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.