Analysis of a Music Video - Watch The Sun Come Up

The video i am going to analyse is Watch the Sun Come Up by Example. I have chosen to do this song as we felt the editing skills were good and it was different to all the other videos we looked at for our research.



At the beginning of the song it is cut to the beat and when the artist is introduced a still shot is used so the audience are aware who he is and that he is the main art of the video. Throughout the song the scenery is put into black and white drawings and changing a few objects e.g. the vehicle is transformed into a boat. during this process the artist is left as normal so he stand out and reflects what situation he is in. when the panning shot is used the drawing transformation is used to change the location from the street into a beach scene where a woman is introduced to the video. Another panning shot is used to show the girl going into the artist arms which sets a romance scene. The costume of the girl is important as she is wearing red throughout the video which symbolises love. In the lyrics the red dress is mentioned and it shows her in different environments where different red objects. The use of the drawing transformation is used again, however the red is kept in red to stand out where everything else is kept in black and white.
In the music there are a variety of shot used to show different things, e.g. long shot to show location and close up to show the romance between the two people. The idea which drew to our attention the most was at 2:17 - 2:22. We felt that it was a good way to change the location. However, it wasn't just a simple form of cutting it was used with the transaction as well.
Towards the end of the song is where the lyrics are reflected to the music. The scenery is more brights which symbolises the sun as they are driving in the car on a sunny day. The sun is shown through the trees and shining on the water(which is shown through an arial shot) to get a good lighting affect. The song ends being ironic as the sun is going down in the drawing environment as opposed to the song, it says 'Watch the Sun Come Up'.

Analysis of a Music Video - Club Can't Handle Me

The video i am going to analysis is 'Club Can't Handle Me' by Flo Rida



I chose to look at and analysis this music video as it is very upbeat and it required lot of editing skills. The video start of with continuous editing and is very slow to give an introduction and once the lip synching begins the tempo increases, which sets the mood of the song. A strong positive which comes from this video is the use of editing, as it is a typical 4 minutes long song, which is cut to the beat and effects such as fading and lighting are used. At the beginning fading is used a lot to go onto the next shot. This stops once the introducion of the song is over and it begins where performance has started and the beat to the song increases. The location of the song is based in night club which relates to the genre of the song.

During the chorus the pace slows down to reflect on what is happening. Especially to show the performance and there is little narrative in this song. When performance is shown, long shots are used to grab everyone in the club and to show them dancing. The artist is situated in the middle of the crowd, so when he lip syncs a close up is used to make him the main attraction. Inside the club, it is very dark so the use of lighting when editing is good as it spreads across the shot to lighten it up and to stand out.

The song ends with the chorus which has a faster beat and has more shots than the previous chorus. This symbolises the end of the which relates to the end of the night in the video. Flo Rida set the mood through the whole song:

Below are images from the video which display the good use of editing:

Analysis of a Music Video - Cooler than me

I feel that it is very important to research into other professional music videos to learn and understand the conventions, so that when it comes to us planning, filming and editing our music video, we are sure that we are following the right conventions, to hopefully produce a wonderful piece of work.
Robyn, the artist who sings the song 'Who's that girl' in which we are going to make a music video too, is within the genre of electro-pop. California Girls by Katy Perry also falls into this genre. I have decided to focus on the song 'Cooler than me' my Mike Posner which again is from the elecro-pop genre. Having a male's music video to compare to will maybe give a different angle of the music video conventions.

The beginning of this music video opens with a live performance shot of the artist with many fans around him. This is conventional of a music video as it shows the singer in its 'habitat' where it belongs, singing and performing. The quick jerky point of view camera style adds realism to the setting, allowing the audience to understand the environment.

However, the next part to the music video in continuous editing of the singer leaving the live performance venue, jumping into a car and making his way in an escalator to his next venue. Whilst this is happening, there is no music - just the radio in the car. This converts a typical music video as it is a narrative, but not a narrative within the song; similar to Michael Jackson's thriller.

The diagetic sound is immediately stopped once the artist walks in to an apartment as well as the whole party freezing, this is through the use of editing skills, a major convention for music videos

In this party scene, the props used are very significant of the message being portrayed by the lyrics, the typical 'American house party' is portrayed through submissive outfits, designer shades - quoted by the song, alcohol fuelled- all of these stereotypical props, settings and plots are essential in producing a professional effective music video.

The type of shots used to capture this video are very effective as the use of panning shots are very effective in capturing the artists' walk through the whole party, with quick shots cut to the beat of the music which add pace and atmosphere for the video. The medium and close shots are very effective in showing the lip synching - another convention of a music video.

The video is 4.36 minutes, this is rather long for a conventional music video. This is probably because the narrative at the beginning of the video, which is another unconventional convention of this music video from a male electro pop artist - Mike Posner.

Analysis of a Music Video - With Every Heartbeat

As part of the research and planning stage of our media production, we have analyzed many mainstream and professional music videos to understand the conventions of them.

I have decided to analyze another one of our artist’s songs – With Every Heartbeat by Robyn.

The song has a strong repetitive rhythmic beat where the abstract images used throughout are cut to the beat which is substantial as the shot lengths make the video flow.

These abstract objects pump like a pulse to the beat of the song, allowing good indication for the flow of the song.

The video is mainly performance as there is no narrative to the song, however it is unconventional performance – not live singing. The singer – Robyn is walking in and out of these abstract objects lip-synching to the song, which is a major convention of music videos.

In this video Robyn represents her own style of genre as although it is an energetic song, she manages to mellow the tone with the simplistic video structure. The song is 4.09 minutes long which conventional of a music video, as they are normally 3- 4 minutes in length.

Analysis of a Music Video - California Girls

As part of our research into mainstream music videos, we analyzed other music videos, to understand the conventions of typical music videos

Katy Perry's music video of California Girls, featuring Snoop Dogg opens with Snoop Dogg sitting in a thrown type of chair, the video is set where everything is made of candy. The video is meant to represent the effect that California Girls have on everything. Typical Conventions are used throughout the video, the video is similar to Katy Perry's other videos and the aim appears to be to appeal to the male audience. This is done by the use of costume throughout the video and her attitude and performance. The use of costume and setting highly contributes to the video and it includes a lot of graphic effects such as giant gummy bears. the video is fast paced and consists of mainly performance and is all lip synched both by Katy Perry and Snoop Dogg. The video is a conventional 3-4 minutes, this is also the length of the song. A wide variety of shots are also used throughout the video, you are able to see the variety of shots and use of costume and setting through the screen shots have gathered below.

Analysis of a Music video - Use Somebody

As a part of research and planning, it is key to look at other music videos and analyse them. Personally I wanted to get a wide video reference so looked at videos from many genres. I am now going to analyse "Use Somebody- Kings of Leon".The video opens in a very fast paced way, cross cutting between streets, buildings and the outside with members of the band performing and traveling. The main theme of the video is like a tour this contrasts with the band members in a room calm and relaxed. The shots are slowe here than they are at the beggining contrasting the fast paced opening. There is use of lip Synching from the main singer.
The song is mainly performance, both live on a stage as well as a close up of the main artist. There are affects including speed up so the lights of the motorway look bright, black and white to show the past events and fased transitions to show the change in time. The video is a conventional 3-4 minutes long and has the images cut to the beat of the song which allows the audience to feel the music and see it whilst they travel through the journey, this can be seen in the use of shots where they are travelling in acar and it feels like you're moving with them.
The Kings of Leon show a positive image in the video, promoting themselves using concert and backstage footage as well as images of them enjoying their time as a band.
Some screen shots below can be seen as examples of things I have explained in my analysis;

Example of bright lights, and changing images


KOL travelling on tour in their video


Performance


Lip syncing Transitioned into moving car, Audience feel a part of this


Black and white, past

Analysis of a Music Video - Love the way you lie

Another song that portrays conventional music video conventions is Eminem and Rhianna’s most recent video Love the way you Lie in which I have decided to analyze. The song is about domestic violence, the video also reflects the message of the song and does this through the use of different conventions.

The video begins with Rhianna lip synching, the first convention used of the video. Throughout this shot she is in a dark environment that suggests she is trapped there, it is almost made out to look as though she is in hell through the use of fire and the colour of red. The video includes a famous actor, Dominic Monaghan, and famous actress, Megan Fox. This is a convention used to attract attention to the music video. Megan Fox especially is very famous, and mainly is viewed as a beautiful woman who gets a lot of male attention. In the music video she is portrayed as a victim of domestic violence, this is unlike the roles she usually plays in films and this helps to express the message within the song. Eminem as an artist is extremely successful and is famous for his music videos, especially those that consist of impersonations of other artists. This video is more serious and as it displays an important message it creates a positive representation through the media and promotes him strongly as an artist, through his talent being able to write meaningful lyrics and also being able to have such connections as Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan to play a role in his music video. The video relies strongly on the cast of the video, also the storyline behind the song. Costume and colour is also used very well to create an environment.

Analysis of a Music Video - Umbrella

The music video I am going to do my analysis on is Rhianna - Umbrella



This video contains many of the important conventions which helps make the video a success. Examples of this is that it is cut to the beat of the song. In many music video productions shots are held for a longer period of time at the beginning of the song. However, as this song it more up beat all the different shots are cut quicker. The artist Rhianna was involved in lip synching and performance from which the video was heavily relied on as there was no real plot/narrative behind it, apart from using predictable props, such as an 'umbrella' itself to protect her from the rain.

A lot like many other of Rhianna's video performance is a key feature as well and her costumes worn represents her as a person. The costumes are revealing which gives of a sexy appeal which is helped presented to viewers by the use of rain. Rhianna has been giving this image for a while which gives of a postive appraoch about her which appeal to both sex's and helps make the video meet conventions and to become a success.

The video is a typical video as it is 3-4 minutes long and it features the artist within the video. This helps and contributes to Rhianna repuatation and her music image. Other similar music video Rhianna has produced are as follows:

• We Ride
• Pon De Replay
• Disturbia
• Rude Boy
• Hard

Analysis of a Music Video - Fight for this Love and I Love Rock and Roll

Using a modern music video as an example I will analyse the conventions which I previously stated in the last post.

The video which I am going to analyse is Cheryl Cole- Fight for this love


The video begins with the Artist standing head on to they camera, she is miming and therefore the convention of lip synching is used, this technique is continued throughout the song. The beggining of the song begins slowly and therefore the shots are longer in length, this contrasts to later in the video where the song speeds up throughout the chorus. At this point, the images are cut faster to match the pace of the music. The end of the song slows down again, which is again reflected in the pace of the cuts.

The Artist Cheryl Cole is portrayed in a positive light, as well as this, her costumes and dancing show her to be sexy but not over the top. This therefore gives her a positive image, appealing to both men and women (men drawn to her image and women & girls aspiring to be like her). She shows a perfect balance of beauty, talent and appeal in the video. This contributes to her positive image in society. This creates a good representation for her within the media and therefore promotes her strongly as an artist. Before her first single was released as a solo artist, it was argued by many that she was only able to release a single due to her popularity on The hit Show The X Factor, and that she was a weak singer (again proved when she pre recorded her live X factor performance). After the single was released, she gained more negative press due to the alegations of her husband Ashley Cole to be cheating on her. Despite this, the strong video and promotion as well as her live performance at this years Brit awards proved the press wrong, again promoting herself as the "Nations Sweetheart".

The Video itself relies heavily on performance and the Artist promoting herself and her talents. There is no narrative involved and therefore subverts conventions of a music video. The video takes a typical form like her other videos which also rely on performance such as her latest single Parachute which again revolves around a central dance performance and heavily involves lip synching.

I also analysed another video in class with Ellie. After watching the video "I love rock 'n roll" by Britney Spears, we identified some conventions of the music video and took note of how the artist was represented and whether the video had a specific form conventional of the artist or not.

Conventions from this particular video included: Lip synching, images cut to the beat of the song to bring the pace of the song with the images, presenting her in a sexual and positive way, range of shots used, revolves around performance. The video also subverted conventions by using a pop song with a rock genre video as well as subverting the artists usual style of video.