Director's commentary

1. DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY
LAURA NEALE

2. THE MAIN INSPIRATIONS
• One of the main ideas we wanted to include in our music video was the idea that our artist is going
through a break-up. We wanted to develop this into a sort of storyline, showing how she copes after
she has broken up with her boyfriend.
• We therefore took inspiration from other videos about break-ups, such as Adele’s Hello.
• However, we didn’t have a male actor to play the boyfriend in the video, so instead had to come up
with a storyline where it is obvious she is going through a breakup, but the boyfriend is never actually
seen.

3. THE BEGINNING
In the beginning we see the artist
watching a dancer on the stage, which we
felt was a metaphor for the lyrics “But you
put on quite a show”.

4. THE BEGINNING
We wanted a lot of links between the
visuals and lyrics, for example in this
scene where she is looking out of the
window at someone whilst singing “You
look so dumb right now, standing outside
my house”. We also chose to film this shot
at twilight, because the pink sunset added
to the overall theme of love in the video.

5. THE BEGINNING
This was an important lighting decision
that we made. As we wanted links
between the visuals and lyrics, we chose
to turn off the lights when the lyrics “Just
cut it out” are sung, as we felt that this
represented the lyrics in a metaphorical
way.

6. THE BEGINNING
We specifically chose to use a high angle
shot here, as we wanted to make the
artist seem as if she was above the
boyfriend that she is singing about, as the
lyrics imply that he cheated on her.

7. THE MIDDLE
In this shot we had the artist bow as she
sang the lyrics “Take a bow”, and had the
curtains shut in front of her. The
inspiration behind this was carrying on
with the metaphor of their relationship
being a show, and being fake, and that her
bowing was signifying the end of the
show and so the end of the relationship.

8. THE MIDDLE
In this shot the artist blows out the
candle, which to us, again represented the
end of the relationship. The spark they
once had between them is now gone, and
so in this shot she is literally blowing out
the flame that is their relationship,
consequently ending it.

9. THE MIDDLE
This shot matches with the lyrics “What
else is on?”, and she changes the TV
channel. Again this is carrying on the idea
that the relationship is fake, and we
specifically chose this TV show as it is
about weddings. Our artist changes the
channel because she doesn’t want to see
other people happily married when she’s
been cheated on.

10. THE MIDDLE
In this shot our dancer is fading from the
stage. We did this because we wanted to
give the audience the impression that the
relationship the artist was in was all an
illusion, it was never really real. By having
the dancer (the manifestation of the
relationship) fade away, this represents
how the relationship faded away.

11. THE MIDDLE
In this shot, again the lyrics are “take a
bow”, and as she sings this the fairy lights
fade out. This is again to symbolise how
their relationship faded away.

12. THE END
This is a shot of her closing the door as
she enters the house, and is
representative of how she is closing the
door on the relationship, leaving the ex-
boyfriend in the cold and dark, while she
steps into the light and warmth and
moves on with her life.

13. THE END
In this shot she burns the rose that he
bought her as an apology. However, she
burns the stem instead of the flower. We
chose to do this because the stem of a
rose is covered in thorns, and so by
burning away the stem she is burning
away the negativity in her life (him), and is
keeping the pretty parts for the future –
represented by the flower head.