Matthew Grainger 13B Media Studies – Music Video

3 Doors Down – It’s Not My Time

Background Information:
Single Release Date: February 19th, 2008
The video was shot in Cincinnati, OH on April 1, 2008. The shoot was done in Over-the-Rhine, Fountain Square, Clifton and other locations around the city. The music video was officially premiered by Universal Republic on April 23, 2008.
It begins with a man standing on the top of a building. A scene then shows a mother and her daughter driving in a car. As the clock in the car turns to 10:13 they are hit from the side by a truck. The video then goes back to the man on the rooftop, who looks at his iPhone, displaying the time 10:08. When the time turns to 10:09, he immediately begins to run, and jumps off the building, landing safely on the ground. The video then proceeds to follow the man, as he rapidly traverses on foot through the city, avoiding numerous city obstacles by performing incredible, acrobatic maneuvers known as parkour or freerunning. The man is shown jumping high fences, leaping across city rooftops, hopping over vehicles, somersaulting through an empty pool, among various other stunts. The video also shows the woman and her daughter in the car at several points, where the clock shows the times 10:11, and 10:12. At the end of the video, the man leaps in front of the woman's car right at 10:13, causing the woman to stop, thereby avoiding the fatal accident seen in the beginning. The time 10:13 represents October 13th.
The band is shown throughout the video performing on the rooftop where the man started from. At the end they are seen performing on the skywalk, overlooking where the accident would have happened.They have reached #1 on VH1’s Top 20 Video Countdown On June 7, 2008.

1) Goodwin:

• 3 Doors Down are a post-grunge rock band. This genre that the band fall into is evident by the video for the song due to a fast paced 'on the move' video which also includes a band performance incorporated into the video.
• The main lyric 'It's not my time' is linked in with the video illustrating that its not the woman in car's time to die.
• The song has a fairly predominate beat which is matched with the running of the main character. As well as this the band are performing in time with the song and it's lyrics.
• During the video many different shots are used when filming the band performance sections. There are alot of mid shots showing the band and their members fairly full. There are some occasional close up shots of each member but mainly on the lead singer who is the centre of the band in the video. This is used to help improve marketability of the band as well as the song in question.
• There is no real subjective use of women in the video. It could be described as possibly female based as the main character is trying to save the female character in the car who has been specifically used because she is attractive but she has a child in the car too. In the post-grunge genre its not typical to exploit women and subject them. In fact women rarely feature in the genres videos.
• In this video there is no real intertextual reference however the narrative of the video is similar to that of POD - 'I Feel So Alive' in which a car is also hit by a big truck.

2) Visual Techniques:

• The video is based upon the frequent use of quick editing. This helps build a spectacle as well as creating a fast paced video.
• The shots are constantly varied and change from the previous shot. This creates a montage effect which helps cross the bridge between the story and the band performance and incorporates the performance into the story.
• Although no special effects are used the main character is a freerunner. A freerunner is someone who uses acrobats and jumping to move through city landscapes. He will almost certianly be a professional specifically chosen to star as the main character in order to build the video around the stunt.
• The camera every minute focuses on a clock (ipod, car clock etc) to show the time and how time is running out to save the character
• There is a lot of reflective and focus shots to show aspects of the video like the band playing with the deep focus being the character running through the city
• There is also a lot of use of low angle shots to create a more iconic feel to the band.

3) Band Representation:

• The video has a blue wash over it and is a very 'dark' video. This is contrasted by the leads singers costume which consists of a red top compared to the other band members black
• The band are in this video just in the background and are not represented as they would usually be, as the heroes.
• However as a result of camera techniques they are made out to be stars.
• The video helps sell their product because it shows them as people performing it so there is more relation to them as a band to the song than their would be if the video was just story and no band performance.

4) Is This Video Art?:

• It conforms with typical storyline of someone about to die but the hero saves them in time just at the right time.
• It is considered postmodernism because the video is based around the 'freerunning' man which has only become popular in recent years.

5) Social Class:

• Social class is not particluarly present in this video although its set in the middle of a busy city. There is use of different races in the video but no distinction is made between social class.

6) Ideological Discourse:

• It conforms with typical storyline of someone about to die but the hero saves them in time just at the right time.

7) Consumation:

• This video would probabaly be consumed by a mix of male and female teenage to 30 year olds.
• It is most likely to be shown on Kerrang! and Scuzz as it conforms with the tv channels' conventions.