Music Video Analysis - Metallica 'I Disappear'

The music video for the single 'I Disappear' by thrash metal legends Metallica first off carries the inter-textual reference that it was used on the soundtrack to the movie Mission:Impossible 2. This means that audiences will recognise the song from the movie and vise versa therefore making audiences feel knowledgeable. This inter-textual reference is concluded at the end of the video as you see the protagonist of Mission Impossible 2, Tom Cruise, climbing the mountain which the band were performing on.

A warm filter has been used over the performance shots to create a connotation of the heat in the desert, this allows for the audience to show empathy for the characters who appear to have been driven to having to perform in the desert due to the fact that they were chased away from their realities during the narrative shots. This is a direct contrast to the narrative shots which use a much colder filter featuring much more blue lighting. One reason why you wouldn't expect to see a colder filter used in the narrative shots is that the colour red usually symbolises danger, this in my opinion would be better suited to the narrative shots due to the fact that all 4 members of Metallica are shown to be in danger.

In terms of mise-en scene Metallica in this music video are as close to the rock/metal stereotype as you can get. They are predominantly wearing black with very little care for their appearance as further connoted by their facial hair. Furthermore they are wearing tight jeans which are stereotypical of the genre and in one stage vocalist James Hetfield is depicted driving a muscle car. Muscle cars have largely been associated with the rock/metal genre as the cars are seen to be extremely 'american' and this link is made due to the fact that the genre's both originated in America and so can be seen as part of the 'american' stereotype.

The music video follows two theories as there is the Levi-Strauss' binary opposites theory, due to the fact that there is the juxtaposition of the emptiness of the desert alongside the hectic overcrowding in the city scenes. Secondly there is the enigma codes of, Why are the band being chased? and Who are they being chased by?. In this video the 2 enigma's aren't answered so this may be a promotional technique in order to get audiences to watch the movie Mission Impossible 2 in order to see if that answers any enigma's that arise from this music video.

Camera and editing techniques have both been used throughout the music video in order to make it increasingly fast paced as any camera pan shots quickly pan rather than panning at a slower pace and in terms of editing there are many jump cuts and cross cuts in order to connote that all of the scenes were happening at a extremely fast pace to the audience. There is also the overt editing of the ground breaking and rising whilst James Hetfield is in the car scenes. Another example of overt editing is when the drummer, Lars Ulrich, jumps out of the building and is free falling, this adds the Use and gratification of escapism/diversion to the audience as it isn't something they would be used to seeing in their daily lives. This scene has obviously been edited in order to cut out any evidence of equipment such as wires, which would have given the impression that Ulrich is falling and also to hide the fact that the building he jumped from was actually just the image on a green screen. However these shots do all tie in with the rock/metal genre as it is stereotypical for videos of these genres to connote endangerment and various hectic scenarios to the genres target audience.