It is clear in this music video that certain theorists have been taken into account, the more obvious ones are Propp, Todorov, Levi-Strauss, and Goffman.
Propp's basic theory is that media products should include some character roles, for example the traditional fairytale roles of hero, villain, and damsel in distress; some of these character roles are shown through the video. The most obvious character role to look for is the hero, this would be the lead singer of the band in this video, Steve, as he is most often in the centre of the screen and is the focus of the band. Examples of this are in the barn during performance scenes as he is stood in the centre, in front of the other band members, holding a microphone; another example is when the band members are all doing a synchronised dance and Steve does something different, which makes him stand out.
The villain of the music video would be the only female in the band, she is represented as the villain because at approximately 1:13 of the music video, she pushes Steve (lead singer) down a hill. This shows that she is either jealous of the hero, or hates the hero and wants to defeat him; this is often the role of a villain. Villains do usually have sidekicks however, which in this case would be the other two male band members, as just after Georgia (villain) pushes Steve (hero) down the hill, Lewis and Will (sidekicks) catch Georgia before she falls down the hill as well.
In this music video there is no damsel in distress, there is only one female member of the band who would instantly be stereotyped as the damsel of the video, however she is dressed in a way in which she fits in with the males. The stylists specifically made Georgia blend in with the boys by not making her the centre of attention, but also by wearing not particularly girly clothes.
There is however a character role of a 'donor', this is the person within the media product that aids the hero. In this case the role of the donor would be taken by Will, the drummer in the video. A drummer's role in a band is to supply the main beat of the song, so some would argue that Will is aiding the hero by giving a backing beat to the song to support the main sound of the song.
Todorov's theory is that there is a form of storyline to every media product: it begins with an equilibrium; then something occurs to disrupt the equilibrium; and at the end the equilibrium is either restored or changed. This is the typical 'beginning, middle, and end' sequence of a story.
The beginning equilibrium of this video is in the daylight, the band members are all messing around and dancing throughout the majority of the video; however there is a change at approximately 1:56, as the lighting of the shots suddenly become night time. It is clear that these shots were actually filmed at night, in the dark, as there are shots of the band outside running through a forest, as well as sitting in the boat, and standing around the coffin. Todorov's theory in this instance also relates to the postmodernist term of 'bricolage'; this is when something is interpreted in a different way depending on a change in something. For example, the band members running through a forest in daylight is fun and adventurous, whereas the band members running through a forest at night becomes odd and scary.
Goffman's theory is that there are four main character roles, his theory is similar to Propp's, although it is more specific. The four roles of Goffman's theory are: the protagonist; the deuteragonist; the bit player; and the fool. These four roles fit well to the four band members within this music video. The protagonist is the main character role, which is taken by Steve, as he is the lead singer. This role is closely followed by the deuteragonist, which is the role taken by Lewis; this is because Lewis is the guitarist who is left alone on set at the end of the video to finish the song, so he plays a big part as he is the last band member to be seen as the video ends. The bit player is the character whose specific background is more mysterious and unknown, this role would be taken on by Will, the drummer; Will comes across as a mysterious character as he is on the back of the set in the performance shots, and is usually on the edge of the disjuncture shots. The fool is taken by Georgia, the only female member, this is because she wears some funny things, such as: a banana costume; a shower cap; and a colander on her head whilst skateboarding.
Levi-Strauss' theory is straight forward, binary opposites. By the term 'binary opposites', Strauss means that two things contrast each other, for example male/female, or day/night.
The binary opposition of male and female does not apply in this video as Georgia is styled to blend in with the other 3 male band members, it is also stereotypical for females to have long hair, whereas Georgia has a short hair cut in a cropped style. However, the binary opposition of day and night applies well to this video, the majority of the shots are filmed in daylight or artificial light, however there are a few shots filmed at night. The night and day opposition also relates to the bricolage theory, another example of this is, the band members dancing around a coffin in the day is quirky and fun, however dancing around a coffin at night becomes creepy and disturbing.
