Overview Analysis: Time

Time - Chase and Status

1. Institutions
This music video is for the Chase and Status song 'Time'. The song is from the album 'No More Idols', and is the fourth single to be released from the album. The music video is produced by the record label Mercury Records Limited, and they produce all the Chase and Status music videos. Like all of the Chase and Status videos, we rarely (if ever) see Chase and Status themselves, and instead see the featured artist, in this case Delilah. The video itself follows a household filled with domestic violence, an issue that is prevalent in todays society. This is conventional with the style of Chase and Status music videos, as they often contain dark themes and address harsh issues (another example of this is Let You Go).

In terms of technologies, the music video is shot simply, with no added special effects, making the video feel very real. This is important as the issue they try to address is very real and affects many people.

2. Forms and Conventions
The music video doesn't follow the typical conventions of a music video, as the visuals and lyrics are not very closely linked. The song itself is very obviously about a relationship that feels very one-sided, where the female is very dedicated to the male, but this is not reciprocated. So although the video doesn't literally reflect the music, it still connotes similar themes.
The video is mostly narrative, with very little performance. The extent of the performance is Delilah, sitting in a car, singing. Perhaps the video is produced in this way to not detract from the narrative. For music video's in general, Time break a lot of the conventions, as it is more like a short film than a music video. Having said that, when considered in relation to its genre Drum and Bass, it follows a lot of the conventions, as drum and bass/dubstep videos feature very little performance, and usually focus almost entirely on a narrative or a concept (again, Let You Go is an excellent example of this, and is typical of Chase and
Status).

3. Representation
In Time, because we see very little of the performers, we do not get a sense of their band identity or image, aside from the fact that they like to address issues that maybe aren't publicly spoken about.
Instead, the video focuses very much on the representation of men and women, and the relationships between them. In this, females are presented as very weak and powerless - they are victimised in the relationship by the male. This is shown by the mother figure, who is abused by her boyfriend/husband. We also get this impression from the teenage daughter, who suffers in silence from her oppressive step-father figure.

The male is presented as very powerful, as he keeps his female partner under control despite the horrific abuse. He is presented as agressive and is obviously the dominant one in the relationship.

4. Audience
The typical Chase and Status audience is young people; males and females between the ages of 16-24, however for this particular music video, I think the target audience is people that can relate to the situation of the characters in the video - people that also suffer from abuse.
I believe this because at the end of the video there is a logo and website for the group 'Refuge', a support group for those suffering from abuse.

Reflections
Having analysed Chase and Status in this way will help me when producing my music video, as our song choice is of the same genre to this, and will influence the type of video we make. I will probably focus on the idea of a narrative, rather than a concept, but I would like to include more performance. The difficulty with this is that Dubstep/Drum and Bass don't often promote the artist identity, they promote the music, so I will need to create a strong identity for my artist that I will be able to promote.