The 7 Things Music Video
Hollywood Records has released Miley Cyrus’ second music video (I’m not counting the dozens of Hannah Montana videos), the first one being Start All Over. I never liked Start All Over, it was just too random. 7 things already seems more interesting before even watching it; it’s directed by Brett Ratner. Considered to be one of the best music video directors in the business and also director of several blockbuster movies.
It shows that this wasn’t done by a thirteen in a dozen director; the lighting is not exactly standard. I first had my doubts about the plain the grey background but the backlighting creates a lot of shade which actually makes that work. What also makes the video different is that the cameras don’t move at all; this isn’t exactly a new thing to do but hardly a standard move. It works for the video though, it gives a closeness to it and it actually gives Miley a chance to do her own thing, she manages to express a lot of emotion with her eyes. There are no camera tricks involved in this video, they aren’t hiding anything (except for the upskirt shots that showed up in the promo pictures for the video, thankfully they manage to avoid those in the video).
The theme of the song is of course a breakup, the question on everyones mind is who is the song about? She actually shows a picture of the person it’s about but the face isn’t shown. However there has always been speculation that Miley wears a medical alert pendant to support Nick Jonas. I’ve always dismissed that as nonsense because who would be so insane to wear a diabetic alert tag when you’re a hypoglycemic? I still think it’s her own dogtag but she makes good use of people associating it with Nick Jonas, she repeatedly clenches the tag throughout the video. That’s also a sign that a good director was involved in this, small hints instead of obvious signs.
I always had my doubts about the big tempo changes in 7 Things but Brett Ratner dealt with those well. The video just works for the song, unlike Start All Over where song and video had no interaction or connection at all. Though I have to say Miley is overacting a bit towards the end of the video for the rest she does an excellent job. So does the rest of the cast in the video, meaning the other girls that had bad break ups. The video ends with a silent I Love You, makes you wonder if that’s directed at Nick Jonas as well. This video just shows that not all Hollywood Records music videos are bad like Vanessa Hudgens’ Sneakernight.
Miley does prove something with the video though, she’s more than Hannah Montana. There isn’t a single point in this video where you associate this girl with Hannah Montana or even Disney. The chart performance of the song so far proves that and with the video it should do a lot better in that department at well. No idea how high it will go but I highly doubt that she’ll stop at her current 10th position in the Billboard Hot 100. Though I still have to say that the subject is a bit advanced for a fifteen year old; then again this is Miley, normal standards hardly apply.
