Music Video Analysis - Peace, ‘Lost on Me’

‘Lost on Me’ is a single taken from Peaces second album, ‘Happy People’. The music video was released on August 10th 2014 and was directed by Ninian Doff who also directed the band's music video for their single ‘Money’ released earlier the same year. The music video was nominated for the NME Aware for Best Music Video in 2015 however did not win. 

The mise en scene in the music video, show the band wearing completely white outfits and the lead singer (Harry Koisser) has a red/orange shaggy hair style. The video follows the group conducting a dance routine in a studio; they are being told what to do by a man holding up cards with directions/instructions on them. There is then an accident within the studio and the band continue the routine out onto the street. They cross a road and barely avoid being hit by the passing vehicles, they interrupt a family having a picnic and then fall into a deep muddy hole. Whilst this is occurring the man is running after them with the final card telling them to stop, however when they fall into the hole it is too late. The band are representing their-self as smart, irreverent and alternative to mainstream manufactured pop within this music video by making it almost making it like a parody of how boybands are constructed. 

The music video uses contradiction/disjuncture because the video ignores the lyrics and the genre of the song and looks at a different idea.  The video seems to be making fun of boybands and suggesting that members of a boyband only know what to do when they are told when and how to do it; this is shown by the fact that they continue to do the dance stated on the card when the man holding it isn't paying attention. The video also suggests that they are mocking people who refer to their group as a mainstream boyband by following ‘typical’ boyband choreography. The music video consists of elements that are commonly found in music videos for pop boybands. For example the quick shots in the opening sequence, as well as the carefully choreographed dance routine and the clean white clothes, which are similar to the shots in the opening sequence to the Backstreet Boy's music video for 'I Want It That Way'

There is a small amount of performance during this music video. There is a closeup shot on the band as the lead singers lip-synchs the first line of the song and then 2 other lines within the first 50 seconds on the video. This helps to address the audience because they are looking directly into the camera whilst singing therefore making eye contact with the audience; this helps to make the video more engaging. Peace are the main people within the music video and they are wearing all white. These costumes are reminiscent of the white outfits that the Backstreet Boys are famous for wearing, this implies that the band is possibly mocking them within their music video. This reinforces the idea that the band are making fun of boybands. 

The man in the music video who is telling the band what to do with a list of simple instructions such as ‘forward walk’. This makes the music video humorous because the audience would expect them to be able to do that task/action without being told. This helps to show the audience the groups opinions on boybands and how they believe that they are manufactured and told everything that they should do and say.  

When the band are continuing the dance routine outside of the studio, parts of the video have been put in slow motion, such as the picnic scene. This part of the video shows a family happily eating a picnic out in a field and then the women presumed to be the mother within the video looks into the distance and sees the band walking towards them at a fast pace. The family then stand up in a hurry throwing their drinks into the air, in order to move out of the bands path. As Peace walk over the picnic there is a close up on their feet showing them trample on the food. These actions have been put in slow motion to create dramatic effect which helps to keep the audience engaged. After the band have trampled through the family’s picnic, there is a mid and a long shot showing the family all huddled together and looking frightened, this makes the video more humorous because it makes the event seem more serious by making it look horrific and traumatising for the family when in fact it was just a band walking through a picnic. 

There are a range of shots used throughout this music video which helps to make it more interesting. A variety of closeups are used on the band, this is a helps to show their facial expressions and emotions. Throughout the music video the band tend to keep a neutral facial expression which suggests that they are clueless to what they are doing and are remaining in character even though they no longer need to. Mid shots and long shots are used to show the bands dance moves as well as the locations that they are dancing in. Using a long shot helps to establish the location which highlights the fact that the band should not be dancing there, for example the road with many moving cars. At the end of the music video a arc shot is used to go around the man holding up the directions/instructions, this helps the audience to see his distress at losing the band in the pit. The arc shot helps to make the audience feel as if they are placed in the music video; the arc shot then moves out into a long shot showing the man fall down to his knees. This shows his despair about losing the band and not keeping a close eye on them.