In our world today, every child has something to fear, but since the beginning of time, many children have feared one thing, adulthood. Adulthood is seen as the lack of curiosity, unreasonable priorities, irrationalism, and innocence. Then when a child is thrown into the life of an adult, they can be very lost and confused as to what they are supposed to do, which can lead to an enormous amount of stress. AKMU portrays this picture of childhood in their music video, Melted is centered around a boy who is homeless and naïve to the entire world, surrounded by mainly adults throughout the video, the young boy himself represents the innocence of a child. Through the cinematography of the camera, along with colour composition, and body language, this music video captures visual motif of the boy and his childhood along with his experience of the immersion into adulthood.

One of the beginning scenes (0:50), the boy is picked up by the man in the van and within the van, he takes a peek at the boxes which symbolizes the curiosity of his youth. This scene establishes the surroundings and setting for the whole music video which shows the mood of the outside. Having a more of a grey scale colour scheme shows where it is a cloudy and bleak day setting a very somber vibe towards the rest of the music video. As the boy is sitting in the backseat of the car, as a child would, the back window of the car creates another separate frame that allows the focus to be completely centered on the boy. Through a medium shot, the boy is seen looking around at the scenery, and then notices boxes that belongs to the man and begins to open and play around with them. The boxes themselves are very dull and simple which does not strike much attention to them. However, because he represents a child, anything could spark his interest. Many children tend to have low attention spans and he shows that when he started snooping around through the man’s personal belongings. The boy also pulls out his camera to take a picture of whatever is within the boxes. With his camera, the boy is able to frame what he deems important by taking a picture of it. And so, with whatever he found in boxes, he expressed them with facial features that show a more excited and inquisitive look. This shows that as a child, they are sincerely innocent and do not think about other motives. Through a close-up shot, the man’s gaze is not very pleasant towards the boy, rather his gaze is focused more on his own belongings. Within this scene, it is very obvious of the disgust of the boy and the suspicions that the man gives the boy where he would kick a child back out onto the streets. The entirety of this scene shows the curiosity of children that adults tend to look down upon, especially if it is into another’s personal space. 

After being kicked out of the car, the boy arrives at what seems like is a convenience store where he makes a few purchases and comes across a choice that many children tend not focus because they think of it as unimportant. With a constant gray scale background to continue the dismal mood, the scene analyzed starts at 1:13, when the boy holds small boxes of camera film and a bag of candy in his hands. With the help of an over-the-shoulder shot, there is an emphasis on the objects that he holds, where he holds both objects at the same height which represents the equal importance of both things. The two items represent more than just the things themselves, but a want and a need. Although the candy can be seen as a want, it still represents food which is nutritious for the child in the end. And because the boy is seen to be hitchhiking and wearing the same clothes over again, there is an applied notion that he is homeless or rather very poor. Since he is a child who seems to be deciding over a need and want, there is most likely some maturity that hasn’t been reached. The mind of a children has yet to realize the importance of a need over a want. In the end, the boy does choose over the rolls of film for his camera which thus proves his priorities as a child. When the boy does purchase the film for his camera, there a medium shot that shows both the store owner and the boy during the transaction. This shot also shows the semi reciprocal gaze of stern and judgement that the owner holds upon the boy as the boy focuses his attention on the objects that he bought with what little money he had. 

 Right before the end of the video, the boy encounters a dog on the side of the road tied to a trailer as he is walking after a night in the police station, which starts the beginning of his breakdown after being exposed to the adult world. At first, the boy is seen being kind to the animal and trying to pet it, but a second later, the dog is suddenly barking back at boy.  At 4:34, there is a combination of a close-up shot as well as an extreme close-up shot that provided a very detailed image of the young boy’s feelings. The background at this specific moment is blurred out which contrasts the sharpness of how the boy is seen to further emphasizes his emotions and motions towards this dog. From his facial features only, it is clear to say that the boy is very upset, furious, but also broken at the same time. In the immediate next shot, the scene is blurry which intensifies the anger and the boy’s emotional state. It is meaningless to yell at a dog because they have no idea what you are mad at or what they did wrong, but because the boy is so young and innocent, he is not fully conscious of the fact that he is taking his anger out on a dog. His anger however stems from the fact that he was fully immersed within the stage of adulthood so quickly, from an earlier scene in the music video where he is taken into a bar by a woman. 

The closing scene of the music video begins when the man in the trailer accepts the boy into his home with what is assumed no bad intentions, and then cares for him and showsz that adulthood is not always cynical. In the trailer, the man feeds the boy and seems to listen and care for whatever the boy has to offer. Within this scene, specifically 5:04, the shot is specifically aimed at the boy with an over-the-shoulder shot to encompass everything the trailer has to hold. The objects within the trailer, like the plants and quilts, hold the man in a positive light where one can assume that he is not a danger to the child. The gaze between this man and the boy are reciprocal to each other where there is an understanding notion towards both parties. It is also seen that the man is fixing the camera that the boy broke in an earlier scene at the bar, which can allude to the fact that the camera is an extension of the boy himself. Because the man is trying to fix what is broken, both the camera and the boy is in the process of being restored. The shot also captures the composition in the trailer itself, where the colours are very warm. The colours such as the dark yellow and deep red give a warmth that can be seen within the smile of the boy and the man himself. With all these components, the man in the trailer helps the boy see that adulthood is not all dismal but there are light moments as well. 

Adulthood is a very frightening aspect to a child who becomes completely thrown into it. A life with responsibilities, strictness, and priorities, is a very hard concept for a child to grasp, especially if they are unaware of their physical situation in the first place. Like seen in this music video by AKMU, the young boy travels wherever he can, but by the end, he is still seen lost in the world of adult who refuse to help him until he breaks down into confusion. And with the beautiful camera work, the audience is able to see the visual motif the boy represents as curiosity and love of a child disappear in a matter of seconds to be faced with realization and disappointment but when tended to and nourished for adulthood does not have to be as awful. 
