Bastille - Of the Night Music Video Analysis

Bastille are an alternative band and their latest single is called ‘Of the Night’.  It has not been released yet but is expected to release on 17^th November 2013. The song itself had it’s first play on Huw Stephen’s BBC Radio 1 show on 9^th October 2013 which they then later on distributed the official music video on their YouTube VEVO channel on 11^th October 2013.

Dave Ma directed the music video and he has also done music videos such as: Foals – Olympic Airways, Foals – inhaler, Ghostpoet – Meltdown, Flight Facilities – Clair de Lune and Us – Movement. He is also known for his photography.

American actor James Russo (stared in: Once upon a Time and Django Unchained) plays the main actor which is a detective who investigates a chain of murders and visits the crime scenes.

They have used many techniques in the music video such as: they cut to the beat towards the end of the video cutting to all the characters that got murdered. They also use colour grading throughout the video to make it look dark and haunted.

The video starts off with a tracking shot as the camera heads down a tunnel that has no end which relates to the video because loads of people are being murdered and there is no end. Then it cuts to the main actor with a mid shot driving in his car which is then cut to another tracking shot but this time you are made to feel like you are following the actor onto the scene.  There are a lot of medium close ups so that the audience can see the actors emotions and to show that they are singing the lyrics of the song. They have not used many effects in the music video but they have used slow motion as the characters are dancing.

The purpose of the music video is to promote an album release. Bastille’s debut album ‘Bad Blood’ has been re-reissued called ‘All This Bad Blood’ and ‘Of the Night’ is the lead single on that album.

The narrative of the music video is that there is a detective (James Russo) that has to investigate a string of murders and then has to visit the crimes scenes. All the actors that get murdered are singing the lyrics to the song. James Russo thinks that he is going crazy and at the end of the video it shows a close up on him singing the lyrics which then the camera man zooms out to reveal him led in a bathroom been shot covered in blood. He has obviously shot himself because he was not able to handle the confusion.

The Video does illustrate the lyrics as it says “the rhythm of the night” the actors standing in the background slowly dance.