Freestyler – Bomfunk MC – Music video analysis

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Freestyler – Bomfunk MC – Music video analysis

00:00 In the subway, a guy in streetwear clothes seems to be dancing while the music intro starts playing in the soundtrack. The subway is very white/grey: white floor, light grey stairway, light grey walls, white train, white panels. All of the video will stay in light, clear, whitened colors. This technological, minimalistic, very clean subway, looks great.

World and structure: exposition of the plot to follow. Firstly, the space – urban and daily, then the style of the population living there – this streetwear-dressed guy, and lastly, the style of music that is listened to there.

00:10 The camera begins a panning movement to the left which reveals two young and pretty women – in light-coloured clothing – then a Caucasian teenager with dreadlocks and big earphones on his head. The man, who wears a thick jacket, dances like crazy in front of the perfectly indifferent teenager. The train arrives and the teenager gets on, passing by the man without showing any emotion. The man in the jacket watches him, looking surprised. In the soundtrack the lyrics start (“Freestyler!”) on some punchy electro; a well-rhythmed rap flow and very dynamic, like the pictures.

Structure, characters and characterization: the exposition continues, enrichening the characters’ surrounding population with these two young women, who will hereafter hold a small role, and with this crazy dancer who helps in introducing the video‘s main theme – freedom through music – and seducing the viewer (who we can easily imagine is as young as the characters). The teenager will soon become the Hero of the plot and his emotional indifference already appears as his fundamental thematic property. Jaded, he watches the world around him as if it was a show.

00:49 The teenager walks down through the train, sketching a few dance moves in sync with the soundtrack, then finds a seat in front of a young man who stares at him. The teenager sings with the dubbed voice from the soundtrack.

01:06 The young man across from him seems to invite the teenager to have a look at something. The teenager looks at his hand at a small object which starts to vibrate. The teenager seeks to understand what is happening. He looks around him. Suddenly, the young man who was opposite him is leaving the train, which we see from the platform is starting to drive off again.

Structure and characters: this little scene contains the catalyst and the man who activated the small object (an MP3 player) suddenly takes on an actantial role as Mentor: the one who gives a mission, a goal to the Hero and a way to reach this goal. We can remark that this structure refers directly to the fairytale genre, in which a king or a magician gives a young Hero (often a prince) a magical object to help him in his quest.

01:19 Back to the train. The teenager choses a title on his MP3 reader: Bomfunk. A man with lots of hair sits in front of the teenager who is now activating a FREEZE function on his MP3 player which then freezes this neighbour opposite him. The teenager then activates FWD and the neighbour moves in fast-forwarded images. The teenager confirms that his remote control MP3 player is actually working by speeding up and rewinding his neighbour. Out on the platform, he makes the train quickly go forward and backwards, like in a film.

Structure: this magical MP3 player makes us enter Act II. The goal simply seems to consist of using the remote control to play the world as if it was recorded and viewable on-demand.

01:37 The teenager walks and dances, singing in sync, headphones on his head. He passes in front of three young and pretty women in white and red clothes, standing in the position of frozen dancing. With one strike of the magical player, he makes them move and they dance and sing, one after the other: playback, quick and sexy choregraphy. The teenager freezes them one by one.

Structure: simple adventure of Act II. The three young women do not have any real actantial role and are just a kind of toy projecting the teenager’s fantasies.

01:57 The young man who gave the MP3 player to the teenager is in a nearby phone booth talking with someone.

Characters: the Mentor seems to watch the Hero from afar.