Music Video Analysis: Catfish And The Bottlemen - Fallout

Performer and Record Label
Catfish and the Bottlemen are a British indie rock band that formed in Llandudno, North Wales in 2007. In 2013, they were signed to Communion Records, however in 2014 they were resigned to Island Records. Island Records is a major American record label that operates as a division of Universal Music Group, but as of February 2014, three Island label brands exist in the world: Island UK, Island US, and Island Australia.

Narrative
'Fallout' is a completely narrative based music video. The music video focuses on the driver of a white van, who begins to see everyone around him dancing, and although being very confused, he soon decides to join in with the madness that is all around him. It is very surrealist, because you would not expect people to be dancing everywhere that you go, showing that perhaps the main protagonist of the video is escaping to a different world to make his job more interesting. There is no relation between the lyrics and the narrative which is quite unusual for a music video, however the music video is still very effective.

Mise en scene
The main basis of the music video revolves around both the interior and exterior of a white van, whilst it drives through quite a suburban area that appears to be somewhere in Britain. The music video was definitely shot on location as opposed to in a studio, as it would be far too difficult to re-create the setting in a studio.

Costume, Make Up and Props
The three men that are sat in the van are all wearing quite comfy clothes of jeans and a t-shirt, clothes you would typically associate with painting, decorating or building, jobs which the white van seems to connote. Apart from the van, there isn't any particularly important props, however in the final part of the music video, the protagonist dances with a shopping trolley. The use of this reinforces the idea that it is based in a suburban area, as you are unlikely to just find a shopping trolley.

Lighting and Colour
Natural lighting has mainly been used throughout the video, but I am unsure whether there has been lighting placed within the van to ensure the interior of the van was well lit, and that the level of light inside could therefore be maintained. There is a slight white tone to the video which has probably been done in post production, as I would expect that it would originally be quite yellow toned due to the sun. I feel like the colour grading of the music video fits well with the genre of the music, and it gives it that alternative indie quirk that is so commonly used in this genre of music videos.

Camera and Editing
Throughout the music video, there is lots of medium close ups of the three men in the white van so that we can see their reactions to what is happening around them. There is also some long shots of the people dancing around them, and some wide shots of the exterior of the van. During one of the final shots, slow motion has been used to focus on the facial expressions of the protagonist whilst he dances along the alleyway with the shopping trolley.