TEXTUAL ANALYSIS Kavinsky - Protovision

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Kavinsky - Protovision
The music video to Kavinsky’s synthwave song Protovision harks back to the days of 80s cinema, using blue colour grading and saturated colours against a dark background to make the video seem like an excerpt from an action film. This video serves as a good example as to how the use of colour and lighting can be used to give a video a particularly retro feel.
The video also somewhat holds up to some of the precedents laid out by Goodwin’s law, but not all of them. Whilst the video has a particular emphasis on the artist as the ‘protagonist’ of the video, the lack of lyrics makes it difficult to tell if the video relates to the song in any way.
The use of static shots in places one would expect very fast paced, dynamic shots helps to warp the overall atmosphere of the entire video, making what should be a tense and fast paced video feel far more relaxed and choreographed than what the actual content of the video might suggest.
The oversaturated neon colours used in the video gives it the feel of old VHS footage, where colours were often bright and saturated. This gives the audience a feel of nostalgia, perhaps reminding them of old ‘80s cinema and the action films that dominated the decade.
The video also breaks the fourth wall somewhat at the end, showing a clip of film tape running through a projector. This helps to break the conventions of music videos, suggesting that the video isn’t telling a story but just giving the audience something to go along with the video.

 Luke


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