Bloc Party - Ratchet video analysis

Bloc Party - Ratchet

Bloc Party was formed in 2003 and rose to prominence in 2005, again around the cusp of both post-punk and Odd Shaped Head's popularity. The video is fully performance based and uses many special effects to create something different to the standard video. "Ratchet" was released in 2013.


The video features mainly close up of the singer and mid shots of the other band members. The camera stays still while all of the special effects move around the screen as to not make the viewer feel too dizzy. There is very little else in the mise-en-scene in order to not distract the audience and to make it easier to edit, I presume.

The special effects pulse and change in time with the music, focusing on the singer during the choruses and verses. The lip syncing remains constant throughout, making the video more illustrative than disjunctive. There isn't much of a story to the lyrics other than to have a good time, so a song like this is a good fit for this kind of video as it is more of a spectacle than enhancing the audience's understanding of the song. This kind of video is good for marketing as it gets people talking to their friends that may have not heard of the band more than a standard illustrative video would.


When the music slows down after the choruses, the whole mood changes as the camera angle changes from close ups to a panning long shot. This allows the audience a moment to concentrate on the music and gather themselves from the spinning special effects. The lack of special effects here is emphasised by the soft lighting, dark background and the band members looking away from the camera. This tells the audience that there isn't much to see in this section of the video, unlike the rest of it where it is impossible to catch every detail in shot.

The video continues in a similarly haphazard manner in terms of it's editing style, while adding in other filters and effects to keep the audience interested. These include black and white, short exposure and low definition fuzzy shots, a homage to 1980's technology in music videos. These styles juxtapose old fashioned special effects, such as the green screen background, and their own ultra modern image manipulation. This serves to further enhance how impressive their video is.

 All of this culminates in the final shot, the band members performing and interacting with each other, except the band members are an amalgamation of these spinning images we have been shown. It's quite hard to screenshot in a way that makes sense so sorry about that. This final scene is the most visually impressive and it gives the audience a reason to remember the video. As I alluded to earlier, it would be at this point just after the video has finished the audience would be at their most likely to share the video with a friend, so it is a good idea to end with a positive impression.