'Somebody That I Used to Know' is an Indie Pop ballad written and recorded by Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter Gotye, featuring New Zealand singer/guitarist Kimbra. [1] It was released as the second single (single cover to the left) for Gotye's third studio album Making Mirrors (2011). [1] The track scored well in the charts in multiple of countries and became a viral hit on YouTube, with over 500,000,000 views as of September 2014. [2]
The video starts with pedestal shot starting at the ground, then feet and working its way up to a close-up of the artist's face. The pedestal shots upwards tactfully avoids any explicit content. The currently plain background has a pink hue to it, most likely achieved with lighting. This can be likened to the hue of the artist's skin tone, as he not clothed, and therefore the lighting complements this natural look as well as drawing attention to it. This plain backdrop also makes Gotye stand out as the main artist of the song whilst also providing a blank canvas for the artwork that appears as the song continues.
As the vocals start at 0:19, the camera has only just framed the whole of the lead singer's face into frame, this avoids any awkward moments of no movement and adds a feeling of flow to the video. Unlike other performance pieces, the artist here does not look straight down into the camera lens, instead just below it. This could represent his reminiscence, which is currently part of the lyrics he is singing. This lyric to visual relationship is mentioned in Andrew Goodwin's Dancing in the Distraction Factory (Routledge, 1992) as one of the keys features of the music video form. The eye contact to the lens is made at 0:29 on the lyric 'die', again a reaction to the spoken word in the song. This eye contact achieves the effect of a direct address to the audience and adds drama to the word.
The camera tilts very slightly upwards at 0:34-36, simultaneously with the artist raising his own head upwards. This is to keep the frame but also to add some subtle variety to the video so far, as a cut has not yet been made from the shot the video started with. This again happens at 0:45-47 as the artist lowers his head and withdraws contact, again a reference to remembrance in the song lyrics.
This long take of Gotye finally cuts away at 0:48 to a stop motion art piece just beginning, using a straight cut. The first vocal section of the song has finished by this point, and the instrumental break allows the story of the video to continue without taking away from the artist. A pattern starts to occur from this point, as the vocal sections of the song are provided with visuals of Gotye lip-syncing and performing his lyrics, whilst the instrumental sections are used to build upon the background art work. As the tempo of the song is slow at this point, the editing is not fast paced but has sped up comparatively to the 48 second long take the video started with. In the section 0:48-1:10 the average speed for each shot is about 4 seconds.
As this sequence continues, more colours and shapes are being added to the background painting. This is as the songs picks up its pacing and could be a visual representation of this. To match this, a closer close-up of Gotye appears, this time excluding his shoulders and the majority of his neck. This again is a key feature of a music video for Goodwin, as he notes that frequent and plenty close-ups are often included to help create the image of an artist.
The editing quickens after the closer close-up at 1:11, as the next stop motion section is split into to different shots, the latter only lasting a second. These short, one second edits match the guitar in the track at this point. The lyrics are also shorter at this point in the song, creating faster cuts. The stop motion also seems to be at a faster frames-per-second than before. The song is nearing the chorus and the background art piece is nearing completion, so this can be taken as a visual representation of a peak moment in the track.
The next insert at 1:30 combines the artist with the art for the first time in the same shot. The painting is reaching him and a wider shot put the art into perspective. This is also achieved via stop motion animation. It could also be interpreted as the artist feeling trapped, as the painting has continued to surround him as the song began. This can be further emphasised by the fact that the artist has not moved his position and will not do for the rest of the music video. Perhaps the painting represent his memories of 'people that he used to know', or even implying 'shattered' relationships due to the pattern featured in the artwork. The perspective is further helped as after the artist's left arm, his shoulder and right arm is also shown. This also contributes to the feeling of being surrounded. These transitions between body parts last two beats of the song each, adding a sense of rhythm to the video. It also contributes to the build-up before the chorus, like an explosion of emotion.
Again, the video goes hand-in-hand with the beat as the main chorus kicks in. The first beat at 1:33 is matched by a straight cut of the artist as he lifts his head to look straight at the camera. The art backdrop behind him is now complete, as the songs becomes more passionate, so the artwork was building up to this moment. A visual representation of an emotional build-up. The close-up shot of Gotye has returned to the same width as towards the beginning of the video, allowing more of the painting to be seen and creating some visual similarity between the calmer artist at the start of the video to the more passionate version of him seen now.
At 1:36 once the first line of the chorus has been sung, like previously, an insert of stop motion artwork visually fills the instrumental pauses in the spoken word. As the backdrop art has been completed the piece now begins to 'grow' onto the artist himself. This could represent his emotions becoming overwhelming, as he becomes more heartfelt in his vocals. It could also tie into the title of the song, as 'somebody that I used to know' has implications of blending in or being forgotten, which is what is being achieved visually.
The inserts of the artist at this point vary between the wider close-up, as seen above, and three more zoomed in version of these. This can be seen at its most effective between 1:38-2:17. All of the inserts in this section feature the closer close-ups and this more effective as the artist's emotions are accentuated and drawn attention to. This has been done at this point as there is more performance involved in this part of the song, allowing the audience to develop some empathy for the character. Pete Frazer believes in Teaching Music Video (BFI 2004) for this to be a convention and also partly done to the smaller size of the screen when most audiences are viewing.
The body paint has covered the whole of the artist now, engulfing him and making him blend in with the rest of the frame. This could represent his damage by the relationships he sings about, and also suggesting that he is part of the damage like the female vocalist believes. The artist's paint is slightly different to the backdrop as the colours are differentiated by black dividing lines. This makes the artist more visible when against the backdrop. Black eye liner has also been applied to his waterline, again to differentiate them.
From 2:17 onwards the camera reverse zooms out to gradually reveal the fullest version of the painting seen in the video. Whilst this occurs, the artist keeps eye contact with the camera. This reverse zoom reveals the female vocalist, Kimbra. She too has been painted to blend in to the backdrop.Kimbra's face has been left unpainted. Although her skin tone matches the backdrop colour, and her original position was with her facing the wall, I feel like this has primarily been done as it is a convention for female artists to wear full and bold make-up.
This full backgorund is infact taken from a painting my Gotye's father, just like the front cover of the album it belongs to, Making Mirrors. This particular painting also features inside the digipak.
Kimbra's vocals start at 2:33, as she looks over at Gotye. The reverse zooms continues as this happens. This is the most emotional section of the track in terms of acting and performance. An example of this is at 2:37-39, as the male artist inhales and exhales in accordance to the beat and as a reaction to the presence of the female.
A lot of facial expressions are used in this section to convey the emotions of both performers, perhaps more so than other music videos as the bodily movement is restricted. In the section from 2:37-3:01 Gotye conveys a lot of the performance through his eyes and heavy breathing. This suggests guilt. Kimbra's character on the other hand seems quite spiteful and putting the blame on the other person, as her vocals become increasingly passionate and her facial expressions quite forward..
Kimbra moves from her original position where she blended in with the background. This ties in with her more passionate approach on the argument and could also symbolise her freeing herself from the relationship. The painting could be representative of the male's life, and she does not want to be part of it any longer.
The exchange becomes quite conversational as Gotye sings his part at 3:02. Before, his facial expressions suggested guilt but now he seems quite defensive. Whilst Kimbra looks directly at Gotye, he does not return this whilst she is standing right next to him. Instead he looks towards the camera and reaches out towards the audience, like he were justifying himself. This could be representative of blocking her out and not listening to her criticisms. This could be supported by her harmony backing vocals, as they could be taken as screaming or shouting directed towards him. A close-up of Kimbra from 3:21-23 sees her backing down, perhaps accepting Gotye's argument. It is unclear, deliberately, who is right in the situation. This all contributes to the fragmented narrative idea put forward by Pete Frazer.
The editing also becomes more fragmented and of a faster pace as the song reaches towards its end point. The continuity is broken at 3:31 as Gotye has turned his head right previously to watch Kimbra leaving, a straight cut is made to a wider shot but his head turns once again. This happens on the lyric 'know'. Seeing a repetition of this could imply that seeing his partner leave is something that has happened before. This experimentation in editing could also reflect the more quirky style of Gotye's music.
A wide variety of different shots are cut between on just single words, creating a faster editing pace. This is accompanied by a stop motion removal of Kimbra's body paint. She is becoming free from the male life and this is represented by this removal. They both share the last line of the song whilst looking at each other, which they had done done before. Perhaps this points to a brighter future that they have both gone there separate ways. It could also be more empathetic towards the male artists, as he is left with the 'scars' and the emotional baggage.
There could be some debate about the use of male gaze in the video, as Laura Mulvey puts forward and Pete Frazer adds to, however Frazer states Freud in saying that voyeurism is about looking in order to gain sexual pleasure. The way to video is shot and editing, the apparent nudity of both performers is not used for this reason. The video is never revealing or draws attention to this. Both the male and female are treated fairly equally in terms of exposure, and so it cannot be argued that the woman has been objectified. The nudity is more about having a blank canvas than to be sexually appealing.
References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_That_I_Used_to_Know
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY
