Textual Analysis of "Helena" by My Chemical Romance

It was released in 2005 and directed by Marc Webb, who has directed many other My Chemical Romance music promos such as “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” “I Don’t Love You” and “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na)”. “Helena” was filmed in the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in LA, California, where most of the video takes place.

It is mainly a narrative video, with a performance element combined with it, as the band play in the church to the funeral goers, which is part of the narrative. The song is about Gerard’s deceased grandmother, but the narrative isn’t about her, it is about a young girl who died tragically, her memorial service and her passing into the afterlife.

Inside the church quite high key lighting is used, with a fairly dark colour palette of reds, browns and blacks, giving an unusual vibrancy to the darker colours and also to the tone of the video, as it is a lot brighter than would be expected of a funeral. However at the end of the video, as the coffin is being carried outside the palette changes and becomes far more muted, consisting mainly of greys, blues and blacks, but still has high key lighting, keeping quite a high level of detail throughout the video. This gives it fairly high productions values, which sort of goes against the theatrical nature of the video that is created by the rich reds and browns used, and the dancers, as theatre often has an improvised element to it, but the video feels like it’s been perfected a lot. The colours appear to only change after ‘Helena’ has danced through the church, possibly signifying her departure into the afterlife, causing the colour in her life and her friends/family etc. to be washed away with the rain. The rain in fact, was not planned in the video at all, it just happened to rain as they were filming, so Webb used it to his advantage, as he thought it would enhance the sombre atmosphere in pathetic fallacy fashion. All of the costumes are quite formal, black suits and black dresses for the females, inkeeping with the tone of the funeral and adding to the sober atmosphere. The band are derssed slightly differently as they have red ties and red accents to their clothes, possibly symbolising blood, and also to show a differentiation between them and the attendees.

Straight cuts and jump cuts are used all the way through the video creating a faster pace to match the song, as well as being cut on the beat to quicken the pace, much like in the “Fell in Love with a Girl” music promo. The camera work is fairly sophisticated as a varied range of shots are used, to convey some strong meanings throughout. A high angle shot type is commonly used, when looking down on Gerard or the dancers and funeral goers which could be showing either the ceremony from Gerard’s perspective, or possibly from ‘Helena’s’ perspective, as it is above them inferring she may be in heaven. Some low angle shots are also used, mostly down the aisle, looking up at the funeral goers or in the slow zoom towards Gerard at 1:36 which may be referring to ‘Helena’ as it is how she would see the people there from her coffin as she is carried out.

The video holds true to many of Goodwin’s six, firstly there is a link between visuals and lyrics, mostly because of the gestures Gerard makes as he sing i.e. as he sings “like the match you strike to incinerate the lives of every heart you stole” he motions as if he is striking a match, making his performance seem more dramatic, supporting the theatric feel of the video. There is also a strong link between the music and the visuals as the dancers within the video dance in time with the music, and make different moves to amplify the change in the music. This is shown quite obviously towards the end of the video as ‘Helena’ dances down the aisle in the bridge of the song, and spins round in time with the faster strumming of the guitar at (2:36), "dying" as the bridge ends. There is also the slight idea of voyeurism within the video, from the high angle shots making the audience feel like they are looking down on the people in the church, possibly like Helena is. Also quite strongly at the very end of the video, as the shot is from inside the hearse, as the coffin is put inside, making the viewer feel like they are in there with her, or like they are seeing it from her perspective. Also Gerard looks in through the hearse window, highlighting the separation between them and how they won’t be together again. Finally there are also many close-ups of Gerard’s face, as well as a few of the other band members too, as Goodwin states is a common theme in music videos, generally requested for by the music label.

I particularly like the video as the narrative is strong, and is parallel to the song as well. I also think the narrative is better because the band are included in it, showing that they have had an input on it's outcome and were actually involved.