Product Analysis

Jack Penate - 'Have I Been a Fool'

The music video 'Have i been a fool' by Jack Penate, has a narrative structure as Jack Penate is seen performing the song in the video to the different women. There are also two performance scenes which blend in with Jack Penate telling the story as he uses the performances to say sorry to the women. The video has an element of narrative fuzz as the video shows a different meaning to the song, although it may be associated with love in the first place the use of multiple women seen throughout the video creates a different meaning to the song, as if he has done it before and is going through the same scenario with another women. So the video in this sense can be seen to illustrate the meaning of the song, as he says "I led you on the leadings wrong" as the women follows him into the taxi and shakes her head. Also when he says, "A kiss is just a kiss", as he attempts to kiss the woman. The music video therefore appeals to some of the key features in Andrew Goodwin's 'Key features of music video'. The video does present genre characteristics through the use of the performance shots showing Jack Penate playing the guitar. As mentioned before there is a link between the lyrics and visuals through illustration as Jack Penate is illustrating the story being told, developing the idea of him being a fool in relationships with women. There are a lot of close ups in the video of Jack Penate which enable the motif of him being in an band and bringing his own unique style which is seen in all of his music video (wearing the flat cap, skinny jeans rolled up to show his trainers and his messy hair, which are all part of his own unique individual style). Other elements of Mise-en-Scene help to establish the location, as he gets into a black cab, you can work out that he is in London, however you can tell he is in the suburbs as he runs down a street of houses and there are no tall office buildings. He is also going through a park, the park also links to establishing where the video is set as it looks like a traditional British park with teh fallen leaves of Autumn and with a childrens playground. Jack Penate is seen going for a walk with a grilfriend is seen as being romantic so him being there has connotations with romance which also helps to establish his meta-narrative, however the fact that he is seen with different women show that he is not faithful, and along with the lyrics, he does not stick to one girl so the audience could see him as a 'player' wth women. He may also be trying to get across the point that he has tried with other women and whats do better with a certain women asking the question 'Have i been a fool just say', which creates another side to his meta-narrative. This video will require an ambient viewing as the video illustrates the song, so the viewers would not have to have a focused viewing to understand the meaning of the video and most importantly the song.