Vernallis Analysis- Jet- 'Are You Gonna Be My Girl' (2003)

Carol Vernallis is an American Film and Media Studies professor at Arizona State University specialising in Music Videos. In her 2001 Essay 'The Kindest Cut- Functions and Meanings of Music Video Editing' Vernallis differentiates between classic Hollywood film conventions and music video construction, outlining 4 key concepts; narrative, editing, camera movement and framing and diegesis. I have used some of the conventions and criteria outlined in her work to analyse Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl Music Video.

Narrative

• There is no separate narrative in this video, however it could be called a concept driven performance as the paint is a constant theme running throughout and serves as a visual motif.
• There is no clear reason why the paint and floral shapes and patterns are appearing from the wires of the guitars however they resemble the artwork on the band's album Get Born- a clever way to establish the band's image and identity.
• The  silhouette of the woman is a response to the song's lyrics.
• There is no closure at the end of the video- it just ends…

Editing

• High contrast black and white
• Really fast paced editing, matches the beat of the music
• Breaks several rules of continuity editing such as 180degree rule, VLS followed immediately by an ECU
• Edits are foregrounded or obvious to draw attention to particular aspects e.g the guitar players fingers or the drummers hat
• Jump cutting- no smooth transitions at all

Camera Movement and Framing

• Shots from unusual angles: underneath as though the band are treading on the camera
• Lots of quick zooms and pans from left to right, lots of movement of camera, juxtaposed by some stationary shots
• Extreme shots, ECUs and CUs of the band as well as HA VLS
• Band is often positioned on one side of the frame- complete disregard for the rule of thirds- Lots of empty white space

Diegesis

• The video is shot in infinite white, so the audience is literally catapulted into the world of their performance. 
• The video features silhouettes of woman that dance to the music and flower patterns that appear from the wires of the instruments.
• There are many gaps in the audience's understanding of the diegesis, no clear time or space given and the paint concept (serving as a sort of narrative) seems to be pretty much random.
• Repetition of shots e.g the paint seeping out, camera pans from side to side, CUs of the lead singer, lyrics: "Be my girl, be my girl, are you gonna be my girl", flower imagery, paint blob imagery