La La La - Naughty Boy Feat. Sam Smith Analysis

La La La – Naughty Boy (Feat. Sam Smith)

 

·      Mise en scene

 

Costume:

The costume of the 3 actors in this shot is very different according to each character. The costume of the child is fairly colourful and conventional for a child of his age.  The costume is also very odd when looking at the setting of the video because the boy is wearing a fur-lined jacket, trousers and a hat in what looks to be a fairly arid and hot climate, indicating to the audience that the child may be different from other children who would not dress like this in hot climates. This could also indicate that the child is wearing whatever he can get his hands on, showing him to be living a deprived childhood and being an underclass citizen.

The man on the right is dressed in some sort of fancy dress costume which masks his identity from the public who may have teased him because of his job and the way in which he went about doing his job of directing traffic.

The other man is dressed in a fairly dull way in comparison with the other two. His clothes are quite dark and dirty, showing that he is also a lower class citizen who is seen as not playing much of a role within society.

This shot highlights that these 3 people do not fit the normalities of society, fitting in with the storyline of them being outcasts and having to band together in order to survive and defeat higher powers (El Tio).

 

Lighting:

 

The lighting throughout this video is fairly bright, mainly because the bulk of the video is set outside. The only places where the lighting drops and becomes darkened is at the beginning when the child is being shouted at, in the gym when the man is providing the  music for the dance class, and at the end when the boy is making offerings to the statue within the cave. This fading of the lighting in all of these cases indicates where evil is present. In the first scene, the evil is the man who is showing aggression towards the child. The gym scene where the woman shouts at the man when he turns the music off, and also in the final scene within the cave where the demonic statue is there, indicating to the audience the bad people and moments throughout the journey of the child in the video.

 

Props:

 

The heart is a key prop in this video as it symbolises the man from the gym getting his life back and being free. The heart is then put in the man’s chest pocket, right above where the heart should be, indicating that the street vendor is giving the man his freedom back.

Another prop in this video is the television. The television has the words ‘Hotel Cabana’ on the screen, advertising Naughty Boy’s album and therefore marketing the rest of Naughty Boy’s products and encouraging the audience to buy them. Also, the TV itself is on its side and is unconventional as it is in the middle of the desert alongside a deserted train site, showing that the area used to be civilized until something happened which caused people to move away, foreshadowing the danger that the child is soon to come up against.

·       Narritive

The video tells the story of a child that got abused in his household (the deaf boy from the Bolivian legend) who receives a dog from a man on the street (lion in the Wizard of Oz). He then visits a gymnasium where a dance class is happening. There is a man in there who looks unhappy and dirty. He is holding the radio for the women who are doing their dance class. He sees the boy as the music reaches its chorus. The boy puts his fingers in his ears, like at the beginning when the man is shouting at him in an aggressive manner. The man then turns off the music and does the same imitation to the woman who begins to shout at him because the music has turned off. The man leaves with the boy and a bit further down the road, the child buys a heart from a street vendor who puts it in the chest pocket of the dirty man, symbolising the man getting his life back. The child and the man then turn to see a man in a costume directing traffic by dancing on the divide in the middle of the road. The song then reaches the chorus again and the boy again puts his fingers in his ears, the costumed man follows suit and begins to follow the boy, the dog and the ragged man from the gym.

 The two men and the dog accompany him out into the desert where there is a long shot of them walking along a retired train track symbolising their long journey to reach their destination. A side view of the 3 people and the dog walking along the tracks then shows a television just in front of them on its side. The TV is showing the words ‘Hotel Cabana’ which is the name of Naughty Boy’s new album, a clever way of advertising the artist’s product. The trio and the dog then stop and sit around a campfire while the boy and the dog sleep as the music quietens down in anticipation of the final chorus and the climax of the song.

They then visit a mine in the desert where the two men and the dog leave the boy alone with a statue of a demon. The boy then offers the heart to the demon and begins to worship him using the symbol that he had been using since the start of the video (fingers in his ears). The final shot of the music video shows the two men and the dog leaving the mine behind them, showing peacefulness and serenity as if they can move on with their lives without any further problems.

This video relates to a Bolivian legend about a deaf child who is abused by his family and runs away from home. The boy has a special talent for seeing people’s troubles inside his head and has a special scream that saves people and helps them escape their troubles. An evil demon called El Tio was said to have killed people of the local town because they did not worship him. The legend states that anybody who could hear the demon would come under his control but because the boy is deaf, he cannot hear the demon and he visits the site where El Tio resides in order to use his scream to overcome the voice of the demon and protect people from further suffering caused by the demon.

 

·       Camera

Lots of high-angle shots of the child at the start, showing that he is more vulnerable than the aggressive man and also giving the audience an insight into the story from the man’s point of view.  

 

When the man in the gym is first seen, it shows a close-up of his face and his clear fear of leaving because of the women who are dancing. The man looks over to the women and the camera pans round and zooms in on the faces of all the women, who all have expressions of concentration on their faces and all look quite scary due to their excessive use of make-up and stern looks.

A low-angle shot of the heart that the boy buys, shows him looking up at it, indicating that the heart is fairly important. This shot if followed by a jump cut of the boy looking up at the heart in awe.

This shot highlights the long journey ahead of them and how far they have come when you see the endless deserts and hills behind them considering that only 2 shots ago they were in the middle of a bustling city or town.

 

The child in this close-up shot, is shown to be crying and considering he has come such a long way, this shows his vulnerability and highlights to the audience that he is still only a young child, even though he has come so far.

 

This shot shows the child on his knees in front of the statue of a demon. This shot particularly relates to the Bolivian Legend about the deaf child and El Tio (the demon). This shot is particularly effective as it shows the end of the child’s journey and the camera gradually backs away as the song fades to show that the boy is not going to be coming back. 

 

·       Editing

The editing throughout this music video mainly consists of a lot of  jump cuts between different shots and in some cases, like when the boy meets both people that will accompany him on his journey, the camera pans round from the boy to the two people to reveal to the audience what the boy is looking at in a more simple way.

·       Sound

I like the music for this video as it is very catchy even though the song is about a fairly depressing event. The chorus is easy enough to remember and the title of the song is played in the chorus, making it more memorable as it has unique lyrics although most would not understand what is happening as the story of ‘The Wizard of Oz’ is used to hide the true meaning of the song. The timing of the music in contrast with the video is also very good because the chorus always plays at key events of the child’s journey, highlighting to the audience the most important sections of the video.