Video Analysis - The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1p_NHFd8jM

This music video shows members of the band becoming ghosts and walking back through scenes from their past. These scenes include a children's party, Christmas morning, a high school party, and a funeral. As the band's ghostly figures walk through the house the other people are unaware of their presence, until the end when they all turn to look at the viewer as the band fades away.


Location

The video is set in a house. It seems this house holds many memories for the band. It is quite a dated house showing its age so it is obvious the viewer is looking back at the past. It looks oldest in the children's party and most modern at the funeral. When it flashes forward to the present the house seems abandoned and empty.

Costumes

The band are all wearing dark and formal suits/outfits, this reflects the dark nature of the song. The extras in the video are wearing dated clothes, especially the children's party, to show their chronological order in time.




 Storyline
The members of the band are ghostly figures looking back at scenes from their past, these scenes include a children's party, Christmas morning, a high school party, and a funeral. They obviously have a significance to the characters. As they walk about the extras are oblivious to their presence until the end as the band fades away they turn to look at the camera. This video fits in with the suggested meaning of the song where one recalls better times, although others have suggested the song is about suicide or looking back after death.


Performance/Style

Brandon Flowers continues to sing throughout the video, while the other band members just walk through the set, there is no musical performance in this video. The camera follows lead singer and tends to focus on him, not much attention is paid to the rest of the band. He seems quite mysterious and keeps with the mood of the video. The style is quite dark which is typical of the indie music genre and the Killers videos in general.

Colours

In the funeral scene the walls are a bright yellow colour, this makes it look more futuristic suggesting this is the most recent scene in time. The children's party and the Christmas morning is brightly coloured suggesting the theme of childhood and happiness, whereas the high school party is darker. The scene is similarly dark when it flashes to the present tense.