twenty one pilots//guns for hands
They are an American duo that formed in 2009. Originally starting out as a four piece group, the band came up with the name “Twenty One Pilots” whilst studying “All my Sons” by Arthur Miller. The group later became a duo – consisting of Tyler Joseph (Vocals and Keyboard) and Josh Dun (Drums). In the beginning of the music video, Josh and Tyler are located either end of the room, standing in front of their instruments.
Tyler is located on the right whilst Josh is on the left. They have used subtitles along the bottom of the screen to show the communication between Tyler and Josh. The subtitles are in a clean, white sans serif font that is easy to read for the audience. The only sound we hear is Tyler’s footsteps as he walks over to Josh. Tyler is wearing a white balaclava and offers a blue one to Josh. This is the first mention of them not wanting to been seen as famous due to how they look but because of their talent as performers.
The video is a performance video that is very minimalistic. The camera work consists of a lot of long shots and two shots. The long shots help us to establish the setting and allow us to see the props that are used in the video, meanwhile the two shots helps us establish the relationship between Tyler and Josh. Close ups are also used in the music video, each time a close up is used, it focuses more on the talent of Josh and Tyler.
CAMERAWORK + EDITING
There are a lot of close ups that focus on Tyler and a mic – the mainly show the lower half of his face (nose and lips) and the microphone. The other close ups focus on Josh drumming – showcasing that they are real performers, which is typically seen in indie/alternative music videos.Quite a few dutch/askew shots are used, this creates mystery in the music video as the video/lyrical meaning is hard to see. The song is about depression and suicide and how things can become too much.
They also use a depth of field shot to represent how people feel when they are struggling, the depth of field shot makes it look as if Tyler is present but at the same the time, he isn’t seen clearly.
The video has a lot of quick cuts that match the beat of the song, this is extremely conventional in all types of music videos. Further into the music there is a crescendo in the song, during this they have a black screen transition which allows the audience to show the clear change in meaning behind the music video.
MISE EN SCENE
Due to the video being minimalistic, the setting is very mundane, it consists of a small white room with limited props. The props are the duo’s chosen instruments (Drums and Piano) and also a microphone, which is conventional for an indie music video as it showcases the band as raw. Due to the room being white, the lighting is high key which makes the room look simplistic and clean.
Josh and Tyler are also blocked in separate ends of the room, with Josh on the right and Tyler on the left. The blocking allows for the long shots to establish the relationship between the two but it also showcases their talents individually, representing the band as being equal.
After the black screen transition, Josh and Tyler have red and blue tape over their faces. At first, this throws the audience off as we have been able to see them normally for the majority of the video.
By not being able to see their faces it makes the audience uncomfortable. It was intentionally done to show that they have had to hide things due to their fame or because they don’t feel the need for it to be public.
This is a factor of Richard Dyer’s Star Theory, the band are aware that they are a construct but away from the spotlight they are their own person, hencing why they don’t want to make their private life public