Music Video Paramore - Let the Flames Begin

We choose to do our media video to ‘Paramore – Let the Flames Begin’ as we both liked this song, and wanted to create a good atmosphere with a fresh take upon the forms and conventions of this typical pop/ punk genre. We have attempted to mirror the video narrative to comply with lyrics of the song, so we decide to take a fresh look at the storyline, and make it unique and add in our own individual ideas and hopes for what we wanted it to be like. As we wanted it to be quite individual, I had designed the make-up myself and I also had actually made the corset which was worn by the girl running through the woods in the music video, as well as piecing together the outfit and overall look of both the female characters which are seen within the music video.

The narrative of our music video is about a girl who is being rejected by her peers and has come to the conclusion of needing to escape, as she feels she has no way out, and has to try and run away. She finally loses control of how she feels when realising what an outsider she has become, trying to run away from her problems, to a place where she can get out and lose herself, this is represented when she is running through the woods, looking lost, lonely, scared and upset, accompanied with the quick flashing clips representing what is going through her mind, what is distressing and causing her all this pain and inflicting these strange characteristics upon her.

We chose this song in particular as we thought the lyrics fitted perfectly with the meaning that we wanted to portray in our video. They key lyrics that we think work well with the story; ‘What a shame we all became, such fragile, broken things...’, ‘ This is how we’ll dance when, when they try to take us down, this is what we’ll be’. This part of the song is the chorus, where we had edited very quick establishing shots of the party scene, contrasting with the quick flashing close up’s of the main character in great distress, explaining that all the teenagers dancing during the party scene are desperate to fit in with their peers and social norms. So the way they dress, dance and drink in the style that they do, we have suggested this is them all trying to feel socially accepted.

The video begins with a fast panning around shot through the woods, showing quick flashing clips of the girls face, focusing on her eyes and mouth where a large amount of a person’s feeling can be revealed, representing her vulnerability and emotional pain. Continuing quick shots of a lake and the forest, and more of the girl follow. We wanted to introduce the audience to the setting and the main character which they shall see throughout the video. After I decided to introduce another character of a second girl, who has the role of a more popular person who is getting ready to go to the party (which is later shown in the video), for this, We used some shots of both the girls inside using many reflections in mirrors which I wanted to represent the vanity of people in today’s society. This is shown flashing between a longer clip of a pan shot through the woods where the main character is running past lasting several seconds. For the next few shots I decided to use chiaroscuro lighting to possibly suggest an unseen side to the character in-between flashing clips of the lights at the party, showing what is going through her mind. After this it is the run up to the chorus, where I continually cut the clips in time with the music, using many close up shots and mid shots in twining then rapidly so that they seemed to overlap, which I hoped suggested the confusion of thoughts and everything that is happening at that moment in time.

We wanted to convey a sense of panic on the main characters part, the way in which she has been dresses is to represent how she is different to all of the other people. i.e. the people in the party scene and also the second female character that has been introduced. She has also been styled in this way to show a vulnerable and perhaps in attempt to seek attention and be noticed.

As the song progresses, we see the main character showing more and more emotional pain, through the close up’s and other shots used, as she is feeling increasingly rejected. Again, more clips of the party scene throughout the chorus have been shown with the people dancing highlighting the fact she is an outsider to this social group as she goes against the social norms. Throughout the versus we wanted the girl in the woods to be the main focal point, this is why when editing , I used flashing clips of the other scenes the keep it in the audiences mind that everything else is still going on around her. Another chorus follows repeating on screen what has been seen in the previous chorus, after this it is the bridge within the song where in slow motion I focused into to the main characters face in the woods as she breaks down against a tree and loses control, using an above shot, finishing the bridge scene with an extreme close up of her eyes panning across to her lips before the excessively fast clips leading up to the final chorus.

We see the video coming to an end as the music pace slows right down, with the girl running away after finally breaking down into an emotional wreck in the woods. With quick clips flashing in-between of what is constantly rushing through her mind, eventually fading into a black out which concludes the music video.