This is a scene from Paul Thomas Andersons' film 'Magnolia' where all the main characters uncharacteristically burst into song. This sequence is useful as it shows an entirely character and narrative driven performance of a song, in the form of a masque.
The masque is a narrative device which allows resolution or progression of a narrative through unconventional and self-referential means, such as singing, costumes/disguise and acting. It has more recently been used in the season finale of the hit drama, Skins (see below), which similiarly features a character severely injured (and in no state to be singing) which mirrors the dead character in Magnolia.
The characters in the sequence are actually singing the song, with emphasis on the lyrics which illustrate the emotions felt by the characters at this pivotal point in the film.
This use of music as a means of unifying these characters is unusual, especially in a film which remains realistic and grounded up until this point.
Although this is an extract from a film, which has an established and progressive narrative building up to this point, it stands alone as an extract which displays the emotional state of the characters effectively, whether the viewer has seen the rest of the film or not.
It is this ability to create a sense of narrative and portray emotion in a 3 minutes+ extract that I would like to incorporate into our own music video.
Below is the final moments of the series finale of Skins. (spoilers)
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