Abuse in the media

Kelly Clarkson's music video above follows the narrative of Kelly and a boyfriend heavily arguing - which obviously creates a flashback for her of her mother and father's relationship. She proceeds to sit with her 8 year old self to rewatch her parents fighting and fighting.

Within this shot the mise-en-scene is very significant. The walls are covered in old photos, suggesting that being entrapped in the past is likely to play a role in the music video. The audience watch her storm away from her boyfriend as she shows a relucatance to be around him - an implication that something else of substance is running through her mind, or this is a normal reaction for her. Her clenched fists also suggest a strength and toughness. 

After Kelly looks in the mirror to see herself as a child, she proceeds to walk around hand in hand with her young self. This is an implication that she never had the ability to grow up, or perhaps something that happened at this age has never been able to escape her and is now a big part of who she is. In this shot the father character is all in black, which classically presents him as a negative character - since black implies danger and darkness. The audience are given the impression that he was a dark part of her life. The hopeful expression on the childs face looking up at the father creates sympathy for Kelly, since by his closed-off body language the audience can already see his disinterest. The audience cannot see the father figures face either, a method which we used in our video in order to create an intimidating persona (which is always more effective when left to the audiences' imagination.

The audience are then shown the effect upon the mother figure. Sympathy is created for her via shots of her waiting, taking pills and crying. Close ups such as this are also used in order to make the audience feel uncomfortable, since the topic isn't a comfortable topic and the song itself focus' on a broken person.
When the dynamics of the song changes to a slower pace and lower key, quickly-cut shots of the father acting out - pushing over a table at the mother and numerous shots of fighting. The long shot of the fight displays a stereotypical family house, family photos cover the wall and it looks iconic. This implies that this kind of family fued and dynamics can occur in any family, it is not always obvious.
It is then revealed to the audience that the father figure leaves, at which point the child version of Kelly runs away from herself. A suggestion that this is when and why she lost herself, and why her child hood was disturbed. This is re-emphasized by the fact that the narrative at this point flashes back.

The fact that at the end Kelly triumphs tells her fanbase that she understands difficulty, and portrays her as a role model who has come out of a difficult time in her life, strong. She is presented as quite an admirable character, whose lyrics and songs are about more than trivial things - they bring support for her slightly younger target audience.

Pink uses a similar method of creating the impression that she has not moved on from her childhood, by having her childhood self also in the video. The opening few long shots show Pink in various positions obviously having an inability to sleep. Which quite obviously implies that there is something going on in her head, and she is presented as quite a downbeat character. Once her mother rings her, her childhood self appears and acts as the singer in the video aka creating the impression that despite Pink is now an adult these lyrics are things that her childhood self has got to say.

There are many mid shots displaying how her childhood self is pulling her in different directions and will not leave her alone. The very very dim lighting and minimalistic kitchen setting implies to the audience that this woman does not own much and has had some difficulty living her life.
When the dynamics of the music change to talk about the 'pretty happy family portrait' the lighting suddenly changes, upon the adult Pink the lighting is very bright and clear. Short shots of the young Pink laughing and smiling are then cut in, this creates an unnatural almsot sinister effect since the audience due to the beginning of the video have the awareness that neither the young character or the old are happy.



They are watching a TV show with the "perfect family" on it, round a dinner table happily laughing. The young Pink then gets taken into the TV and the video ends on the family posing for a family portrait. Thereby this shows to the audience once again how just because a family seems happy, that does not mean they are so. Since it cuts between this family and Pink left now on her own miserably in the dim lighting again, it creates a huge isolation for Pink's character.

Since Pink has a young child (as herself) miming the lyrics for a majority of the video, it creates a similar impression to Kelly by suggesting to their audiences that they were not always as strong as they are now. Therefore if Pink's fanbase is feeling vulnerable and in need of help, so did she once. When Pink overtakes miming the song from herself, in the warehouse setting she is presented as a strong and capable woman. A woman her childhood self looks up to and needed (she needed the aspiration to get through) therefore she is presented as someone to aspire to. Widely Pink is represented as a strong woman, often singing about sexism and independence and having music videos to reflect this. Thereby by creating this personal music video which reveals her vulnerable side slightly more, it confirms that you can be seen as a strong person no matter what hardships you go through. Young fans of the singer therefore alongside this video, will be able to relate to Pink and aspire to be like her - a person who has triumphed.


The final video that I looked at - Runaway love, is a more extreme adaptation of children who come from broken homes. The video begins with a mid shot of a leaflet flying across a dirty pavement - perhaps a metaphor for children trying to run away from a harsh world. Similar to in our music video, then many close-ups/mid shots are used of young teenagers looking into the camera or just away from it. Presenting them as lost, distant, scared, vulnerable etc.
Since the music video is set in America most of the themes featured within it are quite shocking (eg gun crime). Even the shots with the two artists are located by a heavily grafitied bridge. The bridge may be symbolic of the children looking to escape, or the journey that they have to go through in order to come out happy on the other side.
The rap tells the story of three different narratives. The first of a young girl Lisa with a mother who is addicted to drugs with a sexually abusive step dad. There is a shot of her glancing through the doorway, peering into where her mum was sitting with wide eyes and a careful stance which represents her as shut away, entrapped and disinvolved in her parents life. Often the only light presented is through Lisa's window or a door, which implies to the audience that the only chance Lisa has of a good life would be away from this family.
Throughout the three different narratives sympathy is created for the girls, by emotional shots of them, the constant long shots of the posters covering a variety of different walls which create the impression that it is not just these three girls facing dire situations at home but numerous, numerous young people. The music video ends with Mary in the middle of a circle of lost looking girls with candles in a dimly lit, as if firstly looking for guidence. Secondly it almost has religious connotations - there are shots of religious statues and it also implies that the children are looking for guidence and lost. The artists are suggesting that not only does their music have a political meaning behind it, but also a spiritual comfort for their audience.

Both singers/artists in this music video are almost presented as saviours. Ludacris is always in the corner of the character's rooms/situations, therefore he is presented as almost angelic looking over the children as if to take care of them. It is also quite intrusive and makes the audience feel slightly uncomfortable, which I feel the video does as a whole since it's such a sensitive subject, the artists obviously wanted to create a music video to evoke a reaction from their audience.

 

Representation in our video

As Laura Mulvey suggests, a majority of modern music videos objectify women in order to satisfy the male gaze. (The camera work is focused on the way in which a man would look at a woman, the women are often promiscuously dressed and are often objectified).
However despite this, Ellie is the main character in our music video who is 13 years old and in no way did we use the male gaze in the video. We based our video around the strong narrative and plot, as most indie-pop music videos do rather than having performance domination. The young girl is represented as vulnerable and lonely, in white for a majority of shots to show her innocence and purity.
We used lots of high-angled shots to emphasise this loneliness, presenting her as a sweet character. In a way we used a stereotypical representation of a young girl, since obviously there are some children who feel as though they do not fit in with their family and seem invisible, without a voice. Yet music videos typically do not feature young girls in such a way where they dominate the video and it is an explanation of their life.
The black and white effect adds to this purity, since we knew that we could explore the extreme dark and light aspects of the film in order to portray to the audience the dark nature of her situation with her father and yet her innocence against that.

When shooting the father, we used very dim lighting and attempted to capture only his silhouette in a dark doorway - firstly to create an enigma, overall things are far more intimidating when they are unknown or a partial mystery. Also to create the character of a traditional villain, the shot automatically seems intimidating and scary therefore the audience are more likely to feel empathy for the young girl.

During shooting, the representation of the characters was something we were constantly aware of. The opening shot of Ellie sat surrounded by the flashing lights, we thought particuarly important as it opens the video - therefore it is the aduiences' first impression of her as a character. The blackout beginning implies to the audience that firstly, their is darkness in her life and she may be from an unpleasant background. When the lights begin, and she is sat staring into the camera, surrounded we aimed to represent her as isolated and vulnerable. The lights symbolise the action that surrounds her, and how she feels as if she is sat in the midst of it all in the dark. We positioned the shot so a majority of the lights are in fact taller than her, thereby within the shot it emphasizes her youth and vulnerability of character. Since her gaze is locked onto the camera, she is represented as vacant and seperate from whatever action is going on in the scene.


I decided to look at Lana Del Rey's 'Summertime Sadness' for representation in a similar genre to our music video. Firstly because the video's main aspect of Lana, in similarity to how ours follows Ellie's character.  

The first shot of Lana is shown below, the red tint changes in colour as the shot goes on, therefore representing her as in a dream-like state, lost. Her parted lips and vacant eyes also almost present her as vulnerable. Notice how the first audiences' impression of her, is that her presence in the music video is not to satisfy the male gaze. She is neither promiscuously dressed or presented in a provocative manor (the mid shot isn't revealing in any way).
The background seems pure and almost heavenly with the tint applied, representing her as quite angelic and feminine. Yet the red tint has obvious connotations - love, desire etc. Taking the red as a representation of love, Lana is presented as deeply in love since her colouring is so deep and her surroundings being also tinted red suggest that love has changed her world.

One of the following shots is of Lana in an almost a religious pose, the setting of this shot features many similar trees and an equally naturalistic background. Therefore Lana is represented as almost goddess-like, the graceful pose paired with the natural, pure background present her as being likewise pure and good. However, the fact that she then proceeds to throw herself off of this cliff reiterates my previous point of her also being presented as vulnerable. An unfortunate stereotype of women within music videos (and often the media) is that they are presented as weak & powerless, espiecially compared to men.



This shot uses the transition of smoke to introduce it, which firstly creates the impression of a clouded mind/confusion. This is emphasized by Lana's body language and positioning, as she is looking down away from the camera in the midst of smoke, since it implies that she is tiring of this. The dim lighting also implies a dark state of mind. Yet on the contrary, the smoke also represents fire and destruction - an implication that women in relationships are negatively affected by relationships. This is reiterated by the lyrics of the song, it begins as if Lana is describing a past story.  

We use a silhouette in our music video in order to create a fearful/ scary character, who was immediately represented as intimidating. On the other hand, Lana uses the device completely differently  - since the song and music video follows the narrative of a previous summertime love, the use of her silhoutte presents her as empty /in a dark place. However the white light around her again presents her as angelic and feminine. Which itself is a similar representation of women which we aimed for with Ellie however using different strategies - such as using dresses and skirts for her costume, getting her to use airy and feminine body language in order to present her as delicate. Yet this was mainly for the purpose of creating sympathy for her from the audience, based on the nasty father-daughter relationship. 

Tom Odell - Another Love

This music video begins with Tom's face in an extreme close up, very dimly lit. The slightly blue tone of lighting creates the impression of gloom and sorrow. The zooming out from Tom's face to a long shot, implies primarily that Tom's emotions are of importance in the video and it will be from his perspective. The fact that his face is dimly lit, with lots of shadows cast over suggests to the audience that the character is in a dark place and since the future is associated with brightness and optimism, the fact that his face looks dim may be an implication that the character is also stuck in the past. As a girl appears in the background, her face is not shown, only her arm - a suggestion that her character is quite unimportant to him, he perhaps feels her presence but they do not have a personal, intimate relationship.

The narrative follows a circular story line, most of the time it does follow a linear story line, however most of the shots are flash-backs from Tom's memory therefore it starts and ends in the present but the bulk of the content is how the relationship went downhill.

As she touches his shoulder he begins to sing, a suggestion that he is being pulled out of his daydream with his eyes locked on the camera - to his actual life, as if shaken out from it. As she looks up at him and takes herself down to his level, his face slowly tilts in her direction however his eye line does not adjust. This may be a metaphor for his awareness that she is there, and he desires to acknowledge her - however something always pulls him back. As the camera continues to zoom out, a bland room is revealed - with a few feminine touches such as flowers and a glamorous mirror. This blandness reflects in a way Tom's lack of life and dullness of character towards his girlfriend featured. The fact that then she appears in the mirror reflection getting changed, the audiences' attention is pulled to her and yet he remains staring at the camera, in implication that she may aswell be a reflection to him, or not there at all since his focus is never based on her.

Her character proceeds to walk around past him, the audience wonder if she is trying to capture his attention, or just displaying her boredom being in the relationship. Since she pulls her suitcase from behind is chair, this may be an implication that he is the reason behind her leaving or perhaps he is so stuck in the past & what should of been put behind him that she leaves him with no choice.

 

tom

The fact that Tom is constantly looking at the camera and not once looks at his girlfriend, may firstly demonstrate to the audience how distant and non-present he is in their relationship. However it may also be a metaphor for Tom's previous love, he cannot take his eyes off the camera, similar to the way in which he cannot take his mind from the past. Even as the camera movements shake and the action around him reaches it's climax, there is nothing which will bring his character back.
 

Shooting Schedule

 

Shooting Schedule

Date and time	Location	Travel	Cast	Crew	Equipment	Props & Costume	Scene & shots
14/10/13 4.00pm	My house – The light scene in my lounge	Lift with my mum	Ellie as girl	Chloe Holly	Camera Tripod Lamps for lighting	White dress Lamps Sheets to cover sofa/any unfitting furniture	Extreme long shots of Ellie in between the lamps   Some CU’s of Ellie and the effect of the lighting on her face.
14/10/13 5.00pm	My house – The lounge to shoot the fire scene	“”	Ellie as girl	Chloe Holly	Camera Tripod	White dress Fire place	Mid shot of Ellie and the reflect of the fire   Over the shoulder of the fire   Extreme CU of the flickering in Ellie’s eye
14/10/13 5.30pm	A field and a simplistic lane	By foot	Ellie as girl	Chloe Holly	Camera Tripod	Black skirt Black top	Close up of Ellie’s face entering into the shot of a field/lane   Close up of Ellie directly looking into the lense   Mid shot/long shot of Ellie spinning   Long shot of Ellie skipping and running
21/10/13 5.00pm	Dinner table scene – at my house	“”	Ellie as girl David as dad Nicky as mother Charlie as sibling	Chloe Holly	Camera Tripod	White dress Candles on table Dinner table and chairs	Long shot of dinner table scene   Zoom in on Ellie’s expression   CU of Ellie   CU of father
14/10/13	Running outside, leaving the dinner table scene	“”	Ellie as girl	Chloe Holly	Camera Tripod	Black skirt Black dress	Long shot of Ellie running   Mid shot of Ellie leaving
4/10/13 3.00pm	Running up a hill, Mousehold	“”	Ellie as girl	Chloe Holly	Camera (hand held)	~~~~~~~~~	Hand held shot of Mousehold   Still shot of Mousehold

Mood Board

The main actress

Chloe and I had the following ideologies of the young female character we wanted to act in the video:

• Innocent looking
• Pretty
• Sweet
• Captivating

Therefore we cast Ellie (my boyfriend's younger sister) who I knew would be confident and happy to act as this young girl. Her long curly hair and big brown eyes add up to her looking both innocent and beautiful. We thought her especially perfect for the introduction, when sat in the middle of the lamps in a dark abandoned room in a white dress - since we knew that she could easily look scarcely beautiful in this situation which was the look we were aiming for.

Also, since one of our ideas behind the video is a violent/difficult father-daughter relationship, since I know Ellie well, I could ensure that she was wholly comfortable with this concept.
Not only this, her dark hair would fit well against white/light day backgrounds and when we wanted to merge her into a dark background in order to represent her as invisible and unnoticed, this would be quite simplistic and easy to do.

The Storyboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-shoot evaluations





•  The fire shots were difficult to cspture due to the dim lighting elsewhere, so we took over-the-shoulders, CU's, ECU's and mid shots, changing the lighting in order to ensure that one would be successful.
• We also shot the girl character running and skipping, to fill in any gaps we find in editing.
• The light scene was difficult due to plugs and electronics, however we managed to spread the lamps out and still give an effective sudden light effect.
• We found that shots of Ellie stumbling gracefully into shot were very suitable and fitted in well, therefore we took quite a few shots of this in different locations.
• We had to try a variation of shots for the dinner table scene, since there was furniture in the way of the tripod and we found that there were many ways to present Ellie's character using different shots.
   
 

 

The Final Song Choice

'Hurt me' Noccankani has a fresh, upbeat yet the lyrics still provide the opportunity to produce a slightly dark/meaningful music video. The singer's voice is not only strong, with a sweet-tone - the recording of the song is clear and good quality.
Compared to our other choice also, the dynamics within the song often change - drum beats appear and stop, the volumne excels and calms etc. which provides us with creative opportunities, where the editing between shots can greatly increase to produce excitement and revert back to a gradual pace when the lyrics are of importance.
When listening to the song Chloe and I thought of a variation of ideas because it's such an active song and the extensive lyrics provided us with widely different ideas, which we could explore. Because of the emotional lyrics, both Chloe and I automatically thought of featuring a young girl for example.

Narrative Analysis

Beyonce - If I Were A Boy

The narrative begins with Beyonce and her partner explaining to the camera, key aspects of relationship (eg. commitment), which itself foreshadows that perhaps the music video will reveal that this couple are lacking these vital parts within a relationship. Opening in this way hints to the audience that this will be a very narrative-based music video, since it is very personal. Throughout the music video narrative, there are many cuts back to this shot type with Beyonce performing to the character - especially when an important lyric comes along, therefore it can be appropriately put emphasis on. It also takes the audience out of the very structive plot (where it explains the relationship of Beyonce and her  boyfriend) in order to reiterate the effect on her of this plot.

 Beyonce is then shown getting dressed and going downstairs whilst her boyfriend is cooking and truly making an effort for her, she is shown taking a brief bite of food then proceeding to leave. As reflected in the lyrics 'I would throw on what I wanted and go'.

Straight away the audience can tell that Beyonce is a neglectful partner, who seems to not care at all. As she gets in the car, she is seen flirting and laughing with her fellow policeman. As the video continues it becomes more and more apparent how neglectful, rude and disrespectful Beyonce is. Her boyfriend is shown sitting within his office, shopping for jewellry for her. Whilst she goes on to play the stereo-typical cheating role, standing behind her police partner and helping him to fire shots, going out to dinner with him and turning off her phone etc. Beyonce is represented as having all the power - a heavy physical job, being rather selfish and ignoring her boyfriend in order to put herself wholly first.

However it isn't until this scene within the music video that the audience realise how uncommited Beyonce is, the music video constantly builds this flirtatious relationship but she is clearly disrespecting her boyfriend in public and in front of him, whilst he sorrowly stands and watches. As she realises that he is watching, immediately she comes over however this is when he snaps. As they arrive home, the music breaks and the dialogue is 'When you act like that I don't think you realise how it makes me look, or feel' 'Act like what? Ain't like i'm sleeping with the guy', the audience feel a lot of sympathy for the boyfriend at this point. Beyonce also seems guiltless and unphased by her partners frustration and upset. Then there is a short humming sound effect and Beyonce repeats what her boyfriend had just said, then the boyfriend laughs and says 'Ain't like i'm sleeping with the girl'. The music begins again, 'but you're just a boy' and then the boyfriend character is shown walking down the stairs to Beyonce - who has made him breakfast. As her character did, he takes a bite and goes off to work. Only to get in his police car and laugh along with his policewoman partner.

The whole idea of the narrative was suggesting if I did everything that you did to me, you'd be outraged. The narrative of the music video becomes clearer, it is more stereotypical for a man to be disloyal in a relationship, it makes more sense in a way for him to work as a policeman and her to work in an office, wondering what he is doing (stereotypical womanly traits). Everything that Beyonce did, was just showing her boyfriends actions and the audience's sympathy is transfered to her. The lyrics reinstate the sad message developed by the narrative.
As the music video concludes, the audience are left with the overall narrative impression that the woman that the audience are introduced to primarily in the video, has been heavily afflicted by the actions of the plot.

In Indie-pop genre

Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks



 Our chosen song 'Hurt Me' falls under the genre of Indie-Pop music, which has a similar tone to the above song by Of Monsters and Men. Their video takes on animation and special effects in order to create a fantasy world, where the characters almost seem as if puppets. Their jolted movements run alongside the beat of the music, which keeps the video as up-beat as the song/genre.

The setting/locations and a majority of the characters are in black and white, the hero however is covered in beautiful colours, her face is painted in majestic blues, golds and deep reds, therefore she stands out against the dark monsters and villains of the video as the good character. This enhances the majestic aspects of the video and provides fantastic cinematography, one of the best aspects of this video is how beautifully it looks throughout. Like many Indie-Pop music videos, the video definitely has it's abstract moments, since Indie-Pop is a relatively newly emerged genre, concepts within the videos often are filled with creative and modern ideas.

For example, the above shot of a man emerging from a dark rock is a very abstract complex, the white painted faces with the black detail presents the band/characters as almost tribal. Throughout the video these tribal characters are shown venturing on some kind of adventure, since the video has such a strong narrative it is gripping, since the audience desire to know how the adventure ends. The whole prospect of an adventure mixes well with the Indie-Pop genre, since it is about excitement and is overall mostly up-beat and positive songs come from the genre. Like the strong narrative shown in this video, our music video will also have a strong narrative input in order to do what this video has achieved and keep the audience entertained. The video features exciting moments where the narrative  reaches high points eg fighting and action between the hero and the villain takes place, the explosions  and falling through the ice. Points like this appear in most indie-pop genre music videos, where the action is dramatic, such as in Beyonce's 'If I were a boy' video, where she discovers her boyfriend is disloyal, these scenes often appear when the song dynamics change. 

 

Editing

The CGI and effects throughout the music video create a beautiful cinematography and also help to emphasise the escapism often featured in Indie-pop music videos, to highlight the feel-good aspect of the tone of the music. Each shot pans and zooms alongside the action of the characters, each shot is extremely steady and the transitions are smooth since unlike rock/punk music, there are few harsh-sounding instruments or moments within this genre, therefore the editing reflects the smoothness of the genre. The above shot displays a transition in the middle of the video, where the scene changes from going above ground to beneath it, the camera physically pans downwards. The shot physically falls alongside the instrumental piece of music, this builds suspense for the last chorus. It shows the levels of earth, detailed, once again displaying the attention paid to the CGI throughout the video. 

 

Intertextuality

 

The band use the aspect of myth throughout, Myths 'are transmitted to convey religious or idealized experience, to establish behavioral models, and to teach'. Therefore the video uses the implications of a feel-good world, which takes the audience out of their own world. The band may of wanted to use icelandic tales in order to emphasize the soft, sweet tone of the music which often changes dynamics - ie. giving them the opportunity to change aspects of the tale and develop it.

  

Mise-en-scene

The colouring throughout the video, despite the black and white editing, a majority of the characters are dressed in black, possibly in order to hint to the audience that these are rather unimportant characters or perhaps to half blend into a slightly bleak, dimly-lit world in order to wholly create a fantasy world. The locations also, are just as interesting and eye-appealing as the characters, the gargoyles molded into the mountains, owl statues and the floating boat are all carefully edited in order to create a dark setting for the narrative. However this changes, as the drum-beat picks up in the midst of the song and the volume increases (AKA a more enthused part of the song), the characters travel through a snow storm and the background adapts from black to white, where the characters stand out more and seem as though they have developed in their journey.  

The above shot also shows how the mise-en-scene of the white, pure background, against the dark demonic creature/villain of the video. As he breaths fire and smoke, this emphasises the evilness of his character, the black smoke also knocks the adventurers back - displaying his power. The size comparison and also the angle of the villain (looking down upon the characters) presents him as over-powering and intimidating. The whiteness of his eyes may also be a suggestion that he is demonic or inhuman.

 

As the music slows down before the final build up, the characters fall through the ice in slow motion. This may be a metaphor for the lyrics after this action 'you're gone gone gone away, I watched you disappear, all that's left is the ghost of you'. A river can be many things including dangerous, the current could easily drag someone away which it is quite apparent that's how the speaker of the lyrics feels about their lover. Falling through ice is also an unpredictable and sudden action, therefore perhaps the speaker feels as if losing this person happened so quickly and it was so unanticipated that they are left in shock and dispare over this.

 

The shot right shows the characters as they have fallen under water. Firstly I thought this may represent how the singer feels - disorientated, placed in the middle of no where finding it incredibly difficulut to breath. The characters still have their puppet-like stances even underwater, suggesting that perhaps the singer feels controlled and life-less. Within the shot, fish are featured to remind the audience that the video is set in a fantasy world (where the fish are beautifully detailed).

The audience are supposed to not only be entertained by Indie-Pop music videos, they are also supposed to be able identify with the lyrics and therefore the video. Within this part of the music video this character is represented as mistified and confused, the camera pans very slowly revealing many objects/locations/people around him AKA his head is literally spinning and many, many things are running through his mind. This may be a reference to the person that all that's left of is a 'ghost' considering the water slows down each action, mixed with the various background actions the person is presented as vacant and lost. Indie-Pop music often, if not almost always, features references to love and heart break. Often the music video will reflect this, perhaps it will not be the main aspect of the video (Little Talks Music Video seems to prioritise adventure and fantasy) however it often appears. This shot could easily be displaying to the audience a lover who is lost. The abstract nature of the video ie. the facepaint, costume choices, abstract locations and characters featured may be symbolic of the 'craziness of love' and reiterates how when people fall in love they say that they feel as if their eyes have been opened and they view the world in a different way.



Finally, like most Indie-Pop Music Videos (since the genre is mainly feel-good) the video finishes with a happy ending. The villain, due to the heroine of the video, transforms into a good character. This is shown by the bright, royal colours of the hero shining across to the villain and then being adapted by him, he is no longer black. Since black connotes danger, darkness, death etc. these bright colours visually show the change in his morality. The sun especially, shining behind him from above his head shows him as almost angelic. The lighting stops being dark and dim also. He is also shown sitting on the clowd rather than being under it, therefore he has metaphorically risen above this darkness and is now in control of himself and has chosen to be above his villainous side.