Rise Against – Help is on the way music video

Rise Against – help is on the way music video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHiqGqoIGII&ob=av2e

Rise against is a punk rock band who are from Illinois Chicago and base their songs on various things such as natural causes, human and animal abuse. Their help is on the way video was made with real footage of hurricane Katrina and people injured on the street, the real footage was embedded within a short story of a family who are coping with the effects of the hurricane. Rise Against have created this video which has an ideological purpose to the song and the video as we will investigate further.

The video starts off with an establishing shot of hurricane Katrina destroying everything in its path which supports Todorov’s narrative theory of setting the scene because Rise Against want the audience to know how disastrous the hurricane really was. They had an establishing shot of a broken levee to show the location of New Orleans which enables the audience to put together the image and see that it’s Hurricane Katrina, also the fridge magnet which states French quarter to link to the location of New Orleans. Then it cut to a long shot of a respectable working class family (stereotype of a typical family) within their house packing food away, there is an imprint of cross of Christ on the kitchen cupboard door which shows that they are religious and religion is often known as comforting.

There is a shot of the boy with a torch which means that the main power has been cut off so they can’t use anything electrical and have to survive on what they have left, also that the hurricane is getting worse. This links to lots of close up shots of the family members which shows the anxiety on their faces. There is a mid-shot of the children’s feet in the water to connote the disequilibrium which makes the audience assume that this is the end and this creates sympathy for the family because they are about to drown, the subjecting shot increases the audience thought of them drowning because the water has risen, but the father who is shown as a stereotypical man as a caring father and a loving husband, showing all positive views of a dad clears a path out onto the roof.

There is a mid-shot of the family viewing pictures which creates a warm and comforting feeling because family is everything, this enforces the lyrics which states “I have my mother’s dreams; I have my father’s eyes you can’t take that from me, just go ahead and try”. This means the hurricane can take my home and everything around it but it can’t take my family and their legacy. Little boy slips of the edge of the roof and falls into the water and dad saving him connotes that even if things get worse dad will face the problems to keep his family safe.at that moment there is allow shot of a helicopter flying above them which means that they are vulnerable and are in need of help but the helicopter flies by which creates a false climax because the audience instantly thinks that help is on the way and they will be saved but it doesn’t and just flies by. In the video there is a moment where a snake slithers on the roof and later a butterfly land on the boys knee this creates a juxtaposition because in religious iconography a snake connotes the devil and a butterfly connotes an angel, as the snake comes first followed by the butterfly connotes that you have to endure negative before u see a positive.   

The way the narrative is instructed makes the video and meaning more powerful connecting the audience via emotions to the family. The only diegetic sound is the helicopter, the name of the song is “help is on the way” and the only diegetic sound within the whole song is the sound of help which is the helicopter. Rise against chose to use sound editing to create a meaning so that the helicopter is here but not showing the helicopter itself to let the audience choose the ending.