Shot Count

Black Stone Cherry - "Lonely Train"

 

 



 

 

 

Approximate no. of shots:           192

This opening scene of the video shows a medium shot of some railway tracks to signify the title of the song “Lonely Train” and to get the audience interested as it can mean a many number of things. The next shot shows a medium shot of the band in a big, empty room yet the band are facing away from the camera which tells the audience that they are waiting to be discovered/don’t want to be found. This adds a sense of mystery to the video and also differs from Andrew Goodwin’s “Star Image” theory that the music video shows off the image of the band and yet also agrees with his theory that the visual aspects of the song relate to the song title with regards to the feeling of being “Lonely”. This is shown by the band being showed in a dark, empty room on their own giving the audience the opportunity to feel sympathetic for the band and in particular the singer who cannot be seen at all in the shot. The images of fast powerful cars and a run-down neighbourhood and the meaning of the song being that they want to run away and leave for somewhere new apply with the sense of freedom that is shows to the audience which conforms with David Gauntlett’s theory that they are playing with the identity that they are a group of lonely people from a bad background and need to escape however this is contradicted by the shared knowledge of the audience that they have enough money and freedom to go anywhere they want to yet this video is provided to the audience to connect with the people who feel the same way as the band are projected in the video and its therefore a form of escapism. Frequent images of the American flag and old soldiers comply with the theory of Jason Mittell that music industry use genre to sell products; in this case the video is promoting American patriotism and government policy. The camera framing within this video is edgy and the editing is not fluent to show that the band has this feeling of wanting to break out and escape. This also agrees with the theory by David Gauntlett that the band plays with identity in diegisis of the video by they have to break out of the video, and try to escape the reality that they have created within the video.