Transylvania by McFly

The visual style of this video is very different and unconventional. The editing and characters used in this video provide the narrative for an old style film. All of the video is in black and white, which usually would provide an element of class and sophistication. However, in this video, it provides a dark hue and eeriness to the narrative. The use of crackly, wavering images in the introduction provide the typical characteristics of an aged, scary film; which is initially presented by the title of 'Transylvania'.

The narrative of this video is, however, quite difficult to follow. However, there are obvious intertextual references to both historical figures and film characters. Firstly, there is a comparison that can be made between the lyrical reference of 'Anne Boleyn' and the visual style of the characters, being often dressed in the typical dress of that time. Also, the use of the setting of the creepy old castle makes instant connections with the title of the song, which then leads to the character of Dracula. This again reinforces how alternate this video is by using such an intertextual reference, that again shows the purposeful eeriness of the setting.

Another unconventional element of this film is the absence of clips of the actual band performing the song. This is refreshing as it is typical for this genre to use an overwhelming amount of clips of the artist performing/miming the song lyrics, which is not once used in this video.
However, this narrative is very difficult to follow and doesn’t provide a clear story with a beginning, middle and end. This will be seen as unsatisfying to audiences as they want to see the full issue be resolved within the 3 minute video.