Video Analysis

Alien Ant Farm :- Movies

The band Alien Ant Farm are well known for their quick pace, quirky and interesting videos that often reference popular culture, the music video titled “Movies” is no different, and follows similar pattern.

The whole video is set in a movie theater, although the video uses slight narrative most of the video is performance based which is a common convention of the rock genre. The band sit in the front row of the theater which is displayed with a wide shot from the front to show a packed room. The lead singer of the band jumps into the screen closely followed by the other band members and they begin to perform to the cinema audience on the cinema screen while parodying/referencing iconic movies from the last few decades.

The theater is introduced right at the beginning of the video which gives the viewer a direct correlation between the title of song and the direction of the video, after the group dive into the screen and start to perform we see the audience start to jump up and start moshing which is a distinct reaction and style of dance in most rock genre videos. The first performance the band give doesn't reference any movie in particular but is performed in a way that seems to parody the bands performance style; the video is fast paced and has a high energy which follows the pace and mood set by the song its self.

 In the following performance we see a tribute to the ghostbusters movie (1984, directed by Ivan Reitman) , with the band dancing and performing in full ghostbuster costume. They fire beams from their guitars with effects borrowed from the original movie; in between the references we get shots audience reactions to whats happening on screen and scenes from the original performance scene. Many of the audience characters are dressed to parody American teenage movie character stereotypes of the time ( Cheerleaders, Rocker kids, Emo kids, Ditsy blond etc). The music video also chooses to reference Mel Stuart's Willy Wonker & and Chocolate Factory (1971) ; Alien Ant Farm are dressed up like oompa loompa's, popular and memorable characters from the original movie. During this section of the video we also see another reference to the Movie Willy Wonker were an audience member begins to expand similar to the character violet who transforms into a giant blueberry.

The biggest and most memorable tribute from the video is the karate kid scene which happens in the middle of the video, which takes a break from the performance based conventions and breaks into dialogue similar to the original movie in which we get a cameo from Noriyuki "Pat" Morita a lead actor from the movie and pop culture icon which provides an interesting talking point which may lead more people to watch the video.

After this cameo, the performance from alien ant farm begins again. The video follows similar pattern, giving Edward scissor hands a minor tribute shortly after, towards the end of the song we see the audience run into the screen and join alien ant farm in performing and dancing.

A lot of attention was paid to the mise en scene, using a high amount of detail when it come to creating the tributes. The scenes were highly decorated with movie memorabilia, right down to the instruments the band played; for example in the Willy Wonker scene the band played instruments made from candy and used candy canes as drum sticks. In the Ghostbusters scene the band played  in a library similar to the one from the movie, while using a similar color pallet that would make the reference instantly recognizable. 

 Casting for the video was also well down, the video used a lot of reaction shots that require a decent level of acting from the actors.

The video also used a lot of special effects, the 3d effect was the most memorable. In some scenes the band let parts of their instruments or body emerge from the screen towards the audience which  has become a particular convention of most movies that hit the box office in the 21^st century. The band even referenced them selfs in the Edwards Scissorhands tribute. A giant pair of scissors emerge from the screen and start to cut the words AAF into an audience members head.

The video didn't venture too far away from Alien Ant Farm's past video in terms performance; the band is known for there outlandish dancing and random body movements like in their video prior to this “smooth criminal” 

The video has over 2 million views on the Internet which could be due to all the intertextual references used in the video that may make the viewers want to re watch and spot some of the more minor details used or even re live some of there favorite scenes that may caused moments of nostalgia