The music video for Birdy's "Skinny Love" uses various film techniques to convey a melancholic tone that matches the song's themes of fragile, broken love. Dark lighting, a subdued color palette of blues, grays and greens, and symbolic objects like a dead spider signify loss and struggle. Camerawork like close-ups of the artist's hands and face intimate connect the personal nature of the lyrics to her experiences, while compositions that avoid centering her give a sense of wanting to disappear into the shadows. Together, these techniques immerse the viewer in the song's sad emotions.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNzCDt2eidg
Birdy – Skinny Love
The music video and lyrics link to create a melancholic
tone, as the song strongly suggests ideas of broken love,
the title itself means the love is fragile and easily broken,
and the artist is needing the love as a way of coping, she
needs the love and company to survive.Various
techniques are used to present these ideas, through the
mise-en-scene, lighting, pops, composition,
camerawork and colour pallet.

2. Lighting and Mise-en-scene Contrast between light and dark lighting
The lighting adds metaphorical
meaning, suggesting the artist is
struggling with darker thoughts,
although she appears innocent
and has a pure image, the
darkness still appears in her life.
This links directly to the lyrics,
creating a clearer picture of the
melancholic meaning suggested
through the lyrics.
‘Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere/
– Brassiere is a place to buy alcohol,
she drinks to take away the pain
The lighting could be reciprocated through
our own music video with the same
intentions of creating a particular
atmosphere, for example warm lighting for
a happier, calmer music video or having
harsh bright lights and contrasting dark
lighting to create more a more emotive
video.

3. Mise-en-scene and Metaphorical
symbolism Objects can add meanings and tell a
story, either as individual symbolism
or motifs throughout the video.
The two images both have
examples of death.The
dead spider evidently
signifies loss and
combined with the grey
dismal color pallet this is
continued.
The comparison of the
decapitated figure and the
ordinary one again
signifies a portrayal of loss;
both literally and
metaphorically.Therefore
it is evident that both of
the images contribute to a
running theme of loss for
the singer.
The shadows in the image near these figures
relate to the phrase/idea 'shadow of death'. As
you can see, the shadow is closer to the
headless figure, showing that they have
suffered more misfortune.

4. Use of focus pull
creates a soft image
The close up of the hands
playing piano - removes
the narrative for a while,
making a break in plot of
the video.
Close ups of hands is intimate
and adds delicacy while making
it quite emotionally intense.
Camerawork

5. Close up of the artist reminds the
audience that the content of the
song is personal to her, and
based on her personal
experiences. AsGoodwin’s
theory suggested, the record
label would also demand for
close-ups of the artist’s face.
The subdued colour pallet
showing mostly blues, greys
and greens is a direct
correlation to the melancholic
tone of the song/video- again,
emphasising the narrative and
feelings of the song.
The composition uses rule of thirds and by not
placing the artist on the centre of the shot
creates an idea that she is only vacantly there,
not wanting to be seen, being showed in the
shadows, particularly in the shot where she is
shown sitting in a garden as the dark colour
pallet reinforces the want she has to disappear,
creating a ghostly image of the artist.
The use of the colour pallet sets
a tone for the video, similarly to
choosing particular lighting.
Darker colour pallets result in
more of a emotive atmosphere,
leaving the audience reacting to
the video in a more melancholic
response, where as brighter
colours can create livelier and a
more joyful mood, for example
the screenshot showing
Beyonce’s ‘let’s MoveYour
Body’.
Colour pallet and Composition