Music Video Analysis - Green Light, Lorde

Green Light - Lorde

This video is slightly different from the other one's I've analysed - it's not narrative but instead focuses on the artist and choreography. I really like the colouring of the images and the rich colours they've created through the lights.
It follows a formula I've seen before in music videos, setting up a few different scenarios then referring back to each one throughout the video once the viewer is familiar with it. I really like this structure and I think it's really effective.

The sections of this video are:
-Her in a bathroom
-In a nightclub
-In a car, specifically leaning out the window
-Dancing on the car
-Dancing on the street
Each of these sections is set up at the start and then referred to throughout the video, more so at the end when the shots become shorter and the cuts between each location faster.

We start in a close-up shot of the artist in the centre of a static shot as she is the main focus throughout the whole video.

She is well lit and the colour in the foreground is balanced however, the background is a deep blue, connoting sadness and beginning the recurring theme of strong colours through the video. The artist lip-synchs the song for the entirety of this shot which is very long compared to those in other music videos I’ve analysed, 26 seconds exactly.
They get away with this long static shot because the pace of the music is initially very slow and movement is added through the artist who moves her head and is very expressive with her face.

They then cut to her stood looking in a mirror in the bathroom on the word, “Liar.” The fact that this cut is made directly on the word emphasises it’s importance and gives it more impact.

There are lots of contrasts between this shot and the one that came before it: we are seeing her from side on, rather than from the front; although this is still a close-up, it’s not as close as the shot before it giving us a better view of the set around her; the light is green rather than blue and effects the artist as well as the background, enveloping the whole shot rather than just being contained in one area of it, linking to the title of the song - Green Light. Furthermore, this is a moving shot and pans round a little at the start but is still steady, showing a steadicam has been used. This immediately contrasts with the initial static shot. This means the movement is coming more from the camera work rather than just the artist, making the shot more free flowing and relaxed. This sets the tone for the rest of the video where movement was clearly a very important factor in communicating the theme of freedom.
The set is quite grimy, with the camera pan at the beginning allowing us to see the dirt on the mirror. This connotes youth and possibly makes the video more universal in it’s appeal as the sets aren’t too perfect, therefore they don’t alienate it’s audience and, consequently, the artist.

We then move into our next set - the nightclub. This section is composed of a series of close-ups, in some of which she’s lip-synching and in others she’s not.

This recreates the louder, more chaotic feeling nightclubs connote and is amplified by the use of flashing lights and lots of extras. Although the lights do flash and change colours, there is a heavy focus on green and blue lights which link back to the earlier scenes in the video where shots are composed with specific use of green and blue lights.

This emphasis on cold colours could connote her negative experience in a relationship, depicted in the lyrics of the song.

For the first 50 seconds of the video, all we’ve had has been close-up shots of the artist. It is unusual to use so much of the same shot but the varied lights and movement within them don’t make it feel  overused. It also brings us closer to the artist and allows her to perform the song as she wishes it to be interpreted through the use of her face which we are allowed to see clearly. We are encouraged to sympathise with her and see her side of the story as the related close-ups allow us to form a connection with her. They also indicate that she is the main focus of this video which enables them to be more creative in their camera work rather than a narrative which needs to be set up and carefully constructed to follow a story. They are not tied to anything so are able to clearly follow the artist and give her clear credit for her music.

At 50 seconds in, we get our first wide shot of the video as she’s walking from a building to her car.

This allows us to see her dress properly for the first time. It’s revealed that it’s a deep pink colour, complying with the theme of rich colours. The colour pink connotes a femininity however, the fact that it’s dark connotes a strength or breaking of social boundaries which links to the themes of freedom throughout the video. It also contrasts with the blue and green colours we’ve seen used through the video, making her stand out as the lead artist through the use of warmer tones.
There is a lot of movement going on in this shot - she walks across the pavement whilst the camera tracks her from left to right.

At the same time the car is pulling up at the side of the road in just enough time for her to get in. All of this comes together to create a very effective shot with a range of different movements that tie it neatly into the rest of the video.

We then get a shot of her from the interior of her car where she continues to lip-synch the song.

There’s then a close-up of the driver where he appears to look behind him, connoting that she’s doing something out of the ordinary.

This is confirmed by the following shot where she leans out of the car window whilst lip-synching the song in a very effective display of relief and freedom.

This is a handheld shot, making the shot more personal and allowing us to relate to and sympathise with her. It then cuts to a low angle shot of her leaning backwards out of the car where the whole shot is tainted with a green light, linking to the lyrics at that moment, “I’m waiting for it, that green light.”

We then cut to a 17 second montage of her dancing on the roof of the car, doused in red light.

This contrasts the cold blue and green lights that’ve been used up to this point and connotes pain and heartbreak which the lyrics depict. However, it may also connote a hope for future love which appears to be connoted by the more positive aspects of the video we’ve seen - leaning from the car and window and the dancing - this video clearly isn’t wallowing in gloom and the splash of red at the chorus really pulls it away from the melancholy tones previously used.
We see the dance from several angles and distances as the shot types and camera angles change frequently throughout this section which increases the pace to match the more upbeat chorus.

There is also a lot of camera movement, lots of panning shots, all of which are smooth, sweeping movements which add to the energy of the choreography and allow it to be transported through the screen as the viewer feels as though they are moving s their perspective is constantly moving and changing.

We then head into the next verse where we see a close-up of her walking down the street lip-synching the song.

Although the camera is obviously moving to keep her in frame, it is very smooth and doesn’t appear handheld, denoting that they used a steadicam to capture the shot. As she walks she puts in a pair of headphones making us question whether the music we’re hearing is now diegetic.

It then cuts back to the pre-established scene where she’s dancing on the car.

The pace has slowed so it doesn’t cut between several different shots but the camera movement remains how it originally was in this scene - smooth but with lots of movement, almost swinging across the scene. We also have a low angle shot being used, reinforcing her position on top of the car even though we can’t physically see that in this shot. It also puts her back in a position of power, as if she’s in control, reflective of the idea of a breakup which is denoted in the song lyrics.

We then cut back to her dancing on the street and a multitude of different shots are used to show this movement, however, the editing is not fast as the music is still at a relatively slow pace. We see her from the side in a mid-shot, the back in a mid-shot and the front in a mid-shot.

The continuity of shot types makes the cuts between the different shots less evident and jerky, therefore making the whole thing flow more smoothly and as one coherent piece.
This is then continued as the mid-shot from the front stays as one very long shot for 20 seconds, even when the music changes and it feels as though there should be a cut. This emphasises the fluidity of the video. For this shot a steadicam is used to capture her movements in a soft and stable way, making the whole shot feel almost balletic, keeping it in tone with the rest of the video where particular emphasis has been placed on movement.

We then cut back to the bathroom scene we saw at the beginning but the camera pans round so we can see more of the set.

It pans into a static shot of her singing in the mirror so we can see her front and back simultaneously without seeing the camera, I think this works really well.

We then cut to a mid-shot of her in the same set but she starts to dance. It then begins to cut between her dancing in the bathroom and on the street.

Initially it’s quite controlled going between one shot and another but as the pace of the music picks up the shots become shorter to create a more energetic feel before incorporating more of the different pre-estcablised scenarios - her dancing on the car and in the club. This is where we start to see all the different elements of the video coming together and it’s exceptionally effective.

This then develops into a huge 52 second dance montage where she lip-synchs some lyrics but others are just dancing, further emphasising that theme of freedom. All of the pre-established scenarios are revisited in this section, and they’ve made use of all different shot types including close-ups, mid-shots and long-shots as well as high and low angles and a variety of different coloured lights with emphasis on the green tinge to tie it all into the title of the song.

They also use some action matching to keep the fluidity running through, like when she flips her hair in one shot and finishes the flip in another, completely bridging the gap between the two shots.

The pace then starts to slow down as the music draws to an end with a shot of her on a bridge at sunrise lip-synching the song for 8 seconds, denoting the start of the day and therefore the end of the video.

We then revisit and ‘wrap up’ each of our other sections as she stops dancing and the camera becomes more static.

We linger on each scene for longer to create a ‘winding down’ effect before resting on the final shot of her on the bridge at dawn where she finishes lip-synching the song before just looking directly into the camera for 5 seconds before the screen goes black.

Overall I really like this video. It doesn’t have a narrative but it grips the viewer through it’s interesting use of colour, sets and camera work, putting emphasis on movement and fluidity and oozing energy from start to finish. I believe it’s essential that, if you don’t have a narrative for the audience to become invested in, you need something interesting and unusual about the video to make someone want to sit through 4 minutes of watching someone sing. It requires a phenomenal amount of creativity because you don’t have a story to fall back on and that’s what I thought this video did really well.
I loved how it was so cohesive, it felt like a neat little package, all tied together but very varied and interesting to watch. I loved how they sed different locations and colours but brought them all together so effectively at the end. I thought the use of choreography was really good and that was impressive because it's a difficult thing to get right. I also really liked how her costume stayed the same through the whole video, it added to it’s cohesiveness and fluidity and stopped it feeling disjointed and like lots of little videos put together. I would love to take inspiration from this music video, I think it’s amazing.