EG4: Bastille - Things We Lost in the Fire

ACT: Bastille
TRACK: Things We Lost in the Fire
YEAR: 2013 
DIRECTOR: Unknown
GENRE: Indie Rock
AUDIENCE: 15-40, M+F

VIDEO:


LYRICS

PERFORMANCE, NARRATIVE AND/OR CONCEPT: 
The video style is a narrative, with some lip-syncing by the lead singer. Most of Bastille's music videos are quite cryptic, and this one is no exception. The story seems to centre around a bullet found in a desert, and the narrative jumps between a group of unknown people wandering around the desert, to a love story between the lead singer Dan Smith and a mysterious girl, to a road trip with the band. 

the first narrative

the second narrative

These two narratives interlock, and this can be quite confusing sometimes. The ending is also extremely confusing as there are some shots of the lead singer, which cut to the car with one door open and a large pool of blood coming out, and there are no clues about whose blood it is or why they are injured.

the third narrative

PERFORMANCE STYLE: The only performance in the video is of the lead singer miming, and this isn't frequent throughout the video. He never makes eye contact with the camera whilst singing and at times it doesn't look very realistic. 

the lead singer lip-syncing

The plain setting makes the blood stand out in this shot

one of the many shots of the car

LOCATION/S + MISE-EN-SCENE: This music video was shot in Lithuania, and the bare ground and plain landscape adds to the eeriness of the video. The white bare ground also makes the red blood stand out more in the final shots of the video. 

The car is a big feature of the video as it is shown in all the different narratives and also some shots on its own driving through the desert with an unknown driver, and also stationary with wolves stood on top of it, as well as at the end with a pool of blood.

the sky turns into a bar in this transition effect

FX: Throughout the video there are normal transitions apart from one shot during the middle of the video. The lead singer is clearly stood outside, and he looks up to the pitch black sky, and this then changes to a bar, as the camera shoots forward. There are no more transitions like this in the rest of the video.