Music Video Analysis

http://youtu.be/hRXc_-c_9Xc

Arcade Fire – We Exist

This music video shows a person cross-dressing for the first time. We see the internal struggle that the person is going through. We see that he worries about what others will think of him through his facial expressions as he is getting dressed and as he walks through the bar. A man asks him to dance, and just as he starts to smile from enjoyment, several other men gang up on him and beat him up. But just before we see him get kicked in the face, the scene freezes, and he gets up and starts dancing. His posture is completely changed and is expressing his feeling of freedom finally. We then see the previous gang of men, now in women’s clothing, and they are dancing in sync as well. They open up a curtain that the person we have been following goes through. He ends up at an Arcade Fire concert and gets up on stage and starts to dance in front of the crowd of people, unashamed.

Visually, in the beginning, the DP is using closer and tighter shots of the subject. When he is walking outside, the DP opens up the shot just a little bit more, making it a medium shot. When he arrives at the bar, we still see him in mostly medium shots, except when he begins to question himself again when he sits down at the bar and it is back to a closer shot. During the dancing scene and as he goes on stage, it is mostly long shots, and we get to see more of his surroundings. This story arc is visually being told through this change in distance from the subject. This is telling us that the subject is starting off with his cross-dressing as a secret, it is only known by him, and he is unsure if he wants to change that. As the story progresses and he starts to go out into the public, he is opening up a little bit and getting a little comfortable, so the camera distance follows suit and backs up to a medium shot to let a little more of the surroundings into the picture. And finally, when he reaches the end of the story and sees that he is allowed to exist as he pleases, we are viewing him in mostly long shots, letting more of the surroundings into the picture.