Molly Rickards (7111) Similar Product Research- 'Passenger - Let Her Go'

For the similar product research I have studied the British singer-songwriter, Passenger’s ‘Let her go’. The song is a typical acoustic indie song, commonly written about falling or being in love this follows the conventions of the genre. The song becomes faster in places as it reaches the chorus, the song is performative throughout. The lighting and shots change in time with the beats of the song and the focus is sometimes a soft focus which compliments the style of the song.

The song is in some ways similar to the song I am using in my music video; the lyrics tell similar stories, both being about letting go of someone or something. Some of the close-ups and the soft focus shots are very effective; this has given me some ideas/inspiration for my music video.

 The beginning of the song is quite slow and the sounds are very soft, the image works with this as the lights in the background are soft focused and it is very slow and clam, as the tempo speeds up the lighting in the images becomes darker in colour and the images become much sharper. Todorov’s theory can be applied, however the disequilibrium and the equilibrium are the opposite way around compared to the common way it is formed, the equilibrium is the explanation of what is missed and why and the disequilibrium is when the song announces ‘and you let her go’ creating a disturbance in the music- this shows how well the lyrics and music have been written to work extremely well together.

As the video is performative the costumes and mise en scene are simple, a lot of the filming is of the artist performing and others are of the audiences (reaction shots) to the performance, I would be able to recreate a similar set to this with a lot of time and planning. This video appeals to a wide audience, the lyrics can be applied to many people; when this is the case audiences tend to like songs and videos which they can relate to- this may be something to include in our target audience research.