Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

Radioactive is a song recorded by American Indie Rock band, Imagine Dragons. Radioactive is an indie rock song with elements of electronic rock and dub step, while containing cryptic lyrics of apocalyptic and revolutionist themes. The music video was released on December 10th, 2012. It was directed by Syndrome and features puppeteers by the studio Puppet Heap. The video revolves around a mysterious female drifter who is on a quest to save her friends (Imagine Dragons) from the perils of a sinister, underground puppet-fighting ring.
 

Although the plot of the video is quite strange, the locations that were used for the music video were really interesting and created an urban feel to the music video, something which I may consider to include when storyboarding my own music video. The shots of the main singer hitting the drum are effective in producing an eerie yet intense atmosphere. This prop (the drum) is something that I could think about using as it provides the musical element to the video as well as adding to the plot.

The close up shots of the girl, arriving at the underground puppet-fighting ring, are effective in producing clear and mysterious shots. These shots add to the plot, as it provides suspense for the audience, who are waiting to find out who she is and why she is there. Her costume also fits in well with the apocalyptic theme as they are quite dirty and dark looking. This provides a sense of the need for survival, and rescue in this case. Her costume is also similar to that of the band members, who are trapped in the underground prison. This implies that they are on the same team and that the female is there to save them.

The puppet element to the music video is quite strange and defies audience's expectations of what the video could have been. Although a serious song, the puppets provides a humorous aspect to the music video, which perhaps takes away from the message of the song. However, the humorous element does create an interesting video and definitely holds the audience's attention, which is a main aim of a music video. So in that respect, I feel that adding humorous elements to a music video can grab the audience's attention and ultimately becomes more appealing to a wider audience, including younger teenagers/children, who would be more enticed by the puppets than the actual music.

Speaking of the video to MTV, Reynolds said "We read through a ton of scripts from really talented directors, and we came across one that stood out to us in particular, because it put into visuals the general theme of the song, which is kind of an empowering song about an awakening, but it did it in a way that was very different,". "A lot of people probably see a post-apocalyptic world when they hear 'Radioactive', understandably, but we wanted to deliver something that was maybe a little different from that ... a lot different from that".