Opening Narrative Analysis...Green Day "When September Ends"

When September Ends is a classic video whereby the artist has chosen to incorporate a narrative within the video. Using actors opposed to the band themselves they have created a sense of 'two different worlds' for the viewers. 

This video opens with a classic mise-en-scene shot discovering the setting of the video. The producer has decided to use a conventional romantic setting, a wide field of flowers and had used a young couple holding hands, which is a typical CODE of young love. We can tell that the actors are in love by the way the camera uses intimate work to read their emotions, focusing on them kissing and looking in each others eyes.The warm colours also convey the feel or warmth and happiness the couple feel for each other.  All these codes add up to enable the audience to acknowledge and accept the intense feelings the couple have for each other. 

A typical convention for many music videos which incorporate narrative would be to being with the narrative being separated from the song, with maybe lightly played music in the background. This makes the audience focus on the story rather than the song which gives off and creates a more cinematic video, which then adds to the separation of the two worlds...narrative and artist. This is also enhanced by the high quality filming the producer has chosen to use and the fact that actors are used instead of the band themselves. In order to create a distinct separation between the narrative and the artist the director has used non diagetic music, with the bands music playing internally under the speech of the actors. By doing this the producer is slowly introducing the artist into the video so there is a connection rather than a sudden change in music.