Promises (2020)
Beach Bunny's latest video, 'Promises' has a storyline of a girl, Lili Trifilio, getting over an old love, through escapism, and eventually overcoming it. There are many close up shots of Lili, as well as landscape shots in different settings, such as the woods. One prop that is omnipresent is her bed, which she hides in and under throughout the video, taking off the duvet to reveal a new setting. The bed also relates to the lyric 'part of me wants you, part of me wants to fall asleep', and the lyrical reference in the props makes the video a reflection of the lyrics, which is a style I really enjoy. The constant reference to bed and sleep through the lexical choice in the lyrics of 'dream', 'bedroom', 'recurring dream' is also present in the video, however the video isn't a literal reflection of the lyrics, as there are elements of performance.
The video is 4 minutes long, and has so far received 285,000 views since being released 5 months ago. It is their latest video, and has received a lot of positive reviews, and 14,000 likes on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFQDssE693M
Prom Queen (2018)
Prom Queen is both Beach Bunny's most popular song as well as music video, so far racking up 10 million views on Youtube since its release on December 31st, 2018. The song itself protests beauty standards and explains the effect they have on young women. The lyrics are a personal account written by Lili Trifilio, and she also performs them throughout the video, making the music video seem more personal, and therefore more interesting. Throughout the video, the use of makeup and costume shows the character's insecurity with herself, as well as showing the fact that she's changing herself to fit the 'prom queen' stereotype, and is still very unhappy. The first shot of the video is a landscape shot, outside a laundrette, showing three boys (other band members) dancing around to music, without being judged or looked at, while Lili enters the laundrette with her head down, trying to avoid attention. This is a representation of the difference between how men and women are treated by society. While the men are dancing embarrassingly in public, they aren't being judged, while a woman entering the laundrette keeps her head down to avoid judgement. Once inside the laundrette, a closeup shot of the singer is used while she's loading the washer. The closeup shot shows her neutral facial expression. The camera then cuts to a wide shot of her seeing a dress in her laundry pile. The use of props in this video are very symbolic, as Lili then picks up a fashion magazine, in which the opening lyrics to the song 'shut up, count your calories' are shown. The use of the magazine as well as the lyrics represent the media's way of making women feel bad about themselves, as well as glamorising weight loss.
Throughout the video, the struggle between wanting to be yourself and changing oneself to appeal to the masses is shown through costume (contacts making her eyes blue instead of brown), props (an exercise bike that she then runs away from once she realises she's on it) and general use of mise-en-scene, such as pens turning into lipstick and her room being decorated with female icons who are adored by the media for being skinny and blonde.
To me, the performance and lipsyncing in the video is the best representation of the internal body struggles, as halfway through the video, you see the singer's costume and look change, portrayed by a panning shot, but her facial expression is pure misery, as she plays her guitar, which represents that changing yourself externally won't necessarily make you any happier on the inside. However, at the end, Lili's small smile shows that she has accepted her body.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc6SSu5pnHw
Overall, both music videos use a variety of camera shots, performance and mise-en-scene, Beach Bunny successfully creates entertaining videos to watch, as well as represents the songs' lyrical meanings, which is incredibly appealing to me and other viewers. While not being hugely commercially successful, their videos and songs have a lot of meaning, and are hugely appealing to an adolescent audience.
