Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Music video analysis - 4
My fourth and final video I'll be analysing is Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. This is, again, a hybrid video as it could be seen as either Narrative or Performance.
Mise-en-scene: In this music video, the singer has multiple clothing changes depending on what type of dance she is doing. For example, for ballet she wore a tutu and for r&b she wore lots of changes and a basbeball jacket. The props used are ballet bars, a boombox, microphone, a ribbon, megaphone. These props are relatable to the music video because they're all relevant to a certain dance. The location of the music video seems to be in a large studio. It's a perfect setting for the music video as there is nothing in the background to distract the audience from what is happening. All the lighting is high-key lighting.
Angles/shots: The shots seen in the music video are all sort of similar, there isn't a huge difference
between them. A medium close up shot was quite frequent throughout the music video. It shows the the facial expressions of the subject. A medium shot was also used. It allows room for hand gestures and a bit of movement. A medium long shot was the most common shot used. It shows the subject in relation to the surroundings. The last shot used is a long shot. It places the person in their environment.
Editing: Like the other music videos I've analysed, the only editing technique used is slow motion.
Representation: The music video represents getting rid of critics, focus on having fun.
Theories: The music video does indeed follow some of Goodwin's theory. One of his points is that music videos demonstrate genre characters. For pop music videos, the artist is portrayed as happy, enjoying and content with life. Also, pop songs are usually 3-5 minutes long with a set structure and a consistent beat. The Shake It Off music video follows these characteristics. Another point of Goodwin's is there is often an intertextual reference which can contribute to the postmodernism of music videos. The singer 'twerks' at some point in the music video which could refer to Miley Cyrus' dance move.
Mise-en-scene: In this music video, the singer has multiple clothing changes depending on what type of dance she is doing. For example, for ballet she wore a tutu and for r&b she wore lots of changes and a basbeball jacket. The props used are ballet bars, a boombox, microphone, a ribbon, megaphone. These props are relatable to the music video because they're all relevant to a certain dance. The location of the music video seems to be in a large studio. It's a perfect setting for the music video as there is nothing in the background to distract the audience from what is happening. All the lighting is high-key lighting.
Angles/shots: The shots seen in the music video are all sort of similar, there isn't a huge difference
between them. A medium close up shot was quite frequent throughout the music video. It shows the the facial expressions of the subject. A medium shot was also used. It allows room for hand gestures and a bit of movement. A medium long shot was the most common shot used. It shows the subject in relation to the surroundings. The last shot used is a long shot. It places the person in their environment.
Editing: Like the other music videos I've analysed, the only editing technique used is slow motion.
Representation: The music video represents getting rid of critics, focus on having fun.
Theories: The music video does indeed follow some of Goodwin's theory. One of his points is that music videos demonstrate genre characters. For pop music videos, the artist is portrayed as happy, enjoying and content with life. Also, pop songs are usually 3-5 minutes long with a set structure and a consistent beat. The Shake It Off music video follows these characteristics. Another point of Goodwin's is there is often an intertextual reference which can contribute to the postmodernism of music videos. The singer 'twerks' at some point in the music video which could refer to Miley Cyrus' dance move.
Music video analysis - 3
The third music video I'm going to analyse is Shut Up And Dance by WALK THE MOON. This music video can be seen as a narrative or a performance video.
Mise-en-scene: A lot of the clothing that we see throughout the music video is 80's style. A lot of people were wearing bright clothes which could connote the mood to the song. We also can see that some of the female had a lot of bright, chunky jewellery on to fit with the 80's feel. We don't see many props except for the odd prop here and there in his thought clips that we see beside his head. The location of the music video seems to be in a club of some sort. This is evident by the amount of people that we see crowded around the room and as the song is about dancing, it seems logical that the location would be at a club or party. The lighting during the music video is fairly bright and the use of spotlights is clear by the different coloured lights. The lighting fits the mood of the music video.
Angle/shots: The shots that we see throughout the music video are over the shoulder shot, medium shot, close up, POV shot and two shot. We first see the over the shoulder shot at the start when the male protagonist walks on to the screen. It's only briefly an over the shoulder shot that would go unnoticed if you weren't looking out for it. The shot may have been used to frame the shot. A medium shot was the most common shot used throughout the music video. It shows him from his waist upwards, it allows the audience to see him, the scenery behind him and the other characters that you may see onscreen. The close up shot was used a lot when we were showed his thought clips. The close up could have be used to show his reactions/emotions. We see the POV shot when they're both spinning around, it changes between the female and males point of view. Quite frequently we see a two shot of the female and male protagonist. It establishes the relationship between the two. The two angles that were used were low and high angle. The movement between these two angles were almost unnoticeable.
Editing: Editing was used a lot in this music video. You can see the edit through his thought clips, they were made to fit the 80's feel to the music video. By this I mean there's a lot of bright colours used and clearly a green screen was used at some point to make the background seem like a 80's video game.
Representation: I think the female was represented as forward, this is shown by the way she acts toward the guy. And the guy was represented as shy because he was nervous towards the girl. I think the producers are challenging the typical stereotype of a female and male.
Theories: The Shut Up and Dance music video does tend to follow some of Goodwin's theory. For example, one of Goodwin's points are music videos more often than not tend to include a demonstration of typical genre characters. In boy/girl bands you tend to see a dance routine and towards the end of the music video I'm analysing the band members all dance together to a dance routine. Another point of Goodwin's theory that is followed is the there's a relationship between music and visuals. For the Shut Up and Dance music video, it's an illustrative music video. By this I mean the meaning of the song is made clear through the video. Another theory that the music video follows is Intertextuality. The music video incorporates 80's video game background/pictures.
Mise-en-scene: A lot of the clothing that we see throughout the music video is 80's style. A lot of people were wearing bright clothes which could connote the mood to the song. We also can see that some of the female had a lot of bright, chunky jewellery on to fit with the 80's feel. We don't see many props except for the odd prop here and there in his thought clips that we see beside his head. The location of the music video seems to be in a club of some sort. This is evident by the amount of people that we see crowded around the room and as the song is about dancing, it seems logical that the location would be at a club or party. The lighting during the music video is fairly bright and the use of spotlights is clear by the different coloured lights. The lighting fits the mood of the music video.
Angle/shots: The shots that we see throughout the music video are over the shoulder shot, medium shot, close up, POV shot and two shot. We first see the over the shoulder shot at the start when the male protagonist walks on to the screen. It's only briefly an over the shoulder shot that would go unnoticed if you weren't looking out for it. The shot may have been used to frame the shot. A medium shot was the most common shot used throughout the music video. It shows him from his waist upwards, it allows the audience to see him, the scenery behind him and the other characters that you may see onscreen. The close up shot was used a lot when we were showed his thought clips. The close up could have be used to show his reactions/emotions. We see the POV shot when they're both spinning around, it changes between the female and males point of view. Quite frequently we see a two shot of the female and male protagonist. It establishes the relationship between the two. The two angles that were used were low and high angle. The movement between these two angles were almost unnoticeable.
Editing: Editing was used a lot in this music video. You can see the edit through his thought clips, they were made to fit the 80's feel to the music video. By this I mean there's a lot of bright colours used and clearly a green screen was used at some point to make the background seem like a 80's video game.
Representation: I think the female was represented as forward, this is shown by the way she acts toward the guy. And the guy was represented as shy because he was nervous towards the girl. I think the producers are challenging the typical stereotype of a female and male.
Theories: The Shut Up and Dance music video does tend to follow some of Goodwin's theory. For example, one of Goodwin's points are music videos more often than not tend to include a demonstration of typical genre characters. In boy/girl bands you tend to see a dance routine and towards the end of the music video I'm analysing the band members all dance together to a dance routine. Another point of Goodwin's theory that is followed is the there's a relationship between music and visuals. For the Shut Up and Dance music video, it's an illustrative music video. By this I mean the meaning of the song is made clear through the video. Another theory that the music video follows is Intertextuality. The music video incorporates 80's video game background/pictures.
Music video analysis - 2
The second music video I'm going to analyse is Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding. This music video is a hybrid, it's a narrative and a performance music video.
Mise-en-scene: For the duration of the music video, Ellie Goulding only changes clothing twice. The characters in the Fifty Shades Of Grey clips have frequent clothing changes as the scenes that we are shown are all different. In the clips we are shown of Ellie, we don't see many props except the chandelier. They don't do anything with it except dance around it. In the Fifty Shades Of Grey clips, we see many different props depending on the setting they are in. The location in which Ellie is in changes twice: one of the settings is a large castle like building with large, expensive sculptures and the other is in an empty car park. Much like the clothing in Fifty Shades Of Grey, the settings alter depending on the scene that is being shown. Some of the locations are at a workplace, at a home or on top of a building. The lighting is first very dark as the song opens and the lack of lighting adds atmosphere and mood to the song but as soon as Ellie enters the large with the chandelier, the lighting gets brighter and we can see the location better. The new lighting could suggest how the singer is feeling as she gets a lot happier. The lighting in the empty car park is quite low which adds mystery to the feel of the song. We see close ups to Ellie's face and the lighting is very high and we can see almost every detail of her face, the change in lighting could, again, fit her mood.
Angles/shots: There aren't a varied use of shots in the music video. A common shot that I noticed was a tracking shot. The camera followed Ellie around the location and it followed her when she was dancing. Another shot that was used a lot in the music video was an establishing shot. The establishing shot sets up the context of the music video by showing the relationship between the character and the location. A close up was used of Ellie's face. The close up exaggerates facial expressions which convey emotion. The viewer is drawn into the subject's personal space and shares their feelings. A lot of the shots we see are cut very fast and it's apparent when the song picks up. However, angle wise we see three types of angles. We see the most common: low and high angle. But we also see a birds eye view. We see this when a manly figure is looking down at the large room with the chandelier.
Theories: The obvious theory used in this music video is Intertextuality. As the song is for the Fifty Shades Of Grey soundtrack, clips from the film were incorporated in the music video. This also links with one of Goodwin's points: there is often intertextual reference which can contribute to the postmodernism of music videos.
Mise-en-scene: For the duration of the music video, Ellie Goulding only changes clothing twice. The characters in the Fifty Shades Of Grey clips have frequent clothing changes as the scenes that we are shown are all different. In the clips we are shown of Ellie, we don't see many props except the chandelier. They don't do anything with it except dance around it. In the Fifty Shades Of Grey clips, we see many different props depending on the setting they are in. The location in which Ellie is in changes twice: one of the settings is a large castle like building with large, expensive sculptures and the other is in an empty car park. Much like the clothing in Fifty Shades Of Grey, the settings alter depending on the scene that is being shown. Some of the locations are at a workplace, at a home or on top of a building. The lighting is first very dark as the song opens and the lack of lighting adds atmosphere and mood to the song but as soon as Ellie enters the large with the chandelier, the lighting gets brighter and we can see the location better. The new lighting could suggest how the singer is feeling as she gets a lot happier. The lighting in the empty car park is quite low which adds mystery to the feel of the song. We see close ups to Ellie's face and the lighting is very high and we can see almost every detail of her face, the change in lighting could, again, fit her mood.
Angles/shots: There aren't a varied use of shots in the music video. A common shot that I noticed was a tracking shot. The camera followed Ellie around the location and it followed her when she was dancing. Another shot that was used a lot in the music video was an establishing shot. The establishing shot sets up the context of the music video by showing the relationship between the character and the location. A close up was used of Ellie's face. The close up exaggerates facial expressions which convey emotion. The viewer is drawn into the subject's personal space and shares their feelings. A lot of the shots we see are cut very fast and it's apparent when the song picks up. However, angle wise we see three types of angles. We see the most common: low and high angle. But we also see a birds eye view. We see this when a manly figure is looking down at the large room with the chandelier.
Editing: Some of the shots were edited in
slow motion. The reason behind this is because it captures key moments. Another
editing technique used is fast motion. This was used when Ellie was dancing
with a male. A lot of the dance shots were sped up.
Theories: The obvious theory used in this music video is Intertextuality. As the song is for the Fifty Shades Of Grey soundtrack, clips from the film were incorporated in the music video. This also links with one of Goodwin's points: there is often intertextual reference which can contribute to the postmodernism of music videos.
Friday, 25 September 2015
Music video analysis - 1
The first music video I'm going to analyse is Good For You by Selena Gomez. This music video is a performance video. Although she isn't singing in front of a crowd or audience, she is in fact miming her lyrics and performing to the camera.
Mise-en-scene: The clothing, or lack of, consists of a bright robe that she wears at the start of the music video, then changes to her wearing a white see through shirt with ripped jeans, next we see her just wearing a white shirt. Her choice of clothing helps put a certain message across through the music video, she comes across as 'sexy' and 'appealing to men'. We don't see many props throughout the music video except some furniture now and again, that being a green sofa and a stool. The location that the music video is set seems to be an abandoned warehouse of some sort, it looks run down by how cracked the walls look. The lighting that we see throughout the music video is all quite bright, a lot of the light seems like natural light as we're able to see it come through windows. This lighting could be used to emphasise the mood that the singer is trying to put across.
Angles/shots: We only see a few different shots throughout the music video. These shots would be mid-close ups, close ups, extreme close ups and wide shots. The lack of shots could suggest that the producer wanted to focus only on the character rather than everything else around her, this could be supported by the lack of props in the location. The two angles that I was able to notice was high and low angle. The high angle shot looks down at the character while she's lying on the floor which could suggest that the character is vulnerable and powerless. The low angle shot gives a sense of confusion to the viewer.
Editing: One of the only editing techniques that I could observe was that the shower shots were edited in slow motion. This is because they wanted to create a seductive aura to the video.
Representation: After watching the video, I feel like the character in the video was trying to represent sexuality and lust. The reason I think this is the way she was moving her body and what she was wearing. Her lack of clothing, especially when she was in the shower, brings the viewers attention to her body rather than her as a whole.
Theories: Some parts of Andrew Goodwin's theory can be applied to the music video, one point that Andrew made was frequent references to the notion of looking. The notion of looking includes men or women being portrayed seductively or if their eye makes contact with the camera which we see Selena do a lot throughout the music video. Another point Goodwin made was that the record label demands the need for lots of close ups of the artist, this is also evident throughout the Good For You music video. Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze" theory could possibly be applied to the music video as the camera lingers on her body and she isn't wearing much clothing so this would catch male attention.
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