Peace – Money (Review)

Peace – Money here

Money by Peace, directed by Ninian Doff,  is a narrative based music video, it tells the story of businessmen and what they do with their money once they have earned it. The handshake is a main theme throughout the video, it shows them securing deals with straight faces, however the handshake is very childlike and contradicts the usual behaviour of the usual professional businessman. The video starts off with a moving handheld shot of the office showing a man looking at his hands with a concerned look on his face. The use of the handheld shot here suggests uncertainty and, as it is shot through the window at first, makes it feel like a point of view shot, therefore making the audience feel involved immediately. Office ambience can also be heard before the music starts in order to set the scene and create atmosphere, such as a telephone ringing and what sounds like cabinet drawers being opened and closed. Just before the music starts, there is an extreme close up shot of the man at the desk cracking his knuckles, explicitly suggesting that he is ready for business. The room is very dark; the low-key lighting in the video could show the earnestness of the businessmen, which contrasts to the way the men act in the video.

The costumes in the video are relative to what would be worn in an office environment. The men all wear suits, however there is a visible difference in class as the man with the bigger office is wearing a more expensive looking suit along with gold jewellery, such as rings, bracelets, chains and a watch. As well as this, he is also puts on a black glove before shaking the other person’s hand. this suggests that he feels like he is of a higher class and the other man is not worthy of touching his skin.

A majority of the shots in the video are close-ups of people’s faces and hands, this allows us to see the expressions clearly and understand the context more easily. the camera angles are also usually straight on to the subject.

The colours at the start of the music video are dark greys and black whereas, towards the end of the video the colours change as the lighting turns green and then red. The initial green lighting suggests naivety and nervousness as the ‘lower class’ businessman is being escorted by the ‘higher class’ businessman, however the lighting then changes to red, suggesting danger and romance, which coincides with the situation in the video. In this scene the shots flick between front and back, so that the audience can see where the en are going, but also to show their facial expressions, the quick cuts between these two shots also portray the chaotic nature of the situation and allows the audience to sympathize with the way the ‘lower class’ man is feeling. The Shots then become very blurred and a flashing overlay is used to simulate strobe lighting. there are a lot of quick cuts between the blurred shots and a majority of them are close ups, this is confusing to watch as a lot of the contexts becomes lost, which highlights the how drunk or high the men are, and again, makes the audience feel that they are also involved. Another way that this effect is created within this part of the video is by layering videos and lowering opacity, as the distortion created makes it difficult for the audiences eyes to follow. The music also becomes distorted at this point, in order to further create a confusing atmosphere.

The video ends suddenly on an extreme close up of the same man from the beginning, however instead of looking serious, he is smiling, with relaxed hands, unlike the start of the video when he is shown cracking his knuckles and making fists.