Unsteady X Ambassadors music video Analysis

Within the first 18 seconds of the video we see crosscutting between a child walking towards his father and a woman walking through a restaurant. Suggesting a linked narrative or something similar is about to happen to these people.

20 seconds in we see a location change to show the performance element of the video with close ups mainly on the lead singer of the band. This Red lighting implies danger or anger coming from the band members. This conation gives the video a much rawer tone as it depicts that it is about a past experience of one of these members.

At 0:26 we see the woman who was walking through a restaurant with her arms wrapped round a man, these proxemics suggest a date between the two. The shot then cuts to the same man swinging his son around in circles. This telling the audience that this narrative includes the same people in different time periods of their lives. This converges with Todrow’s theory as it shows an equilibrium which is the couple happy on their date.  

At 0:55 we see the couple laughing at the table they are sat on, this shot is cut into the family sat at their dining table laughing too, however the lyrics “this house doesn’t feel like home.” Acts as a warning, to the disruption of the equilibrium, the next stage in Todrow’s theory.

At 1:12 there is a downwards panning shot of the boy on the date, it pans down to him holding a flask, in this scene it is shown as a fun and rebellious act; in the next scene however it has proved to get out of hand, this shown by the close up of the mum watching him pour whiskey into his morning coffee with a worried look on her face. The eye line match at 1:35 shows that she doesn’t want her child to see this and have bad habits in the future.  

At 2:12 there is an extreme close up of the mum shouting in the father’s ear, this shot is contrasted by an extreme close up of her whispering positive things into his ear on the date. This two shots alone prove Trodrow’s theory can be applied to this video as it starts off with an equilibrium and then it is destroyed by the deterioration  of the father to alcoholism, The mother is constantly looking to restore this equilibrium by using their son as motivation to stop.

The performance element of the music video also follows the star theory as the only band member we have seen clearly throughout the whole video is the main singer. This depicting he is the only important member of the band and that he is the only one that fans and audiences want to see.