Music Video Research. Twenty One Pilots-Heathens

The Twenty One Pilots song Heathens is similar to the Stressed Out out and falls into the same genre. The start of this song is slow and the editing follows this just as it does in Stressed Out. The establishing shot is around 4 seconds long where it introduces the artist. This is much slower than regular pop songs where the average length of a shot is under 2 seconds. When there is a blip in the sound the editing works in synergy with this. There is a brief cutaway in the editing as this happened for the first time. The camera is not still often during this video it often tracks and tilts. This is because it follows the singer as he walks through the prison.

The mise en scene of this video is very dark partly because of the genre and partly because of the film the song is based around (Suicide Squad). For example the setting of a prison is heavily related to the film Suicide Squad because of the premise of the film and the fact that the main characters were held in prison. The lighting is low key for the majority of the music video, the walls are often black and the setting looks very confined. This all adds to the daunting atmosphere this video is trying to create. The drummer is wearing dark clothing throughout this video which matches the codes and conventions of a rock bands appearance.

Imagine Dragons- Demons

There are clear similarities between this videos start and the Heathens music video. The start of this video has slow editing and also uses slow motion to set the slightly sad and depressing atmosphere of this video. The silhouette shots could be used at the start of this video to connote that the band is just as human as everyone else and has issues as well. The shot is a cutaway to the audience as the camera is angled up as if its being shot from the view of an audience member. The video is illustrating the songs lyrics as the people focused on in the audience all look like they are living normal lives for the most part until the narrative shifts to what's happening in their lives. It is illustrating that many people have ”Demons Inside” as shown with the struggles they are going through. .

More similarities can be drawn with bands in this genre when the lighting goes high key. You can see the artists clothing is black and not bright like mainstream pop artists. This may be done to connote the darker nature of the songs and to show that the band should be taken more seriously than pop artists who sometimes release songs with little meaning just for the publicity and money. The setting of a concert is in my opinion very effective as it separates this indie pop genre from mainstream pop. It shows that the band is not fake and doesn’t use computer technology to create songs. It shows the full band performing live with nothing to hide.

The transitions between the scenes with each character from the audience of the concert is edited extremely well. The camera tracks around the person in the audience then does a quick zoom into there face turning the shot into a close up. The cut is then made to a new setting which looks seamless to the audience. This is because the background cant be seen in the close up shot. Making just a simple cut for these parts of the vidoes would be less engaging than what is done. As the rest of the video is based in the concert a unique transition between scenes makes the music video more enticing to watch over. The 400+ million views on YouTube shows how well received this video is for the song and video.