Sam Fielding Advanced Production: Bring Me The Horizon-Sleepwalking Analysis

Bring Me The Horizon-Sleepwalking analysis

The mise-en-scene of this promo alternates between a few areas. One of these areas is an outdoor snowy area and another is similar to a party room. These two areas contradict each other within this promo as the outdoor area is cold, abandoned and alternating between bright and dark lighting, it is also occasionally red, this represents the danger of the cold weather. Whereas, the party room is full of people and is also warm, as connoted by the band members and party goers who are wearing T-shirts. This is a conventional mise-en-scene for a music promo as it is a likely scenario of where a performance would be, this gives us the feeling that we are actually at the performance. These two mise-en-scenes juxtapose each other. The costume in the party room is also conventional in music promos as it is normal clothing and something we would normally wear in day to day life; this helps us relate to the band members. Whereas, the costume of the girl who is outside, is a jacket which is unconventional for a promo but is conventional for the mise-en-scene she is placed in (outside in a frozen area). Another way that the party rooms mise-en-scene is conventional is because of the instruments being used by the band, all the instruments they use (guitar, bass, drums and a synthophone/keyboard) are also conventional for metal/rock music that use electro elements.

The cinematography is also both conventional and unconventional, as with the mise-en-scene. This is once again juxtaposed by the two different areas used. For example, the cinematography is conventional in the party room as mid shots and close ups are used. These show the band members all playing together as well as each band member being in their own shot occasionally. Long shots are also used in the party room to show the party goers and the band being together, this is also conventional as it shows the band with their audience around them, as with many other music promos, moving shots are also present here, moving around the band. Then, the cinematography in the outdoor area is different again as mainly long shots and close ups with very few mid shot. This is unconventional as there are very few midshots of the girl. This is used so it fits in with the narrative of her story.

Editing is also used within this promo. It is often used to show the contrast between light and dark as when it is dark, the editing is slower, whereas, when it is lighter it is faster in pace. This is supposed to show the light in two different aspects, bright as unrelenting and strong, darkness as slow and frightening. Editing is also used through post production effects a little. One major post production effect that can be seen is during the party room scene when a lens glare is evident at the bottom of the scene; this is once again supposed to represent the light/dark contrast as said before. There is also some slow motion in the promo at one point when the girl is looking at the red fire, this is supposed to bring out her emotions and show her facial expressions. There are also some amplified light effects on there to show the light in a stronger way. There is also some reverse shots in tehre which show action ahppening backwards, this represents how the girl is slowly going slighlty crazy with a lack of attention from other people.

There is also a slight narrative within this promo. The narrative is how the girl in the promo has been abandoned and that people ignore her and she feels better in her dreams. This is seen when the shots switch between the party room and her in the snow, the girl in the snow represents her being abandoned and the party room represents how she was not invited and was ignored. It then starts with the idea of dreams where she is having a dream about running away from society and being on her own, this is also in the snowy weather and darkness. This represents the idea of people who seem to be neglected by society run away and are never seen again, as well as going slighlty insane. The lyrics also relate back to this narrative of dreams as teh sinegr keeps saying for her to "wake up" this could be from the dreams or from the slight insanity that she has. Moving onto the purpose, it could be said that this promo is dual purpose as it informs us about how people feel when they are socially neglected but also it is to entertain as it shows the band performance.