artist: mustard plug
album: Big Daddy Multitude
song title: Mr smiley
director: ksc film

genre: a punk ska band from America, who have more of an upbeat sound than an aggressive one, humor also plays quite a big part in there music.

generic conventions: a narrative based concept video where the theme of the song match the visuals and the visuals match the lyrics. due to the nature of punk the narrative is humorous and the are no deep and meaning full story lines but one that matches the genre of the band.

sound: This band incorporates quite a few aspects of other music genres into the sub-genre of punk. This includes reggae, punk rock, hip hop, metal and dub. The nature of their lyrical themes are based around socio-political issues in Britain.

representation: i think the main representation in this video is the way they want to portray humor, and show that there is humor in everything as really the lyric and the narrative is quite sad as it about a man who murders his girlfriend and is hiding from the police, but in the forefront of all this the actor has a great big yellow smiley face mask and this give a comedic value to the video i believe the band have done this to show that they don't take themselves very seriously but outside of there rock style life style there are serious thing but they don't bother. Also again the main character has to go into hiding by himself as a "outcast" which portrays that the punk genre is an outcast genre as its not main stream but by adding humor they show that you shouldn't care and just not worry about it and have fun. it may also represent how thing can change and they may be famous and playing shows one day and next its gone, i think that's why there are flash backs to show how they will never forget the good times, like how Mr smiley will never forget his girlfriend the band will never for get there fans even if things turn.

camera: there are a great range of shots used to add effects to the video, there are long shots, Long shots are used to show a person’s whole body whilst performing, to show the crowd whilst panning and to set the scene for example the opening shot where the actor is dancing along the street showing how happy he is also when it show the flash back when they are singing in each other arms. mid shots all throughout the video of the actors the use of Mid shots are very important in this video because you can not see the actors face and so the audience have to draw allot of information from the actor body language. There are many close ups in this video this is to show the change in the smile face from sad to happy. Pans are used to unfold events and, on one occasion, used as an ellipsis. Tracks are used to follow the action and to show the movement and pace. some hand held is used to show the action from the actors point of view and give it an edge.

mise-en-scene and some of its representation

Sound: Diegetic This draws all sound focus to the song itself.

setting: the main settings of the video is the park where the flas backs take place also the street where he dances/ runs away. the main setting is the motel he stays in after he murders his girlfriend, its a classic American hotel mad to be dark and a place he is alone.

lighting: natural lighting is used when they are outside, but when inside the motel dark lighting is used to portray the dark situation he is in and the way he feels about himself, he ties to find hope in the bible but the darkness stays, quite often sun light is used by having streaks of it coming through gaps in the window.

costume and make up: the only piece of costume worth talking about is the mask, the mask incorporates the name of the song and also make s the plot of the video clear by the obvious change from happy to sad so as to not confuse the audience as facial expressions can be had to get right. the mask is also the main point of humour as all the way through the video bad things happen but throughout there is the yellow smiley face.

props: the flowers are used to show how ever thing starts out OK and hes happy, hes dancing, happily walking along until he finds his girlfriend has cheated on him, he murders her and runs away, to show how things have gone bad he then throws the flowers on the floor to show the turn of events. the bible is used to be seen as a last bit of hope in that his life could still go on, when it doesn't work it shows how things get worse through props such as alchhole and cigarettes as he is desperately trying to feel better, drown his sorrows, the main prop used through out is the mask the mask changes with his mood and during happy flashbacks.

colour: everything is natural except for maybe the yellow of the mask there seems to be a real emphasis on it

editing: the editing is not particularly fast this is uncommon with punk bands music videos, i think this is because of the nature of a story being told and so the takes are a little longer so that the audience can keep track.

relationship between the lyrics and visual: there is a strong link between the lyrics and visuals in that the lyrics tells a story and the visuals show it, eg 2 i remember how it used to be", the story shows a flash back

relationships between the music and visual: the visual is at the same pace as the music as it fits quite well.