Titanium Music Video Research

Titanium Music Video Research 

"Titanium" is a song by French DJ and music producer David Guetta, featuring vocals by Australian recording artist Sia. Taken from Guetta's fifth studio album, Nothing but the Beat, the song was written by Sia, David Guetta, Giorgio Tuinfort and Afrojack. Production was also handled by Guetta, Tuinfort and Afrojack. "Titanium" was initially released for digital download on August 8, 2011, as the first of four promotional singles from the album. It was later released as the album's fourth single in December 2011. The song originally featured the vocals of American recording artist Mary J. Blige, whose version of the song leaked online in July 2011.

"Titanium" is a ballad which draws from the genres of house and urban-dance. The song's lyrics are about inner strength. Sia's vocals on "Titanium" received comparisons to those by Fergie and the song was also musically compared to Coldplay's work. Critics were positive towards the song and noted it as one of the standout tracks from Nothing but the Beat. "Titanium" attained top 10 positions in several major music markets, including Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number one, becoming Guetta's fifth number-one single on the chart and Sia's first.

The song's accompanying music video premiered on December 21, 2011 but does not feature appearances by Guetta or Sia. Instead, the video focuses on a young boy, played by actor Ryan Lee, with supernatural powers. Along with other songs, "Titanium" was pulled from radio stations in the US after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

The music video for "Titanium" was directed by David Wilson. It was filmed in December 2011 in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac and at Dorval-Jean XXIII High School, in the province of Quebec, Canada. A 14-second preview of the video was uploaded to Guetta's official YouTube account on December 16, 2011. The preview showed a young boy (played by actor Ryan Lee) in the smoky woods running away from a SWAT team of men. The video then closes with the caption, "The Music Video Coming Soon".The full video premiered online on December 20, 2011. Neither Guetta nor Sia appear in the video. Jason Lipshutz of Billboard magazine noted that "the supernatural scene and suburban setting" in the video recall the science fiction film Super 8 (2011), in which Lee stars. Becky Bain of Idolator wrote that, "The video is beautifully shot, and is courageous enough not to answer all its mysteries." A writer for Capital FM called it a "very cinematic video".

The video opens in a deserted, destroyed school hallway with Lee's character shown sitting on the ground. As the first verse begins, he slowly begins to stand up and makes his way through the hallway. The boy then sees a female teacher in a classroom who's stricken with fear and closes the door, realizing that the boy is the cause of the damage. As the boy makes his way outside the school building, a police car arrives and the teacher rushes outside to tell the policeman about the boy, who then quickly rides a bicycle home to pack his things. While at home, he sees a news report about the incident, causing him to quickly gather his things to flee. Several policemen then appear outside the front door of the boy's house, while he tries to escape through the back door. The boy realizes that the door is locked so he uses his telekinetic powers to grab the keys from the kitchen bench. The policemen then enter the house to find that the boy has escaped, but find a teddy bear and a plush frog floating in the air. The final scene shows the boy running away from a SWAT team in the woods. The boy is caught by one of the men who pushes him to the ground. The video ends with the boy using his supernatural powers once again to push the men away in a burst of power; this references how the boy destroyed the school in the first place, as he's in the same position he was in at the beginning of the video. The aftermath of the outburst in the end, however, remains unknown.