"Ministry - No W" Deconstruction

Artist: Ministry
Song Title: No W
Genre: Industrial Metal
Year: 2004
Audience: Male 15-24

- The video is performance/ concept based, and features the full band performing in a desert.

- The video features an actor in a plastic George Bush mask dancing (0:28), as well as frequent edited pictures of Bush (0:08), often with a voice-over saying things like "evil". This kind of 'anti-capitalist' message is a common convention of the industrial metal genre.

- Some of the shot have had the borders edited so there is a black outline, this gives the effect of a TV screen, for example when the actor in the George Bush mask is standing in front of the American flag at 1:45

- Multiple video layers are also a feature that is used in this video, such as at 0:05, this is something that we are going to incorporate into our Nine Inch Nails music video.

- At the start of the video most of the shots have a blurred effect up until about 0:12, these kinds of blurry shots are something that I have noticed in several Industrial metal videos, such as "Stigmata" by Ministry.

- The clothing that the band members wear are typical for not just the Industrial genre, but for metal as a whole, for example the sleeveless tops, big boots and dark sunglasses.

- The band performance scene challenges the conventions of Industrial metal videos is a way, as the common performance location for a video of this genre would be a simulated, indoor gig environment, in a generally quite small space, such as the small rehearsal space used in "The Hand That Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails.

- An interesting sequence of shots occurs at 3:02, where the same long shot of the band performance is used, but the band members suddenly switch places.

- Something that I have observed as a common convention of music video as a format is when the focus of a certain part of a track is on one instrument, the video usually reflects this, and this occurs here, for example at 0:49 where the main focus of the music is the guitar riff, and a close up of the guitar is shown on screen.

- There are certain actions performed by the band members that reinforce the rebellious and aggressive nature of the band/song, such as the vocalist spitting on the ground at 1:14.