Kerala (Bonobo) Music Video Analysis

STYLE OF MUSIC VIDEO

'Kerala' is a conceptual video with a loose narrative following a woman who is running through streets, distressed by surreal imagery that nobody around her appears to be able to see. The most  striking concept to the video is the non-linear editing: the video features long takes that keep looping back slightly on themselves in time to the music, so the audience watches the shot progress very gradually. There are also many surreal and confusing visuals hidden in plain sight within the video, most of which I hadn't noticed until reading the comments on the video from YouTube.

NARRATIVE

The limited plot shows an unidentified woman frantically running through the streets of London looking at the sky in fear. It is unclear what she is looking at. She appears very distressed and tries to avoid other people, who look on with confusion at her desperate behaviour. She makes her way to a rooftop where the people on the streets below stand in a grid formation. At the end we see hundreds of unidentifiable flying objects rising out of London city centre.

PACE

Almost the entirety of the video cuts in time with the drum beat, creating a rhythmic effects suitable for the dance/tech genre of music playing. When there are breaks in the drum track including at the start and ending, the video has long takes that don't loop back which helps break up the looping sections by adding moments of calm normality.

SHOT VARIETY/SET UPS

The entire music video uses only 3 elaborate long shots with repeating footage. They are complicated setups as they are all tracking shots that follow the female character interacting with many extras in a variety of camera angles and proxemics to the actress. She is established as the central character this way as she remains in focus throughout and the camera at times reaches extreme close up proxemics to her.

 At one point, a television seen has footage from later in the video playing on it, meaning the same shot has been edited into itself.

MISE-EN-SCENE

Among the interesting surreal incorporated into the video is the following. Most appear to have been achieved with after effects including colour correction and CGI but some are performance or set-dressing choices:

• A comet is seen in the sky at the opening 
• In the park, a rock floats off the ground in the background 
• A man on the park bench is feeding non-existent birds
• A building rotates in the background
• A man in the cafe has glowing white eyes
• A TV is playing future events in the video 
• A man crossing the road splits into two people
• A poster on a building featuring large black circles 
• The car she passes changes colour every time the camera cuts 
• A man is levitating over houses in the sky 
• People are stood in a perfect grid in the car park below
• A swarm of birds are all flying over the city
• A solar eclipse is seen in the background

Sunset lighting is used for the final shot on the rooftop which gives the ending an otherworldly feeling.

The setting of suburban London is shown in several references as the long shot format doesn't allow for simple establishing shots. The final shot shows the London skyline clearly with The Shard prominently framed under the sun. There's also a location that looks very clearly like the city, with small council houses and tower blocks shown explicitly.

Some archetypes have been employed for the strangers in the background. Early in the video we see a businessman-type, wearing a black suit and glasses, holding a cup of coffee and a mobile phone who seems stereotypically aggravated that he's been bumped into. This helps contextualise the woman as frantic and distracted. There are also other characters like a woman who seems like she wants to help and is concerned for her which can be thought to use the stereotype of female characters being caring and protective. There's also an archetypal teenager wearing a beanie hat and an archetypal East End man who gets aggressive and physically threatening with the woman and has to have another stranger intervene. All these characters help create the illusion of a believable street full of people with a group of diverse characters, even though they all appear very briefly and fleetingly.

STAR TREATMENT/ RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MUSIC AND VIDEO

Kerala has no lyrics and is an unconventional dance track with interesting rhythmic ideas which  explains the inventive music video without lip-syncing. Bonobo is also not the star of the video because as a DJ not a performer, he can take a back seat and let the music be the centre of focus. This means the video has more freedom to be experimental as it's not the kind of music video that needs to advertise performers to an audience. Being more of an alternative song also gives reason to the artistic and thought provoking feel to the video. the video could be interpreted as a story about mental illness as the way the strangers interact with the woman show concern and worry and she is seen with her hands over her ears at one point.