Music Video Analysis – Young Chasers by Circa Waves

The music video starts with a low angle shot of a teenage female. This straight away establishes that she is the main character within the video and perhaps she is what the lyrics are about. She looks quite annoyed and even angry, this suggest she is not a particularly nice person and perhaps she follows an age stereotype that teenagers are more grumpy, like in “Kev and Perry”. This is also intensified by the camera zooming in on her face as well as a sound intensifying.

The scene then cuts to a shot of the girl running down a street just as the first guitar starts up which shows there is a link between the video and the music. Then after a change in tone of the guitar, it cuts to the band playing and switches back with the same change in tone. This continues throughout the video, the video cuts in time with the music. In the first scene of the band we see in the video we see all of the band as well as them all nodding their heads together in sync and with the music and this unity shows the audience they are a band and it’s not just the singer. Goodwin would say they have used the notion of looking by using the band and a close up of the lead singers face as a brand. This also agrees with Vernallis' theory of having an establishing shot.

The band and the girl are all wearing the same style of clothing, casual and almost dirty looking which is a typical characteristic of indie bands, to be wearing stuff like a plain tee maybe a simple chain neckless, jeans probably with cuts in, bomber jackets, a scruffy denim jacket etc. This is typical of any indie band, for example Viola Beach another indie band who unfortunately died in an accident last year, also wore these cloths and produce similar music to Circa Waves. This conforms to Goodwin's observation of genre characteristics.

The camera used to film this is being hand held almost entirely throughout the video which again is a convention of indie music. Hand held looks scruffy, casual, portrays a general “don’t care” vibe. If you look at other indie music videos some are also hand held, like the music video for 'Fluorescent Adolescent' by the Arctic Monkeys. A filter has also been put on to try and make the video look older or the camera used older, again giving off a scruffy look which follows the conventions.

The music then slows at the line “Don’t go too far”, it also quiets down too almost silence. The video too slows down and the longest shot yet plays as the waiter brings the check, showing a definite link between the music, lyrics and video. Vernalis would suggest that this scene therefore holds some important with her theory of diegesis as it is different to all the other scenes. And as the girl pours the water over, the guitar comes back in strong showing a link between music and video. The line “Don’t go too far” suggests that maybe he doesn’t want the girl to go too far away because he likes her but it could have a double meaning as it could be don’t go to far as in don’t do anything too deviant, but she does as she doesn’t pay and it just a general nuisance. The next line is “And I'll chase you through the streets” which again has a double meaning, it could be in the romantic sense like the song suggest, and that the girl they are singing about they would chase through the street just to be with, but in the video the girl is now running down the street away from the people see has hurt, which suggest maybe they are chasing her. This conforms to Goodwin’s narrative theory as there is a subtle link between the lyrics and the girl’s story.

The female in the music video has been depicted as a trouble maker and to take things to extremes possibly a villain which goes against the conventions of males being the villain and women being the victims but within this video she creates victims with her spiteful actions. However this does conform to the age stereotype of youths being reckless and careless and I believe the point of this music video is too exaggerate this stereotype to show that maybe youths in real life are not as reckless as made out to be.