Deconstruction of two contasting music videos

Deconstruction of Korn “Freak on a Leash” and Nine Inch Nails “Closer”

The music video for “Freak on a Leash” begins as cell animation, and as the song progresses it changes into real life, and then ends where it began as cell animation again. The video for “Closer” is all real life, and mostly filmed using the cross cutting technique.
The video by Nine Inch Nails begins with the image of a heart in a chair, which beats and smoke comes out of it in time to the music this is one of Andrew Goodwin’s points that there can be a relationship between the music and the visuals. This happens during the opening of the song, before there is any singing. It then cuts to different images of a low-lit room with strange objects in it such as a skeleton. This provokes an ominous atmosphere for the beginning of the video.
When the singing begins it cuts to the silhouette of Trent Reznor using an indirect mode of address; you can only see his profile singing into a microphone which swaps from medium shots to close up shots each time it cuts back to him. Because you cannot see his facial features at all it makes the image very effective. Throughout the whole music video the cross cutting technique is used; after seeing the vocalist for the first time it cuts to a scene of cockroaches crawling over empty bottles. This image is gruesome and adds to the ominous feel of the video and song. Throughout the next part of the video, there is cross cuts between Reznor singing and different images with a similar feel to them as the cockroaches. The next is of lots of old candles gradually lighting up, adding a haunting feel to the video. There is a link between the lyrics of the song and the video, as the rather graphic line “I want to **** you like an animal” shows, as it shows clips of a monkey, this is another point from Goodwin that there can be a link between the lyrics and the visuals. I feel that the video is made to have an old feel to it, as there is many wipes used which is common in old style videos. As the tempo of the music builds towards the end of the song, the cuts between the different scenes begin to speed up, they also become more graphic, this shows a further relationship between the lyrics, music and the visuals.

The video by Korn begins in cell animation. Its starts with a group of children creeping out of their houses at night and trespassing near a cliff edge, they are then pursued by an armed security guard who is made to look very dominant with use of low angle shots. There is many close up shots used during this part of the video, mainly to express the anger on the security guards face and the mischief of the group of children. The use of animation could have been a link from video games, which John Stewart states is common for a music video to be influenced by a video game. There is one girl who is made to seem dominant in this scene by the use of mise en scene, making her dress bright red while everyone else is dressed in the same colour. The security guard is then tripped firing a bullet that narrowly misses the girl in red. The video then switches into real life as the bullet comes through a poster with all the children and the security guard in it. tracking the bullet as it travels through people’s houses, petrol stations etc. this part of the video could be linked with Goodwin’s point that there can be a link between the music and the video as every time the bullet passes through an object the music gets louder. There is then the use of cross-cutting between the bullet and the band who are playing in a room full of bullet holes. John Stewarts idea that the visual reference in music videos can come from fashion are shown as the band are dressed in black clothing giving off connotations of dark and evil which Korn are famous for.
Steve archers point is also used in Korn’s video, as there is a cut between the story of the bullet and the band playing, then the singer becomes part of the story when he stops the bullet with his breath then blows it back in the direction it comes from, all in time with the music which is another point of Goodwins. The video then ends as the bullet goes back into the poster then it cuts into animation again where the video finishes.