All Time Low - 'Time Bomb'
Lead singer Alex Gaskarth says this song is about a couple trying to keep a dying relationship together, though they are being pulled apart by outside influences. The dramatic narrative of the video is used to symbolise this, there is a dying woman and a man who has made her a mechanical heart, this represents the couple working to keep the love (the heart) in their relationship. The man is being chase by a SWAT team who want to stop him, an outside force breaking the couple apart. This romance/action narrative about a couple fighting to be together whilst being pursued by 'evil' forces, is quite redundant in cinema and so has also often been used in music videos. There are references in the song to the "time bomb", bullets, guns and triggers, this fits in with the narrative of the video. The characters in the video are archetypes and so are predictable; the male action hero who is inventive and athletic, the damsel in distress who waits powerlessly for the hero and the bad guys, undeveloped male characters with guns. These stereotypical characters also represent an outdated ideology where the woman waits for a man to come and find her.
This style of music is often used in action sequences as it is fast and energetic so it fits well with the video. There are a mix of close ups on the details and long shots for running etc. and the camera is handheld so it is shaky at times, all this is very dynamic and matches the music. In one verse the music slows down and so this part is used for the intimate moment when the guy finds the girl, there are also times when the music matches gunshot and people starting to run. In the performance parts of the video the editing in just as fast, jump cutting on the drum beat.
The band are dressed in black punky clothes and the hero wears a leather jacket, he also has headphones on, this is to appeal to their audience. In the narrative section of the video the colours are desaturated, it is more dark and shadowed. In the performance aspect the video is more orange and gold, though still quite high contrast and not that bright. This lighting and colour design is typical of the genre. Punk videos also often have a lot of performance and many genres of video have a relationship as part of their narrative.
There are lots of close up on the lead singer as required by the record label to make him recognisable. There are also medium shots and close ups on the other band-members, though these focus on their instruments and their talent at playing them rather than their faces.
There is not really any notion of looking in this video although the shots of the woman in a hospital bed are distorted as though we are looking in through a lens. There is also no voyeurism as All Time Low has a predominantly female audience and this is more often in pop and rap videos.
The storyline of the video is a classic action-romance and so references a lot of films like 'The Adjustment Bureau'. The heart that the hero creates for the woman is also very similar to a device in the Iron Man films. At the end of the video an interesting technique is used, the two parts of the video come together and the couple run across the rooftop where the band are performing. This is also used in the video I analysed of Paramore, a similar band. This is unexpected and brings attention to the fact it is a music video.
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