ConorDrury 7200 - Similar Video Research - "The First Day Of My Life - Bright Eyes"

The first day of my life - Bright Eyes

Directed by John Cameron Mitchell

-Lyrics-

This is the first day of my life

I swear I was born right in the doorway

I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed

They're spreading blankets on the beach

Yours is the first face that I saw

I think I was blind before I met you

Now I don't know where I am 

I don't know where I've been

But I know where I want to go

And so I thought I'd let you know

That these things take forever

I especially am slow

But I realize that I need you 

And I wondered if I could come home

Remember the time you drove all night

Just to meet me in the morning

And I thought it was strange you said everything changed

You felt as if you'd just woke up 

And you said "this is the first day of my life

I'm glad I didn't die before I met you 

But now I don't care I could go anywhere with you

And I'd probably be happy"

So if you want to be with me

With these things there's no telling

We just have to wait and see

But I'd rather be working for a paycheck

Than waiting to win the lottery

Besides maybe this time is different

I mean I really think you like me

-Music Video-

The band Bright Eyes are an American Indie band. This is established immediately at the beginning of the video because it starts on an old tape deck, a large stereotype/convention is that Indie bands are associated with old fashioned things, for example the whole 60's inspired music video for L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N by another Indie band, Noah and the Whale. The type of filter that was used when filming or added on after during the editing also adds to knowing what the genre is. The entire video has an almost sepia tone which creates an older, more rural American feeling to the video, compared to other love songs by more mainstream big city artist which have a more brighter colouring, for example The Boys by Nicki Minaj.

The lyrics to this song are about love and memories, Meeting your soul mate and realising that this is the beginning of your life with them. Although the visuals don’t directly link to the visuals in a narrative way they do convey the emotions expressed through the meaningful lyrics. For example, the people that are listening to the headphones all seem to be reminiscing on happy times with their family or with their partners or in one women's case, reminiscing about times with a late partner, expressed through the use of a black and white photo of a man presumed to be her husband. The lyrics played when this scene is shown backup this statement further by saying "I'm glad I didn't die before I met you." The video uses headphones to almost capture the reactions to song, further expressing the power of the lyrics.

There is a section in this music video that creates a convention for the band it is a shot of a dog with headphones on. This has nothing to do with the things going on in the video or the lyrics in the song. The band are known to have one image in their videos that doesn't have anything to do with the lyrics to their other songs.

Most of the props that are used show that they are really in to the old music scene more then the new. This is mainly because they use over the head head phones and an old tape deck (pictured above) and the furniture is covered in material and cushions which is something that’s largely associated with the 60′s and 70′s.

The intertextuallity in this music video is very subtle. But in the beginning of the video all the characters are drinking from red cups. This is a feature of a lot of young adult american films to represent partying, shown in large American coming of age films such as, American Pie. This shows that the audience that they are trying to reach are people in their late teens early 20′s but also because of the nostalgic feel to the video and the use of older actors the video can be enjoyed by a large age range. 

This video pushed conventions by being one of the first videos to feature same sex couples and also feature Mixed raced couples, causing controversy in some parts of America. Even with this the single went on to have great success and the video also won a special recognition award.

This video contradicts Propp's perception of narrative theory, in this video no specific person is viewed in anyway. In fact throughout the entirety of the music video the people are viewed more as couples than singular people. The signs that tell the audiance that these people are couples can be expressed using Barthes, for example the audiance are shown two people close to each other, this mixed with the song lyrics gives us as an audiance the impression that these people are a couple.