Deconstruction of Music Videos - Radioactive

As a project we had to deconstruct a music video we created and compare it to another music video of our choise.

For our project we chose to do a music video for the song Radioactive by the band Imagine Dragons. This is the result:

We filmed the music video on the Sony XDCAM broadcasting camera, to get a high bitrate and lots of detail in our production. We then mixed in a bit of Canon EOS 7D footage. The bennefit of using a dSLR for these kind of projects, is that the camera is small, flexible and shoots 50pfs at 720p. We did all the 7D footage in 50pfs, to be able to convert it to slow motion, though we didn't end up using any slow motion sequenses.

Deconstruction of our music video

 To give a perspective on what is going on in the music video, it's good to have an idea of the over-all story line in the song. We started out by listening to the song, to get an idea of what we wanted to do. The "radioactive" part appealed to us, since it can be interpreted in a lot of different ways. We finally came up with the idea that the radioactive part could be something to do with drugs, and from there we wanted to do kind of a Breaking Bad theme, where a bunch of young people gets hired to make drugs. Off cause the making drugs story isn’t the only story going on in the music video. We wanted to mix in some dance moves, since it is a music video, so to underline the music video part of the video we mixed in a sequence of the drug dealers dancing.

The first thing we notice in the music video, is that the video is done in warm and orange colours, and gives a feeling that it is a friendly environment, even though we are following drug dealers in the video. We thought this contrast was important for the story, as we didn’t want the guys to be addressed as bad guys, simply friendly people with no other options for making money than dealing drugs.

The very first shot we see in the music video is one of the dealers playing the guitar in the rain. This brings an emotional element to the video and establishes that it is not a bunch of bad guys we see in the music video. The video jumps around in time, but starts out in present time. Every shot we see of the dealers making drugs is in the past. They gather around in the garden after finishing cooking drugs to relax.

The shots of the drug dealers cooking drugs are shot on wide angle to make the image of the dealers distorted, and to create shots working as both establishers and detail shots. It is often shot from a low angel to make the dealers look bigger than they really are; the dealers are good at what they do and on top of the world when they make drugs.

The music video mixes wide angle shot and close up’s to show the viewer what is actually going on in the video. There are close up’s of the drugs being made, and a couple of close up’s on the house to show the viewer what kind of place the drugs are being made. These shots are all intended to give an image of inhumane conditions.

As the music video progresses, we see the faces of the drug dealers without their gasmasks on lip-syncing to the song. These shots are intended to show the viewer, that underneath the radioactive suits, there are actually human beings. By giving the drug dealers real faces the viewer will think of them as real human beings. This aspect gives a whole new dimension to the characters in the video by personify them.

Deconstruction of Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

The overall theme in the music video by Imagine Dragons deals with a mysterius girl who arrives at an old shack, disguised as a fighting arena for stuffed animals (I know… what a fantasy). The hidden theme in the video is animal cruelty, since there is a lot of stuffed animals being tarred apart in the video…

There is a cold theme throughout the entire music video, which manifests in the autumn like weather and the cold colour grading. This effect makes the video very dramatic.

There is a lot of close ups on the stuffed animals being torn apart by each other, and in general the camera is cutting between reaction shots on the stuffed animals, and action shots of the animals being torn apart. These clips are mixed with shots of the audience throwing money. These characters are filmed from a low angle to make them seem big and powerful.

As the story progresses, the dead stuffed animals are thrown into a shaft after they are defeated. From here the shots changes from a bright lit room where the animals are fighting, to a dark dungeon-like room in where the band are also playing the song. The mood in the dungeon are cold and contrasty filled with hard light. The light in the dungeon is very diffused in itself, but casting hard shadows on the characters down there. This gives an illusion of freedom in a miserable state.

In general the stuffed animals are brought to life by the way they are portrayed like humans; the stuffed animals are filmed in eye-hight and have emotional looks on their faces. The stuffing thrown all over the arena resemble guts, and the scenario is almost like a gladiator arena. The humans in the video are portrayed almost like gods, who control the fait of the stuffed animals, and are the powerful segment in the video. The girl who bring her stuffed animal, is very much an outsider, both by the fact that she is a girl, but also on the fact that she is dressed differently. She is the saviour, and her stuffed animal is also like a god.

The music video consists of high pace shots, to make the storyline seem more dramatic. It plays out well with the pace of the song, and when the song starts to get dramatic, the tempo of the clips increases. I would imagine the video was shot on either an Alexa or a RED camera, since it looks rather digital, but since it is used in a way that highlights the contrast and make it look sharp and harsh, I think digital was the right way to go.