Let me just start by saying I got the notification this video was released at approximately 10 a.m. Central time and I may or may not have left my Intro to Film class to go watch it outside the building… I totally did do that.
It was an easier decision than it should have been considering I have a test in that class on Monday, but music video premieres just take priority. Actually, almost anything having to do with music takes priority… I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or not, but it’s fine.
Getting out of the room was almost
Screen Shot of One Direction’s Steal My Girl music video.
a sign that I shouldn’t be leaving the room, because I couldn’t get the door to open and it was being so loud that I could feel people in the class looking at me, but I didn’t care.
Little did they know I was leaving the room not to go to the restroom, but to watch five of my favorite guys lip sync to one of my favorite songs at the moment.
So this is the first One Direction music video that was not directed by Ben Winston, but by Ben Turner! If you’re in the One Direction fandom, you know what this means; if you are not, just know the excitement of a new director was almost if not equal to the level of excitement for the music video, period.
The boys, boys being Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik (from left to right in the picture above) for those of you who may not be too familiar with 1D, said “Steal My Girl” is about their fans and how they never want to lose them. *Awhhhh*
Me being me and a Directioner, completely had a fangirl moment when the song was released and then another when I read what they said about the song.
Following the songs release was a lot of criticism because the opening melody sounds similar to New Found Glory’s “It’s Not Your Fault” BUT THEN if you listen to the NFG it sounds similar to Journey’s “Faithfully.” You can read the article from Billboard here.
The song went on to sit at the top of the iTunes chart for a few hours before making it’s descent. Right now it’s at #17 on the iTunes chart, and yesterday it was sitting at #30, so the video helped them climb a few spots higher.
I and quite a few others are not entirely sure what the concept of the video was supposed to be. My best guess is the boys/directer wanted to include various cultures and types of people AKA their millions of fans.
The boys have fans all over the world, in every country (I’m assuming) so maybe they wanted a fun video (as always) that wouldn’t make a culture feel left out?
Maybe I’m thinking too hard about this? Who knows, but, as you can see from these screen shots, there was plenty going on during the entire video.
First of all: Danny DeVito appeared in it as the director and I think it’s kind of hilarious and iconic that One Direction got him to make the appearance.
Like, I am so curious to how that happened, and I don’t know if we’ll ever know which is a little depressing.
Second: The editing/cinematography was ON POINT! My only issue with the entire video is during Zayn’s high notes, he’s not focused in on. For some reason the director choose to feature Harry during these parts. While Harry is singing, I just feel that because Zayn’s high notes are so powerful (and what almost every girl in the fandom *world* swoon over) he should have been what the camera was showing. Also, when he was featured during parts of his high notes, the entirety of the frame isn’t very appealing.
Okay, so maybe I have another problem with the video…
Third: I can’t even list out all of the different components that made up this video. Which is not my problem, my problem is this:
The frame is just so busy you kind of lose the boys. Some solutions I thought of that would have avoided this are to have the boys were clothing that separating them further from the background and characters, have the camera angled differently (maybe a high/low shot), the use of lighting could have made a major difference in this as well. (I’m pretty thankful for my Intro to Film class right now.)
Other than those things, I loved the video.
I am anxiously waiting for the arrival of Four on Nov. 17, but I am also anxiously waiting for a music video that has a little more meaning. Or maybe more of an obvious meaning.
Sometimes when I watch music videos I feel like there wasn’t a real concept that correlated directly to the song, but then sometimes I think I may have just completely missed it.
If you have any thoughts about this video, please share!
Screen Shot of One Direction’s “Steal My Girl” music video. (See, this angle and shot also makes the boys blend in, but not as much as the above photos.)
Happy listening,
Ashley x
P.S. 1D’s music video for “Story Of My Life” is the only video they have that I think has a deeper meaning.
Also, this is pretty funny.
Collage Of My Mind 