Paramore - Ignorance Music Video Analysis

Paramore - Ignorance

The video for Paramore's single Ignorance was released on the fueled by ramen youtube page on August 13th 2009 directed by Laura Honey.

Lighting
The lighting that is provided for this video is from a single light bulb that is featured as a main feature in the centre of the video that the lead singer uses as a prop in the video. Overall majority of the lighting is quite dark possibly relating to how the lead singer feels as she is seen shining the light on her band members which could indicate that they are the light to her life or that they have done her wrong in the past so she is pointing the blame towards them by shining the light onto them as well as herself. Around the 1:06 mark a strobe light is used whilst the band is in a studio performing, there are a lot of quick cuts when the strobe light is being used so this could also be related to that.

Editing
Most of this video has been quickly edited to fit the pace of the song, this is mainly done whilst there is only instrumental playing, when the lead singer begins to sing the cuts have been slowed down so that the viewers can focus on her singing. At about 0:36 the singer grabs the light bulb and pulls it back violently causing it to cut to the next location which is in a studio, after this it then cuts back to being in the small room with the rest of her band. At 1:34 the camera zooms in on the lead singer then cuts to another shot of the lead singer this time in a different location and in a different costume, this could be an idea that I could use for my video. A part at 2:12 their is a series of quick cuts between scenes, this is done to fit the beat of the track that is playing in the background.

Mise en Scene

Hayley Williams' hair and make up when she is inside the small room includes light face make up with it getting heavier around the eyes. She has a pale red lipstick on, her hair is straight and natural with half of her hair covering parts of her face. When she is seen in the studio her hair and make up stay relatively the same however she changes the outfit that she is wearing. At about 1:40 her eye make up gets a lot heavier, this could signify character changing in the narrative for example the heavier her eye make up is it could show that she is going crazy to relate to the track.
She also has three costume changes in the video to relate to the three different locations in the video. The first outfit she is seen wearing includes a sleeveless leather jacket with black jeans and red and white shoes, her outfit in the opening relates to the environment that she is in. In the next scene she is seen wearing a two tone black and white shirt with black jeans and similar red shoes from the first setting. In the third scene Haley is seen wearing a one piece suit that has black zips on them, this could relate to her decent to madness as her outfit is similar to that of a straight jacket, another part of this scene that shows she has gone mad is the crazy hairstyle she is seen to be wearing and heavier eye make up than the previous two scenes. The rest of the band is wearing grey/dark shirts with other dark clothing in the two scenes that they are featured in.

Camerawork
This video features a lot of long takes where they either focus on the full band or Hayley herself. When there are long takes the camera usually begins to tilt around in different areas, the tilting and rapid camera movements begin to speed up when Hayley is in the third location, this could also be a hint that she has lost her mind hence the setting that she is in. The camerawork also includes a lot of zooming in, for example at 1:34 the camera does a quick zoom towards Hayley and then cuts to a new scene, this works well for this video and the narrative because it is showing a progression in the story.The camera also focuses a lot on the light bulb that Hayley uses in the video as noted previously this is an important part of the narrative of the video.