'everything i wanted' by Billie Eilish
This music video is an example of a narrative video - although the story is not action packed, it is slow and full of meaning.
This music video is about a dream Billie Eilish had. She dreamt that she jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge and nobody cared.
This is what she said:
“We started writing it because I literally had a dream that I killed myself and nobody cared and all of my best friends and people that I worked with basically came out in public and said, like, “Oh, we never liked her.” In the dream, the fans didn’t care.”
Conventions of a narrative music video shown:
In this video, the camera pans smoothly outside the car at the beginning before cutting to a close of a person. This is makes the video grab the audience's attention by making an emotional connection. It is enhancing the meaning in the lyrics by creating this calm atmosphere despite the hard hitting lyrics. The slow panning of the camera throughout the video adds to the calm mood.
Furthermore, Billie Eilish takes a main role in this narrative as the song is about her own personal dream she had one night - I think it would be less meaningful if someone else played the role.
The narrative is very basic - not detailed or overly dramatised. It fits well with the song and portrays the story in an effective way. The connection the audience builds with this video is constructed from the slow movement and facial expressions. The driving of the car into the ocean is almost like a scene from a movie - movies are made to grip audience's attention and sell a narrative.
The lyrics are not closely related to the music video but still show some connections. For example, the lyric, 'my head is underwater' and the shots of the car underwater.
Moreover, the music video becomes much more personal from the first frame - 'finneas is my brother and my best friend no matter what the circumstance, we always have and will be there for each other'. This is most likely used to establish a connection with the audience as it is very personal to the artist. An audience member will feel like the artist is being open with them and feel much closer to them.
Comments