Sophie. Music Video Analyse 3.

 Performance- Studio
One Direction- Little Things


In this studio version of a performance, the music video is shot in black and white. This illustrates the softer angle of the song and the video, with no harsh colours or lights. Throughout the video we are faced with images of the boys creating the song, illustrating the importance of the music not just the visualisation. The boys play instruments, another process of making the song. This shows another side to the boys, as in this is the first video they've actually shown there musical skills besides singing. The video of full of intimate looks and serious facial expressions, demonstrating a vulnerable atmosphere. This links to the song in general but also helps appeal to there audience of young girls.

The chorus in this video is performance based where-as the verses are more the boys having fun and creating the music. Whenever an intimate line is said during the song, for example "You'll never love yourself, like I, love you" the camera is focused on the exposed faces of the boys.

Lip and instrument syncing are used throughout. The softer music choice is reflected in the softer and less energetic video. Also the video is focused completely on the boys, no extras just music and themselves.

Due to the boys large fan based of girls, the focus on the boys is a must.


As for notions of looking, the video is very smoothly edited and based in one room so no notions of looking are required. The editor uses a gradual focus change when changing shots, once again linking to the softer music and theme of the video. However the close-ups of hands and faces are for their young fan base, intimate but appropriate for the audiences ages.


For this video I believe the boys took inspiration from other boys band previous videos. For example in Westlife's "You Raise Me Up", the band chooses a black and white colour scheme to reflect the intimate song. Also in the another video "Flying Without Wings", they use clips of themselves singing the song in the studio, much like One Direction do here. Most boy band's follow a similar path in terms of videos.

The emotion in this video is exaggerated a lot, in hopes to appeal to their audience more. Also the situation is also hyper-real as the boys alone in a studio is very unrealistic as they would be surrounded by producers and their team in a normal situation. They would also very rarely be all there at the same time, working on the music themselves.

By completing this task I gained insight on what a performance video would look like. This inspired ideas for our own video. Also it allowed me to see Goodwin's theory applies to all videos.