Analysing Music Video: Message to you Rudy - The Specials.

I couldn't embed the performance video, so I will use a variety of screen shots instead.

Below is the Album that this track, as well as many other amazing ska tracks feature on. The Specials were formed in 1977 and were/still are a very influential ska, 2 tone and new wave band. They were a 2 TONE SKA BAND, as they were signed up to the English Record label - 2 Tone Records, this label focused on releasing ska and reggae music, with a punk/rock influence.



The Specials



The music video starts with a trumpet instrumental for about 8 seconds and this is what we see with it. We see what looks like some archive footage, it looks like a home video of some sort using a hand held camera. There are two average-dressed black men walking towards the camera from a long angled shot (establishing shot of a street at night) and then they walk past the camera as it pans them.

Invisible editing is used as it flicks to the next shot of the same two men joining a group of about 5 or 6 and they are smiling - there are black and white people in this huddle of men. I clarify this as, The Specials were all for integration! They would wear black and white and their album covers usually were in black and white.

       



Back to the video...

After the 8 seconds of the trumpets subtle instrumental, we hear the drum come in and as soon as we hear the first bang of the drum - the editing takes us directly to a close up of a drum kit with the drummers hands holding the drum sticks. So as the drums come in for a few seconds we see the drummer physically hitting the drums.

It then flicks to the trumpet player in a medium close up, he is normally dressed again to reveal the casual persona of the group.



Then the invisible editing takes us to an extreme long shot of a white studio, we just see the pure white background, The Specials with two other men and the instruments they are playing. They are all dressed in the stereotypical "rude boy" gear, with suits and hats.

When the lyrics come in, we have a high angled, medium close up shot of 3 of The Specials members singing, looking directly into the camera above them. I think this is to come across as a warning, The Specials are talking to you when they say "Stop your messing around"

After the warning sang by The Specials we see, what looks like archive home video footage of some young men on the street (long shot) laughing and joking. I believe this was used to act as though The Specials were targeting their warning to young men hanging round on the street.

Then it flicks back to the same high angled shot again when The Specials sing "better think of your future". The same sequence is used after this is sang too - we see again this archive footage of the same young men fooling around again.

This is continued as The Specials sing "time to straighten right out..." We see the same high angled medium close up of the same 3 members of The Specials singing, and then it flicks again to the group of young men again.

As the chorus comes in, the medium close up and archive footage is replaced with the same high angled extreme long shot of all the band members.

When the singing in the chorus is finished, the trumpet solo comes back in, therefore we see the man playing the trumpet again from before. It's the same medium close up shot used, just like at the beginning, showing the simplicity of the song.

We then see a quirky high shot of the keyboard player having fun, he is dancing whilst playing his instrument, showing the laid-out atmosphere of the video. Then back to a high angled shot of the 3 members of The Specials, the high angled shot almost looks like a birds eye view.

When the second verse comes in, after The Specials sing "Stop your fooling around", we again see some (medium long shot) archive footage of some youths on the street, there are 2 boys and one women. One of the boys looks like he is urinating on the wall, with his back turned to us and the camera zooms onto the woman's face, leaving us with a close up of her smiling.

Then it is back to the high angled shot of the same 3 members of The Specials singing again, then instead of the archive footage, it is other performers in the white studio, we see them in a medium/long shot.

Then we have the expected high angled shot with the 3 Specials members, when they say "...you'll wind up in jail" there is night footage of a long shot of a police van with two police officers, the doors of the van are open, and we can see some people held inside. Then we see some action riot looking

archive footage (long shot).

We see the high angled medium close up of the 3 members again, then with the second trumpet solo, we see the trumpet player in a medium close up, after we see the keyboard player in the high angled medium long shot again, then flicks to a close up of the keyboard being played.

After seeing the extreme long shot of all The Specials members and the other instrument players dancing around again, we see the trumpet player with a close up of the inside of the trumpet as it is being played.

Then the instrumental starts, we see medium close ups of some of the members of the group dancing, we see medium long shots of the guitar players' legs and guitar, then a low shot of the drummer (long shot) and finally back to the trumpet player.

After the instrumental, we see the extreme long shot of all of the members of The Specials. Then the sequence of the high angled medium close up of the 3 members of The Specials again, then the footage of more young men on the streets at night.

As expected, we see the 3 Specials again, then the two other instrument players again, however then we see a long shot of what looks like a home video house party almost, on a staircase.

We again see the 3 Specials sing "better think of your future" and when they sing "creating problems in town" we see an extreme long shot of some young people running in the night through some boxes. This shows that the youths are simply creating problems, what you see is the illustration of the lyrics.

Back to the chorus we really see the sequence of the video by seeing the long shot of The Specials singing again, then the shot gets further and further into the distance and when it is as small as the print screen shows, finally fades to black.