By Jordan Weeks

Background
Reflektor is the upcoming fourth studio album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire consists of wife and husband along with four other members. They first originated in 2001 and have released four studio albums. However they first became notably recognised in 2004 with the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Funeral. The band are internationally known due to their huge success when it comes down to winning awards and receiving award nominations. They won a Grammy in 2011 for Album of the year, 2011 Juno Award for Album of the Year, 2011 Brit Award for Best International Album for The Suburbs. In 2008 they won the Meteor Music Award for Best International Album and the 2008 Juno Award for Alternative Album of the year for Neon Bible. They also received nominations for Best Alternative Music Album Grammy for all three studio albums and twice nominated for Polaris Music Prize in 2007.

Narrative, Concept or Performance?

I feel that this music video is Narrative/Concept/Performance. A narrative consists of the video telling the audience a story whether that be with the use of the lyrics or telling a separate story altogether. The story in this instance is the band going out to kill or kidnap the mysterious man, probably referred to as Reflektor which is also the song title.

The idea of a Concept music video is one that displays an abstract idea. The abstract idea in this instance is the character the Reflektor, who is a fictional man composed of mirrorball pieces. His physical existence is impossible. The Reflektor is arguably the main protagonist of the video and seems to possess some kind of power.

Finally, a performance video is a video where the artist or band features in the video either dancing or singing parts or all of the song.

Mise-en-Scene
Costume Incredibly formal clothing, smart dressed seems as if they have arranged and planned to attend something or go somewhere, the costumes are dark which fits in with the night, they have huge prosthetic heads which look to be made out of papier mache, finally there is the costume of the Reflektor which is entirely made up of shards of mirrors Lighting the lighting in this video is incredibly low key, the Reflektor is the main source of light, however the video has a grayscale, many of their lyrics refer to the lighting and basis of the narrative alone in the darkness, darkness of white example of an oxymoron, some of the lyrics are in French which translate to Between the night, night and dawn. Between the kingdom of the living and the dead the reasoning for the french will be the fact they are French-Canadian and also as the location of the filming may be in France, the lighting seems natural as it just looks like moonlight, there is a scene around 2:49 where daylight is used but the grayscale effect is still present. In some of the scenes there seem to be a few street lights or security lights. The lights from the truck also project a lot and light up some of the shots of the forest. There are strip lights in the back of the truck to highlight the band performing. Actors positioning the size of the heads makes it look like each person is on the same level as one another so the females shown in the clip are represented as equal to the males, there are no actors just the band, the only person lower down is the drummer as he is sat down, Reflektor is shown as always far away from the normal people Make-up some of the characters are heavily made up as the main woman has a lot of eye make up on and the man has eye makeup on too, you could arguably say the papier mache heads are make-up too Props the main props in this are the bands instruments, disco ball air freshener, disco ball suspended outside truck, torches, coffin Setting most of the setting of the video is very picturesque, it includes beaches, forests and eastern communist bloc nation settings

Editing
Pace some sequences of the video are upbeat with fast cuts, even though the video lasts for 7 minutes 42 the actual beat of the song is upbeat its just the narrative which lasts long Effects - there are no notable effects in this video Cutting every shot used in this video has been cut to from another shot, there are no fancy transitions Transitions there are no transitions that are out of the ordinary and noticeable There has been great attention to detail with the continuity editing. Despite the fact there is not any conversation scenes the eye lines are matching, there is a clear and accurate match on action and they dont cross the line.

Cameras
Angles in this video a lot of wide shots have been used to show off the landscape, the landscape is a crucial part of portraying the Reflektors character as the surrounding are remote and isolated, this shows the Reflektor is an outcast and not normal compared to the rest of society Movement many track shots are used, and pans this often follows the main truck Shots - the director Anton Corbijn has chosen to use quite a few different shots, there isnt really a huge variety of angles or close ups the main ones are when they are at the beach, there is a lack of close ups. This is perhaps due to the fact that close ups are generally used to express facial expressions and intricate detail but you cannot see facial expressions as they have the model heads on.

Sound
Music the only sound used in this music video is the actual music itself, there is no dialogue or atmospheric and ambient sound.