Market ResearchAbigail Kernaghan

MusicVideo

Videos and NotesSia - Chandelier Ed Sheeran – The A Team Hoobastank – The

Reason- Black and white- Shaky cam - Follows a narrative- Vocalist makes an appearance- Links lyrics to video- Clear message- Gets repetitive- Sensitive story- Medium close ups of

protagonist- Props, big issue, to link

character with situation- Comes into focus slowly- Scene of traffic at night sped

up to show length of her duration outside

- ^ same with her sitting outside a shop

- Close-up shows tears- Costume, changes from many

layers to provocative clothes- Shot from behind of a long,

grand hallway- Plains of focus – focuses on

drugs

- Close up- Different protagonists, all

join to same narrative- Shot, reverse shot between

characters across the street- Links lyrics to video- Eye line match- Repetition of same sequence

to see it from different characters’ point of view

- Plains of focus (shallow)- Tracking shot, to show

further information on props etc.

- Reaction shot to car accident- Use of band members and

instruments throughout video

- Different settings- Many extras to distort the

meaning of the video- Tracking shot, follows

characters through the journey taken in the video.

- Tracking shots- Location not setting- Costume, simplistic yet

recognisable- Long Shot- Match-on-Action, to sync

with movement- Dark, light in background

so silhouetted- Medium and medium long

shots, rarely close-ups- Props, furniture- Transition to different

rooms as section changes from chorus to bridge

- All takes place at same time

- Close up, does not show emotion, as it is staged/fake

- Repetition as camera moves away

17/10

Breakdown – Song 1 (Chandelier)Shots?

Edits?

Setting?

Lighting?

Narrative?

Costume?

Colours? Characters?

Establishing shot, shows location/ set.Long shot – most frequently used.Close-up of feet.Medium-long shot, subject takes up the frame.Medium close-up, shows features.Tracking shot, the subject is followed.Extreme-long shot, of corridor.

Transition to show locations.Eye-line match, girl’s height is at the viewer’s eye line.Lack of edits – simplicity, interesting and unique, artistic, challenging to keep focus (ref. OK Go – Here it Goes Again).

Natural, low-key lighting.More fill than key, coming from behind.Placement of windows.Dark corridor.Light assists in portraying the multiple emotions.Significantly darker at end than beginning.

Iconic blonde wig.Nude leotard.Pale blues and cool tones.Cream furniture, neutral but clean.The bluey-green tones reflect onto her skin, give an ill/upset effect – as opposed to full of colour.Browns show ageing and maturity.

Gives impression of natural ‘location’ as opposed to artificial ‘set’.Old, empty flat/apartment.Little décor, plain, peeling and discoloured wallpaper.2 paintings, fridge has many photographs.Writing on canvases, lamp.Graffiti in first room.Cluttered kitchen counter.Windows in kitchen are darkened with black marks, but not in the other rooms.

Singular character, but personality seems to vary, which is very effective.Young, slim blonde female dancer, around 11 years old.Frequently changes between innocent child and graceful and independent woman.

Iconic blonde wig.Nude leotard.Bandages/support on feet.Interacts with windows quite a bit – using curtains to ‘strangle’.Furniture, uncovered mattress to sit on, sofa to land on.Door frame and doorway repeatedly used for beginning and end sequence.

Emotions appear to change.Difficult to interpret.Abstract dancing video – no real defined beginning and end.Stillness at beginning, curtsy to symbolise ending.The expressions hold most of the story.Childish excitement, with severity within dance that could represent anger/hurt.The entire video seems directed at someone though no other character is seen.

Sound?Deep hum at beginning.No singer on screen, so most sound is non-diegetic.However, the video intentionally matches the dance moves to the beat.E.g. slapping belly, jumping, running etc.In high pitch/long notes (in chorus) girl opens up more, elegant movements.Sometimes matches lyrics to expression and moves.

3/11

Breakdown – Song 2 (The A Team)Shots? Edits? Colours?

Narrative?

Lighting?

Setting?

Costume?

Characters? Sound?

Close-up of face and emotion.Zooms out to show whole picture and location.Long shot of her on bench so able to see clothing and sleeping bag.Shaky cam, in which shots are taken from many different angles of the subject.Multiple people appear in the frame.Two-shot shows the relationship between the protagonist and vocalist.Aerial shot as she gets ready, taken from stairwell but perhaps to convey looking down on her.Shot, reverse shot of the car and the girl in the prostitution scene.Tracking shot, follows hand as It goes up her leg.Close-up of drugs toward end, shows the outcome.

Black and white added in post.Zooming and panning used a lot.Abrupt cuts between girl and crowds, shows her isolation.Shallow focus with road behind her.Speeding up the hustle and bustle of the city.Cuts to show her tears, quick shift to extreme emotion.Jump cut from rough street to client’s posh house.Fast paced.Cleverly edited so that the beginning becomes the end of the video.

Grayscale, which is quite cliché when presenting serious topics.The only time that colour is introduced is at the very end, where it shows the sunshine on rooftops with a moving image of the girl masked over.

Natural lighting as the majority of the video is set outside in real locations such as streets, fields etc. It is also mainly be shot in the evening, just as the sun is going down to achieve a subtle glow. Therefore it is difficult to distinguish certain aspects.

All locations. Natural places; parks and streets. Transitions between open areas in the daytime to crowded city at night. Streets are portrayed as dangerous and unforgiving. The busyness of the town is to show that nobody stops. The apartment is a surprising appearance for somebody that is homeless, but gives the impression that the character is a squatter. There is a huge contrast between that and the ‘client’s house, which is very middle class and luxurious.

Central protagonist is a young lady, in her early 20s? There are many other people (extras) with which she never interacts. The vocalist makes a short appearance as a ‘good Samaritan’ – the only person that stops to give her money. The client is not given a personality, in fact you never even see his face. The fact it is a young woman emphasises the desperation and isolation. It appeals more to the audience as they feel sympathetic towards the vulnerability and weakness.

Bird tweeting, repeated at start, combined with the wind. Guitar strumming, can hear the fingers on strings which gives a raw sound. There is a background/melodic ‘oooh’ throughout, which gives the impression of more than one artist, and people being together, which the protagonist is not with anybody. You never see the vocalist singing, therefore the entire song is non-diegetic. The bird sounds are then heard again at the end.

Dark makeup – emphasises tears. Sleeping bag, shows she’s sleeping rough. Layers; hoodie, coat etc. means the audience feels sympathy. The ripped fishnets have a negative stigma towards promiscuous women. Magazine and collection cup give context. Stops to look at flowers – possibly wondering what it would be like to be given them? Hair gets tied back, mascara added over current makeup. Lipstick; question why she is making effort? Chewing gum gives an ironic nonchalant feel. Car – a pricey model, picks her up. Money, taken from ‘client’s’ pocket. Drugs taken through old glass tube.

Beginning becomes the end, laying there, presumably dead, with woman crying over her. Then back in time – waking up in park, embracing the day. Night falls, desperately tries to sell magazines. Vocalist buys one and stays with her for a short amount of time. Watches the world go by, traffic and people. She cries into her sleeve. Goes to an apartment and does her makeup. Waits in a car park, gets picked up by a man in a BMW, her expression before this happens clearly shows she is not happy with what is about to happen. Prostitution – she takes approximately £60 out of the man’s pocket, after she is done, her face is filled with regret. She trades the money for drugs, goes ‘home’ to take the drugs. And the beginning becomes the end as she flops on the bed. There is an extremely clear narrative, perhaps too spelt out, no interpretation by the audience.

7/11

Breakdown – Song 3 (The Reason)Shots?

Edits?

Lighting?

Setting?

Costume?

Narrative?

Characters?

Colours?

Sound?

Over the shoulder shot, shot-reverse shot. Eye line match across the road. Close ups, to show expression. Reaction shot. Tracking shot on feet, and following guy into the antique store. Panning/zooming is repeated as there are many aspects to focus on. Shaky cam, from the perspective of the girl that gets ‘hit’. Match on action, lip syncing from singer in house and in scenes.

Screen goes black as girl gets ‘hit’ at beginning. Slow motion reactions. Multiple cutaways to the band, playing the song in a house, away from the scene. Using pace, as police arrive everything moves much quicker – which shows everyone’s confusion. Repeating scenes from different aspects and with new information. ‘Looking through the ruby’, a red colour-screen on camera.

Clear story, but interesting as it is not as it first appears. You learn more about the characters and events. Girl sees boy, crosses road to him, gets ‘hit’. Driver goes to body, boy goes into antique store to rob it with his partner. The owner of the shop is meanwhile distracted by the girl passed out on the road. The driver then leaves, moments before the police arrive. The two guys break in and take the ruby. A man on a bike comes to pick up the girl, who instantly regains consciousness. They go to the house to celebrate as a group.

First boy – is guitarist, in love with girl. Girl, crosses street and gets ‘hit’ by a car. Driver – is vocalist, you could assume that he was the drive behind the robbery, and it was his idea. The shop owner, simply feels sympathy for the girl and is oblivious of anything else.

10/11

Natural lighting, high-key. No scenes are visibly shot at night (band in house could be), significantly different atmosphere in house, darker, mood-lighting? Majority must be light to capture all expressions/acting. Gets dimmer throughout, daylight goes on, but reality kicks in.

Significance of red scarf on girl? Vocalist/driver wearing black t-shirt – symbolises death/darkness. In fact, all of the band are wearing dark t-shirts. Contrasted with light colour of shop keepers shirt, to show innocence. Very casual, but there is clearly a scheme. Mysterious beige jacket and helmet of biker, gives an official/uniformed appearance.

Realistic sounds of the street, followed by screeching of tyres before the song starts. As car ‘hits’ – non-diegetic sound as the screen goes black. This c=gives the impression that something has happened, without actually seeing it. The video is split to approximately half and half of the musicians playing/singing and the narrative. So there is a successful balance of synchronous and asynchronous sound.

Daylight, blues and neutrals. Black van used to hide the incident, and shot of black birds. The colour of the costumes also poses some significance. The entirety of the video has a blue/grey wash. Continuity of red as the robbery is happening – exterior and interior. Looking through red screen/ruby at the end conveys passion/emotion.

Beginning – scene of road, repeated multiple times. Minimal significant locations are used. The happiness/calming atmosphere of the house, contrasted with the fast-paced danger of the street. The vault is an obvious focus, and therefore does not need much camera time. Car, the vocalist’s isolation, whereas he is much happier in the house with his band/friends.

Analysis – Song 1Silence whilst the camera zooms in to establish the location from a long shot. This allows several locations to be introduced at the same time.

First appearance of solo protagonist, shows costume, the iconic blonde wig and nude leotard (to stay neutral). It is also an extreme long shot when compared to the height of the girl.

Zooming in to various features to emphasise them, for example, this match on action of the girl jumping down, zooms to bare feet with bandages, which conveys injuries or deprivation.

The use of artificial expressions of the protagonist give a feeling of fantasy as opposed to reality. Though featured very rarely, this shows a different side to the girl, and breaks up the severity of the narrative.

This sequence is very recognisable. It gives more depth to the character with the closest shots. There

is also a change of scenery which splits the video effectively.

The transition to this scene is her smiling and walking away, which then jumps to her kicking a door, so a fast paced change of emotion represented through body language. The positioning

of the camera is clever here, as it isolates the character even more, and makes the space around her seem so much darker.

Although the video is clearly low-key lighting, with the addition of dull/cold colours – this small sequence is lightest

due to the close-up featuring the window in the back.

14/11

Analysis – Song 2Repeated shot at beginning and end of video.

Establishing shot, shows location and conditions that the young girl has slept in.

Very effective use of space of protagonist in frame, creates a warm feeling of embracing the day.

Appearance of vocalist in narrative, gives a personal touch to the video.

Speed up of the hustle and bustle, despite being at a low angle, it is an eye line match with the protagonist

through the many people walking past her.

Close-up of girls face to show extreme emotion, aided by mise-en-scene; her appearance includes dark makeup which emphasises

the tears, and she is crying into the sleeve of her heavy coat.

The ‘client’ is never revealed, his face is never shown, which gives him a sense of insignificance. The money is an important prop which is used later by the protagonist to buy drugs, which could create a separation in opinion of the audience, sympathy

or pity.

15/11

Analysis – Song 3The opening scene is repeated multiple times throughout the video, either giving a different perspective, introducing a new character, or adding in newly-revealed information.

Effective placement of reaction shot, which leads the audience to believe the false narrative being set up.

The use of an alternative location does not give context to the narrative, but allows the audience to see the musicians play, and also breaks up the segregated scenes of the story.

There is a close-up drawing of the main thing they are intending on ‘robbing’, this is useful as it gives context to the video. It is also a contrast of dark and light scenes.

17/11

This is a short but effective sequence where the girl has left the scene. It combines match-on-action (as the vocalist is also

travelling, as well as a motivated cut to show us as the audience where they are escaping to,

The use of colour in this shot is effective and represents emotion, as well as the obvious initial impression that it shows they have the ruby. The camera pans in random directions, to

convey it is from the perspective of a character.

The end shot is again full of emotion, as shown on the expression of the visible characters’ faces, and definitely

creates a conclusive atmosphere to the narrative.

Collecting IdeasFrom the music videos that I have researched, I will take some inspiration to apply to my own production. However, I have also learnt some things that are not as effective, which is important to recognise when evaluating these three videos.

Firstly, from the ‘Chandelier’ video, I found the use of space and camera shots to be very effective, however the raw content of the video turned out to be fairly dull. I will therefore use a variety of shots such as; extreme close-ups, over the shoulder shots, and high and low angles. But I will improve the abstract base to the video’s narrative by including a structure (beginning, middle and end), and more than one character so that it maintains the viewers interest. They do well to establish a relationship between protagonist and audience, which is something I had not previously considered, but could somehow work into my piece.

The video for ‘The A-Team’, whilst cliché and with questionable realism, used subtle production and filming techniques to create their desired atmosphere. It also managed to connect well with the message of the song, without the lyrics spelling out what was included in the motion picture. What I will takeaway from researching this video, is the clever distinction of ‘character’. There are certain people that, despite being significant, their face was not shown – such as the prostitution ‘client’. This is significant as it not only places all emphasis on the protagonist, but also represents her isolation through people coming and going throughout her life and not needing a persona.

Lastly, the video I researched for ‘The Reason’ had a slightly different approach when structuring the music video. It instead has a very clear narrative, with multiple protagonists, and a definitive link between the artist and storyline. The best element of this video is by far their use of time to manipulate the viewer’s perception of what is going on. By repeating the same scenes through different perspectives, it allows the story – whilst technically staying the same – to change and have increasing significance in relation to the lyrics of the song. However, this video seems to all take place in one day, I would like to use edits and lighting to portray a longer amount of time taking place.

21/11