier hotels and basically just chilling out together which alot of fans dont get to see much of. Again this adds to the vibe that this video is sort of a diary entry of their European Tours. So far there has been footage of the venues they have been at, the cities that they have been exploring and footage of them just hanging out together as mates.

Throughout the whole video  there are alot of shots of the band playing their instruments but mainly of the frontman lip-syncing. Throughout the whole video there are alot of single shots of Tom Smith lip-syncing but also single shots of the drummer and bassist etc. These are all examples of the performance elements of the music video. The majoriy of the shots used for these performance sections of the music video are medium shots and close ups. However there is some variation such as panning shots and a high angle shot for example. This is because they want a variety of shots throughout the whole video and the narrative sections mainly use more long takes and slow editing. More is happening in the narrative sections so they need to be using more unorthordox shots rather than close ups and medium shots. Fast paced editing is a common code and convention in  music videos and this is sort of the case in The Editors song Bones especially in the chorus. This is because the narrative sections are used in th verses and as i have just said, there are long takes and slow editing as it is amatuer footage like a diary ebrty. However the chorus is a much quicker part than the others. This affects the pace of editing in this music video. An interesting thing i noticed in the music video was that for the first three quarters of the music video the performance sections were in black and white. However for the last quarter they are in colour. Im not sure why this is the case but the performance shots are filmed live infront of an audience which is also quite interesting.

It is not just the band performing in the performance sections that are used throughout the music video. Because it is a live performance that has been filmed there are alot of shots of the crowd. It gives it a feel as if it is being shown live on TV rather than a music video because usually when performance sections are used in a music video, they are not playing in front of an audience and it is just of the band. It does give off the feel that it i being filmed live when it is actually already happened. This reminds me of the Coldplay song Fix You and Bon Jovi's Livin' On A Prayer that i have already deconstructed. A very similar technique was used in those music videos at the end just like with this one. It is not used very often in music videos but it actually a very effective technique for performnace music videos.

Here is the music video Bones by The Editors