Don’t we all wish we had a time machine to escape past relationships we regret? Well, so does Ingrid Michaelson. In her satirical music video, Time Machine, the visual motif throughout the music video is regret. The scenes of the music video that really stand out as prime examples of the motif are at forty-eight seconds and at one minute and fourteen seconds. During these scenes, the characters show regret through their facial expressions, body language, and reactions to the actions of the other characters.  

During the first scene that encapsulates the theme, forty-eight seconds in, there is a plump male in a tight white t-shirt and jean cut off shorts in the foreground. He has his leg propped up on a car with a water hose in his hand, spraying himself, instead of the car. He is soaked from head to toe and the water hose is spraying his leg, specifically. In the mid ground, there is a woman in a red, sparkly dress with her arm up in a defensive manor, sitting on a raised platform. The woman is the singer, Ingrid Michaelson. In the background there is a building, to which the raised platform belongs to, that is very dark with one door open to a pitch-black room. The only two lightly colored things in the scene are the hefty man standing in the foreground and Ingrid, in the back. Her red hair and dress contrast with the green door behind her. Even though he is in the foreground, she is directly in the middle of the wide shot, so eyes go straight to her, and then to him. He is dressed in stereotypical “sexy” clothing and attempting to be sexual in such an aggressive way. He is doing this because he is wanting to get revenge on her and “show her what she is missing.” He is lip-singing throughout the full scene, seconds forty through forty-nine, that he wishes he could go back in a time machine or rewind time and not have been with her. This is an act of retaliation and regret on his part, because they obviously had a bad breakup. Ingrid is showing regret through her annoyed facial expression, slumped shoulders, and her arm in the air literally blocking her view of him and the water he is spraying. She also is sitting in the background, while he is dressed and doing something typically done by a woman, while lip-singing to her song, therefore stealing her spotlight. She is looking at him throughout the whole scene with disgust and regret. 

During the second scene, where the visual motif is the most present, at one minute and fourteen seconds, in the foreground there is a new obese man, dressed in all black with a long pony tail. He is beside a trashcan with his arm up, dropping pieces of paper into a fire inside of it. Earlier in the scene, we see that he is burning photos, letters, and other memorabilia from his implied relationship with Ingrid. She is still in the sparkly red dress and now holding a saxophone, while giving him a look of pure annoyance and regret. In the background, there are plain white panels and three bright light stands, one to the left of the shot, one to the right, and one in the middle behind the trashcan. The light in the middle hits the smoke coming from the trashcan and draws attention there. The rather bovine man is showing regret by burning photos and letters from Ingrid, and she is showing regret from her slouching posture and facial expression. Stereotypically, the emotional and vengeful act of burning photos and letters from a past relationship, is done by the woman. He also is lip singing her song and interrupts her playing the saxophone, to draw attention to himself. She immediately exhibits shock and annoyance that develops into obvious regret throughout the scene. 

The main theme of the visual piece is breaking stereotypes, which relates to the theme regret in that, even though she is always in the mid ground or background of every shot, Ingrid is the obvious main character continuously through the entire video, while these overweight, older men do things that are usually the roles of attractive, young, women in an emotional and cheesy breakup music video. From the very start, Ingrid shows regret through her reactions to the actions of the men, body language, and facial expressions. Her regret is of choosing these men and letting them take her spotlight in every aspect of the video. They perform these things that would typically be her role and then lip-sync her songs. 

The title, Time Machine, of the visual text, correlates with the motif of regret because each person in every scene in the video are wishing that they had a “time machine” to be able to go back and prevent having met the other person. The visual motif makes us rethink assumptions made previous to looking at the video. If you were to hear the song, and be told there were scenes with a person washing a car in a white t-shirt and short jean shorts, in a white bed with rose petals, in a bathtub with champagne, laying on a piano, throwing out and beating a bouquet of roses, and burning photos and letters in a fire, you would assume it was a woman. If you were told that there was a person in the background rolling their eyes and thoroughly annoyed by these overdramatized actions, you would most assume it was a man. Ingrid and these men, break that stereotype by switching roles. 

The overall visual motif of this music video is regret. It is shown in almost every single one of the scenes, but are best shown at forty-eight seconds and at one minute and fourteen seconds. In these scenes, every aspect points to regret from the reactions of Ingrid, facial expressions, and body language. The use of mostly dark colors in these two scenes also show regret because regret is a dark emotion and dark colors imply dark emotion. It also correlated well with the overall visual theme of the video; breaking stereotypes. The actions of both Ingrid and the multiple men exhibit signs of regret while flawlessly breaking stereotypes. 
