Breaking Benjamin - So Cold

Video Analysis - So Cold

Music Video

Narrative

After a small bit of research I managed to find the narrative and it is as follows.

The video is set in the 19th century based upon the clothing that they wear. The video begins with a preacher stood at the side of a swamp, it then cuts to a group of people walking through a forest. One man is seen carrying a large stone with the breaking benjamin celtic knot on it. The man is being punished for infidelity towards his wife and is shackled to the stone throughout the course of the videos events. Towards the end of the video, as the crowd gather around the preacher, the man walks into the swamp (still holding the stone) and drowns. As he walks we see two women, one in black (his wife) the other in white (the woman he had an affair with). The song ends with a close up of the bible closing and the preacher turning away.

Performance

The band are shown in the forest, the same as the narrative. This integrates the band into the narrative as they are playing in the same forest as the man who is being lead to his death. The camera constantly cuts from the narrative to the band throughout the entire video. It shows plenty of meat shots of the lead singer, there is one of the shots for nearly every single one of the cross cuts.

Thought Beats

During one of the cuts to the band playing, one of the guitarists jumps and creates a splash in the water. This is timed with the music as the chorus is sung again.

Another example is towards the end of the video when the lyric "It's alright" is repeated constantly. It happens as the music makes a transition from calmer music to the entire band playing all at the same time. It shows someones feet creating a splash and as long as the band are shown the camera shakes, some of the time the camera shakes and it is in time with the music.

Visuals linked to song.

• When the man falls over and drops the stone, the lyric is "Let's give this another try" followed by an instrumental section. During the instrumental section the man struggles to pick up the stone again. This links to the lyric by showing his determination to pick it up and continue on.

• When a group of people are shown (from a side view) the lyric is "Wise men wander" This portrays the group (which includes women) as wise people. This could be that they have stayed faithful to their partners, this can be shown as the group contains two men and two women, which could symbolise the pairs.

• When the lead singer says the lyrics "Crowded streets all cleared away" and "One by one" on the first time he says "one" he is shown in centre frame (symbolising 1) the next time he says "one" it cuts to a close up of just his face. This could show the "cleared away" lyric as his body has been removed from the shot.

All of the above are examples that this song illustrates it's lyrics within the course of the video.

Technical Aspects of The Video

• At the end of the video, we see the two woman that the man was with, the wife (wears black) the woman from the affair (wears white). This subverts our ideas as usually we would see the wife in white (purity) and we would see the woman from the affair wearing black (evil, bad).

During the video a woman is seen kneeling down to pick up a red flower. Whilst she is doing this the lyric "In this land of make-believe, dead and dry" is sung. The last part of this lyric is a contradiction, the flower is a dark red, had this flower been dead, it's petals would have fallen off and the flower would have wilted. However, the woman plucks the flower thus killing it, the lyric is therefore a contradictory truth.

At the end of the song the lyric "It's alright" is repeated at least seven times over. However during the moments when this lyric is sung, the man is walking down into a lake and drowns. This shows irony, as the lyrics are saying it's alright, when the truth is that it isn't at all.

The colour palette in the video is a dark lifeless dull colour, with a lot of grey and other dark colours. It sets a grim tone over the video, possibly foreshadowing of the mans death at the end. The only colour seems to come from the plantlife around them, especially the red flower, that stands out the most against the dull colours around it.

The editing at the end of the video speeds up to go with the music. It starts off slow, like the music, then, as the rest of the band begin to join in, the editing speeds up as if to accompany the music.