“I WANNA GET LOST WITH YOU” MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS

By Jon Black

Narrative The band plays the song throughout the

piece as the narrative shows a male protagonist on a night out with a romantic interest. Throughout they become more intimate, and the narrative is placed over several days, several dates- some at night, some in day. The music video ends with the two protagonists happy in a relationship, so it could be seen as a closed narrative music video given the closure and their relationship issues in the middle of the video being resolved.

The narrative, as inferred by the relationship shown throughout, appears to be linear as it shows the relations between the protagonist and the love interest in chronological order.

Cinematography The cinematography throughout differs. The performance

is shot under red lighting which is fairly low key, connoting passion and love- reflected in the visuals- however the narrative of the video differs between the red lighting, then to more high key (at night), and finally shots at the end are very high key and vibrant (shot in the day). This juxtaposition could be seen as a visual binary opposition showing the ups and downs of a relationship, which is later shown through the narrative visuals and emphasised by the lyrics “I know we did some wrong //you told me that now //when I came to you //that you were with someone”

Cinematography

The above left shot is presumably of the band’s lead singer, as he sings the track throughout the music video. The red, as mentioned, could be seen as inferring passion or love, but also of danger and unpredictability- perhaps showing through the visuals that relationships will have problems amongst the passion.

Cinematography

The narrative sequence then moves to shots taken in an urban city, with the protagonist male and females being the focus of the shots (no one else featuring in the sequence of interest). The colour palette is more green and less poweful than the red lighting, inferring bliss or comfort for the characters in the narrative.

Cinematography

These shots come after the night shots and shows the characters under a bridge. The lighting makes it so they’re in shadow, yet the background behind them is bright- showing that they, and they alone are going through a rough patch in their relationship.

Cinematography

However, once their problems were resolved, the characters in the narrative moved into the light, and all narrative shots featured afterwards were shot in high key lighting, which infers that they are comfortable with each other again, and their relationship issues have been resolved at the end of the music video.

Representation In regards to representation of women, it could be said that

Goodwin’s ideas of Voyeurism (linking to Laura Mulvey’s theories on the male gaze in the media) has featured fairly heavily in the music video, as the protagonist male’s focus for the majority of the music video was the protagonist female- in which close up shots were used a lot to focus on her external beauty.

Representation of men in the video is interesting, as the protagonist doesn’t show many masculine traits that are associated with hegemonic masculinity, however isn’t shown as being feminine or “un-manly”, which is a representation that many artists are shown as- Ed Sheeran being an example.

Both characters wear casual clothing throughout the video, and seem to be relatable in character to an audience, yet they feel slightly stereotypical in the sense that their narrative seems to be a love story cliché- what they’re going through could be anyone. Though this could be to make the characters relatable through the actors playing them.

Editing The piece is rhythmically edited throughout,

and cuts between the performance and narrative sections are featured throughout. The pacing is fairly steady throughout the video, if not a little fast- making me as a viewer feel excited by the narrative unfolding in the video. It also helps me understand the narrative as the balance between narrative and performance is just right- allowing for narrative development without the band segments being overshadowed.

Goodwin’s Theory The visuals link to the theme of romance and love in the lyrics,

as the narrative centres around a young couple in love. The music also links with the visuals, as the upbeat track could

be seen as being reflected in the bright and vivid cinematography, as well as through the pacing of the editing.

There is a certain extent to the emphasis of looking, as the female character is looked at a lot by the male protagonist, however there doesn’t appear to be objectification leading on from that- more romantic interests in the protagonist’s mind.

Intertextuality: The shot of the couple looking up at the sky could be referencing the cliché used in films (an example that comes to mind is Pixar’s “Up”) of couples laying in a park, looking up at the sky and seeing shapes in the clouds.

Other Theories Todorov: The video seems to follow Todorov’s idea of

equilibrium, dis equilibrium and new equilibrium. The start introduces the characters and establishes setting as a city (equilibrium), the sequence then moves to showing that some problems in the relationship arose (dis equilibrium), but they’re resolved and the video ends with positive closure (new equilibrium).

Levi Strauss: I suppose in regards to Strauss’ theory on Binary Opposition, it could be said that the male and female characters of which the narrative centres around are said opposition, both genders juxtaposed with each other yet together throughout the piece.

Settings The Performance area: The

first location is shown throughout (cross cut with the narrative segments), and is the location where the band is playing the actual song. The lighting is red, and a little low key, and in these segments their faces and instruments are focused on heavily, due to the need of the record label to sell their artists (“Stereophonics”) through showing their image in the music video.

Settings The Club: At the start of the

video (the equilibrium), a club location is used in which the male protagonist and the female character are shown talking to each other, drinking, and having a good time. Similar to the shots of the band, this location also has red lighting, inferring passion and love in the air- and the characters are heavily featured, shot in either Close up or Mid shot, and using over shoulder shots to show each characters reaction to each other.

Settings The city at night: The

narrative sequence then moves to the city at night, and the lighting contrasts with the club as it’s more neutral and natural than the red- having a green/blue hue aesthetic. The characters are again featured as the focus of this section, and are shot in Close up and mid shots, though long shots are used in this part of the sequence to orient the viewer (to show the audience where the characters are in the city when the location changes).

Settings A grass field in a park: This

location only features in a few shots, but is relevant in regards to intertextuality, given the location being a cliché place for a date in the media.

The lighting is high key in these shots, and taken from an aerial angle- showing the characters in mid shot to show their open body language and happy facial expressions.