The first shot we see is of the lead singer jumping in time to the first beat. We immediately know that he is the lead singer because he is shown first, and in every other scene that he is in he is foregrounded and in focus to signify his position in the band. This shot lasts for less than a second and the editing is immediately extremely fast, with quick shots of a heart on a string, the rest of the band singing, the lead singer lying on the floor and dancing. Cassius is a very fast paced song and it is only natural that the editing corresponds with that, so the rest of the video also continues in this way, with many fast cuts.
The whole video has themes of violence and strangeness in it, with hearts dangling on strings, destroying flowers, pills dangling on strings and guns (towards the end). This theme runs strongly with the explanation of the song as of course Cassius Clay (Mohammed Ali) was a very famous boxer, not the friendliness of sports!
As the chorus starts up at 0:26, the band start to play with the hearts dangling on strings. This tallies with the increased pace of the song, and could also mean that they are 'playing with someone's heart', and 'tugging on heartstrings.'
The theme of a 'violent romance' continues at 0:41 with a shot of a member of the band holding up a bunch of flowers, with a very expressionless look on his face. You would expect a bunch of flowers to signify love and happiness, but when we next see this scene at 0:43, the flowers are being hit against the floor, shattering this thought. The expressionless look on the band member's face implies that he feels numb and is in shock. To me it feels as if he has had his heart broken by someone. The sound of the flowers being destroyed is implied by the strong drum beats as they hit the floor.
At 0:53 we see the lead singer being hit in the chest by one of the hearts on strings. He does not seem angry about this and keeps a passive expression on his face, but when it swings towards him again he pushes it away. The third time this happens, he grabs the heart and stares at it for 3 seconds before pushing it away gently, which is actually a long time in comparison to the fast editing used in the rest of the video. In this time we get the impression that although he does not want to be 'punched in the heart', he is still fascinated and interested by it. We can relate these feelings to the idea that he is in love but has been betrayed and is angry, however is still is in love.
At 1:06 we see pills suspended from a member of the band's fingers for the first time. The editing here uses very fast cuts between the pills and the band member laying out the pills.
The pose that the lead singer is striking at 1:21 is synonymous with the actions of a Roman soldier (the name Cassius is Roman, and also is the name of the two-faced Roman who organized the assassination of Julius Caesar).
When the band is singing together framed like below at 1:46, they are all making direct eye contact with the camera so it feels as if they are singing to the viewer. They even go as far as to hold their hands out towards the camera and it is as if they are appealing to you through the screen. It also could be used to be as if they are talking to the person who has caused their heartache.
At 1:57 we see the heart strings are being cut, and this is meant in the literal and figurative sense, by the physical cutting down of them and also the sense of being released from heartache (as if they have cut all ties with the person who caused it). During thus section the music goes through a slower, instrumental section, which I think signifies them letting go of the pain and doing something about it (cutting the hearts).
At 2:14 the lead singer is swinging one of the hearts on its string around his head. I feel that now he has power over the heart (his heart?) after being paralyzed and struck by it earlier in the video.
I think that this close up of one of the hearts is there to show how real it actually is, and therefore showing how important it is to the whole narrative.
As the music picks up pace again at 2:21, so does the pace of the cuts. We see each band member doing something different, one is shredding the bunch of flowers, one is pushing toy aeroplanes around a table, and the other is weighing the hearts that they have cut down.In each of these scenes, the object that they are cutting up, pushing around or weighing is foregrounded and in focus, whilst the band member is backgrounded and not in focus.
The end of the video sees the band take all of the objects we have seen throughout this video (hearts, flowers etc.) to create some sort of mobile. It is as if they ave created something strangely beautiful out of something ugly.
The very end of the video is a montage of all the important scenes we have already seen from the video, it is almost a recap of what has happened. The music during this is very strange (I think it is a trumpet) and randomly played. I think that that sort of music perfectly fits with the visuals that we have got accompanying it as it is all very surreal and weird.
The mise-en-scene in this video is very simplistic; there is not a single costume change in the video, and all the action is set against a white backdrop. The clothing that the band are wearing are t-shirts, shirts and jeans (typically what I would expect artists of this genre to be wearing). This simplicity is important because the focus of the video is not about all about the spectacle but about the deeper meanings that run underneath it. The video has not got an obvious storyline running through it, and it is open to interpretation.
The music makes use of the tempo and drives the editing; as the pace of the music quickens so does the pace of the editing. As we do not see any instruments being played in the video, any dramatic change in the music or any prominent instrument sound is emphasized through something dramatic happening in the video i.e. when the hearts are cut down, there is a loud guitar chord being played.
I think that the whole idea of the video was to show heartache, getting through the heartache and coming out the other side. I also think that the five band members could actually make up this one personality, to fit with the concept of having a multiple personality (Cassius).
