Animal Collective - In the Flowers

Camera: Through out the video the camera used is what seems like an old vintage camera as it has a low quality gradient effect which changes between black and white. At the beginning of the music video the camera looks through some bars at a city building and through out the video it makes you feel as if the camera is your eyes and you're looking at all these different locations and flowers. There is a good use of tracking in this video when the camera follows the man, however the only other bit of moving camera is used nearer the end of the video to follow the man or in the middle parts there are some 360 degree spins which give the audience that kind of dizzy feeling. There are quite a lot of still mid and long shots used in this video so that the audience can watch the dancers and the animation happening behind them. The camera often is fuzzy in other places an blends in with other shots creating a disorientating illusion.

Editing: There is a combination of normal camera and stop motion in this video. In parts of the video the director Abby Portner uses stop motion to engage the audience and to make the music video a little more interesting. Firstly the shoes are tied in stop motion, this is good because it takes a boring task and makes it look interesting to the audience. The next stop motion piece is colouring in the followed man, this shows the gradual passing of time rather than the audience watch the mans face get coloured completely they only see it done in blocks. A green screen is now used and there is flashing in the background to keep with the bands 'trippy' 'hippy' feel as their music genre is psychedelic rock. Through out the video the pace is kept well, the director keeps the pace of the music in line with everything happening in the video so it flows nicely and allows it easier to watch for the audience. There is some simple animation used in this video when images on the green screen start to move slightly, it looks as if this was done using flash. In this video there is a lot of overlay used and different shots begin to merge together, like a graphic match however they don't actually match. This video has proved itself very artistic and contemporary meeting the conventions of a psychedelic rock video.

Sound: The band is part of the psychedelic rock genre which also involves bands like MGMT and The Flamming Lips. The music is quite mellow however in places the synthesizers are quite loud and bold, however the director ensures the pace of the video is kept in time with the music. The video interlinks with the lyrics quite a bit there are lots of flowers shots in this video which is good because the song is called in the flowers.

Mise en Scene: There are many locations and lots of things to look at in this video. There are lots of objects from the city building at the beginning to the many flowers in the shots. The band are not featured in this video however there are three characters in this video the bearded man, he dresses in dark clothes and has a long dark grey beard however he does not look very old. The two dancers, the man dressed in dark Lycra with a 80's style pattern on it and the woman dressed in green Lycra, a black tutu around her waist and has doll like make up on her face once again representing a kind of 80's style. This could mean that the band are going for the 80's like sound with techno rhythms from synthesizers. Another location is a traditional carnival, however there are lots of little drawings over the film like the drawing of the little girl and the character made from flowers, this is to create familiarity with the song. Towards the end of the video there are some drawn masks that people hold up to their face and a mouth-less mask which is quite eary to fit with the horror like sound towards the end of the song.

I think this video is really random, yet artistic and contemporary. If you watch the other videos by Animal Collective most of their videos are like this. random crazy bits and pieces put together nicely in a video to create a psychedelic feel.