Section Three: Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice

Weapon Of Choice

Fatboy Slim | MySpace Music Videos

Aspects of performance/mode of address
This video has direct mode of address as the star in the video is looking into the camera for the majority of the video. This is also performance based although it isn’t not ‘Fatboy Slim’ in the video, there is an actor dancing.

Narrative
The narrative in this video is linear as there are no flash backs.

How does the video create and image for the star/band?
The video creates the image that the music made is the kind of music that makes people want to get up and dance.

How do the visual elements relate to the song – illustration/amplification/disjuncture?
The lyrics amplify the visuals as the song is about using music to do things instead of actual weapons. Also, the actions in the dance routine are in time with and also support certain sounds in the song e.g. the desk bell being hit.

Mise-en-scene
This video is set in an empty hotel showing a fairly regular place. The actor in the video is wearing a suit showing that he is a regular person, possibly on business.

Use of camera
To begin with, there is a full shot of the actor sitting in a chair looking fairly miserable. There are panning shots of the actor dancing down a hall way, this is used to keep the video simple as there is a lot of movement happening in each shot. There is a close up of the actors hand hitting the bell, the hitting of the bell is in time with a sound in the song. There are also tracking shots of the actors dancing as he isn’t dancing on the spot but moving all around the hotel.

Editing
The editing in this video is very slow paced and the takes are also fairly long, this runs along side the laid back nature of the song as well as highlighting the actions in the video.

Representation
This video represents the positive feeling that people get when they listen to a song with lots of rhythm in that it has the actor dancing and looking happy whilst the music is playing as opposed to the miserable look he has when the music isn’t playing at both the beginning and end of the video. The parts of the video where the actor is flying represents that he feels extremely uplifted by the music.

Special effects
There are no special effects in this video.

Genre
This song belongs to the techno/dance genres.

Audience
The audience for this song is 16 – mid 20 as this is the kind of music that may be played in clubs.