Music Video Analysis

Tom Odell - Another Love

Lyrics and Meaning

This song is describing the pain the singer is going through by not being about to love the woman in his new relationship because of negative feelings caused by his previous relationship, such as trust issues and sadness. The fact that he stares straight at the camera for the duration of the video, ignores his girlfriend and shows no emotion towards her, makes the audience come to the conclusion that he is completely caught up with his past relationship.

Throughout the music video, Odell is seen to be staring straight down the camera, whilst seeming to ignore what is going on around him. He stays in the same position throughout the video, which adds to the eeriness of it. The camera position does not move during the entire video. Tracking shots are feature in the video. The use of a few similar shots e.g. closeups, medium shots, two shots and medium-long shots enhances the singer to focus on what he is singing about. In this case, about his his previous relationship is haunting him and affecting his current one.

The only slight variation of camerawork through the duration of the video is the use of some panning shots and the slow zooming out, which allows the audience to gain more sense of the location. The final shot resorts back to the beginning shot, with another extreme close-up of the singer's face. This technique of repeating a shot during a music video is common. The singers face acts as a fixing theme for the audience, which also promotes the artist.

Location

The setting of the video seems to be in a rundown flat, which is in very bad conditions as the audience can see the cracks in the walls and the missing paintwork. Nearer the end of the video where the bookcase and the other furniture fades into the picture, that could be interpreted as what the flat looked like before the girl left him. It also enhances the extent to which he has been affected by this previous relationship because when his girlfriend is wrecking the flat, he is just staring straight down the camera without taking any notice.

Mise-En-Scene

Costume

The singer is dressed very casually in a jumper and trousers. The female character, however, is seen to be in a series of different outfits and changes it throughout the video. This could enhance the fact that she is trying to impress the singer, and trying to grab his attention but he is not interested due to his previous love. This also shows the difference in their attitude within their relationship that she is making an effort with her appearance, whereas he is not making any effort at all.

Mise-En-Scene

Lighting

Low-key lighting is used at the beginning of the video, then it seems to gradually get lighter, which may be a connotation of the progression from nighttime to sunrise. For a major part of the video there is a spotlight to the right of the singers face, which causes shadowing on the left side, which enhances the eeriness of the mood. As the tempo increases with the song, the lighting dims, which I interpreted as it progressing into the evening. The lighting has a slight orange tinge to it, which makes the surrounding location look more authentic. As the song is finishing, it goes back to the very low-key lighting with the blue tint to it, the same as to which the song started. This could connote the cycle of a day, where it went from dust, to sunrise, to daylight, to the evening with lamplight then back to dusk.

Mise-En-Scene

First minute and a half of the music video, there doesn't seem to be very obvious uses of technical editing due to there being no cuts throughout the whole video. At the beginning, during the extreme close up on the singer's face, there seems to be a blue coloured tint to the shot, until the spotlight shines onto his face. However, the first visible use of editing is when the female characters fades out after the bookshelf and the cupboards fade in.

Editing