Choice of Settings/Locations

Choice of Settings/Location

The first location in the music video is the little boy's bedroom (where he plays on his Xbox). The idea of him playing a 'war game' (Call of Duty) not only links to the target audience (young adults tend to play video games, with Call of Duty being very popular amongst this age group), but it also sparks the beginning of a series of flashbacks for the old man. The next setting is similar to the first; the living room. The living room is purposely made to look like it belongs inside a stereotypical 'old person's house' with old photos of the old man (who is a war veteran) when he was a soldier fighting in World War 2.

The flashbacks of the old man as a soldier take place in a woods (Hockley Woods) in the evening; this makes the clips used in the music video look darker (dark colours connote sadness and negativity, which links to the themes of the song like, for example, the corruption of the Government, war etc). When combined with the black and white filter, the clips from the flashback look as though they were filmed many years ago, with the filter also adding to the original darkness of the setting.

The next setting is the Church. This setting links to the lyrics "When the banks became cathedrals //And a fox became God //Priests clutched onto bibles //Hollowed out to fit their rifles //And a cross was held aloft", with the old man clutching the bible to his chest (again, links to the line "Priests clutched onto bibles").  This also obviously links to the religious side of the song.

The next location is the war memorial. The old man salutes the memorial since he used to fight in the army, therefore he shows respect to the fallen soldiers since he knows what it was like to have to go out and fight in a war.

The war graves are the final location we see in the music video. We see the war veteran laying flowers and a picture next to one of the graves; it is the grave of the soldier which died previously in the video. This again is the war veteran showing respect to the fallen soldiers.