DRAG ME DOWN One Direction

MUSIC VIDEO

ANDREW GOODWIN – 7 CONVENTIONS Music videos display genre conventions – performance for rock

music, dance/performance for pop music, narratives for indie music.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals. For example using performance to illustrate the lyrics to create narrative.

Relationship between the music and visuals. Using the beat of the video in contrast with the music video.

The artist of the song is also performing to make the lip synching look more realistic.

The use of intertextual references as music video influences. For example Jessie J in Nobody’s Perfect. Often inspired by television, film, other music videos.

Star image – focus on the artist as the main centre of attention. Shots primarily aimed at the star to make the video appeal to its target audience.

The technical aspects of the music video and what is used to make the video, this is made up by the editing, misé en scéne, special effects and lighting to make an impact on the audience.

SHOT AND MOVEMENTThe use of the close up and the low angle illustrates the star identity of the boyband with the other group members to show the group’s identity. The use of eye contact creates a possessive ambience to the audience. This could be signifying their success as a group in the charts. The boyband uses a direct gaze into the camera and the director uses camerawork and movement to follow the performers using an eye-line match.

THE USE OF CAMERAWORK

HOW CAMERAWORK IS USEDTo keep the audience engaged with the music video the video uses a variety of shots to follow the narrative/performance elements of a music video.

This shot uses a mid shot to show the performer’s actions and movement swinging side by side to make the audience visualise being on scene. The use of equipment used on location creates an industrial ambience to the music video making the video unique to generic videos based on pop music. This shot can be perceived as various shots. It can be seen as a long shot of where the performer is to make the audience familiar with the scene or as a point of view shot as another member of the group. Since the shot contains two people it may be perceived as a two shot with the performer and the professional at NASA.

CONT… A long shot is used to show the four members of the group. It creates the band identity and demonstrates the chemistry in their performance. Between the two yellow annotations this appears to show a fading performer. This suggests that performer is leaving the location to prepare for a new scene and leave the audience’s centre of attention and drawing attention to a new performer. These two shots are using the same shot in different points of view. They both are using over the shoulder shots. In the first shot a person is looking over the performer’s shoulder to see where the performer is concentrating at and what actions the performer is doing. The second shot shows a person looking directly over the performer’s shoulder to see the robot copying the actions of the performer. You can see the performer’s actions slightly to represent the use of technology.

CONT… This last shot is taking advantage of the space which is provided on location. Two performer’s are camouflaged in black clothing to disguise themselves as the soloist is performing. The soloist is represented in the white t-shirt to draw attention to the main performer. The low-key lighting is effective for the music video as space connotations are primarily dark and night so the video follows the concept well. The high key lighting is the spacecraft’s undercover to show the expense of the location being used and the implication that the performer’s success by using locations and equipment of high production values.

LYRICS AND VISUALSThe music video follows the boy-band lip synching to the song using performance. The song follows conventions to the genre by using performance to illustrate the lyrics to the song. The music video was filmed at NASA and had a space inspired set and the band took advantage of their location to enjoy themselves which is what the audience expects from a young, pop, boy-band. The value of production is illustrated by the use of technology like robots, buggies, costume and various equipment. The lyrics “I’m not scared of the dark” references the space theme to the video and relevance of the setting to the lyrics.

MUSIC The song has a techno, electric guitar, synthesised

instrumental to the song making the music feel modern and futuristic which links to the appropriate use of location.

The use of claps represents the beats on the music commencing at 1:00, this is use to change movement and angles in the chorus of the song.

The song has backing vocals overlapping the main lyrics to create texture and dimension to the way the song is being performed by the band.

TECHNICAL ASPECTSEditing: The music video uses special effects to create the starting sequence to the music video, the music video uses this to illustrate the location the music video is being shot at. The song uses many jump cuts to move from scene to scene making the video fluid and flowing for each location/shot change.Camerawork: The video’s main focus is eye-line matches to follow the performer’s solos to create an intimate relationship with performer and audience. Each eye-line match uses close-up’s and mid-shots to make the direct gaze more personal to the viewer. Other shots include long shots to set any location change for example moving from inside the NASA space stations to outside in an empty runway, this is also demonstrated when each performer gets to use the space equipment.Misé en Scene: From 0:47 to 0:51the scene transitions from night to day. The camera moves left to right and early evening becomes night. The costumes worn by the performers changes across the video starting in orange space suits to their own clothing which the audience recognises from previous videos and tours to create the boy-band expectation of wearing trendy and current clothing in order to create a sense of popular culture. The scenes filmed on location at NASA is well lit and uses high key lighting with studio lights and soft boxes to create a clear image of the performers, this changes when the scene relocates outside where the scene primarily relies on the time of day and the outdoor lighting on lamposts to create the night scenes.