Music Video Analysis (Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen)

Background

Directed by: Bruce Gowers
Produced by: Thomas Baker
Written by: Freddie Mercury
Starring: Freddie Mercury, Brain May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.
Production Manager: Jim Beach
Assistant Director: Barry Dodd

The video took 4 hours in total to film with a budget of £4,500 on November the 10th 1975. This song has separate sections these being an intro, ballad, operatic, hard rock and a coda section to bring peace.

Type of Music Video

It is a performance type music video as we can see all members in the video singing along to the audio. Which is typical of a rock genre music video. Much like in the Seven Nation army music video. We also see in some parts of the video people playing the drums and the guitar. as seen in the picture below. Which again connotes the hard rock section of the song. As this video and song can be split into several different genres. As I have mentioned previously We also see as shot of the full band performing in a smoke filled stage. You could also argue that using smoke is a indicator in a video that it is in the rock genre. However, we can't generalise as I'm sure there are 100's of rock videos which don't include any smoke at all. However a rock video which does have smoke would be By the Way,  Red Hot Chili Peppers. Seen in the screenshot below.

 Relationship Between Lyrics and Visuals

At the very start of the song we hear the lyrics "Is this the real life. Or is this just fantasy" Along side the picture you see below of 3 silhouettes of men. Surrounded by a Smokey back drop, which you could argue looks like a fantasy or at least out of the ordinary. 

 Furthermore when the 4 members of the band fade in they all open their eyes at once. Which is in direct correlation with the lyrics, this being "Open your eyes". This is a smart move as it allows the listener to really tune into the preferred reading as it provides a guide for the consumer. This was most likely due to the production company however this is questionable as Queen are a very large band so could probably choose the direction of their own video much like someone of David Bowie's prowess.                                       

Mis-En-Scene

At the cross fade just at the beginning of the video just down and right of this text. The light fades which allows for the cross-fade to a close up Freddie Mercury one of the main members of the bands. I believe this is brilliant, withholding the same mystery in the eyes of the each band member. At this time there was really no such thing as, post-production editing as it was new at this point in time. So this magnifies the significance of  in this video. The use of this makes evident which member of the band is the lead for this song, or which band member has been the most idolized etc.. Which is sometimes done in today’s industry.

The video also includes shots of the band playing instruments.  Which gives the viewer the ability to let their mind run wild with what it could be like at one of their concerts. Which would obviously be great promotion as people are more likely to go to one of their concerts. This of course will lead to making more money. This is also something which is used in today. I think it's something which can go either way as it can make the video look rather cliché, however in this case I fell the live performance seen two pictures above really gives the song a identity. That of course being predominantly in the rock genre.

Close-up shots are used to show the passion. The close up’s are mainly of Freddie, because he is the main band member, as he writes all the songs, and is gossiped about in the newspapers. However, he is not the best looking member, so this would be different in today’s society as it goes against everything you would see in music videos today.

Intertextuality

As far as I can see there is no really intertextuality that is evident in this video. Which may have been one of the reasons for the videos success as it was so original.

Genre Characteristics

Bohemian Rhapsody fits no specific genre parse as different parts of the song resonates with different genres. as it has a ballad section a operatic section and also a hard rock section. Typical ballad conventions would be performance and close ups as these types of shots are what show us emotion as after all a ballad is defined as. "a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one generation to the next" and also known as "a slow sentimental or romantic song" which would of course need to have a video which help tell the story through emotion.
The Operatic part of the song shows genre specific characters as these conventions are similar to those we see in ballad videos of the close ups to show emotion and expression.
Lastly, the hard rock section comes within the performance it's self. Performance type videos are classically rock videos like the majority of the Red Hot Chili Peppers videos we see performance like we see in this video.

Mode of Address

In this video there is one lyric were the artist addresses the audience directly. This is a line I mentioned previously. That being "Open YOUR eyes" Which is a command to the audience. Which gives the effect that the video is personally made for you. There is no real mode of address, and when I say this I mean that there are no points in which the musician looks directly into the camera while actually addressing the audience.

Special Effects

The director of the video said that there were no post production special effects used. This means all the effects like the kaleidoscope was done while shooting. Which is very impressive for the time it was shot.