The Hives‘Wait a minute’

Appearance In the video for ‘Wait a minute’ the band members are again all introduced to us in formal dress. As you can see from the screenshots on the left, they are dressed in slightly more casual clothing that other videos/performances but I would still consider this to be formal due to the black leather jackets and white shirts. A member which stood out to me was the bass guitarist, shown below wearing a top hat and black sunglasses. I think that he was wearing these items for his performance as he is the only member that the video doesn’t cut to showing him miming lyrics, and so this gives the impression that perhaps he is too laid back to join in possibly? Or too ‘cool’?

The way they are dressed in this video is very similar to how they appear to their audience on their posters, CD covers and other music videos, following this theme of smart wear and mainly black clothes, which contrasts with the music they produce.

LocationLocation wise it appears that all band members are in the same room, although we as the audience cannot see much of the room apart from a slight glimpse at the yellowy/green wall which we see in the extreme close ups. The room does not appear to change at all throughout the video although the colour of the wall appears to change (at roughly the 2 minute mark) but this is just simply because of a reduction of the lighting used when filming. This change in lighting also matches the lyrics, which at one point say ‘my light’s out’ as the lighting in the video reduces on the lead singer.

Camera workIn the music video for ‘Wait a minute’ there is a common theme throughout regarding the camera work, as all shots are extreme close ups. This shows that the video is very low cost and simple, which could be deliberate as the video was released in 2012, and the modern viewer is not too bothered about a flashy video; they just want to here the actual song and don’t really take note of the video. However, I feel that this simplistic feel is very effective as it creates an interesting video in this case which easily grabs the audience’s attention.

Throughout the song, the cuts match sync points within the song and cutaway to different band members’ faces (often their eyes, mouth or a full face shot) miming the lyrics. The cuts start off relatively fast and then as the song progresses the cuts begin to speed up, as the tempo of the song does. The band members’ head movements also sync with the back beat of the song.

As the song progresses, as well as the cuts speeding up, the lighting is reduced on some shots and then the video flicks quickly between the ‘normal’ lighting and the reduced lighting shot.

PerformanceI found the performance from the band members in this video very interesting as I found it quite original and unique.

Something I found particularly interesting is that the band members are often shown with beads of sweat running down their faces, or sweaty hair. I found this interesting because all they are doing in the video is standing still and bopping their heads, however this sweaty look fits the image which you as a listener would imagine for The Hives because their music is very fast paced and aggressive, but for this video I did not except it after watching it and how they perform.

(Sweat on the singer’s neck)

Sweaty hair and beads of sweat on cheek