Artist: Halsey

Song: Colors

Narrative:

This music video has a story. With a plot twist. Initially, the audience is shown a young girl and a young boy who are always in each others company, she even meets his family. The girl, played by Halsey, begins to take polaroids of someone and sticks these pictures around her room and locker, obsessing over her crush, whomever it may be. These pictures are knocked out of her hand and the boy who the audience is assumed to think is her crush, picks them up and looks very uncomfortable and freaked out. The audience's initial thought is to think his reaction is due to him realising she has been spying on him and taking pictures without him knowing. When in fact, his reaction is due to the fact it isn't him she has been crushing on. It's his dad. This comes as a major plot twist as although every time she was with the boy his dad was framed with them, the audience still assumed that her crush was the male her age. Suddenly, her reason for wanting to meet and spend time with his family makes sense.

 

Visual:

The editing in this video is fast paced, to match the song and timing of the lyrics. Each shot is no longer than 3 seconds. The mise-en-scene shows two school kids in school for the majority of the video. However, at home setting, the costumes indicate this video is supposed to be set in the late 1970's due to the big moustaches on the men and the sophisticated outfits of the older women with pearls and neat hair. A decade now known to be one of mass grooming of older men with young, underage school children.

The camera is used cleverly in this video. As the crush is never meant to be revealed, the camera never shows the identity on the polaroid. This causes the audience to identify with the young boy, played by Tyler Posey, as we are left in the same position as him, experiencing the same shock as him once the identity of her crush is revealed.

 

Conventions:

In my opinion, this is a very unique music video. The lyrics don't match the video exactly therefore it is open for interpretation. I believe this is a positive aspect due to it's storyline. The audience aren't criticising the fact the video doesn't match the lyrics because the complicated and shocking plot twist forces the audience to engage with the visual. It has them hooked due to how unconventional it is; it isn't a stereotypical, cliché video where the boy and girl fall in love. It challenges the audience's expectations.