Ghost Town- LANGUAGE+REPRESENTATION

Question 1

Aural coding

Answer 1

• Melody and harmonies of the song are in minor key, with one section of major key (‘Do you remember…?’) which acts as a flashback to better times.

Question 2

Eerie, ghostly diegtiec sound effect at both beginning and end

Answer 2

• Sounds a little like a wail, and a little like the wind howling or even a police siren.

Unnerving, brackets the hopelessness of the song’s narrative.

Question 3

What does each individual signifier seem to connote?

Answer 3

Youth with no future- empty staring windows, shadowy extras, cramped journey all reinforce the message of the lyrics. (‘Too much fighting on the dancefloor’, ‘no job to be found’, ‘government leaving the youth on the shelf’, etc.).

Question 4

Dress code + Non-verbal codes (Paralanguage)

Answer 4

1. Dress code reflects what working-class men both black and white might have worn on a night out clubbing.
2. Singing w/expressionless faces and direct mode-of-address with zombie-like, stiff body movements are suddenly relaxed in the manic middle section

Question 5

Lighting- General and at night

Answer 5

• Expressionist style cinema lighting
• In the car, band are lit eerily by a limited interior light source and what looks like a handheld torch to light the faces of those in the back from a low angle. (especially evident when it goes to night time because it’s darker)

Question 6

Colour palette`

Answer 6

• Harsh yellowy reflections of the lights in the tunnel on windscreen pass over the band members, grey skies and dark streets.
• Not black and white, but it sometimes feels as though it is since the colours are so bleak and desaturated.

Question 7

Expressionist style mise-en-scene

Answer 7

• Cutting between day and night, dark and light- disorienting, plays with timeframe to make the ‘ghost town’ feel as menacing by day as night.
• Expressionist style feat shadows, chiaroscuro lighting (sharp contrast between dark and light) contributes to this.

Question 8

Section with the loud almost screaming noises

Answer 8

• Swerving of the car

- Manic expressions

Question 9

Editing- overall

Answer 9

• Most of the shots are on-board travelling shots.
• Opening sequence- establishing shots and low angle shots
• Video ends w/superimposition of a long cross-dissolve of tunnel lights to stone-throwing shot- unsettling, reinforces the nihilistic message

Question 10

Editing- ‘Car chase scene’

Answer 10

One scene is cut like an action sequence of a car chase. Both its style and short shot duration give a frenetic feel. Handheld, disorienting camerawork with whip pans and canted angles.

What are they being chased by or are they just frantic?