Music Video Analysis #1 - Feel Good Inc. – Gorillaz (2005)

In this extreme-long shot the binary opposition between settings is clear. On the left the brighter, more natural setting of the windmill (Noodle’s Island) connotes purity and freedom whereas the darker, more plain building on the right, Feel Good Inc., is ironically named because lifeless exterior and surrounding storm clouds (pathetic fallacy) suggest anything but feeling good. These juxtaposing images create impact on the audience in two primary ways: Visually the shot gives a sense of the balance between vice and virtue and abides by the rule of thirds allowing the shot to be highly aesthetically pleasing as well as having multiple artistic interpretations. The other way in which this shot creates impact is that it visually represents the music being played. It is the moment at which the two different parts of the track, the bass and acoustic, come together, just like the two settings on screen which are represented by the windmill and the tower.

In this close-up of the lead singer, the shot composition is very well thought through. The subject is in the right of the shot applying to the rule of thirds, his position at the side of the shot allows the audience to see both the close-up face to see the character’s emotions yet it also shows the surrounding environment and allows the audience to relate this to the character and bring their facial expressions into more context. The lighting also contributes highly to this shot. The shadows mainly fall on the featured character connoting his impurity and wrong doings, with the light coming from the left this links to previous shots in the video of the floating island outside, representing the goal and freedom from vices. It is also at this point that Goodwin's narrative theory can be related to the video. The onscreen relation to the lyrics is seen during the first chorus. The first line states 'windmill, windmill for the land' while on screen a windmill comes into frame. The video can also be related to Goodwin's theory because at 3 minutes and 38 seconds into the video we see the voyeuristic portrayal of women as objects. The bass guitarist is almost being worshiped by half a dozen scantily clad females and his elevated height over them creates the image that men hold more power and that women are more submissive. However, there is also the portrayal of young females, as the guitarist is a girl and is fully clothed as a teenager (as she is shown here) and when she's fully grown up in later videos. Her clothing remains practical and her role remains one of power in almost all the subsequent videos published by the Gorillaz. 

In this long shot the lead singer of Gorillaz is made to look small and vulnerable, the setting within the Feel Good Inc building can also been seen as well as a mass of entangled bodies, that seem to give off an air of inebriation, in the foreground. Also the lead singer appears in the middle of the shot going against the rule of thirds, this is done to create a sense of unease around the subject or to suggest that his role is edgy and unconventional. The dominant colour of red in the setting is prevalent throughout the video and perhaps connotes to the danger of their lifestyle and/or the immorality of the implied voyeurism and drug use within the production. The low lighting contrasts with the exterior of the set linking to possible connotations of it literally being a place for people to hide, escape which links to the atmosphere of the set being very drug-den-esque.