WS - Deconstruction 15 - Take Back The City - Snow Patrol

Artist - Snow Patrol
Song Title -  Take Back The City
Year - 2008
Genre - Alternative Rock
Director - Alex Courtes


This is a very strange, unusual but interesting music video by Snow Patrol because of the way it is edited and the way in which the visuals were 'captured'.

""Take Back the City" is a song from alternative rock band Snow Patrol's fifth album A Hundred Million Suns. It was released as the lead single from the album on different dates in October 2008, depending on the region. The lyrics were written by Gary Lightbody and the music was composed by Snow Patrol. The song has positive lyrics, and is about the Lightbody's love for Belfast." [Wikipedia]

The video has to different 'parts' to it, although they are intercut and mixed together throughout. One part of the video is performance based, and features filmed visuals of the band playing, but mainly of the lead singer Gary Lightbody, who is often seen singing to camera and lip-synching the words.
The second part of the video is concept based, and has stop-motion shots of Lightbody walking through the city streets and includes a number of shots of London Skyscrapers. The photos were taken by Snow Patrol's photographer. The images have then been edited together, looking like they follow on from each other, although they are clearly individual shots.

"The band invited fans in the age bracket of 18–35 to be a part of the video as extras. Interested people were required to email their details and photograph to the production company Partizan. The ones chosen were utilized for the pub scene, and scenes were shot on 11 August 2008 after midnight."

 

The above quote is an example of the band getting the target audience and their fans involved in the video. It would also help to generate interest in the video. This would be a very good tactic for a band wanting to generate interest for a video if they have a low budget available, as it would be very cheap, but effective way to spread interest in the video.

  "fast paced, headache inducing visual spectacle"

The above is a quote from RockTog magazine, referring to the video. The fast paced bit shows that the video does adhere to certain codes and conventions of music videos. It is also clearly an interesting and different idea, something which is common for a music video in order to make it stand out from the rest.

Below is the Official Music Video for "Take Back The City":