30 Seconds To Mars – "The kill" Analysis

This music video uses a lot of conventions that most other music promos use, for example, in the opening the audience can see an old black car pull up to an old, grim looking castle like building. The black car and the castle are used to show the audience what style of music the band play. Common conventions in other music promos often use similar ideas in order to tell the audience about the style of music they perform, another example of this would be Katy Perry’s “California Girls” where the opening starts with a box with bright colours on it telling the audience about the style of music that she performs. This is effective because the song is about killing and the title of the song is called “The kill” so the costume choice is very relevant because they are the sorts of clothes you might wear at a funeral.
Also music promos often have costumes with relate back to the band and also the song they are playing. In “The kill” the band wear black and white suits which look like either funeral suits or Tuxedo’s, this costume convention is often very similar between music promos which have the same genre whereas different genres, like pop, might use more colourful and modern costumes. This is effective because the costume fits in with the location and also the style of the song making it look very film like which is what I think they were trying to achieve with everything out together.

In music promos the most common shot types that are used are close-ups and mid-shots. “The kill” uses these conventions throughout the song but also uses long shots, which breaks the convention.  The close-ups and mid-shots are used to show the band performing and also let the audience associate the band members with different roles in the band. This is used throughout many music promos because it keeps the audience’s attention on the band and on key band members, e.g. lead singer. But long shots are used too, which are unconventional. The long shots don’t allow for the audience to feel like they are there in the crowd and it also takes the focus off the main character and sets it on all of them which can be boring. This is effective because the mix of close ups, mid shots and long shots allows for the audience to understand where all of the band is on the stage but also allows for them to see what one band member is doing on the stage.

Also in the music promo, when the audience sees the band performing a low angled shot is used. This is convention is used a lot in other music promos because it gives the audience the feeling that they are there in the crowd watching them perform live. This is very effective because it gives the audience that exclusive feeling because they are so close.

A common convention that is used in the editing of most music promos is its speed. The speed of the editing usually relates back to the speed of the song so if the song is playing at a high tempo then the editing will be done so it matches it. This can be seen in “The kill” about half way through when there is no singing but there is a short but fast section that the editing matches. This fast editing speed that matches the song is very effective because it makes the audience pay attention and they have to look out for different things in each of the edits.

Effects are also used as a part of the editing to create a visual effect that the audience can see. This can be seen towards the end of the music promo when the band are performing on the stage and a mirror effect has been used to show two lots of the band. This is good because in the narrative or storyline of the music promo shows they’re in a hotel and they find a double of themselves, so the ending links back to the narrative showing that they are performing with them.

In the music promo they make intertextual links to a film called “The Shining”. The music promo has a very similar location, a hotel in the middle of nowhere which is identical to the film, except the film is set in a location where it’s very clod with lots of snow. Also the band members start to see weird things, like doubles of themselves which is similar to the film but the character in the film don’t see doubles of them but see dead people or creepy people. This is a very effective method because they have copied a very successful film and then when the audience sees what they have done they will think that the music promo is very similar to a film or something they have seen before and when they get it they will tell others and increase the songs publicity.

Also a dual narrative has been used to show the performance side of the promo and the narrative side of the promo. The hotel scenes are used to show the narrative and how they have used the convention of coping “The Shining” in order to make the promo more interesting. Using the dual narrative works well because its shows how the story of one half ties into the other making them both interlink  which people might enjoy trying to spot.