It Ain't Me

Imagine taking a casual ride on a motor cycle with your loved one and the next thing you know, you crash and your loved one must be rushed to the hospital. This horrific scene occurs in Kygo’s new song featuring Selena Gomez called “It Ain’t Me”.
           A couple starts out on a late-night motorcycle ride and quickly crashes after swerving out of the way of another car. The female character is able to get up and walk away from the accident but the male character ends up in a come in the hospital. The girl spends most of her time after the accident by her boyfriend’s side, but she soon loses hope. She dances around the hospital room and realizes he is not coming back. At the end of the video, however, the male character wakes up from the coma and realizes his girlfriend is gone.
           The most interesting part of this video was all the symbols the director decided to use. The semiotics of this video add a deeper and more meaningful message to the song. One of the first examples shown is the red jumpsuit and helmet the female character wears before and during the motorcycle crash. The color red can represent many different things, but in this video, it represents love. In the beginning, the female’s love for her boyfriend was strong, but as the video progresses, she strays from wearing red clothing showing that her love for him is fading.
           Another interesting aspect of this video is that the setting goes back and forth between the hospital room and the male’s unconscious thoughts and images. In terms of symbolism, this represents the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the couple’s time spent in the hospital. The scene where, in his subconscious mind, the female pulls a butterfly out of her mouth brings up a sense of change or metamorphosing that is to come.
           The change that is being foreshadowed appears in the end of the video when the male character wakes up, but his girlfriend is not there. A butterfly lands on his head, showing that his girlfriend is gone and how his life has changed. Whether he wanted it or not, his life changed right before his eyes. The director did an excellent job of portraying this with the method of filming.
           Elements of mise en scene are very prevalent in this video. The shot will go from a close up shot on the male’s face to a long shot of the whole room or to his subconscious thoughts. The quick changes between shots adds to the feeling of chaos. The angle of the shots also vary. One moment the camera will have a bird’s eye view of the male’s face, and the next scene will be a wide angle of the hospital room with a focus on the girl.
           Overall, this video creates a strong message that life can change before your eyes. The methods the director used are very effective, however the lyrics could match up better with the theme of the video. The song is more about a girl who is tired of always taking care of someone who, we assume, drinks too much. The video is more about a tragic accident and the girl is looking after her boyfriend, but stops after losing hope of him coming out of a coma. Other than that, the video and message are very well made and very effective.
            The way this video is created and edited makes it unlike most other videos in a good way. Using this story line for this song is unexpected but it leaves a lasting memory on the viewer and even advocates for safer driving.