Textual Analysis - Smallpools - Dreaming

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Genre: Indie / Alternative

Dreaming is the music video by the indie rock band, Smallpools. The video shows a non linear narrative where the events of the music video keep repeating but in different orders. The basic narrative is the lead singer at a party where certain scenes keep reoccurring through out the night.  

The mise-en-scene used in the video reflects the indie rock genre. It shows the theme of a house party, as the costumes are average clothes that would be worn for a party. The main character, which also happens to be the lead singer of Smallpools, is wearing a black t-shirt and jeans; casual clothing. The location is set at night time in a flat. The inside is decorated to portray a realistic party location, with lights and cups spread around as people dance and chat. There is also the band Smallpools playing live music, first shown towards the start of the video, reinforcing the promotional side of music videos and something for the fans to relate to. Each prop used shows connotations of partying to the audience, setting a realistic scene. It is important for music videos to present realism through their videos in the narrative style to create a believable storyline as well as an enjoyable video that promotes the music. 
The cinematography used within the video reinforces the narrative and story line. The main cinematographic feature used throughout the video are pan and track shots which follow the main character, this creates central focus on the character throughout the whole video; a way to show the audience what to follow. The frequent use of these different camera movements help the audience focus on the characters' actions as different events occur throughout the video. It also keeps the pace of the song along with the cinematography, creating an interesting video and a more believable story line. Another shot used includes high angle shots which give the audience a bigger view of the scene. These type of shots support the narrative, including the audience in the viewing of the plot. It also establishes what is going on in the scene; a typical convention from the indie rock genre. Matching shots are often used to show the randomisation of each scene that mixes together showing confusion. 
The editing for this video includes quick edits changing the scene rapidly helping portray the confusion the character has as the video progresses. It also keeps the audience entertained and keeps the interest. The editing also reflects the style of narrative because it shows the viewer what the lead role is going through, creating an interpretation for the audience.This could relate to the title of the song 'Dreaming' because typical connotations of dreaming include unexplained events and things that wouldn't happen in real life. Another connotation also includes flashbacks and the frequent swapping between different scenes as the editing picks up pace. 

The conventions of the indie rock genre have been fulfilled by this video, supporting the different features which are used to base music videos on. The micro elements, audience and ideology represent the conventions, showing the audience what to expect and recognise as a music video from the genre. The video also doesn't break the 4th wall, a strong feature from the genre and most typical in this style of music video. As well as focusing on a narrative, the main character also mimes along with his band, showing the link between both the narrative and promotion of the song. 

The ideology behind the video could link back to the connotations of the song title 'Dreaming' and how the video is portrayed to the audience as some things are confusing. The repetition of scenes already shown to the audience reinforces the idea of dreaming, showing events that are normal at first but start to be mixed up and confused created through the jump cut edits and confused facial expression of the main character. 

The representation of the video could link to the theorist Tim O'Sullivan Et Al (1998) who argued that all media texts tell some kind of story. Following the representation from this theorist, the video shows a narrative with a plot at the ending leading to the closure of the party held in his house and the sudden disappearance of the all the guests linking to the connotations of 'Dreaming' and hinting that maybe the character was in fact asleep and dreaming.