Textual Analysis

Artist: Rise Against
Song: "Savior"
Video Director: Kevin Kerslake

This video has a combination of performance and simple narrative as it includes a large majority of live performance, but also has a simple sub-plot that relates to political references to the Republican party and endangered animals. It involves the band destroying their instruments and a large group of people dressed in animal costumes moshing.

Lighting

The lighting throughout this video is a mixture between the live performance and the simple narrative, I think that the use of high key lighting during the live performance shots is used to make the atmosphere seem more exciting and high energy, which ties in with the band and the song. As well as the fact that it makes it seem more 'gig' like when mixed with the way the video is shot at night. However, the low key lighting which is all artificial lighting such as street lamps and sign lights give it more of a realistic feel and almost promotes an empathetic feeling towards all of the characters in costumes that are sleeping on the streets.

Mise-en-Scene

The mise-en-scene for the band in this video is what would probably just be there normal clothing, for example jeans and t-shirt. However the characters costumes are quite unusual as they're all wearing some kind of animal outfit from a Polar Bear to an Elephant. It is said that the elephant in this video represents the American Republican Party and the Polar Bear represents endangered animals, this use of a video to send out a political message is similar to that of Eminem's videos where he often makes political references.
The band can also be seen smashing up all of their equipment and instruments throughout the video which represents the rock genre quite stereotypically.

Cinematography

The shot list for this video is quite extensive in the variety of shots that are used, for example there is everything from close-ups, to mid-shots, long shots, low angle, high angle, extreme long shots and handheld shots.

Editing

The editing of this video is fast paced, using a variety of short takes (mostly) and slightly longer takes (such as the establishing shot) to create a kinetic edit that keeps the audience engaged and appeals to the type of person that would want to (or already does) listen to this type of music or band. The editing also uses a lot of cross cutting between the future and the present, for example the present footage of the live performance and the future footage of the band destroying their instruments, as well as the live footage of the animals moshing and the future (or past, I'm not sure) footage of the animals in homeless situations, which is also a reference to the endangered animals' situations.