Angus & Julia Stone- Mango Tree

These are one of my favourite bands and I really love the way a constant style can been seen within their music videos. I especially love all the filters used and the way they have added a grain to the film to make it look like old footage, like a memory. This style is something that i would really like to use within my video. 

Thriller - Micheal Jackson

I have decided to analyse this video as it is probably the most revolutionary music videos ever, because of the length but also the style and unique mix of narrative and performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_MuUcxHATo

Smoke & Mirrors - Paloma Faith

The video I analysed was not available for embedding so follow the link below to view it:

Paloma Faith- Smoke & Mirrors Video 

Paloma Faith is a Pop artist with a soulful voice who is reminiscent of old school blues artist such as Eartha Kitt, Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James. She is a very talented artist who has many strings to her bow; as well as being a succesful Pop artist she is also an accomplished actress starring in the the hit film St. Trinians, where she player a character that is Polar to her in every way.

I watched the video and analysed it, here are my notes below:

I love the way that throughout the video the artist has a constant representation that is in keeping with her  image. I also the way the video has a mix of performance and narrative, I especially like how the chorus is mainly performance and the verse is narrative, this separates the chorus from t he verse and it emphasises the importance of the chorus. This is something that i will be looking to implement in my own video.

My favourite element of the whole video is the way the video is bibliographical and it is a constant reference to the artist past when she was a a magicians assistant and it shows her feelings about her old life and how she dreamed of bigger things. By making these personal references to her old life she is showing something about her to the audience which i think is key to get the audience to understand you as an artist and it will help the audience warm to the artist. I am going to try and make my artist video like this and use bibliographical elements as the song is about something personal to the artist.

PROGRESS

Over the past two weeks I have been concentrating on developing my ideas and story boarding for my  music video. I have been thinking about the narrative for the music video and to be in keeping with the song and her target audience I have come up with the narrative of a teenage girl breaking up with her boyfriend being upset and it will show the story of her coping with the break-up and different ways she coped with it. The lyrics say "Don't forget your home", this is directed at her boyfriend and she is saying that his home is with her.

Whilst doing this I have also completed some more research into music videos. I am going to post my research and my ideas about the video and about Ellie and her image.

Music Video Analysis

To help me better understand the codes and conventions used in music video production I am going to analyse some music videos. It will help me to further my knowledge on conventions and the effects they have and this will enable me to select the most appropriate shot, mis-en-scene etc. to gain the desired effect for my music video, to create a successful media video that includes conventions of that music genre and also portrays the artist in an appropriate way.

Leave Before The Lights Come On - Arctic Monkeys

This is the video of the bands third single in the UK and was released in 2006. 


In this music video we see a constant narrative without any heard dialogue. The video follows the narrative of a woman about to jump off a building who is then saved by a passing man. After saving the woman the man finds the woman a bit obsessive and she won't leave him alone. He ends up getting violent and she then becomes quite depressed again. We see her return to the roof top where she drops her shoe again grabbing another man's attention ( this is how the first man comes to rescue her). It gives us an insight into the woman's thinking and gives the video a very cyclic feeling. If we were to see the story of the woman and the second man play out we would expect it to play out exactly the same as the first and in the end the woman returning to the rooftop.


In this video the director uses many conventions and codes to convey a desired message about the band and their music. In this video establish actors are used to act out the narrative. By doing this the band are making a statement about themselves, saying that they are now an established band. We see this also in Eminem's Love The Way You Lie, where he uses world renowned actress Megan Fox.


The Band give us a further insight into there views and there own ideology by not featuring themselves in the video. By doing this we are asked to focus purely on their musicality and they want the audience to realise that they are not interested in fame or acclaim. 


Due to there being no speech from the actors within this video, the director has had to use certain codes and conventions to display the feelings of the characters. One method we see employed frequently are close-up shots. This shots are conventionally used to show detailed facial expression which in turn shows emotion. This is used a lot within this video, especially to show the expression of the female character, for instance in the cafe when she is staring at the male character. Also a series of stills are used, as well as showing the characters emotions it makes the audience aware that this is a film, which in turn makes us realise the craziness of the story.


Colour is a very important way of conveying messages to an audience, this is due to the connotations attached with certain colours, for instance RED; has the connotations of passion, love, blood and anger. In this video the woman is wearing a blue t-shirt when we see her on the roof top. This is code for depression, sadness and loneliness and therefore the director is making a statement about the way this character is feeling. 


To make the audience believe this story, the director has used realistic mis-en-scene, a short time span and we follow one character (the woman). Another way the director created the realistic feeling was by using hand held cameras and realistic/ natural lighting.


This video has a lot of similarities with videos of La Nouvalle Vague (French New Wave Cinema). Similar techniques such as long tracking shots and dolly shots are employed, along with Jump-shots and graphic matches. Jump shots and long tracking shots were used in this style of french cinema to highlight the absurdity of situations and Graphic matches were used to establish links between characters. 


Although having much in common with the French New Wave style, the video has more in common with the modern day music video, using conventions like edits in sync with the music and have shorter amounts of time between edits when the pace of the music is increased. 

Star Image

Kate Nash

To help me in the creation of my media product I decided to look at how another artist has constructed her image. I have chosen to look at Kate Nash because her music is in a similar genre to Kate Nash and the same target audience. 

Kate Nash has a very hand made aesthetic to her image, with her some of her album artwork comprising of drawn images and handwritten style fonts. Both Ellie and Nash play guitar and therefore the musicality of the artist should be an important part of both their images. 

I personally enjoy they way Kate Nash uses old styles with a modern twist. One way she does this through clothes. She often wears vintage styles with more modern and brighter colours. When filming our video I want to use possibly a floral style dress with a some sort of fur shrug possibly to give a more sophisticated feel. This contrast will be popular with her audience as it is very fashionable at the moment and her target audience would be very into fashion and keeping up with trends.  Her style is really rough-chic. 

Kate Nash has really inspired me for all of my media products and I think her brand model is something that I can use to model my construction of Elli's Image around.