Evanescence – “Sweet Sacrifice”

1. Evanescence – “Sweet Sacrifice” Paige Roden

2. Style • Concept video • The lyrics of the song are quite dark and powerful • The flashing images in the video reflect and emphasise the meaning of the lyrics • The timing is also key; the pictures flash with certain lyrics at corresponding times • The band are also present and perform on the screens/in the setting

3. Integration of Lyrics & Song • A key element of this video is that the flashing images correspond with the lyrics, which is done to emphasise the meaning of the lyrics • For example, the flashing image of a spine is edited in when the lyrics say “Are you still too weak to survive your mistakes” – the spine is the main bone that keeps the entire skeletal structure and in fact the whole animal together, so it can be interpreted as a “survival of the fittest” idea, they are too weak to survive • Also metaphorically being that they can’t survive from the mistakes they made, so the physical element of the spine emphasises this meaning. • It may be seen that weakness and mistakes are a fundamental element of humans, such as spines are, but that people are arrogant because they cannot “survive” which may be interpreted as they cannot learn from mistakes because they are too arrogant

4. Editing Technique • Scenes of Amy lip syncing, the band performing on the screen and the images are all cross cut together, the cuts themselves are blended a lot of the time, this seems to have been done on purpose to make it appear more confusing and hypnotic • Some scenes are blended are blurred, emphasise the lyrics, particularly when Amy lip syncs in close ups, her face comes in and out of focus a lot

5. Camera Work • Close ups or long shots are used quite often in this video • The close ups are used so that the audience can see Amy’s facial expressions, which emphasise the lyrics because they can see emotions • The long shots show the surroundings, which seems to be a long path and old, burned trees, and also Amy’s aesthetics (red dress, red lipstick, red eye shadow/cheeks. The long shots also show the bands performing on screens, and because of the colours used on them they blend in with the fire • The bird’s eye view shot also shows the floor, which has been made to look as if there is fire • The camera has been purposely set at these angles and also shakes sometimes to emphasise the surroundings and the costume, possibly in order to make it appear as if it’s Hell, or at least somewhere dark and unpleasant

6. Link to Genre • Evanescence are a rock/metal band • From a band of this genre it would be expected to have powerful messages, meaningful lyrics, a dark atmosphere, have the band featured • The video for “Sweet Sacrifice” portrays these links to the genre, particularly through the setting and getting across the meanings of the lyrics, plus the band features in it a lot (Amy lip syncs and walks around, the band members are on the screen playing their instruments and then they all bump into each other once Amy breaks through the screen)