Metallica - Enter Sandman [Official Music Video]

Aside from being the Metallica song most people know about, the video for it is just as famous. The editing purposefully uses jump cuts to create a sense of disorder, chaos or anxiousness. The rapid transitioning between the choreographed story, the elderly sand man and the still shots of the band further intensifies the experience. The song's contents are of nightmares and the editing in the video is an editing professor's worst nightmare. The jump cuts get progressively more erratic and seizure inducing as the vocals kick in. It almost becomes impossible to distinguish who is the subject of the shot as the stills transition rapidly and the transparency varies from frame to frame. In regards to the main plot of the video, it is edited to follow the normal sleep cycle. The closeup of the child praying before tucking into bed transitions to the nightmare under way where the boy is drowning. As he is running out of air, the story fades to a medium shot of the character running on a mountain road. The video quickly transitions between this and the still shots of the band members before focusing solely on the guitar as the solo begins. Building to the climax of the solo, the running man transitions to an establishing shot of a roof in the city. From the Point of View of the subject, it appears they are running along the edge. It appears the character believes they are Spider Man as they try to jump to the next building. Upon realizing they are doomed, they look down to see the bed in the alleyway and the POV shot continues on the trip downward. The falling continues as the solo gets its second wind and transitions between the fall and shots of the boy having the nightmare weave in and out of our attentive gaze. As the breakdown of the song begins, we are given a shot of the sandman having his own nightmares in bed. The video continues this rhythmic pattern for the remainder of the song's duration. I would find plugging this into Avid will prove to be very insightful and fun to analyze frame by frame.