RM - Kasabian - Switchblade Smiles Deconstruction

Band: Kasabian
Song: Switchblade Smiles
Genre: Indie Rock
Director: Aitor Throup
Audience: 15-24
Year Released: 2011

First time the audience views the band front on

Kasabian’s” Switchblade Smiles” music video is performance based with the establishing shot mainly being a blank white screen with a small outline of the band in the distance. The shot quickly zooms in and stops focusing on the band from behind. The camera then pans over the heads of the band members until the audience can see the front of the band, but upside down. A close-up of each band member quickly follows where each one opens their eyes.

In the music video the style quickly changes to quicker shots being used, instead of the long shots the audience were watching during the intro. This is anchored by the music picking up pace. At this moment the audience can see the band playing their respective instruments. During this period music video focuses on each instrument as it is brought into the song. With the main focus on the lead vocals, Tom Meighan, and backing vocals, Sergio Pizzorno, who lip-syncing throughout the video. Both of these being common conventions for a performance based music video.

"Move" in red capital letters, upside down to the audience.

In keeping with the intro, of the band being upside down, there are shots throughout the music video of the band being upside down as well as some lyrics which aren’t being sung by the lead vocalist. An example of this is when “Move” is being sung which is in red capital letter but appearing upside down to the audience. The red effect also comes back into the video during the instrumental half-way through the song but this time across the whole shot.

Throughout the video most shots are repeated with the main focus being on Tom Meighan and Sergio Pizzorno. This is another common convention throughout music videos, especially for performance based music videos.

Third last shot of the band's instuments destroyed.

The audience can also see the band breaking their own instruments which has been done live by many bands as well as in music videos. An example of a band destroying their instruments live is Muse during their Hullabaloo tour during “Bliss”. An example of a band destroying their instruments during a music video is Paramore during the video for “Crushcrushcrush”. The destruction of their instruments can be seen during the third last shot where the audience can’t see the band just their instruments lying on the floor.

Another example of the music video’s shoots increasing in pace is from 3:10 to 3:20 this following the drum beat, which has picked up. During this the music video quickly reverses itself to the beginning shot. The music video then depicts the entire band as a whole performing the song, with close ups of each. The last shot is very similar to the first shot. However instead of the shot containing an outline of the band the shot is just a black white screen.

The entire video is filmed in black and white which is very similar to one of their previous singles’ music video “Shoot the Runner”. However for “Shoot the Runner” there was a variety of colours.



Here is the Making of the music video: