Imagine Dragons - "It's Time"

Imagine Dragons are an American alternative rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. They gained exposure after the release of their debut studio album, Night Visions, in September 2012. Billboard named they "The Breakthrough Band of 2013", and Rolling Stone called their single "Radioactive" "the biggest rock hit of the year." The band members are Dan Reynolds, Ben McKee, Wayne "Wing" Sermon and Dan Platzman. The band plays guitar, bass, keyboards, cello, viola, drums and piano; they take all of these instruments on tour with them.

It's Time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sENM2wA_FTg

The video for Imagine Dragons' hit song "It's Time" begins with a medium close up shot of the band looking down at the floor, wearing very "rural" coloured clothing. The contrast of the video seems to be very high, however the exposure and possibly the brightness of the video settings seems to be very low. This creates a dark atmosphere, juxtaposing the upbeat tempo and lyrics of the band's song. The grey clouds around the band as they walk symbolise the hardships that we must face in life, as when you are seen as miserable you are said to have a "dark cloud following you". By having this imagery, the band then allow their audience, from all ages and backgrounds, to somehow relate to the video as everyone has hard times that they must face, and sometimes this can be extremely overwhelming for some.

This long shot of the band allows the audience to see the setting of an empty mess of rubble, once again repeating the imagery of hard times that people experience as your world can feel as if it is crumbling down and can leave you shattered emotionally. Having the band seeming to be searching for something amongst the rubble gives the idea that they are possibly going through a rite of passage, and from this the audience can once again interpret their own meaning. The overall message of the song is that you can overcome anything in life, and that as you grow up and follow your heart you can become the person you want to be. The journey that the band go on throughout the video, despite the gloomy atmosphere created from the video, represents this idea and because of this the idea is present throughout the audience's minds as they watch on.

The camera angles mostly used in this video are long shots, extreme long shots and medium close ups. By using only these types of shots the audience feel as if they are either part of the journey with the band, or they are merely watching and admiring from the sidelines. However they feel, they know they are part of the video and can relate to the song's meaning and its lyrics.

The above extreme long shot has echoes of war pictures, depicting soldiers going off to battle. The clouds and the darkness in your life can sometimes be referred to as the "enemy", and you "battle" with your demons to get over this. This shot is definitely an "eye-opener" for the audience, and they can quickly grasp the meaning of the video if they weren't previously aware or entirely sure of its message. 

The video ends with an intense scene. The clouds and darkness surrounds the lead singer as he and his fellow bandmates try their hardest to run away from them, but the singer has no choice but to let the darkness overcome him. The flicker of white in the background of this scene suggests that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and although the character feels that he is at his darkest point at the moment he will prevail and everything will be better in the end. 

The series of screenshots below show the journey that the protagonist goes through, travelling from the dark world of depression and sadness to the idyllic and serene image of peace - this can also be seen as bettering yourself, leaving the pits of Hell to experience the greatness of Heaven. 

I believe that anybody who watches this video can achieve a sense of self worth and importance, as if you are feeling particularly low you can watch this video and believe that everything that is bad in your life can be resolved. I love how despite the happy music playing over the top of this video, it does not take the attention away from the serious message to the audience that everything will be okay in the end, you just have to embrace the storm that comes before the calm. As the famous saying goes, it gets worse before it gets better and I truly believe that this is the main focus in this particular video. 

Like the Bastille video I have previously analysed, this music video has very few moments of the main singer lip syncing, and whenever rare moments like these occur he is never looking at the camera; it is as if he is trying to make sense of the situation and talking aloud to himself. The video is therefore mainly narrative driven and with songs with such powerful meanings and messages such as this that is something that must be done, as you cannot have a beautifully inspiring song with a boring, mundane performance based music video. The audience would not gain the same emotionally connection as they would do with a video such as this. 

I love the landscape elements used in this video, and believe that I would like to incorporate backdrops such as these (perhaps without so much debris) into my own music video.