Generic Research: Case Study 2 (Narrative) (One Direction)

 Generic Research: Case Study 2 (Narrative) (One Direction)

Story of My Life - One Direction

'Story of My Life' by One Direction focuses on the futile endeavour to pursue a girl, resulting in bittersweet nostalgia and heartbreak.

The music video is the bands third most viewed music video with over a billion views as of April 2025!

The set for the music video took 5 days to build, and impressively 6000-7000 photos of the One Direction members over the years were hung.

Typically, celebrities in media keep their upbringing private, whereas 'Story of My Life' let on a more vulnerable, personal and initiate perception of the boy bands lifes, particularly pre-fame by featuring photos from their childhood and of their family.

The video was directed by Ben Winston, who previously directed the music video for their single, 'Best Song Ever'

I chose to study this music video as both this music video and my music video follow themes of reflection and passage of time and I hope to follow a similar aesthetic in elements of my music video.

Opening Shots

The video opens on a photo developing, revealing the name of the song, the band, and the director in one continuous shot. The video then cuts while the beginning instrumental is playing to each member of One Direction developing photos and hanging them up.

Direct Address While Singing

To begin, Harry and then Liam separately sing whilst hanging up their photos. Both of them sing directly to the camera. This creates a tie between the viewers and the singers, and helps the viewers directly understand the emotion of the lyrics. It also makes the music video feel personalised, and the low lighting highlights them singing over the background and mis-en-scene.

Zoom and Photo Transition

Zayn is then filmed smiling at a picture hung up, the camera then pans to the picture and slowly begins to zoom in... As the camera zooms in onto the picture, the picture then effectively 'ages', and 'younger Zayn' and his sister are then 'grown up' (current). The picture then becomes full screen, and transitions into frozen setting. where Zayn is then able to move and walk around in the 'picture'. 

I thought this editing was impeccable and so inspiring!

The use of identical clothing for the 'past' vs 'present' of the siblings really helped exemplify that they are the same people - clearly showing that time has passed.

I hope to feature similar in my music video, eg. a zoom into to an old photo of 'youngest Scarlett and Theo', and then a transition to 'current (teen) Scarlett and Theo' in the same place.

Establishing the Mis-En-Scene and use of Wide Shots

The camera quickly zooms out of being 'in' the photo of Zayn and his sister and pans out to a large room filled with thousands of photos. This extremity is emotional as it shows thousands of cherished memories undoubtedly filled with nostalgia.

We as the viewers then see for the first time the whole of One Direction through a wide and establishing shot. 4 of the members are looking around the room at all of the photos and Harry is singing in the centre of the frame using direct address.

The inclusion of the wide shot was (in my opinion) very emotional as it highlighted the impressiveness of the emotional set - I hope to feature some wide shots to help my audience understand the mis-en-scenes of my music video.

The colour scheme is also quite dark and minimal compared to the photos - I think this effectively displays the change in emotion between being younger and innocent in the past (colourful colour scheme and outlook on life), compared to the present and feeling more mature and worldly (darker colour scheme due to harsher realities faced when growing up). The dark colour pallet further adds to the emotion of the song and lyrics - feeling drained of any colour due to heartbreak and futile longing of unrequited love.

Physical and Printed Media

The video is centred around photos and the past vs the present, and I think it is fundamental that the photos are printed and physical.

In my opinion, printed photos seems more authentic and nostalgic than digital photos and they somehow convey rawness.

I hope to include printed (over digital) media in my music video to achieve the same level if authenticity that One Direction achieved in this music video.

The video has moderately paced editing (reflecting the pace of the song) allowing the viewers to look at the photos and make connections without feeling rushed.

Motif of Past vs Present

As the music video develops we then see Niall, Liam, Harry and then Louis all 'go back in time' to the photos as their older self with the same family members that are older too. Each of the boys, like Zayn earlier, are 'unfrozen' unlike the rest of the setting and people, and they all are able to walk around the rooms and reflect. In particular, I noted that in Louis 'photo', once it became clear to the audience that two of his grandparents had passed the lighting became darker - proving to me once again that lighting really does have the power to set the tone and highlight emotion.

For fans of One Direction, the inclusion of the band members families may act as an intertextual reference, however the music video is cleverly made to aid new viewers that may not understand the familial links beforehand to understand them now. I think this was especially because of the same clothing used

Post-Modernism

Typical of music videos, once the music video begins to come to an end, the video encompasses an arguably 'post-modern' ending where the 'frozen' family members become 'unfrozen' and can interact with the band members. They are all smiling, laughing and/or hugging, possibly celebrating the 'wrap' of filming.