Planning Blog - Music Video Analysis (Pierce the Veil - Bulletproof Love) Ryan

Music Video Analysis

Pierce the Veil - Bulletproof Love (Directed by Dan Dobi)

Music Video Analysis

The song Bulletproof Love by Pierce the Veil has a music video which portrays many music video techniques. As the video is within 3-5 minutes long, it consists of fragmented shows and specific techniques that help tell a story behind the video which in this case the central theme is heartbreak. it shows a girl cheating and falling out of love with her husband. It contrasts as the story shows them being close at the beginning and as the video progressed we see them becoming more and more distant. The other aspects such as lyrics also help show this. The video is directed by Dan Dobi, this video is 4:01 in length.

This music video uses multiple techniques to portray an interesting short narrative. It does this by the use of lyrics/dialogue, themes, mise-en-scene, camera shots and angles. I will now be going through the techniques the director (Dan Dobi) has used in order to make the video suitable for the artists song.

  Lyrics
  The lyrics that our used help portray the narrative as they give the         narrative through the video, especially as the lyrics are apparent to the video it isn't random but ties in with the storytelling as the music video is fragmented through different times zones with the husband travelling through the house entering different rooms to see his wife doing different things helping to portray the heartache he feels to the audience without speaking any spoken word.

The lyrics in the song act as dialogue in the music video as they help portray the story of what is going on for example at 0:32, the couple hug just as the song says "forever in love" The music video is structured to show that specific moment. Another example of how lyrics are used as dialogue is at 2:02 when the wife is lip syncing the words of the singer to the husband.

The lyrics are well choreographed with the music video as we see at slow motion parts of the video we see it is in balance with that particular part of the song being slower. We see this at 3:01.

Themes

The theme of love (heartache), as the video shows the married couple becoming more distant with each other. The wife is portrayed as the one who strays away first and eventually the husband leaves because he can't take no more. It shows how love turns to heartache, leading the husband to eventually leave his wife. This is clearly displayed through the video as we see certain objects (wedding rings) and behaviour (hugging) etc.

Mise en Scene

This plays a major role in portraying the narrative as it involves essesntial techniques to make the music video suitable for the initial role it wants to play depending on what the song is about.

   -Set design 

The set of the music video is a rural house, typical American family house with a bright green lawn, spacious and plenty of rooms. Which are used for the changing of scenes. All of the rooms in the house are used in the making of the video. We see from the house that both  the woman and man both live there.

 

  -Lighting 

The lighting used is high key for the husband and wife and low key for the actual band making a contrast between the two as it shopws that the band are narrating the story though the lyrics.

 

- Space 

  There is a lot of space in the beggining of the music video. However, it is set in a house so we see various amount of space used depending on the room. The actors however seem to be either close to eachother (arms length) or distant eg. husband leaving the house, with his wife still inside the house.

 

  - Costume

As we first see the husband and wife dressed smartly and as the music video progresses we see the husband show his disgust and heartache by removing an item of clothing. Until at last he changes outfit and leaves her completely. The change of costume represents the change of character as at first we see him as a kind family man in a suit, to a regular guy in a leather jacket.

- Acting 

The acting used, is very effective although the actual actors don't actually say any words (Own speech) if they do its through the voice of the artist (Pierce the Veil) as the words are lip synced.

Camera shots and Angles

The director (Dan Dobi) has used many camera shots and angles mainly of mediums and close ups e.g the opening (10 secs) of footage is of parts of the husbands car. The a long shot to establish the set of the music video which is a house.

The video also makes use of the position of power through high and low angles. As at 2:30 we see the wife situated on the stairs above the husband. Showing she is in control in the argument they are having, although we can't tell what the argument is about we see that it is obviously about there relationship. When the husband retaleates we see him being viewed from a high angle showing he is less dominent through a over the should shot from the wife.

-Ryan Miles-