Textual Analysis of The Captain by Biffy Clyro

I'm going to be analysing one of my favourite songs at the moment which I'm a bit obsessed with after seeing them play in Norwich just the other week :D - The Captain by Biffy Clyro.

The video, directed by Andy Morahan who has also shot videos for artists such as Wham and the Pet Shop Boys, is based around a pirate theme. There is a loose storyline whereby Simon Neil (the lead singer of Biffy Clyro) plays a pirate being captured and tortured by naval officers, he then gets rescued by his fellow bandmates and pirates. The video is both performance and storyline based which I felt worked really well, especially as performance is more conventional of videos for rock bands.

Camera :

Alot of blurred/soft focus is used in the video, partly to keep the audiences attention and partly to portray the fact that Simon Neil's character is clearly in pain. This may be to show the audience the world through his eyes, acting almost as a point of view shot. An example of a focus pull is shown below. >>>>>





I particularly loved the shot composition of shots including Simon Neil. As the main character in this storyline, he is always placed in the corner of the frame, which i feel is meant to represent his isolation as a prisoner.



Another area of the camera work I love is the use of handheld (from 2.25 secs to 2.29) in the part where the lead character is locked in a wooden cage, in particular a low angle shot of him. It really keeps the viewer involved and gives the feel of perhaps a rocky pirate ship. It also keeps the focus on the lyrics and the meanings behind them as we get a full view of Simon Neil's facial expressions as he lipsynchs.



Shots of random objects such as skulls and cannons were included in the video, I found this worked as the props went with the theme of piracy yet were also randomly placed. The use of random props is something we ourselves have included in our music video as we have liked the involvement of these in many videos we've analysed.

Editing:

As in most videos, the editing is paced to fit with the song, thus getting faster as the chorus gets faster. I really like how this works in the video and I also really enjoyed how the editing was nearly always cut on the beat. In particular a part in the song where the lyrics go "woo!" (at 24 secs) and it cuts to the band singing and playing their instruments, then cuts back immediately to Simon Neil as he starts to sing. This is very conventional of music videos for bands but I liked how throughout the editing seemed to always stay on the beat, even as it got faster.

Sound:

I thought the start of the video was very effective in terms of sound. It was completely silent and then slowly faded in with the sound of stamping feet combined with shots of feet stamping. This shows use of music being linked with visuals (one of Goodwin's six). In nearly all of the video's we have seen and liked, shots of feet have been included for example Katy Perry and Florence and the Machine and this is something we have incorporated into our video as well.



Mise en Scene:

I loved how the props and costumes were all so authentic and linked perfectly with the theme of pirates, which in itself links to the title and lyrics of the song. For example "angels fall to the floor, like they would if I was captain". I think the combination of the old pirate ship, props and costumes and the modern song and incorporation of drums and guitars is very postmodern. I think this shot displays this, with the mixture of typically piratey objects and the modern guitar.



There is a good mixture of locations in the video, although they're all set in the same place (the pirate ship), there are several smaller locations within this idea such as below deck in the prisoners cage, on the top deck where the band play, and by the wheel etc. This is also something we tried to use in our music video and we had many different locations such as in town, against a brick wall, on the beach, by seaside houses and on the shell sculpture at Aldeburgh.

I particularly love the lighting in this video. There is a contrast between natural light below deck which creates the feel that Simon Neil is trapped and can only see natural light through cracks, which cast shadows on his face and the strobe effect lighting used for the performance based shots. These strobe effect lights create the impression of a thunderstorm at sea.
Examples of both lighting techniques are below.





will post more soon xxx