Paramore The Only Exception

The Song

The Only Exception was a song wrote by paramore about falling in love and the damage that can be done by this. The song then goes on to state that there is the one person that is “The Only Exception” despite the problems with love before and the problems with her (The Lead Singer Hayley Williams) father divorcing her mother and seeing “I saw my daddy cry and curse at the wind”. The music video uses the full story of this song with several cuts between scenes and performance by the band and the singer solo surrounded by love notes and cards.

Thought Beats/ Seeing SoundsThe song beat wise is quite slow and acoustic so the music video

slightly moves along as the song progresses at a slow pace. As the song starts to bring In more instruments the music does move to the beat of the songs particularly the bass and drums for the scenes with the singer dating moving through people at each beat of the bass and drums. The song does not focus much upon seeing the sounds of the song and takes a more narrative image with a performance.

NarrativeAs mentioned the song focuses mainly on a narrative of the song showing

different stages of a person and the person that is “the only exception”. The song starts off with the main singer Hayley Williams laying on the couch in casual clothes next to her boyfriend and leaving a note saying I’m sorry. The song then begins vocally after leaving the room and starts to explain why the note was placed. This then starts to play along with the lyrics stating about her father who is divorced and has a broken heart. She also steals a photo of her parents happy when they first met and leaves her father in a room to enter her bedroom. After this when the chorus begins the camera fades out and in to a shot of Hayley Williams zooming out as she is laid on a floor covered in love cards and hearts. Hayley is also dressed up as more of a feminine figure showing her growth of accepting love and trying to make more of an effort for “the only exception”.

NarrativeAfter the chorus this then swaps to a performance of the band performing

on stage. The band is wearing very dark clothing and the lighting in the background is very high key, this makes Hayley Williams stands out as the main performer with her bright hair. Also blank picture frames are present within the back of the shot showing something is missing for Hayley. Hayley then is back her bedroom to which she enters her wardrobe and dresses up ready to go on a date. She is then on a date with several different people at the same time as the lyrics “I had to swore to myself that I’m content, with loneliness”. After this Hayley then runs out to the chorus with a swap to the performance as she enters a church as a person enters with very high key lighting and is hidden maybe as symbolism towards being Hayley

NarrativeHayley then see’s a live band in which she see’s ”The Only Exception”.

Hayley then runs through all the scenes she has been in to end up back at the start to which she rips up the note she left him and laid back next to him on the couch. The song then finishes with Hayley laid on the love notes saying “I’m on my way to believing”. . She then runs out and ends up a live band performing in which she see’s “The Only Exception” After this the chorus begins saying over and over again “You Are The Only Exception” and all the scenes that were shown are shown with her and him together.

The Star Image

The Star Image throughout the full video is Hayley Williams and throughout this video she changes from casual dressed to being very dressed up. She represents a more teenage audience dressing up in the most popular ways for teenagers. The song is more targeted to a more teenage audience so throughout the video Hayley represents that in the way she dresses and the way the story is shown.

Illustrative

The Only Exception is a music video that is very Illustrative following the lyrics to create a story line throughout the video with a few shots of a performance of the band.

Technical Aspects

• The camera movement is very slow throughout the full music video. When Hayley moves into a different room the camera tracks with her slowly. When zooming out from Hayley in shots these movements are also very slow. However when swapping between characters and different shots these are done very quickly. Birds Eye View shots are used very effectively with Hayley laid on the love notes and cards. This shot was used as of to show that love is all around her. The Video is mostly compiled from Medium Close Ups and Tracking shots to show the movement throughout the song and to focus more on the story of the music video.

Editing

• Editing is something that was not used very much throughout the full video only used to fade in and fade out of different shots and this effect was not used many times. The reason that much editing was not done is because of the story line flows through the full video on a single set that did not require much editing keeping the video very simple and basic focusing more on the story of the video.

Mise-En-Scene

• The song throughout seems to retain very high key lighting in some places and some low key in some places usually to represent the mood of the music video. During this video Hayleys clothes changes 3 times throughout the video to represent her insight into love. The Music Video tries to be as simple as possible in order to aim and appeal to a more teenage audience.