Shawn Mendes – Stitches
Detailed Music Video Analysis
Stitches is purely performance based when looking at visuals,
however you can tell there's a narrative within the lyrics. When listening to
the song alone, we'd refer the style to be similar to that of Ed Sheeran, and
to say that this is a pop song, there isn't a certain style or conventions for
pop songs to follow. Pop music is a broad category to which every song can be
different from another.
A focus point for this song is low key lighting - could be
either natural or implemented studio lighting, or perhaps even both. The low
key lighting is essential as it refers to being pushed back and being hurt.
It's apparent there is no use of animation or special effects as
they would an unnecessary link to the song.
However, the pace of
editing isn't continuous throughout, even though the beat is consistent, the
pace of the editing changes; at certain times it's slow and others fast,
despite the tempo being nigh consistent. As I've previously stated, there is no
standard convention for pop music and so I can't compare this song to another.
Relating to clothing & mise-en-scene, Shawn has gone for a
modern-look that consists of a brown leather jacket, grey shirt, slim/skinny
jeans & what appear to be similar to VANS footwear. The reason for saying
'modern-ish' is that Shawn is North American where I'm not familiar with their
style at this moment.
Towards the end, there's the use of make-up which can associate
to the lyrics "I'll be needing stitches", where the make-up is used
to represent blood, scars, dirt and a black eye.
Another focus point is the constant use of tracking shots where
the camera focuses and literally follows Shawn during the video. Despite the
use of tracking shots, there is a variety of angles where the camera focuses on
Shawn; from low-angle to high-angle. It's not always tracking shots being used,
at certain times, the camera remains still where the shots considered here are:
close-ups, mid-shots and distant shots. Even though the camera tracks the
artist the majority of the time, the torso is the main focus (Mid tracking
shot). The camera never moves away from the artist, this is considered the use
of star image.
Throughout, the artist is
moving towards the light, the area where the lighting is bright, considered to
be the white in this case. Whilst the performance used keeps throwing the
artist back, into the darkness, considered to be black. There is a contrast
between white & black where white represents freedom and black constitutes
the idea of being stuck and gloom.
