Bastille – FlawsMusic Video Analysis

Flaws by Bastille is a narrative driven music video which follows the lead artist of the band through a day in his life as he deals with and lives alongside all of his ‘flaws’ represented by the group of skeleton faced girls. The video opens upon a crime scene which is ultimately the scene of his death as this video follows on from the Bad Bloods music video where he drowns himself in the same location.

The first shot used is an extreme longshot that establishes the opening scene and shows the serious fans the continuation in the timeline from the previous video. In this shot you can see one of the police men photographing the crime scene with an old fashioned camera. This links into Andrew Goodwin’s theory of looking which he identified as a key convention in music videos. The view then

changes to a POV shot of the camera that were just looking at. This can be interpreted as our view point as we follow him around throughout the full video from this same angle and style.

After the change in camera angle we then see some close up shots of the artists, hands, feet and face. This links into to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of ‘Star Appeal’ which gives the audience a

connection with the artists in the video so that they have a greater emotional attachment and will buy into their products and ideologies more effectively. This close up or medium shot style is continued throughout the remainder of the video so that it keep the full focus of the audience on the main artist whenever he is on screen. By doing so it continues to build the connection between the audience and the artist so that the effect of the videos narrative will be greater but also so that they will feel more connected to the artist outside of the music video.

Later on in the video we see another way in which Andrew Goodwin’s theory of looking is featured in the video. A shot is used which shows us looking into the wing mirror of the car that the ‘flaws’ are traveling in. This takes up a very small part of the screen but forebodes the arrival of the ‘flaws’ in the narrative of the story. The individual shot inside of the mirror is a close-up shot. This shows the audience a clear image of the skeleton faced girl’s makeup introducing them to the narrative as they play a key role in the symbolism of the video.

This next shot complies with Andrew Goodwin’s theory of looking and voyeurism of females. This is not as prevalent or extreme in this music video as can be seen in many more music videos and in other music genres however it is featured in a less

obvious way through the Skeleton Girls. Two of the girls are wearing quite revealing shorts which follow Goodwin’s theory by attracting the male gaze to the video. They are all also dancing quite suggestively which also follows the voyeuristic theories and also builds into the narrative. Due to the similar positioning of the characters and the camera angle you can suggest that the girls are dancing towards the main artist and almost taunting him. The happiness of the girls and their energy juxtaposes the feelings of the main artist as he is very withdrawn and depressed. However the costumes of the girls also contrasts their mood as they are wearing quite dark and pastel coloured clothes and they have the black and white make-up. This could suggest that they are acting so that they can taunt him further.

Later on in the music video it changes from being only narrative based to being a live performance that is built into the story. This causes the music to change from being non-diegetic to being diegetic and also follows more closely to Goodwin’s theory of star appeal

as this section features much more close up shots of the artists head when he’s singing. The setting of this part of the video is also different as this is set in a fairground and he is existing alongside the skeleton girls who can be interpreted as his flaws. It’s this point in the video where the narrative changes from the ‘Flaws’ being separate to the artist or hostile towards him and start to almost enjoy being with each other. This is a link to the lyrics of the song as he talks about always ‘wearing your flaws upon your sleeve’. This suggests that he is not ashamed of his flaws and is happy with them which is symbolised by him enjoying being with them at the fair ground. The camera angle is also different on a lot of the shots as we no longer are always close to the artist and we see a lot more interesting shots. This suggests that we are now detached from him now that he has accepted the Flaws in his life. This is also shown though his general mood and how he is less focused and hold less eye contact with the camera and other characters.

In the following scene where the artist and the Flaws are in the fairground we see an example of a link between the lyrics of the song and the action in the video. On the word ‘Up’ in the final chorus it cuts to a shot of the artist and the main Flaw high up in a swing. This amplifies the words of the song by making a clear link between the lyrics and the visuals, even if the audience do not consciously notice this it will still add to the experience of the video. It is also an illustrative way of displaying the lyrics as they are plainly following the lyrics while also doing it in a representative way that puts the lyrics of the song into the context of the fairground. This gives greater meaning to the lyrics of the song and creates a better connection between the lyrics and the visuals which makes the video more relevant. The mise-en-scene of this scene shows the now closeness of the artist and the ‘Flaws’ as they are physically closer than they have been at any point previously in the video and they are also isolated. This isolation that we haven’t seen before suggests that they are happy together and can live alongside each other happily. All of these scenes also show a contrast in mood from the start of the video. At the start the video is quite dark and depressed and now it is bright and energetic. The mood of the characters have changed as you can physically see them smiling and having fun. This in linked to Goodwin’s theory of Star Appeal as the audience want to see more of their favourite artist and have an emotional connection to him so this complete change in mood and tone will reflect on the audience.

In the final scene the location returns to the crime scene which the video opened upon and he then dies again. This is a cyclical narrative and could suggest lots of different ways in which the narrative of the whole video can be interpreted. One interpretation is that he never really lived that day at all. It was all in effect a ‘dream’ in which he confronted everything he wasn’t happy about (his flaws) when he was alive. This would make sense as in the opening scene the police are seemingly unaware that the dead body has just come back to life. This would suggest that he is a spectator of this whole day and none of it really existed. Alternatively he may be reliving his last day and coming to terms with himself about his flaws. The shots at the start and end of the video are virtually identical apart from that the shot at the end is slightly wider than the one at the start therefore having less focus on the action and the characters in the shot. This could be seen as representing the detachment of him from life or alternatively his flaws. The darkness in the final shot not only shows the passing of time throughout the day but can be seen as the fading of life from his body as he dies again. This cyclical nature allows the narrative between each of their songs to continue as in the previous song ‘Bad Bloods’ shows him in the sea struggling to swim at the end of the video. The video ends by cutting to black as this is happening. By choosing to edit like this it leaves the audience unsure of what actually happened. Therefore depending on how you interpreted the previous video your interpretation of the narrative in ‘Flaws’ will be different.