Ocean Avenue - In Depth Analysis

Yellow Card – Ocean Avenue. 

For my music video analysis I have chosen Yellowcard’s ‘Ocean Avenue’. My decision is because it fits the genre I am researching and it uses a clever technique of story line looping which I am interested in using in my own product. 

The Narrative shows the lead singer in a confusing entrance of getting up off the floor surrounded by shattered glass and starting to run through town, constantly cutting back to instrumental performance shots of him and the rest of the band. Whilst following him through the streets he runs, iconic actions and scene are shown to be recognisable for later on. Scenes such as the singer running trough a group of nuns, or tripping over a homeless man’s trolley. It’s also shown that the number one is printed onto the back of his jacket, although this isn’t noticed until later on. He then runs after a car that drives by, but falls behind – only to be tackled by two men that seem to have been chasing him. A longer cut to the instrumental performance is shown; where it is revealed that they are in a car garage where the car he was chasing is parked. Men then come into view whilst they are preforming and work on the car. It then cuts to the singer in the same position as the beginning, only it can be seen that the number two is suck to his jacket instead now, as he gets up from the shattered glass and runs away. It’s only as he avoids running into the nuns again that the audience can see he does things differently, suggesting that this is his second chance – which fits in with the different number on the back of his jacket. When he’s seen running through the streets the second time he jumps over the trolley of the homeless man and runs out onto the road where the car passed last time, only to show the audience that it’s coming up behind him and knocks him over. The third time is different, as it doesn’t start with him standing up and brushing the shattered glass off of him; it shows him and what is assumed to be his girlfriend asleep. The audience is then shown a significant briefcase beside his bed, then him sleeping alone, then the briefcase gone. This leads people to only assume that the girl stole his briefcase, something that’s then confirmed when shown the girl holding the briefcase and putting on sunglasses as she walks away and gets in a car. The main singer can then be seen running after her down the stairs, having gotten changed into the outfit that he’s been wearing for the whole video. However, there are two men waiting for him at the stairs at either side, a cut away to the girl starting up the car enhances the feeling of urgency, so it doesn’t seem as drastic when he jumps out of the window- resulting in the beginning frame that’s so familiar. It’s only then that the audience can see the number three stuck to the back of his jacket. After that it plays through the same scenes already seen from the past two replays, only for the third time everything goes well for him. When it comes to the car that killed him the last time, he remembers about it and turns around to stop it, where it is revealed that it was the girl all along that he was chasing. After a moment of staring the girl then indicates to the passenger seat and he enters the car and they drive away together. 

The Mise en scene of this music video is important when it comes to understanding the order that things have already happened, especially when it comes to the numbers that are stitched to the back of the lead singers jacket. The body language is also another give away when it comes to, for example, the way the lead singer acted towards the group nuns. The first time he ran straight through them, tripping over and wasting time. However it's clearly shown that he is aware that things are being repeated as after that he goes around them the second and third time. The differences in his actions helped to show this. 

Parts of the video cut towards live performance parts, were the band are wearing different clothes - to show that they are separate to themselves in the actual narrative of the video. These live performance parts are filmed in what appears to be a car garage, where shots of car work is shown occasionally, such as a license plate being taken off, or shades added to the back window. These things are not explained until the end when it's shown close up that it's the same car that his girlfriend used to take him with her/ escape/run him over with. I like the idea of a kind of plot twist being revealed in the narrative all because of the destination that part of the video was filmed in. One of the main props in this music video is a briefcase which must be valuable as every one is either stealing it or chasing after it. A symbol of a white lamb is on this briefcase, and has appeared in other music videos too. This is the directors signature, Marc Webb, who has also directed The Amazing Spiderman & 500 Days of Summer, along with many other music videos for many other musicians. 

From the Media Language it can be taken that in the end it's not just valuable objects that would have the lead singer chase the girl, when he decides to go with her it shows that he also loves. And the fact that she offered him to get into the car shows that she cares too. Although the conclusion is objective, perhaps the artists were trying to show that good things take second and third tries, and attempt to look past selfish wants and needs.