Fit For Rivals is another rock band in the music industry, in comparison to Oasis their style is completely different due to this band being far more heavy metal and aggressive, however I personally feel that the themes created in this video are fairly similar, this may make it difficult for us as a group to clarify a specific genre within rock music however I’d argue profoundly the fact that it is all part of one overall entire genre and the themes expressed throughout each individual sub-genre is still vastly similar if not identical, I feel as though the only different is some themes and styles are expressed much more vividly or with more passion, an example of this is the link between Lyla by Oasis and this song. Within Lyla the whole message of the song could be argued upon however the general consensus is the downward spiral of drugs and unstable emotions of a female character which is exactly the same concept which occurs in this video for Fit For Rivals, the only difference is that this video is much more aggressive and dark and sinister from the start whilst Lyla gradually developed into being dark. The beginning of the video starts with a young girl in a stray jacket who is clearly been delegated to being in a mental hospital, she begins to sing the lyrics of the song as the camera zooms in towards her, there is then a cut to the guitar player playing his guitar followed by another shot of a drummer playing the drums. The setting of the live performance is notably far different as the walls are very grey and appear looks like an old factory or urban area, a typical feature of many rock songs being the urbanisation effect. As the camera cuts back to the lead singer zooming in further there is another cut to an extreme close up of a man playing the guitar which then quickly jump cuts back to the mental hospital, however now the girl is standing up and shaking mimicking like she’s trying to escape from her jacket, this then quickly cuts back to her lying down on the floor singing and zooming in helping express a conflicted mind/thoughts of the girl. After this there is then another shot taken from the same scene in the mental hospital however now it is a close up of her face standing up and she appears far more aggressive due to her dark, black hair, black eyeliner and facial expressions, again there is another cut back to the factory-type area where the girl is now shown with a microphone singing the song in a close up whilst the band members can be seen behind her, before the shot ends there is an extremely quick pan to emphasize the blur and create a disorienting and intense factor towards the video. After this there are frequent cuts jumping from extreme close ups of instruments and general close ups all being played, it is important to note that this is all being done in sync with the music, since the tempo of the song is very quick and loud the fast editing towards these different appears justified. Eventually when the singing stops for a brief moment and the guitar riff begins to appear then there is finally a long shot of the band, this again reveals the factory-type area and makes the band appear quite secluded, again the shot uses a zoom before again it once again cuts to the instruments being played in more extreme and general close ups. Afterwards there is a quick shot of the girl in the mental hospital screaming and looking very nervous and scared, flashes appear in the background to help emphasise her fear and bewilderment. Eventually a narrative is formed after a high angle long shot reveals the singer in the fetal position on a bed with two people seemingly older (possibly her parents) laying next to her, the room is a mess and the mother character has an empty bottle of alcohol caressed in her hand as she lays sleeping, the father character is laying as far away as he could from his daughter indicating a sense of loneliness towards the daughter highlighting a dysfunctional family and isolation amongst the daughter. The man also has various tattoos on his back, typical representation of large men covered in tattoos tends to be a representation linked with criminality and aggression, therefore the daughter is clearly a part of an unstable, emotionally torn and alcoholic fuelled family. The girl walks into her bathroom and stares at herself in the mirror before she begins to run a bath and take numerous pills from the kitchen cabinet. After there are more shots of her inside the mental hospital in the stray jacket indicating a sense that the girl is starting to lose her mind and become very unstable and emotional. Shots cross cut repeatedly from the performance, the mental hospital and her now taking a large amount of pills more as an attempt to commit suicide. Her dark clothing she wears in the narrative would help imply her very dark, emotional standpoint and isolation, a typical feature of many rock songs being the isolation of teenagers, though in other cases the use of drugs and/or free lifestyle is seen to be celebrate. The music continually picks up at this point right after a shot in which the pill bottle (now empty) drops on the floor as though now she is ready to die and it’s too late to save her. A low angled POV shot of the girl in the bath then shows her mother character, now awake, walking in and noticing what her daughter has done, a high angled shot also highlights the girls full body in the bath with her eyes closed and without her moving clearly indicating that she is dead. Interestingly enough the entire bathroom is very clean in pristine white whilst the girl (who is still in her clothes) is still wearing very dark clothes showing her isolation and darkening emotions. The father character then rushes in and carries her out of the bath. Strangely another POV low angle shot shows doctors flashing torches into the girl’s eyes whilst she is lying in a hospital bed being carried off somewhere. Later on as well there can be seen cross cut shots of the same doctor injecting her with a very large needle and her struggling reaction; this is still cross cut with her in the mental hospital implying that because she tried to kill herself her parents then sent her to a mental hospital to cope with her unstable emotions, however it could also be interpreted to mean that she is dead and gone to a hell-like place as there was no shot of her actually recovering or her parents actually placing her in the hospital as she just appeared implying the hell teenagers always appear to go through and the unstable mind of teenagers (or at least teenage girls).
A shot taken from the begining of the video, as the camera zooms in the girl continues to mime the song just before cross cut shots are shown of the band playing the song in a live performance.
A close up shot of the singer as part of the narrative, at this point the video is still being frequently cross cutted with the live performance of the song.
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