So Real (Jeff Buckley) Music Video Analysis

STYLE OF MUSIC VIDEO

The video is an abstract mixture of naturalistic narrative and surrealistic performance video. The loose narrative shows Jeff Buckley cycling to a diner and getting his bike stolen... by people dressed as monkeys. It gets more bizarre when there are suddenly some shots of people in Victorian dress with sacks over their faces on a brightly decorated stage. There's then shots of Buckley performing the song with a band on stage before returning to the narrative, where Buckley tears his suit off while running down a street. The narrative breaks the fourth wall and is seemingly designed to look like a grungy documentary of Buckley's life.

STAR TREATMENT/STUDIO INFLUENCE

Jeff Buckley is front and centre in this video, the camera often fixed on his face in close ups and extreme close ups. The narrative features him as a central character and in the performance sequence he is also clearly visible and focused on throughout, central in the frame.

Buckley's raw grunge persona is represented clearly in the video. The style of the video mimics a home-movie at times and is styled to look gritty and downbeat. His tormented performance style is also represented in the performance sequences where his eye line is down at the ground and face displays angst and pain. He appears shirtless at the end of the video, which may indicate studio influence trying to sell him as a desirable figure or sex symbol.

CAMERA WORK

The video uses a narrow aspect ratio which makes the video look like a low budget home movie.

Most of the video is shot with handheld cameras, making the video seem documentary-like and laid-back. There are out-of-focus shots, shots where the camera has been left on a table but is still running, shots that suddenly zoom in or out and tracking shots that highlight less interesting subjects like darkness, walls and random background people or things. This whole mixture of shot types contributes to giving the impression that the camera crew who filmed the video shot what was around them at the time, as in a documentary, so the final footage is less precise and calculated but is also more authentic and grounded.

The one sequence using a camera mounted on a tripod is the abstract 'party' section with performers wearing sacks over their heads dancing and playing instruments on a stage. The shot is stationary and tightly framed around the four performers. By keeping this shot still, it differentiates it from the shaky camera work of the narrative parts of the video. It also allows the visuals to be seen more clearly as its darkly lit and has lots of effects used on it.

When the apes steal Buckley's bike, a shot of a cameraman dropping his camera down on the counter is followed by a shot that suddenly drops and is left on a stationary canted angle that shows the action outside the diner from a partially obscured view. This creates the illusion that the cameraman has dropped the camera whilst it was still rolling and the resulting footage is 'found footage' that happened to be recorded. It adds to the documentary-world of the video.

The final shot, which is interrupted, tracks backwards with Buckley as he runs down the street in slow motion. At one point he stops moving, allowing the camera to continue tracking backwards so he gets further and further away in distance and is left standing in the centre of an extreme long shot on a large mostly empty street where he dramatically kicks off his shoe. This final shot displays the messages of Buckley's angsty music due to the imagery of isolation involved.

MISE-EN-SCENE

Buckley lip-syncs to the song in the narrative when riding his bike in a long uninterrupted shot tracking with him. He stares off-camera, seemingly into the distance, so the resulting effect is that he's singing a song in his head within the context of the narrative.

Interestingly, the scene in the diner shows cameramen lining up a shot of an actor, his camera equipment and technical crew visible. This breaks the fourth wall and makes the audience aware they're watching a music video. It also has the effect of making the video look like a documentary and seem authentic, which matches Buckley's down-to-earth, raw sound and aesthetic.

For most of the video, Buckley wears a grey suit and tie which seems odd considering his style is informal and grungy. At the end, however, there is an extended sequence depicting Buckley tearing off the suit a layer at a time whilst running down a street, in slow motion. This crosscuts with the performance segment, wherein he is wearing a casual shirt buttoned down. The connotations of this is that his true persona is when he is performing on stage in casual clothing and by tearing the suit off at the end, he is rejecting the more formal, conservative image of himself. It's another example of politicised visuals that link to the grunge genre.

The people shown on-screen often wear grungy clothing like vests and black shirts which adds to the feeling of a gritty, unglamorous world.

EDITING

The shots of the performers on stage with sacks on their heads is layered with effects to make it seem more surreal. The shots are reversed so the many balloons and confetti items included float upwards and the performers move in an abnormal way. One clip also changes speed midway through, switching from a sped up clip to a slowed down one. This is the direct opposite of the grounded footage in the rest of the video, which is edited minimally to appear everyday and standard.

The footage of Buckley in the diner and on the streets has a green filter layered over it, a common trend for 1990's music videos that were trying to make footage appear more edgy and gritty. This adds to the grungy feeling.

The shots revealing cameramen stood filming the actors are always followed directly by a POV shot showing what the camera is picking up. Often this POV shot is out of focus so as to appear more plausible and authentic. The effect of cutting from one of these shots to the other bridges them so the audience can directly see that the cameramen shown on-screen are the people filming the music video.

The last shot is followed by an effect of a film reel burning up, selling the home movie effect one last time.

INTERTEXTUALITY

The inclusion of a group of people dressed as apes is likely an allusion to the iconic opening sequence from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' which has been parodied and replicated in media since its 1968 release. In the film they represent the dawn of humanity and are a study on progress and modern society so have deep philosophical connotations. Their presence in this video is likely intended to provoke thought about how modern society can be compared to our prehistoric ancestors.