DNA ~ Lia Marie Johnsson - Mise en scene

Lia Marie's 'DNA' is both one of my favourite songs and favourite music videos. In this post, I shall be exploring the way mise-en-scene is used in order to compose this piece as beautifully as the creators did. Hopefully, by analysing something so carefully designed, I can learn and incorporate such skill into my own music video.

The music video opens with establishing shots relating to where our artist grew up. The silhouettes of palm trees connotes to California, the low key lighting perhaps representing a dark time in her life. In combination with the pink and purple sunset, we may associate this shot with her childhood.

The narrative begins with a low shot, featuring a person's legs. From the way that they stagger, in combination with the editing, makes the viewer assume the character to be drunk and of a disjointed mind. They're thoughts and actions are unflowing and dangerous, represented by the low key lighting of the shot. The positioning shows this person is the centre of someone's life - the audience assumes this someone is the artist.

The rule of thirds is used in the next shot to provide a loose frame for the young girl representing our artist in her childhood. This emphasises how small/young this character is - thus creating a feeling of isolation and scared confusion as she watches her parents fight. By framing her parents in the doorway, this implies a feeling of being trapped - whether this is how the artist feels or how either parent feels seems up to interpretation. The dark doorway also shows us her point of view - it's all she can focus on, all she can see, all she can hear. 

The combination of these mid shots mixed with close-ups allows us to see how the parents are interacting with each other. Here, the lighting and clothing makes the audience believe the mother is innocent, as lightness and white connote to purity (and innocence). As the father gets angry, his face is shown in shadow, perhaps letting the audience know that this is what the child character is most afraid of.  As her father shoves her mother against the fridge, Lia sings "Hate to see you like a monster," justifying the use of binary opposites in lighting, to emphasise how frightening he is. The close-ups show the expression in each of their faces and the drink her father takes a swig from -  desperation against drunken anger. As we know the child is watching, we may presume that these close-ups are what she's focusing on - her father's alcoholism and violent behaviour, and her mother's distress. 

No doubt inspired by the lines, "Blue and red lights come take you away" these shots are among my favourite of the video. An extremely quick, close up shot of the father's hands in handcuffs not only tells us his fate, but how quickly he was taken away. By placing each of the characters in the centre of the frame, we see how the father's actions impact each of them deeply. Additionally, by placing them in their own shot (without company), the family may feel a divide due to his actions. 

The synergy of red across both the shot in the past and the shot in the present links the two characters, making sure the audience realises that the young girl was Lia as a child. Furthermore, the use of red also connotes to anger, danger and violence - the colours being behind her perhaps because she wants to leave those memories in her past or because they're traits she's developed through experience and wants to hide. 

As Lia and her love interest take up most of the frame, we may assume this is all that occupies her mind at this moment, representing obsessiveness of young love. By having Lia wear a white top underneath a black leather jacket, we may analyse this as underlying purity, perhaps virginity. The leather jacket may represent power - and as her love interest is able to take it off (whilst he himself remains to wear black), the audience may analyse that he makes her feel weak, or that he is the one in control of the relationship. This question and fight for power is reinforced by their movement on screen - first of all it's Lia pushing him, but the action is quickly opposed as he makes sure they switch positions. 

As the second verse begins, a flashback appears on screen (shown by high key lighting and slow motion). By dressing Lia similarly to her father, we can tell how much she adores him, how much they're like each other. By having only one short scene of Lia and her father playing together, we may assume that although their time together was often fun, it was rare (represented by the lyrics; "Twice a year you come in crashing, nice to see you too"). Even their actions (how they're playing) represents the whirlwind of the time they had together - exciting and brilliant while it lasted, but over too soon. 

By using a close up, there is again a strong emphasis on similar clothing between Lia and her father as he picks her up and lifts her out of the truck. By focusing on their legs, although they're seemingly parallel, a tracking shot follows Lia as she runs back into the house. This may represent aspects of her father's character that she doesn't want to reflect, such as alcoholism or abandonment. Of the two parents, due to their stature, we may assume that it's Lia's mother that now holds the power. Lia's father has only one hand on his hip as the other rests on the top of his car door - representing a laziness, the inability to stand on his own two feet - whereas Lia's mother has two hands on her hips and with loose framing, is the main focus of her shot (making her appear bolder and thus stronger). Along with her strong pose, the colour of her top connotes to elements of wisdom and independence - although the faded pink may also represent faded romance. In the background of this shot, Lia can be seen peeking from the door, a reminder that her parents' relationship was constantly spectated by her, and her father leaving time and time again was under her witness. 

As the next shot fast-forwards to the present, we see an immediate change to lighting and mood. The use of low key lighting and the characters' actions represent danger. The lack of saturation could connote to black and white emotions - simply seeing something as wrong or right, causing more extreme reactions. This style in colour and lighting is similar to the fight between Lia's parents, linking to the lyrics of the song as throughout each chorus, Lia is afraid she'll share the bad habits of her father. Here, we see Lia start the fight, however, her love interest's actions (grabbing her throat) aren't justified, and as an audience we see that Lia's parents' relationship has affected her own, both being unhealthy (and dying), represented by the colour of the scene.

The purpose of these simple shots is to show different factors that effected Lia as she was growing up. Most significant is her father's alcoholism, represented by the bottle of Bourbon whiskey in the kitchen. By having this in focus while everything is shadowed and unfocused behind it, the audience may assume that this is the main culprit of Lia's broken childhood, if her father hadn't drank so much, perhaps they could've stayed together as a happy family. The telephone may represent an attempt at communication, or broken communication, as the phone lays on its side. The converse are the most ambiguous to me - as one is turned over, it may represent frustration as though it had been kicked off. Perhaps Lia had tried to run from her feelings, from herself, from her similarities to her father. As they appear old and worn, we may assume Lia feels tired of running from these things.

The significance of the rose is that it is recognised as one of the most beautiful of flowers, but across its stems are thorns. The flower may represent Lia's feminine, caring outer self, with the thorns representing her past and mental health. As she crushes the flowers in her hands and the petals fall, we may take this symbolism as her inner demons surfacing and hurting those around her - also hurting herself as she crushes the thorns in her hands too. The rose is also symbolism for love - however, in the context of a crushed rose, we may assume her love is broken or bruised.

One of the most powerful series of shots in the whole video, this gif holds so much of the representation alone. We see in their similar movements that Lia has become like her dad when angry - violent and cruel. The flowers are slammed onto the bed, perhaps representing her loved ones (her mum, her boyfriend), and how they get hurt due to those that love them. We see Lia push her boyfriend in a copycat styled shot of her father pushing her mother, showing how Lia's father's actions have influenced her own.

The significance of these shots being beside each other explains why Lia acts the way she does. As the camera focuses on alcohol as her mother and father argue in the background, we may assume that the reason they're arguing is because of her dad being drunk/having a drinking problem, and being aggressive whilst under the influence. Due to her parents' constant fighting, Lia has grown up without knowing or seeing a stable relationship - thus impacting her own relationship as she gets older. Earlier on in the video, Lia was seen drinking from a plastic cup, likely to contain alcohol - could her father's behaviour under influence have been passed down to her?

By pairing these two shots together, we see that although she is still affected by her father's actions, she has somebody looking out for her when she's older. This makes the audience realise that throughout the video, Lia has been upset, but this is the first time we've seen her be comforted by somebody else. Even though we've just seen her lash out at her boyfriend, he is attempting to look after her - perhaps showing he believes Lia is worth fighting her 'demons' for.

We only see Lia's father's face within these series of shots, and the impact of him breaking the fourth wall means the audience feels threatened by his intense stare. Lia's mother is shown in a warm light, contrasted to Lia's father shown in blue tones. This tells the audience that it is with her mother that Lia feels most warmth and love - her father, in contrast, is the coldness in her heart. His selfish actions have left a tainted mark on Lia, and she doesn't see him in the same warm light most parents would be seen in. Lia's mother is presented as a silhouette, perhaps to portray how, in a way, Lia sees her as cruel too, for kicking her father out. It could also have been used to show how her mother was impacted by her husband's abuse - her own confidence, light and personality were drained through the relationship, leaving her barely able to look after Lia (justified by the last shot). The colour in Lia's own scene are a mixture of warm and cool tones, showing she is the product of somebody kind and somebody cruel, representing her internal conflict of whether she is similar to her father or not. By showing her hands, we see how her anxiety affects her, leaving her holding herself and fiddling with fallen petals (perhaps representative of her own fragility and delicacy). Positioning-wise, Lia and her mother are shown on the right third of the screen, whereas her father is shown in the centre. This shows that he is the most impactful person on her life, the one she is most scared of becoming, perhaps why he is contrasted and shown fully compared to the other two characters shown in this series of shots. 

These two shots show the similarities between Lia's mother and herself.  The significance of her mother's back being turned may show how she had to give up on love, and was left without being able to comfort Lia sufficiently, as she was too busy trying to heal herself. Lia is shown front-facing, as it is her narrative, and because she wants a different ending than to her parents' relationship. This could signify that although she is broken, she is still willing to love - something her parents aren't shown to do. Both are represented as pure, in pink and white. Her mother, in a long, white gown, may represent a ghost of who she once was. Lia, still young and discovering who she is, is dressed in pastel pink satin in comparison, highlighting her femininity - satin itself has a shiny front and a dull back - perhaps showing again, Lia's internal struggle yet managing-teenager front. Both are areas Lia and her mother fought with their other halves, and both areas are shown in low-key lighting to represent such events. It seems Lia's home is haunted by broken love.

Lia breaks the fourth wall in her final shot - the audience finally see how vulnerable she is from close up. Being at eye-level, she is relatable to the audience and we are able to empathise towards her, even after seeing how she's treated her boyfriend. As she looks down before the shot ends, we see she is ashamed of herself and her actions - a sorrow never seen in her father. As an audience member, this shows me that although she's similar to her father, she will never be as despicable as him, because she doesn't want to be. This defines her from him, as he is never shown to try to regret or stop himself from being so cruel.