Nickleback's 'Someday' Text Analysis

Aside for my absolute love for this band and this video I feel that the concept and the style in which it is done is excellent. Though not uncommon in its idea the execution of shots, angles and everything in between how each actor moves in relation to each other makes this a truly superbly designed video and one I enjoy watching over and over.
This idea of course is the central character being dead. Though he and the audience are unaware of this. The character repeatedly tries to communicate with other characters, typically a love interest, and through the manipulation of all those elements above the audience remains unaware that they are deceit and no longer seen. The discovery of such fact is made even more poignant in this video as death is only clearly shown when the love interest is killed also, When her ghost can finally see our protagonist it is clear he has been dead all along.
Though this great realisation doesn’t occur until the final scene there are many hints throughout the video which build up to this ending that display the true skill of the director. For instance the first narrative shot shows us a woman crying whilst looking at a newspaper, the paper we later discover contains an article on her partners death. However with the next scene of her throwing the paper combined with her packing a suitcase as described by the lyrics and the presence of her also upset partner we disregard the papers relevance and assume that anguish of the man is a result of an argument. Angles and misc-en-scene help this misinterpretation he is often in the background and so seen by the audience but not by the character. This is manipulation is also used in other scenes such as the car when he is bashing on the window. It is originally thought that his strong action are the cause of her upset and the result of her death though we later discover this is grief.
Another technique used within the video to enhance the narrative and style as well as to foreshadow the conclusion is special effects. One of the best examples is during the begging of the video in a seemingly insignificant shot. The alive woman steps through a puddle and leaves footprints behind her. She is then followed by the man who does not. The quick continuity editing of this hinting scene helps to enhance to brilliance of the video whilst not bluntly giving away the finale. Other hints similar to this include the shot of the paper seen previously and the shot of her rear view mirror which doesn’t show him running behind her. These hints though part of the overall narrative are also very carefully linked into the lyrics which state ’why weren’t we able to see the signs that we missed.’
The narrative and how it is established using media techniques is what I believe makes this video so powerful however as the video still is a promotional device for the band, the establishing and close up shots of the band playing and performing the song are also integrated within the video.