Busted are an English Pop Punk/Pop Rock band who formed in 2000 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. This band consists of James Bourne (Guitarist and Vocalist), Matt Willis (Bassist and Vocalist) and Charlie Simpson (Guitarist and Vocalist). They released their first 'self titled' studio album called 'Busted' in 2002 which reached number 2 in the UK charts - it was also the 8th best selling album in in the UK in 2003 and has been certified as 3x platinum in the UK. This album was released on the major record label known as 'Island Records' which is a subsidiary group of the conglomerate known as 'Universal' . Busted later released their second studio album called 'A Present For Everyone' in 2003 which also reached number 2 in the UK charts and has been certified 3x platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for over 900,000 sales - this album was again released through the major label 'Island Records'. Busted have also released one compilation album and one live album. In 2005, the band split up, but later reunited in 2015 where they were signed to the major label and conglomerate 'Warner Music Group' and are due to release their third studio album called 'Night Driver' on 11th November 2016. During the 10 year split, all three member worked as solo artists and were able to get recognition as an individual. James Bourne worked with a band called 'Son Of Dork' who released the album 'Ticket Outta Loserville', but also worked as a solo artist where he called himself 'Future Boy' and released an album called 'Volume 1'. Matt Willis released his own album called 'Don't Let It Go To Waste' and Charlie Simpson formed his own band named 'Fightstar' where they released the albums; 'Grand Unification', 'One Day Son. This Will All Be Yours', 'Be Human' and 'Behind The Devil's Back', but Charlie also worked as a solo artist where he has released the album 'Young Pilgrim' and 'Long Road Home'.
'Crashed The Wedding' was written by James Bourne and Tom Fletcher and was produced by Steve Power. It was released on the 10th November 2003, again through the major and subsidiary label known as 'Island Records' and was the lead single on their second studio album. This song had become Busted's second single to reach number one in the UK singles chart where 55,000 copied were sold in the first week. Due to this being released as a single, it also included four other songs on the B side which are; 'Build Me Up Buttercup', 'That's Entertainment', 'Hurra Hurra Die Schule Brennt' and 'O Holy Night'. 'Crashed The Wedding' carries on for 2:39 minutes and is about a man that decides to 'crash a wedding' because he realizes the feeling he has for the bride and it turns out that the bride feels the same and is pleased about him crashing the wedding. The music video essentially represents this as the video begins with the audience observing Matt Willis dressed up as Adam Ant, James Bourne dressed as Michael Jackson and Charlie Simpson dressed as Boy George, with all three dancing until they are kicked off stage by their real selves, the song then suddenly kicks in and the audience are able to see all the band members playing a range of characters at a wedding as it regularly pans around the room.
In relation to mise-en-scene, we can see that the location used is significant because the song is about crashing a wedding and the whole of the video is set in the reception area of a wedding venue - this reinforces the fact that the song is about crashing a wedding and will be more realistic for the audience because they can witness the disaster taking place. Although the whole video is filmed in one room, the use of a pan makes it seem bigger than it actually is and it is interesting for the audience as there are no cuts in the video - this makes it seem like it is all occurring at once and also the audience will be surprised as to how the producers will be able to make a video alluring when it has all been filmed in one room. On top of that, the clothes worn help reinforce the meaning of this song because we can see the band members are acting as the different characters in the narrative - for example, Matt is the bride, James is the fiance who is being left and Charlie is the man crashing the wedding - by wearing these costumes, the audience can acknowledge who each band member is playing in the narrative. Furthermore, the band who are playing themselves are wearing darker clothes to reinforce the genre of music they are, as the use of black in music videos either connotes sadness or a more Punk or Rock genre. Even though the band members are playing different characters in the narrative, the audience are still able to tell which characters are meant to be together when on recording. This can be seen because when all three members are performing on stage, they are all wearing black and blue, when they are acting as guests, they are all wearing red and black/grey and when they are playing either the bride or the men that want to be with the bride, then they are all wearing grey/white - this may have been done to help the audience understand the difference between all the characters and also to present how diverse they all are.
This is an upbeat Pop Punk music video where the lyrics portray happiness (except for the man being left) which is why it is brightly lit in the reception room (even though this goes against the Pop Punk conventions), but this highlights that this video is about enjoyment and there is 'a light at the end of the tunnel' for the man that crashed the wedding because it turned out that the bride was happy he came to get her. Moreover, the props used also help reinforce the idea behind this song because the audience are able to see a picture of the 'happy couple' in the background at the beginning of the music video which informs the audience about who are actually meant to be getting married, also there is a wedding cake and food on the table which reinforces that this is the reception for a wedding - when you look around the room you also see a lot of red which can be noticed on the curtains and on the table mats - this can connote either danger or romance, meaning it is trying to reinforce the fact that the man being ditched at the wedding is in danger because he is being left or that the new relationship formed is all out of love. You also get the band members playing their instruments, demonstrating the fact that they are a Pop Punk band. The use of all of these props are very advantageous because they help reinforce the fact that the characters are at a wedding that is being wrecked.
Next, the use of cinematography helps make the video seem more fascinating and makes it seem as if there is a lot more going on - at the beginning of the video a medium close up is used on all three bands members and slowly begins to zoom out into a long shot - this allows the audience to see who the whole video is going to be about, but also the zoom out allows the audience to see the members dancing and imitating other famous people. Agreat deal of zooms are used throughout this video, whether it is zooming in or out and this is because the camera is constantly moving and the producers will want you to see the most important things in the shot, but it also zooms in and out quickly most times because it will want the audience to focus on one character and will want the audience to see what they are doing, or it may change from a close up on a character to a long shot to show the audience what is happening in the background and then may later zoom into another character. You will see that the camera is always moving whether it is quickly or slowly and this reinforces the fact that weddings are a very busy occasion and something is always occurring, whether it is a good or bad thing. Following on from that, a wide range of pans are used and this is mainly because the video is all filmed in one room - meaning this camera movement will make the room seem a lot bigger than it actually is - these are used because they allow the audience to see all the different characters in the narrative and are able to see what they are doing.
Moreover, a high angle has been used just after the bridge of the song and can also be seen being used on the band when they are singing on top of a table - this may have been used to present that even though the band members are the ones singing the song about the narrative, no one is more powerful than someone else because everyone at the reception is going psycho and doing whatever they want because the wedding has been crashed. The majority of the shots used on characters are medium close ups. this is because these shots allow the audience to know what the character is like by their appearance and also how they will be feeling because of what they are doing - for example, a medium close up is used when James shows his ring to the camera and then throws it away - this highlights that he is mad because of what has happened. Also, this music video briefly demonstrates the objectification of women which can be seen when the man grabs the woman's arse (even though it is a man dressed as a women), but these roles later reverse and it goes against the stereotype where you can see the female spanking the male, but the male appears to be enjoying it which could possibly bring the idea of the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey into this. Some other angles have also been used, including; tilts, wide shots, two shots, establishing shots and also uses the concept of the rule of thirds which is very effective as there are three band members in the band.
The use of editing helps create continuity in this music video because we know that the same person dressed in different clothes can't be next to themselves, so the editing allows this to look realistic and appeals to the audience because they know it is something that can't happen in real life, but can often happen in videos. This is an interesting type of edit to produce because it presents the band members more frequently - meaning they are promoting themselves more and are possibly going to be seen and shared by more people. This type of editing would mean that the band members would have to be filming at different times, then it would all be edited together to make it look like all the guests and performances are all together at the same time which again creates continuity. Moreover, editing has also been used when the camera zooms onto the wedding cake - this is a spinning action which demonstrates a change of scene, but it also changes to the next verse which may highlight a change of meaning and allows the audience to see what the next character is going to do. On top of that, an effect has been added which can be seen when Matt is kissing the bride (which is himself dressed as a bride) and when this is happening, a heart appears and explodes on their lips to express that the bride is kissing someone else other than her fiance which reinforces the lyrics of the song as she is being taken away by someone else. There are also some other small effects that have been used like the shining of light or the adding together of scenes, but it has all been done to make the video more appealing toward the audience because it will be something they have never seen before and will want to be watched on repeat.
Lastly, the use of sound is very important because this is the main reason the video has been created - because of the song. The non-diegetic song playing on top of the video is the main attraction because a lot of people may have heard the song before and will now want to watch the video for it to see what ideas have been generated and if it is anything like they envisioned it to be like. Following on from that, asynchronous sound has been used at the beginning, but then turns into synchronous sound when the camera begins to zoom out as you can see one of the members playing the keyboard - this synchronous sound is meant to be a muzak (instrumental music) version of Busted's song 'What I Go To School For' which again helps when promoting themselves as people will hopefully recognize their song, but also it is entertaining for the audience because they are able to watch Pop Punk band members be more like Pop artists, which is seen as amusing because the audience know the band are nothing like Pop artists.
Here is a quick video to present what the narrative and performance is like in this music video (each slide was only able to have a maximum of 20 seconds, so you may need to pause if the slide changes too quickly):
Here is a presentation I have created which includes a LIIAR analysis for this music video. Here is my presentation:
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