The Day I Died - Just Jack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmkcwoomOco
The single ‘The Day I Died’ by Just Jack was released on August 17th, 2009 and its peak position was number 11. The genre of this song is pop/indie, similar to James Morrisson. The music video directors were Ben & Joe Dempsey, and the producers were Jack Allsopp (AKA Just Jack) and Jay Reynolds. The video circulates around a man (James Nesbitt) and his day; however there is a saddening final scene when the man dies. The music video is an illustrative video, as it exactly matches the lyrics in the song. The video illustrates the man life, and a seemingly average but perfect day beginning with his family, going to work, walking home and then being hit by a taxi, however we never actually see him being hit by the taxi, just his realisation that he has. However, throughout the video he is dressed and made up to look as if he has been hit by the taxi already, but he is unaware of this. The general representation of the song seems to be finding out that every day things you take for granted are actually something to be extremely thankful for. The male
character appears to notice that, as if he knows it is his final day, as he appreciates his family and sees the best side of everything during his day. The thought that the character knows it is his final day is reinforced when there is a close up of the character’s little boy playing with a car and an ambulance during breakfast, as seen to the right.
Throughout my technical analysis I noticed that the majority of shots were medium close ups or medium shots. These shots were used so that the audience can
see the character and his surroundings, and also a closer look at the character in a particular situation. Close ups were often used at point of happiness or sadness, for example, at 42 seconds we are shown a close up of the character’s face as he hugs his children goodbye, as seen in the shot to the right, and at 3 minute
s 24 seconds, we are shown a close up of the character’s face as he is dying, as seen in the shot to the left. The only long shots used were when the man was walking to or from work in busy streets, this shows him as being just a normal every day man as he is not particularly noticeable or different from anyone else in the crowd. The video is made to look as realistic as possible, and so pan shots are often used to smoothly move from once scene to another, for example this technique is used at 1 minute 19 when the man is opening a door for a woman, there is then a pan shot to the other door where a man who has just been fired walks out and the next situation begins. High angled shots are mostly used when the character is feeling particularly happy. For example, at 2 minutes 13, the character is seen to be standing above a chalk drawing of a world on a path, a high angled shot has been used here to make it seem as if he is standing on the top of it. This echoes the phrase ‘on top of the world’ conveying great happiness. In reverse to this, a low angled shot was used as the man walked across the road, just before he was hit. The general editing pace of this video is reasonably quick to represent the business of his normal working day, however during the death scenes the editing pace is slowed down as his life is coming to an end and slowing down. The only other editing techniques used are when there are flashbacks of the character’s wife and children, as these clips have been edited to fast jump cuts, with white flashes in between. The scenes where the character is dying have also been edited to a slight slow motion to represent his time is running out and his life is slowing down, before stopping completely. The music track stops a few seconds before the final shot ends, and so we watch in silence as the character’s eye lids are closed by a paramedic. The video then uses a fade out to a black screen to show that his life has ended; black is used for memorial and is often associated with death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmkcwoomOco
The single ‘The Day I Died’ by Just Jack was released on August 17th, 2009 and its peak position was number 11. The genre of this song is pop/indie, similar to James Morrisson. The music video directors were Ben & Joe Dempsey, and the producers were Jack Allsopp (AKA Just Jack) and Jay Reynolds. The video circulates around a man (James Nesbitt) and his day; however there is a saddening final scene when the man dies. The music video is an illustrative video, as it exactly matches the lyrics in the song. The video illustrates the man life, and a seemingly average but perfect day beginning with his family, going to work, walking home and then being hit by a taxi, however we never actually see him being hit by the taxi, just his realisation that he has. However, throughout the video he is dressed and made up to look as if he has been hit by the taxi already, but he is unaware of this. The general representation of the song seems to be finding out that every day things you take for granted are actually something to be extremely thankful for. The male
character appears to notice that, as if he knows it is his final day, as he appreciates his family and sees the best side of everything during his day. The thought that the character knows it is his final day is reinforced when there is a close up of the character’s little boy playing with a car and an ambulance during breakfast, as seen to the right.Throughout my technical analysis I noticed that the majority of shots were medium close ups or medium shots. These shots were used so that the audience can
see the character and his surroundings, and also a closer look at the character in a particular situation. Close ups were often used at point of happiness or sadness, for example, at 42 seconds we are shown a close up of the character’s face as he hugs his children goodbye, as seen in the shot to the right, and at 3 minute
s 24 seconds, we are shown a close up of the character’s face as he is dying, as seen in the shot to the left. The only long shots used were when the man was walking to or from work in busy streets, this shows him as being just a normal every day man as he is not particularly noticeable or different from anyone else in the crowd. The video is made to look as realistic as possible, and so pan shots are often used to smoothly move from once scene to another, for example this technique is used at 1 minute 19 when the man is opening a door for a woman, there is then a pan shot to the other door where a man who has just been fired walks out and the next situation begins. High angled shots are mostly used when the character is feeling particularly happy. For example, at 2 minutes 13, the character is seen to be standing above a chalk drawing of a world on a path, a high angled shot has been used here to make it seem as if he is standing on the top of it. This echoes the phrase ‘on top of the world’ conveying great happiness. In reverse to this, a low angled shot was used as the man walked across the road, just before he was hit. The general editing pace of this video is reasonably quick to represent the business of his normal working day, however during the death scenes the editing pace is slowed down as his life is coming to an end and slowing down. The only other editing techniques used are when there are flashbacks of the character’s wife and children, as these clips have been edited to fast jump cuts, with white flashes in between. The scenes where the character is dying have also been edited to a slight slow motion to represent his time is running out and his life is slowing down, before stopping completely. The music track stops a few seconds before the final shot ends, and so we watch in silence as the character’s eye lids are closed by a paramedic. The video then uses a fade out to a black screen to show that his life has ended; black is used for memorial and is often associated with death.
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