analysis of music video

1. James Arthur –
Say You Won’t Let Go

2. Lyrics
• Lyrics of a song are used to help to establish a mood/general feeling
of the song.
• In a pop music video the lyrics of the song tend to motive the images
that are shown on screen.
• There will often be certain lines that will do this that are supposed to
make the artist reflect on something or imagine something
happening.

3. I met you in the dark
You lit me up
You made me feel as though
I was enough
We danced the night away
We drank too much
I held your hair back when
You were throwing up
Then you smiled over your shoulder
For a minute, I was stone cold sober
I pulled you closer to my chest
And you asked me to stay over
I said, I already told ya
I think that you should get some rest
I knew I loved you then
But you'd never know
Cause I played it cool when I was scared of letting go
I know I needed you
But I never showed
But I wanna stay with you
Until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go
I wake you up with some breakfast in bed
I'll bring you coffee
With a kiss on your head
And I'll take the kids to school
Wave them goodbye
And I'll thank my lucky stars for that night
When you looked over your shoulder
For a minute, I forget that I'm older
I wanna dance with you right now, oh
And you look as beautiful as ever
And I swear that everyday you'll get better
You make me feel this way somehow
This line is reflecting on some of the key
moments that the artist remembers, in this
case it is talking about a certain look that
the female used to give. This line also
motivates the cut as there is a flashback to
one of the fun moments that they shared
with each other.
This portrays that the male was once
scared about expressing how he felt
because he thought that she may not
have felt the same way, this could have
hindered the relationship at the start.
This line in the video is shown with a
soft transition on to a close up of
James’ face which helps to add more
feeling of love/romance.
Even though he may not have expressed his
emotions he understood how strong they were,
he knew that he wanted to be with her until
‘death we part’. This line has two different
images shown. The first is of the artist himself
and then the line ends with an image of a baby’s
and its who we expect to be its parents’ hands.
This shows one of the happiest moments in their
lives that they have shared together.

4. I'm so in love with you
And I hope you know
Darling your love is more than worth its weight in gold
We've come so far my dear
Look how we've grown
And I wanna stay with you
Until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go
I wanna live with you
Even when we're ghosts
Cause you were always there for me
When I needed you most
I'm gonna love you till
My lungs give out
I promise till death we part
Like in our vows
So I wrote this song for you
Now everybody knows
That it's just you and me
Until we're grey and old
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go
Just say you won't let go
Oh, just say you won't let go
The first shot of the line shows the female with her children
and then by the end of the line it has gone to a flashback of
on of their times together with a close up of them holding
hands by the lake, this emphasises how long the couple have
spent together and how much they mean to one another.
This verse has powerful imagery because it is of the female
character lying in a hospital bed with her family crowding
around her and someone with their head down next to her
which suggests that the character has passed away. This
emphasises the overall feel of love throughout the song
because of the family that is crowded around. This also adds a
feeling of sympathy because he has potentially lost the love of
his life. Towards the end of the verse it then shows how
worried the male character is through the use of a close up
shot.
For these two lines another close
up is used as it shows how
distraught the male character is
about the fact that his life
partner is in the hospital
potentially dying.
For this whole section the camera focusses on the
artist with his guitar as well as the family in the
hospital room. By ending the video this way it adds
more of a personal connection for anyone who has
been through similar situations of loosing a loved
one.

5. Camera Work

6. A wide establishing shot is used to show a lake
with a boat in the distance, you can also see the
silhouettes of two people in the boat. Because of
this it adds a sense of intimacy, closeness but at
the same time a sense of loneliness because they
are in an isolated area. It also makes me
personally feel a sense of loneliness because of
the fact that it is just them two with no one else
around them, this then leads to further
questioning about their relationship.
One of the first shots in this video is of
rain drops onto water, this
immediately adds a melancholic tone
to the music video
In this music video there are a lot of
extreme/close ups that are used, this is
a generic feature of the pop genre.

7. A low wide shot is used that shows the man
sitting on the floor with a dog and then the dog
walks away from him, this could be symbolic
because it could convey that someone close to
him is going to leave him/the world soon, later
on in the video it turns out to be the one person
that has always been there and the one person
he loved the most.
A mid shot is used which shows the
couple holding hands, a focus pull is
then used as well as a zoom to a long
shot which shows the couple standing
together looking out onto the lake. This
emphasises the closeness of their
relationship.
Their closeness is also shown through
the use of a close up where her hand is
on his chest, it then goes on to show her
looking down rather than up at him. This
could convey that she is struggling with
something and she is looking for support
without having to say that she has a
problem.

8. Mise En Scene
• Unlike many pop music videos the whole of Say You Won’t Let Go is
shot in black and white, this then emphasises the romance as well as
heartbreak in the video towards the end.
• The video is set in/around a lake house, this could be the place where
the couple/family in the video lived. This emphasises how personal
this video could be to many of it’s viewers and possibly the artist.
• Another setting that is used is a hospital at the end of the video. This
is important because the end of the song is talking about how they
will stick with each other ‘til death do us part’, this is how the music
video ends as it shows how distraught the male character is. It also
adds in that you never know when someone you love may leave you.

9. Editing
• The whole video is like a big montage as it has different shots of a
couple during their lives together, for example it shows you scenes
from when they were young, when they had children together and
then their final moments together before the female dies.
• The pace of the editing matches the slow tempo of the music as it
adds to the melancholic tone that the music has.
• The smooth cuts and transitions help to establish the true emotion
and love behind not only the video but most importantly the song. If
the cuts in the video were rapid then the intended emotion of love
would not be conveyed.

10. Intertextuality
I think that this video is similar to Neyo’s So Sick, this
is due to the fact that in both videos they are set in
an isolated area, So Sick in the mountains and Say
You Won’t Let Go by a lake.
Both songs/video are of the artist or the character in
the video reflecting on a relationship, in So Sick it is
the artist himself looking back at the hardships of
his relation ship with an ex where as in Say You
Won’t Let Go it is insinuated that it is the male
character in the video that is reflecting.
Heartbreak in both videos are emphasised by the
slow paced editing that is used throughout as it is
often used to help to convey emotion to the viewer.