Analysis Of Kodaline's All I Want

Kodaline’s All I Want is a music video about social isolation for the main character – whom is disfigured and seen as ‘ugly’ or ‘scary’ by his peers. The song talks about his love for another person who will not accept his for who he is. The video reflects themes like isolation and prejudice, love and beauty; whether that be in nature, humanity or one’s inner self.

The narrative of this music video is about how the main character is isolated from society because of the fact he has disfigurement in his face. The mise-en-scene element that best aids this, in the most obvious way, is the make-up. This is because the main character has been made up to look ugly and ‘scary’. The make-up here connotes the idea of horror and distaste, as a society our immediate reaction to the character is that he looks ‘weird’, but the story aims to mould this view (in the same way as the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’). The make-up on another character is that of the female, who wears red lipstick and general facial makeup. This is to make her stereotypically attractive, which ties into the theory of Male Gaze, and also to show us the contrast between her beautiful looks (but unloving personality, at least at the start) and the main character unattractive looks (but caring and loving personality). The make-up also sexualises the female character, which leads into one of the stories main narrative points.

In this music video, costume is used to instil a sense of normality to the main character, but also to connote deeper themes and meanings to us as an audience. We see the main character, when at work, in a casual shirt and tie. His shirt is white, which is a colour that connotes innocence and he has a polka dot tie on; which could reflect his kind and somewhat childish nature. Both of these costume choices were used to show how kind the main character is, there are no negative connotations that would turn us away from the character. According to Propp’s character theory there is always a hero and a villain in a narrative. The villain here would be the suited man. His costume is black, connoting the negativity of his persona. The fact that he wears a full suit could be referring to his self-pride, the character seems to be a snobby self-centred person that doesn’t care about other people’s feelings. The pink shirt that the female lead wears stands out and contrasts the bland colouration of the office and the other workers clothes, showing that she is the princess archetype (as she is out of place and acts as the hero’s prize). The pink colour also shows us her femininity, especially in an office workplace, which could make her out as a target for sexual advances.

The body language and facial expressions used in the music video mostly convey the idea of awkwardness and non acceptance towards the main character because of the way that he looks. We can tell that most of the people that work with the main character think he is a freak and do not want to spend time with him or speak to him. The facial expressions could also connote an idea of fear, especially when the main character is getting his mug from the cupboard. This idea of fear can be linked to Jaques Lyotard’s theory that our society is based on existing metanarratives. The known way to deal with someone who looks different is to approach them with caution, instead of accepting them or giving them a chance to show who they are. This is a narrative that has existed in society for hundreds of years (which completely agrees with Lyotard’s theory).

When the main character goes home, the props used show us how creative and normal he actually is. We see him painting on an easel, the picture being that of the deer we saw earlier, showing that he not only has an appreciation for art but also for nature and living things – something that the rest of society do not show him. We also see him playing a guitar, which shows us that he has a wide array of talents, those of which he has learnt because he never had any friends or anywhere that he belonged. Finally, we see how loving he is as we see him holding a picture of his mother and him as a baby. This shows that there was only really one person that ever loved him and that was his own mother, who would accept him for who he is because he was her son. This shows that acceptance can only come from one person but this allows the main character to go on knowing he was loved by someone. You could also say that the donor (in accordance to Propp’s character theory) is the main character’s mother as she has given him the love that he needed to continue on and has also instilled in him the right values – as we see later in the video through his heroic actions.

The settings in the video also reflect the idea that the main character is just a normal person, he works in a nine to five office and has his own apartment that doesn’t look any different to a ‘normal’ person’s. When the main character finally gets the girl, they are shown walking around roads in a town and the weather is bad – with lots of rain. This setting contrasts the idea of pathetic fallacy, wherein the weather reflects a bad emotion like sadness. Instead the rain is shown during the happiest scene of the song, this contrast of pathetic fallacy comparing to the way that the main character is different to everyone else – but this difference is what makes him so special.

We see some slow-motion edits in the music video, for example when the main character is running with his dog. This accentuates this scene, wherein we see the idea of natural beauty through the images of the deer. Also, it shows the bond between the man and his dog is more important than with anyone else in the video, as this is the only part of the video filmed in slow motion.

Colour correction is used very well in this music video, especially in the way it tries to show the bleakness of the main characters life when he is at work. Whilst the lighting is mostly high key, it is also washed out and made up of mostly whites and greys. This allows for our main character to blend in to the scenery, as though he goes unnoticed and uncared for. It also allows the previously mentioned pink wearing female lead to stand out against the surroundings, showing that she is an important part of the main character’s life. Another example of colour grading is during the fight scene. This is because the main character is showing his aggression towards not only the ‘villainous’ characters, but also society in general. He is removing his insecurities (which are shown by the grey colour) in order to save the girl that he is in love with. This then contrasts against the warmer reds and oranges used after this scene to show that removing his insecurities and saving the girl has made life better for everyone, and also secured him a good thing in life.

Lens flares are used during the scene with the deer to connote deeper meanings like love and anger in this part of the music video. We see a red lens flare and, as red is almost always paired with the idea of love, this is what we immediately assign with it. It shows that the main character has a love for nature and the world, but it could also connote his anger towards beauty as he himself is not ‘beautiful’. He could be jealous of the natural beauty of the deer because no one has ever looked at him the way he looks at them. However, from the rest of the video, I don’t see the main character having these thoughts due to his generally kind and innocent personality.

In the beginning of the music video, a lot of the camera shots aim to show the main character’s isolation from the rest of the characters in the music video. We see close-ups of people’s faces, showing their distaste towards the protagonist and examples of Depth of Field, which is used to separate the main character (who will be in focus at one point) from the other characters (who will be the next point of focus). The justification behind these camera techniques is that the creators want to reflect a social divide between the protagonist and the supporting characters but make sure that our focus in on the main character and his emotional struggle. Close-ups of faces show emotion, and we see distaste, disgust and fear towards the main character but only smiles from himself- showing that he is not fazed by the divide and is instead only interested in the female character.

There is an establishing shot used when we are introduced to the deer to accentuate their natural beauty and to show the main character’s interest in them. It allows us as an audience to be taken aback and to somewhat rethink our ideas of what beauty is, as the main character obviously understands more than the society around him does. This can also be seen in the over-the-shoulder shot when he is looking at the picture of his mother. This shows his emotional connection to her and also shows how she accepted him and as a result he probably thought of her as a ‘beautiful’ person, not just from her looks but by the way she looks at him.

A handheld shot is used during the fight scene to show the adrenaline of the scene but also to show how the main characters conformity to the ‘rules of society’ has disappeared. Throughout the rest of the video the shots are often stable and from one position where as here they are moving around and erratic. This shows that the main character has been living his whole life in a stable position, never facing up to his ‘bullies’ and as a result never really growing as a person. Here he has abandoned his social anxieties to do what he thinks is the right thing and this changes him and the perception of himself to others (especially the female lead) for the better. We see her develop feelings for him and (in part two of the music video) we see that his bullies are now afraid of him and have left him alone. This could tie into the uses and gratifications theory in that it has shown how an acceptance of personal identity and a disassociation of uniform life can change yours for the better.

The message that I took away from the music video for All I Want by Kodaline was that if life has given you a bad hand (in this case the main character’s looks) you should still strive to find the beauty in existing and to not be trampled over by people who believe their lives are better than yours.