'Street Spirit' Evaluation

Narrative:

Street Spirit doesn’t have a core meaning, it was not written to be resolved, Thom Yorke described it as “The dark tunnel without the light at the end”, the lyrics are basically a selection of mini stories instead of a conventional large story with a specific meaning, he also said “I used images set to the music that i thought would convey the emotional entirely of the lyric and music working together”, this means he chose what was going on in the video to match up with the lyrics to enhance its emotion.

Mise – en – scene:

Within the first few seconds of the video for Street Spirit by Radiohead, you see the lead singer sat in the dark, however the main focus here is the use of lighting, they have a light that moves from the left to the right of the screen, this could represent the passing of life, and as she he simply just sat there that could also represent how he is doing nothing with his life but watch it fade away into darkness, this is an effective representation and instantly creates a deeper storyline.

As you move through the video, you get a shot of a flying insect and also of a tree, these both contrast the main idea of death as they would represent the idea of life, however the use of the black and white effect is enhanced here to show the overpowering nature that death has a presence even within life itself.

Camera:

The shots of the lead singer are usually mid-shots throughout, however the other shots are all long shots, this gives the audience more of an outside point of view on their lives, this is unusually as normally you want to be part of the video to really enhance its meaning and emotions, however they have chosen the style of being unable to help them, it’s like you are being neglected from their lives, which does help to create the sense of helplessness.

Editing:

The most eye catching editing is the fact that they have made the whole video have a black and white effect, this sets the mood for the video well as it is about death and the black and white use allows the video to be more gloomy and eerie, this also relates to the emotional story behind the song and the lyrics being sung with it.

They have also used an effect with the extremely effective and interesting slow motion, this really gives off the strange atmosphere because within the shots there is usually one person in slow motion and one person not, this editing really suits the eerie song and also gives off the sense that life may drag on, but at the end of it, it will give you the same outcome, death.