The Prodigy - Take me to the Hospital

Textual Analysis               The Prodigy - Take Me To The Hospital

The music video for Take Me To The Hospital features several elements that could categorise it as a niche video, despite being a somewhat mainstream song.

The mise en scene is striking throughout the entire video, being extremely low lit and poorly colored - grey being extremely dominant. The video is also notably low quality and grainy, resulting in a gritty surrealism, immersing the viewer in the environment as the footage looks as old as the derelict hospital shown. At the same time, the actors are dressed in dark clothing - the band members are dressed in punk clothing and dance aggressively in many shots and all other characters are dressed in black overalls and wear a mask, which creates anonymity and removes identity from them - confusing and segregating the viewer as they have no protagonist-esque character to relate to in the video. Also contributing to this effect is the lighting - which is almost entirely low-key creating shadows presenting the actors as more intimidating.

Use of camera additionally adds to this - close ups of the band members are used in the opening of the song with close up shots of the environment of the abandoned hospital, which produces a sense of claustrophobia due to the frame constantly being filled and the intimacy of the shots - which are rarely long or mid shots, mostly close ups, which also emphasises unneccessary detail in the characters' actions empowering them further. Camera movement is often kinetic - shots are either tracking or handheld which enhances the energetic pace of the song and compliments the aggressive dancing of the actors, keeping the viewer on edge as they must keep up with the pace of editing and the video.

The editing in the video enhances the surrealism and creates a dislocation of time and space, with jump cuts replaying previous parts of the video, and cuts often between two of the same shot / camera angle but with actors moved or removed, mostly synchronously with the song. Additionally, the use of lip-syncing adds to the surreality as despite one person singing in the song, every band member lip-syncs to it in the video - going hand-in-hand with the song as some words are distorted. Stop-motion animation is also used synchronously at several points in the song resulting in seemingly impossible movement by the band members as they dance, all of which enhances the surreality of the video by disrupting continuity and creating a dislocation of time and space.

These textual elements all create a very surreal and dark atmosphere, which discomforts the viewer - they are essentially alone in this environment as all the characters are presented as aggressive and hostile, and there is no protagonist character in the video for them to connect with - so they are left to this surreality in an uncomfortable manner.