Music Video Analysis 5 - Bruno Mars' Just The Way You Are

Genre: R'n'B/Pop (Concept)

Directed by Ethan Lader
Released on 8th September 2010

Just The Way You Are is a music video of a rare category: concept based. It is unusual to create a concept based music video as it is not the norm. However I think that this music video has done well with the idea of stop motion animation.

The video starts off with a woman listening to the actual track through headphones on a Walkman music player. Bruno Mars walks in and picks up the player, removes the tape cassette, pulls out the tape onto a table and the song starts. At this point, stop motion animation is used when Bruno writes his name and the song title with the unraveled tape. He then forms a drum with the tape and makes flicking gestures at the same time as the drum beats in the song. For the next few lines of the song 'Oh, her eyes, her eyes, make the stars look like they're not shining. Her hair, her hair, falls perfectly without her trying', Bruno uses the tape to draw pictures as the song is being sung (in this case images of the woman's eyes and hair). This tells us that the video is trying to convey strong feelings and emotions to the audience. 

Direct address is also used when Bruno is looking at the camera but the shot/reverse shot editing technique identifies that Bruno is in fact addressing the woman. Handheld camera is used which makes the video more realistic. Bruno moves the tape to form the shape of himself. Stop motion editing is used again when the tape reel starts to move, showing tape-Bruno singing. Over-the-shoulder shots are used to show the reaction of the woman - she seems quite flattered but finds that he is exaggerating on her looks as she makes amendments to the shapes that the tape reel is making (e.g. closing the tape-woman's mouth to hide her teeth when Mars makes references to her smile). She moves from one of the sofas and sits next to Mars, showing that she has been 'bought' by Mars' charming words about her. Sheilding is mainly used to show the closeness between characters. She starts off on the other end of the sofa and ends up right next to Mars, indicating that she feels more comfortable around him.

A pulling focus is used later the video between Bruno and the woman (medium close-up) and the coffee table with the ever-moving tape-Bruno. Both Mars and tape-Bruno are miming in sync with the song, which may show that his feelings towards are so strong that 'one Mars' is not enough to express it. When the camera is focused on Mars and the woman, handheld camera is used which is often used to make have a more realistic appeal.

There are many themes that are involved in the video, all of them of which are positive. This video incorporates themes like love, relationships, crushes, happiness and looks. I beilieve that, based on the lyrics and the direct address to what seems as an audience (which ends up being the woman), this music video is aimed at young females due to its appeal about finding love.

Music Video Analysis 4 - Eminem's Stan

Genre: Hip Hop/Horror core (Narrative)

Directed by Phillip Atwell & Dre

Released on 9th December 2000

Stan is arguably one of Eminem's greatest songs/videos. Eminem is a world famous Hip hop and R'n'B artist and created this film-like video around a story line. Although this video is very famous, it was considered highly controversial because of the themes of violence, drinking, murder and obsession that had been incorporated. This video has won quite a few awards due to the fact that it was shot as though it was a film.

The first scene starts off with a shot of a window. As they camera tracks in, we see rain drops and flashes of lightning accompanied with the sound of thunder. This could be the establishing shot of the video to help us as the audience to set the scene. It cuts into a view of Stan (Devon Sawa) washing his hair with bleach as the camera tracks in. This already tells us about the Stan's obsession over Eminem as he bleaches his hair blonde. He looks at himself quite aggressively in the mirror (as seen through a medium close up) where we can quickly analyse his appearance. He is wearing just a vest and a chain. His left arm is tattooed with a design of some sort, including a crucifix. The background is his bathroom walls and door, very old with the paint peeling off. This indicates that the Stan character is a quite poor man. 

The scene cuts too low angle shot of Dido, who is Stan's girlfriend and is pregnant. She briskly walks down a dimly lit corridor, stops outside Stan's bathroom door asking him to come out. He aggressively opens the door and screams 'What?' in her face, showing his anger for disturbing him. She asks him what he did to himself as she just saw his newly coloured hair. She asks him 'don't you think you are taking things too far?' showing that she is aware of his obsession. He shows his power of Dido as he grabs her and pushes her towards the toilet seat, regardless at the fact that she is pregnant. A high angle shot is used here making it seem as though we are dropping into the private lives of this couple.

The scene changes to a train carriage with Eminem sitting on a seat while a person gives him a pile of letters, indicating the start of the song (we later identify the scenes with Stan as a flashback). The camera tracks from Dido singing in the bathroom (lip syncing) down to the basement where Stan's obsession over Eminem is clear. Whilst Stan writes a letter the camera revolves around him which reinforces Stan's emotions.

The lyrics are very violent and shows Stan's aggression and anger towards Eminem for not answering his letters. He even admits his obsession as he writes 'I got a room full of your posters and your pictures man'. We then see a scene where the reason why Stan did not get any replies from Eminem. A postman drops a letter on the floor while collecting a pile of Eminem's fan mail. We can identify the writer when a medium close up of the envelop shows us the word 'Stan' written in the corner. Stan's next letter is full of swearing which ,again, emphasises on his outrage and disappointment. Stan wishes to replace his girlfriend with Eminem as we see an over the shoulder shot where a picture of the artist replaces Stan's girlfriend in a photograph.

In a later scene we see Stan driving a car in a rain storm (non-diegetic sound of rain and thunder) shouting into a voice recorder. We see various close ups of Stan's face as he shouts that he is 'doing 90 on the freeway' indicating that he is speeding and that he is also drink driving indicated by the lyrics 'I drink a fifth of vodka, ya dare me to drive?'. Intertextuality is used as he mentions that he is playing Phil Collins' 'From the air in the night'. We later find out that Stan has tied up his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk as we hear her screaming in the background. Stan exclaims "Shut up bitch, I'm trying to talk". He then boasts about his actions.

We see a long shot of the car crashing and falling of a bridge as Stan drives the vehicle into a river. The slow motion editing technique is used here. We then see a scene where Eminem is replying to his letter which is flicks back and forth of a scene with Stan's brother Matthew attending Stan's funeral (parallel editing). Eminem then realises that Stan was involved in a car crash, that he heard about on the news.

Stan has a very good narrative although the themes, that have been incorporated, may be violent and disturbing. However the film-like feel to the video appeals to me the most. I may use this to help me generate ideas for my own video.

Music Video Analysis 3 - Pussycat Dolls' Buttons feat. Snoop Dogg

Genre: R&B/Hip Hop (Performance)

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Released on 26th June 2006

Buttons is a R'n'B/Hip Hop video made by the famous female group, the Pussycat Dolls, and the equally famous Hip Hop artist Snoop Dogg. This video is one of the most controversial music videos of our time. This is because the typical representations of gender are strongly shown: Snoop Dogg shows to have power over the Dolls and is the only male in the video, whereas the Dolls are shown to have provocative qualities as Nicole Scherzinger seductively advances towards Snoop at the beginning of the video. Snoop is wearing very 'hip hop typical' clothes: tracksuit bottoms, a hoodie with a baseball cap. This indicates that Snoop is a hip hop artist.


The scene cuts into a mixture of a low angle medium shot, a long shot and medium close ups, using several jump cuts. This sequence of shots show all of the Dolls walking down a stage full of lights. The dolls are wearing semi-revealing clothing: short clothing and boots. The camera tracks in behind the Dolls as they walk down the stage (perhaps giving a chance for the male audience to check them out). As the camera tracks out of a medium long shot, the Dolls pose seductively.


They walk into a large pipe and start to slowly advance/dance towards the camera, trying to show off their apparent 'to-be-looked-at-ness' quality. The pipe scene uses a lot of basic (continuity) editing techniques like cuts with very short takes to keep the pace of the video fast and upbeat, just like the music track. They start to strip off the light tops they are wearing as exit the pipe, showing themselves off as sex objects. They then start to execute choreography very similar to that of pole dancing, as they wrap themselves around the pole. Scherzinger also uses a chair as a prop to dance on and around. The rest of the Dolls join Scherzinger's 'chair dance' in the same flirtatious manner, making it look like a striptease. A clever technique that the editors used is when the Dolls kick the chairs backwards towards the camera (in the form of a POV shot), it almost hits the camera but cuts into a medium close up of Snoop, starting his rap. The Dolls walk as though they are cat walking as they walk towards Snoop, pose, then walk in the opposite direction.


The next scene shows the individual Doll members dancing in front of a big light, thus creating a silhouette effect. This piece of choreography is sequenced with medium close ups of the individual Doll members breathe heavily onto frosted glass (parallel editing). It cuts into a sequence of dance moves performed by the Dolls to music sounding similar to Arabian belly dancing music, a form of dance that is associated with belly dancers, who are usually seen dancing to please male viewers. CGI is also used - as they crouch, the floor ignites and fire is seen all over the floor (perhaps the Dolls are trying to show themselves as 'hot, desirable women'.

Although this video is sung by female artist, I still think that it is aimed at men as we can see that the Dolls are involved in sexual objectification. However a Post-Feminist view would be that the Dolls are desiring Snoop and that they want the 'to-be-looked-at-ness' quality. This can be backed up by the lyrics as the Dolls are requesting Snoop to 'loosen up their buttons' and referring to themselves as 'sexy mamas'. The music is very upbeat with a strong bass, which is accompanied with lip syncing from the Dolls and Snoop. From the music we can identify that it is aimed at a young audience. This video has won awards for being the most 'sexiest video' in 2006 supporting the idea that it was aimed for people that wanted to gain visual pleasures from watching it. The song overall is very enjoyable, with beat to get feet tapping. However some Feminists may feel that the video shows Snoop as independent and dominant over the Dolls and how they are subject to sexual objectification.

Music Video Analysis 2 - Usher's OMG

Genre: Dance/R&B/Hip Hop (Performance)

Directed by Anthony Mandler

Released on 30th March 2010

At the start of the video we see an old television sitting in a white empty space. The screen flicks between static and a blurry figure of Usher. The camera slowly zooms into the screen and the song starts. The frame dissolves from the television screen and long shot of a room where Usher is surrounded by multiple beams of laser lights and tube lights. The next few seconds allows the audience to analyse Usher's dress sense - he is wearing a suit and hat, something very similar to what Michael Jackson would wear. We know that one of Usher's greater influences is the King of Pop himself and he has emphasised his respect for him through Usher's own choreographed dancing.

The setting seems very futuristic. For this I am pretty sure that green screen technology was used: technology that involves replacing a certain coloured background with anything you want. The scene cuts into a split screen view of Usher and Will.I.Am, perhaps comparing the two music artists. Will.I.Am is known to sing in Hip Hop and Dance music. Will.I.Am is wearing a strange pair of trousers and is in a similar setting to Usher's 'room' but instead of black with blue lights, Will.I.Am stands in a room with pink walls and red lights.

Usher's popping moves are repeated throughout the video emphasising that fact that it is a performance based video. Match on action editing is used when Usher is using lip syncing (a typical music video convention), accompanied by very quick cuts and short takes. Direct address is also used which can allow communication and understanding between the audience and the music artist. Edits are executed in time with the beat, making this a very appealing video as well as a very catchy tune.

A wipe is used taking us as the audience into another long shot of a room, full of white light, with Usher in the middle wearing another casual-wear suit. This is followed by a series of wipes (in time with the beat) flicking between Usher and a group of provocatively presented women. The women start to execute their choreographed dancing as Usher sings his song. The women are wearing high heels, knee high tights and a jacket on top of a bra. As we can see, Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze' is put into practice - the women were in the video, dressed provocatively, for male viewers so that they could get visual pleasure. This may be backed up by the lyrics 'Honey got a booty like pow pow pow, honey's got some boobies like wow-o-wow, girl you know I'm loving your, loving your style, check-check-check-check-check-checking you out like'. This line refers to several body parts belonging to woman and how Usher finds them visually pleasurable. It represents Usher as the dominant male over the female sex objects. In the next scene we see a reflection of the dancing women that are accompanied by the lyrics 'sexy from the head to the toe' followed by the women slowly crawling erotically back to him. This may oppose Mulvey's theory and can put Post-Feminism into practice, saying that the women in the video are lusting for Usher and that it is their choice.

The next scene shows Usher in front of a metal background, very unfuturistic, dancing with 4 of his shadows which does look appealing as it is accompanied by choreographed dancing. He somehow pulls down the background where we find ourselves back in Will.I.Am's pink room where he is surrounding by various provocative girls.

The piece of music in the final scene is slowed down a little. Then the song picks up the pace, ending the whole song with a last bit of choreography with both female and male back up dancers. The camera zooms out of the television screen to end the video, the screen still flickering between Usher and static.

The music throughout the whole video is very upbeat and modern, with a tune to get anyone's feet tapping. But I think that by using provocative female dancers, this song may have been targetted for men. There are elements of concept based video in it - the futuristic setting and the shadow dancing. Apart from the gender generalisations and ill-representation of both genders, I may take some ideas from this video to integrate it with mines.

Music Video Analysis 1 - Michael Jackson's Thriller

Genre: Funk/Disco (Concept/Narrative/Performance)
Directed by John Landis
Released on 2nd November 1983

This video can be said as one of the most popular and successful music videos of all time. Director John Landis released this phenomenon of a video in 1984 under the album which is thought by many die hard fans as Michael Jackson's most popular and successful music of all time.
 

Thriller is a music video that blurs the barrier between fiction and reality, a video about a typical girlfriend-boyfriend situation that does turn quite hairy. I would say that this video pays homage to the horror genre: scary bloodthirsty werewolves, undead zombies, deserted graveyards and the distinctive voice narration by Vincent Price. Vincent Price has been associated to the horror genre (well before Thriller was produced) with works like the 1953 horror film, ‘House of Wax’, the 1958 monster movie ‘The Fly’ and a 1959 horror-thriller, ‘The Tingler’.

Another genre tie-in is the abandoned house. I believe that this house is very similar to that of the abandoned house in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller, ‘Psycho’. The scene in the abandoned house is very similar to the one in ‘Night of the Living Dead’ where people are trapped in a haunted house while the zombies surround them. This scene also follows an idea thought up by Carol J Clover. In her book, ‘Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film’, she suggests that in most horror/thriller movies (particularly ones that involve a psychopathic killer) that a female character in such a movie would be the ‘last one standing’ or the one that confronts the killer. She called it ‘Last Girl’. In a sense this hypothesis can be applied to this video as Jackson has fallen and has become a zombie himself and Ola Ray (Jackson’s girlfriend) must defend herself from the coming horde of zombies.

The video follows quite a puzzling narrative. From the start to the abandoned house scene it seems as though the events surrounding Jackson and his girlfriend is real which is reinforced by the low key lighting which added a sense of realism and a creepy atmosphere. But the dream is finally shattered when Ray wakes up before she is about to be ‘zombiefied’. She sees that a rather calm, normal looking Michael Jackson lifting her up, putting an arm around her shoulder and about to take her home. But before they reach the door, Jackson turns around to face the audience, showing his devilish yellow eyes and the video ends with a spine chilling laugh by Vincent Price. Although the video does arrive to a climax, the audience is still left unsure as to whether the end scene of the video is the dream or the reality.

This video does use plenty of music video conventions like choreographed dancing (which have become iconic), following a narrative and lip syncing. Early 1980’s clothes were used as they were modern at the time, indicating that Jackson had the young Americans in mind in terms of target audience. This is reinforced by using the horror genre which is often associated with young adults as they are known for preferring thrillers over rom-coms or animated movies.

Seamless or continuity editing is used throughout the whole video which is preferred by the younger generations. This also allows the audience to focus on the going-ons in the shot. Semi-long takes allow the audience to carefully study the shot: the dance routine, Jackson and the location. These long takes have allowed the audience to replicate many of the internationally famous dance moves. Short takes are also used, especially in the werewolf scene to increase tension and speed up the pace of the scene. High angle shots are used to show Ray’s feeble and low stature as the zombies crowd her. Long shots are used to show the choreographed dancing to express the hard work put in by choreographers. Towards the end of the video Jackson is shown looking down at Ray in a low angle shot. The light behind him makes him look angelic, he has been sent to save her from the zombies by waking her up.

Andrew Goodwin - Categorising Music Videos

Music videos can be categorised by genre and whether the video is narrative, performance or concept based.

Genre is French for 'type' and can be defined as the way in which music is categorised based on certain characteristics that can be used to identify itself to a particular type of music. Genre is mainly used to target audiences, who have specific tastes of music, film or book. This also helps the audience to identify which mediums they are more likely to enjoy.

Examples of genre, in relation to music, are Pop, Rock, Dance, Classical, Hip Hop and R'n'B. Hybrid genres also exist enabling artists to target multiple audience (e.g a song with elements of both R'n'B and Dance will attract audiences that like listening to one or the other). This can lead to convincing audiences to listen to more music of other genres, rather than sticking to their preferences.

Another way of categorising music videos is based on its 'form': narrative, performance or concept based videos. Narrative based music video follow a storyline with a typical 'beginning-middle-end' structure. Performance based music videos are based around a performance by the artist(s). Concept based music videos are based on a theme or idea (e.g. stop motion, continuous take, backward film).

Andrew Goodwin - Identifying Music Videos

In his book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992), Goodwin identified several key features and characteristics which can be used to recognise a music video

1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visual (with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contracting the lyrics).
2. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals (again with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contracting the lyrics).
3. Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography (E.g. live stage perfomance in heavy rock).
4. There is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/vocalist.
5. The artist may develop their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which over time , become part of their star image.
6. There is likely to be a reference to voyeurism, particularly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screens with screens, binoculars, camera etc).
7. There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts.

Along with these key features he created three categories under which a music video can fall into:

• Concept-based - Videos that are based on a theme or an idea
• Performance-based - Videos that are based around a performance of the artist/group
• Narrative-based - Videos that follows a narrative or tells a story

Planning and Research - Wednesday 22nd June 2011

I will now begin the planning and research section of the project. For this section I will:

- Analysise at least 5 music videos
- Research into the artist / group I am producing the video and ancillary texts for
- Produce a complete copy of the lyrics of the track and detailed timings
- Research a possible target audience with results displayed and analysed
- Produce a narrative breakdown of the composition of the video
- Brainstorm possible themes that need to be incorporated into the video
- Sketch out a storyboard for the video
- Write up a detailed breakdown of the visual codes to be constructed
- Create a list of nessesary props and a shooting schedule/timetable
- Produce a list of equipment that I could use
- Research into the music channel that would exhibit my video.

Project Brief: An Introduction

For this coursework I must produce a promotional package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with the following ancillary texts:

• a CD/DVD digipak for its release (4 panels - front cover, back cover, 2 inlay cards).
• a magazine advertisement for the release of the CD/DVD.