Analysing the "HYSTERIA" Music Video

CAMERA

Floating – gives a menacing and fearful feel to the video.

·      Handheld and constantly in motion – representative of the protagonist’s mindset.

·      Moving close-ups of protagonist – world is spinning around him.

·      Close-ups of objects which the protagonist is able to sense?

·      POV shots and rapid movement to continue the feeling of spinning.

·      Wide, empty shots to establish where he is and how alone he is.

·      Unfocus/Focus for moments of realisation.

·      Extreme close-ups to see the detail in his facial expression – mainly anger.

·      Zoom-ins at moments of concentration and perhaps a desire for understanding.

·      High-angle shots in moments of weakness.

·      Low-angle on TV – it dominates him.

EDITING

·      Slow as the protagonist sleeps – his mind is relaxed.

·      Quickens as the protagonist jolts awake to prevent the cleaner from entering his hotel room.

·      Quick cuts to show disturbed mindset and epic confusion.

·      Edits becomes faster as the protagonist becomes more angry.

·      Cuts slowly when the protagonist is attempting to concentrate but echoes of madness are still present when short close-ups are inserted.

·      Edited for a non-linear narrative. This displays his confusion as to what is past, present or imaginary for the Hysteric.

MISE-EN-SCENE

·      Location – Hotel room with a double bed, suggests sexual activity.

·      Costume

In the present time, he only wears a pair of trousers with no shirt. In the flashback, he is seen wearing a white shirt – showing a less aggressive frame of mind. The ‘one night stand’ has different costumes in the home video, demonstrating that the protagonist has been watching her for a long time. During the seducing scenes, she wears a black bra – this follows the overall darkness of the video. The Maid wears an old-fashioned, stereotypical uniform so that the audience can recognise her immediately.

·      Colour

There are mainly dark colours to reflect the darkness in the protagonist’s mind – black, dreary blue and patches of white light to give a blinding effect. This suggests that he is blind with rage. There are also shades of grey to display the dullness of everything around him.

·      Props

A Video Camera – used to help him piece together what happened the previous night. It provides an explanation for his madness.

Many objects scattered on the floor – shows that a struggle took place.

A television to allow the protagonist to watch what he taped in detail.

Flowers – fragile and beautiful, perhaps symbolic of the ‘one night stand’.

·      Facial Expressions

Shock and fear from the maid as she is forced from the door. This begins the aspect of fear involved throughout the video.

Strong anger from the protagonist as he realises what he did. This shows his madness and his lack of control.

Confusion from the protagonist from the protagonist as he tries to piece things together. He gets enraged and upset when he does not know. He gets scared by this confusion.

He is eager and desperate to see this ‘one night stand’. Allows the audience to see what kind of character he is.

REPRESENTATIONS

·      Women seem to be only good for serving men, e.g. the ‘one night stand’ and the maid.

·      Age and social class – the maid’s weight, hair and ugly earrings in contrast with the features of the protagonist and the ‘one night stand’.

·      Mental disability – they are all stalkers that have weak memories and can be aggressive and violent.

GENRE

·      Modern Prog-Rock

·      Radical subject matter

·      Very strange and provocative

·      Deals with living in darkness rather than an attempt to embrace the light.

·      Video suits the originality of Muse’s songs.

INTERTEXTUALITY

·      There is perhaps a reference to American Beauty where one of the characters films the girl next door.

·      This character also has a mental disability but it is more subtle than the protagonist in the “HYSTERIA” music video.

AUDIENCE’S REACTION

·      They would be shocked by the video’s content but will anticipate this because of the tone of the song. It has a dark, weird nature which people are sometimes attracted to.

·      An audience would watch this video because it suits Muse’s style of darkness and peculiarity.

MUSIC VIDEO THEORY

·      Andrew Goodwin’s theory of amplifying the lyrics is accurate in this song. The mentality of hysteria and the desire for someone there is clear in the video – which is the objective of the song.

·      It also follows the idea of iconography in different music genres. Since Muse is known for producing weird and ‘out-of-this-world’ music – the video suits them.

·      There are many close-ups in the video.

·      There is a great deal of voyeurism in the music video. The protagonist views his own video recording of a woman he has been stalking. He filmed his sexual activities as well as his violence towards her.

·      Laura Mulvey’s theory of woman in music videos is present. The ‘one night stand’ has the “sexy whore look”, especially when she climbs on the bed and licks her bottom lip seductively at the protagonist.

·      The maid, however, is not sexualised in any way. The video generalises women as only being good for serving the men.

·      This, in Mulvey’s view, forces the audience to see women as a heterosexual man would.

·      The man is clearly the most dominant in the video.