Artist: All Time Low
Album: Don't Panic
Length: 03:23
Genre: Pop Punk
Live set Location: Arcade
Overal:
The Video begins instantly with an out of focus shot of a bedroom with an animal costume hanging up and the lead singer coming into the shot from the right as if he has just woke up. He then looks towards the costume hinting that it may be of some importance in the video. There is then a cut scene
to an arcade, which turns out to be the location of the live performance and the animal costumes the side story. The way the Lead singer appears to sing when outside of the live performance is very casual as if hes just singing to himself like any normal person would in the morning. It then cuts out to a few other people putting on animal costumes. At 0:21 it switches to a live energetic and passionate performance which is the main convention of a rock genre music video.
The setting is in an arcade with the lighting set up incredibly well to very good effect. This pattern of cutting between the live performance and the band members in animal costumes continues for the rest of the start of the video. There are many close ups of the lead singer signifying his importance in the band. There are also many wide angle shots of the whole band, this is mainly to get them all in once shot. A lot of the cut scene shots incorporate some sort of childish humor which reflects the band extremely well, GIF below, the GIF is an example of a shot reverse shot to show two peoples acknowledgement of each other. Towards the end of the video the main band members that wore the costumes appear inside a "whack a mole" game inside the arcade, With the lead singer still singing. And then to finish off the video they cut between the band playing live normally as they have been throughout
the video to the band in their animal costumes playing their instruments. It ends conclusively when the lead singer takes off the costume and gets into bed signifying the end of a "typical day at the office". In the live performance they aren't very creative with the different shots they use, they tend to use the same techniques and shots again and again, close ups and mid shots of the members separately.. I have only noticed this after watching it a good 4/5 times.Was there a clear story behind the video?
The story behind this video is just imagination. What if the targets you have to hit in a "Whack a mole" game actually had to go to work. If they lived a normal life. Went to work in their uniform, ate in their uniform. They then clocked in and went to work getting hit on the head. Then at the end of the day they just go home as if it is a normal thing.
Overal opinion:
My opinion on this video is that its very creative and imaginative and the video has been carried out impeccably. The bands personalities really show out throughout the video and the way that silent humor has been sneaked into the video has a great effect. The live performance is very passionate and undoubtedly real. I think its a brilliant music video, fun and enjoyable to watch as well as an incredible song.
Lighting:
The lighting of the live performance is very clever. There appears to be some sort of LED spotlights scattered around behind the band. These create a line effect across the screen when they hit the camera directly (as seen in image above). Other than them the only other light is the light from the arcade machines and any set lighting the crew creating the video have introduced that isn't visible. But the fact they haven't used massive lights making the video all bright has had a good effect. The dark scene with spotlights and random other colours from the arcade makes the performance look amazing.
Clothing:
main performance are very hipster and all dark coloured, mainly black. This is because all of their instruments are white and so they have a good aesthetic effect.
Editing:
The editing is defiantly characterized by cut transitions which switch between the live performance and the short story on the side. These cuts create short takes and also some long takes, but overall the editing is edited to the music.
Behind the Scenes:
When you watch behind the scenes of the video you can see a sneak peaks of how the crew created the video with exception to the random inappropriate behavior from the band. You can see that it is actually a lot lighter than it is shown in the video so some sort of effect has been added there. Also when the do the "Whack a mole" the parts where the characters pop up are covered in brightly colours plasticine. They also use multiple cameras on set.
