Research & Planning: Applying Music Video Theory To The Killers 'Shot At The Night'

The music video to ‘Shot At The Night’ by the Killers is a mixture between a performance and a narrative video - dividing its attention rather equally between the two aspects; close attention is paid to the cinematography and colours, which is a usual genre characteristic of indie music videos (adhering to Goodwin’s theory). The only member of the band ever present in the video is the main vocalist, excluding the possibility for the video to be made only for advertisement purposes - unless the band is using the most popular member as a selling point - and focuses more on the artistic/cinematographic value of the production.

Another genre characteristic this video is following, similarly to ‘Beautifully Unconventional’, is the title and the artists’ name at the beginning; resembling the start of a movie (adhering to Kaplan’s theory that music videos can subvert the conventions of filmmaking). Additionally, the video tells a story in a very cinematic manner, with the performance aspect being the only thing separating it from a little movie of its own.

Carlsson’s idea of a television bard can be called upon when talking about this particular production - despite the video containing a performance element, it is far from just being a blatant advertisement for the artist. ‘Shot At The Night’ is telling a story (adhering to one of the types identified by Railton) of a girl who has a rather boring life and one day, through a series of very fortunate events. The vocalist, who is looking at the city from a high building, seems to be portrayed as a figure above it all, an idiosyncratic narrator.

Camerawork plays an important role in this video, with the cinematography resembling that of a film. There is a use of a range of different shots, with a lot of them focusing on the main character of the narrative; there are plenty of close ups of her face, allowing the audience to see the emotions she’s experiencing, interwoven with landscape shots of the city and the singer in the skyscraper. At the beginning, a lot of the shots show Goodwin’s idea of binary opposition between the life of the girl and the life of the city; the further the video progresses, the more the camera focuses on the character, showing how she has changed thanks to the title ‘Shot At The Night’.

The representation of freedom and gender is constructed through several elements of the video. On one hand, it shows the female character in a rather stereotypical setting, working as a maid in a hotel and on the other hand, it is supposed to tell the story of rebelling and breaking free (with the pink shoes and the let down hair being symbols of the character’s change in life and liberation); there is no oversexualisation of the girl, despite several situations when the camera could’ve adhered to the theory of the male gaze (discussed by both Railton and Vernallis).

Keazor and Wubbena come into play when talking about both the use of visuals and the editing; the use of colour, as it usually happens with indie music videos, is very important and is done extremely well. The video starts with the character wearing (and often being surrounded by, especially in her flat) cold, low-key colours that are supposed to resemble her life. Further on, the tones become gradually warmer and warmer and the character changes into a yellow dress; with yellow being the canonical colour of happiness.

As for the editing, both Kaplan and Goodwin (as well as Keazor and Wubbena) can be called upon. Kaplan mentions music videos can both follow and subvert the conventions of filmmaking, which 'Shot At The Night' does to an extent; the performance element breaks the continuity of the editing, however the story is presented in an aforementioned cinematic manner. There is plenty of editing to the beat (which is also not a convention of film editing, unless we're talking about 'Baby Driver') and whenever the music speeds up the editing does so as well. Additionally, there is both the disjuncture and the amplification of the lyrics. The way the life of the character changes over the course of the video goes from being the exact opposite of the sung lyrics to being the exact reflection of the meaning; despite there not being much explicit illustrative moments, the audience can see a clear connection between the tone of the visuals and the music.