Asking Alexandria Music Video Analysis

I chose this song and video as the song and the visuals link together strongly, the song was written by Danny, the lead vocalist of Asking Alexandria, and it is about his drug and alcohol addiction that he has since overcome, but he wanted to show his fans how bad he genuinely was, bringing him closer to them in the form of a song. He felt like he was fighting a losing battle, and this is shown in the video, all the way through it shows links between them both constantly, most of the time only with timing, but it all still links.

• The songs opening is a black screen with a pill falling down, giving us an idea of the theme, this is really dramatic and it isnt like a normal opening for a music video, more like a movie.
• It starts off very quick-paced, quick cuts but using another song by the band off the same album, it shows them on a night out.
• The intro stops suddenly, with with a title telling us its 30 minutes before what we just saw.
• A phonecall takes place and an overvoice features, making it apparent that the man we see is in a band, this is where the narrative of the video begins.
• He gets up and gets ready, in time with the music.
• It then shows a series of clips, referring to their location, it also tells us this at the beginning of the video.
• After this it goes on to show us each of the band members in different areas of the city alone/together, the camera shows us that they all recieve the same text message.
• It then cuts to them having all met up, shows them crossing the road, like a Beatles influence, then slowly walking down the street, revealing what they are wearing, this is the video showing us their image.
• A canted crane shot is used to introduce the characters as individuals, their is no sound as Ben (the guitarist) is persuading Danny (the lead singer) to have 'just one drink' a shocking font accompanies this in the bottom left hand corner, giving us an incentive that something may go wrong.
• The next shot we see is of them entering the bar its slow and mainly focused on the guitarist, this could be for the sexual appeal of the band, intended for their audience.
• After this, we see the introduction of a girl, who is pretty much oozing Femme Fatale, I would say this is one of the most important shots of the narrative as it shows Danny distracted by her attraction. By this point we know something is going to happen.
• From this is goes into several shots of the band getting intoxicated.
• The music slows down and as it does, we meet our female character again, slowly walking towards Danny, this is where we really get a good look at her, as she is walking, she is turning heads, and wearing very little clothing.
• It cuts back to the band, focal point being on Danny, they don't seem impressed, its like they know what will end up happening between Danny and the girl, this relates to the vocalists real life problems aswell.
• When she reaches him, it becomes apparent that she wants an intimate night with him. He smiles but it cuts to the guitarist who has an expression on his face like 'typical'
• She spikes his drink, the music becomes fast and in the original song there is a psycotic laugh, which fits in perfectly with the scenes of Danny heavily under the unfluence of drugs, we know she has done this to take advantage.
• It cuts to her pinning him up against the wall in a sexual nature. The band are in shock.
• She drags him upstairs, showing him her domination, in time with the music she throws him onto a chair and the intimate relation she wanted, comes true.
• When the music slows down to a quick, but slow drumbeat we see that the drug she put in his drink has had a bad turn on him.
• From this point onwards, it is a series of very fast clips, highlighting that Danny is in trouble, and shows she is enjoying putting him htrough suffering.
• We then see explicit scenes of her choking him and him frothing at the mouth. This proves that the audiences theories of that she wants to cause him harm, are true.
• This scene cuts between his pain and her gain, dominance is a key theme in the narrative part of this video.
• We get a quick glimpse of Ben looking for him, but it quickly cuts back to our female character, finished, and we see Danny sitting hopeless, in the chair. As an audience we ask ourselves, 'is he dead?' but we dont quite know.
• It then cuts to her pleasure, and her almost toying with her victim.
• She leaves, and as she does, and overvoice of Ben drops in, calling out Danny's name.
• It then cuts to Ben walking down the corridor, calling out Danny's name, checking every room, he is blatently angry.
• When he finds him, the anger disappears and his tone suddenly gets worried and anxious, he is pulling and slapping Danny, begging him to wake up, this scene is very emotional for the audience, it also fits in with the emotion in the closing lines of the song.
• We encounter a dramatic ending, we see one shot of Danny's lifeless hand and the shocking font returns saying ' to be continued' leaving the audience with a cliffhanger, something you rarely see with a music video.

- Sophie