The Corrs- Runaway Micro Element

I came across the song called 'runaway' by The Corrs. This is a video that includes many conventions similar to the ones that we would like to include in our music video. 

The use of the woman running in slow motion is effective as it reflects the song because it is called 'runaway'. We are definitely considering using this in our song when we start filming our piece. After talking to our media teacher, we all think that it is a very good idea and it would be a strong shot. It will makes us work harder on final cut express as we will have to slow the shot down which i am really looking forward to doing. 

Also as most of our video will be filmed outside there are wonderful shots of trees and natural scenery, this helps us as to know how to film outside by trees effectively and what shots look best outside so it gives us more of an understanding about the different types of shots with is always helpful. 

Shot layout

For the first verse of our song we have sorted out roughly what we are going to shoot for each line.

 (instrumental)

The opening scene would be one of a few ideas:

-either panning across part of Audley end gardens and showing the view to give an establishing shot then across to the girl sat on a bench kicking her legs

-or the opening shot will be a girl sat on a bench or on a wall kicking her legs looking down then cutting to a mid shot of her standing-to which the instrumental stops.

I heard a story the other day,

Mid shot of her lip syncing whilst walking, possibly but always looking into the camera

A love one, 
Close up of her face looking down, then camera panning down to the flower

I got mad and i walked away,

shot of tracking the flower falling onto floor as she drops it in slow motion

Its just another one,

So i thought to myself .....WHY WHY

Sweep shot of the top of girl which then gradually goes to part of the Audley end garden.
The 'WHY WHY' part of the line is the only part that will be lip synced.

Are there so many stupid love songs 

Close up of her feet/legs whilst she is walking 

I will write the best one of all,

Long shot of girl with view of garden in background twirling around in a circle whilst singing with her head up and arms stretched out. 

And we will end this fight

Shania Twain

Shania Twain is a 47 year old Canadian artist that comes under the POP/ country genre. 

Shania Twain has managed to experiment within her own genre, the pop genre, both without losing the original fans who made her famous in the first place.

After looking at her videos; You're still the one, That don't impress me much, From this moment on, You've got A way and When you kiss me. 
After looking at all of these videos i noticed that Shania sings into the camera a lot and shows confidence in her songs as she looks straight at the camera so that it is more personal for the viewer to watch as it seems like she is singing to them. 


There are many crosscuts used, from either the narrative that is being played out and the lip syncing into the camera. They are subtle as they show her in different scenes but effective as they make the video more interesting to watch as there is more being shown.  
He song' That don't impress me much' uses a very extreme set of camera angles. They are either from very far angles or there are close ups onto her face especially.There are uses of cross fades which gives a smoothness and less harsh image to the video.The song 'you're still the one i want uses the extreme close ups which is the complete opposite of the song 'you don't impress me much'. It has close ups of Shania's face as she sings and the actor's body.

The mis-en-scene is very different in all of her videos. Her appearance is completely different in every single one. However she is always known in these videos to have flowy and natural hair which is one convention of mis en scene she uses as part of he look which doesn't change that often. Her outfits are very extravagant which all reflect her videos. In 'you're still the one ' she has a white floaty dress which she stands out in as it is very windy. It also stands out in the video because the video as a whole is quite dull and blue. The screen shot i have chosen is from you're still the one- it shows clearly that she has long flowy hair- a typical convention of the pop and country genre.

In her video 'any man of mine' she is uses the more tradition aspects of the Country genre however in her other songs there are quite strong influences of pop in her videos. An example is in the outfits, in the song 'that don't impress me much' she has an all leopard print outfit whilst in 'any man of mine' she has the typically washed, light coloured jeans and denim waste coat  She goes back to the routes of using props in the background such as carts, and we see tree stumps, fields and other trees outside in the background. 

Carrie Underwood- Blown away applied to Stever Archer

Steve Archer is a theorist and i found links between part of his theory and this video by Carrie Underwood. He said that 'Sometimes the artist (especially the singer)will be part of the story, acting as narrator and singing at the same time. 

Storyline:
 This song is about a girl and her father that have a ruined, broken relationship as their mother passed away- there is this clip at the beginning of the video before the song has even started which gives us background info and more of an insight about what her songs about. She sings the song in third person which shows that shes re telling the story which clearly backs up Steve Archers theory about narrative and performance. 

Camera and editing:
There many close up shots of Carrie at the beginning, to show her emotions through clear facial expressions which is captured by the camera. There are also camera shots of panning her feet. Also following her from the front and the side to try and see where shes heading to. As the sung 'daddy was a mean old Mr' there was a crosscut back to him drinking in the house in the black and white coloured shot. Also when she sung 'mamma was an angel in the ground' it cuts to her walking through a graveyard so the narrative is relevant to what was filmed. 

In the video we come to find out that the black and white shots are flashbacks as she is thinking about her dad and how aggressive he was. 

The editing is all made to look very dark, gloomy and show unhappiness. At the beginning they use slow motion for her hair to make her more exaggerated when she was looking at the lightning. There is a use of a time-lapse which gives connotations of her feelings being the same way and how everyday goes by like this. The lightning gets louder as she sings louder to show that shes expressing her feelings of how everythings been 'blown away'. At the end the colour of the shot gets lighter and as she is lip syncing 'blown away ay ay ay' outlines how it was all in the past and she can now look forward. This is shown as the grass is longer and there is now greenery and a dog is walking which is sort of back to normality. 

Costume and props:
Her costume throughout is very minimal- a chequered shirt, jeans and a long cardigan and a pair of brown high leg boots. Her genre is being reflected through her clothing as she wants freedom, so being in the outdoors so an outfit in the outdoors like this is realistic. Her eyes are smokey, this makes us focus on her more as they are extremely eye catching. She sings to the camera a lot throughout the video which shows mystery and that there is more to her. Her cardigan is what brings out her femininity as it is floor length so she retains that still in a subtle way. 

Setting:
There are two main settings in this video- outside,in their house and in the cellar. The house has a black and white picture which portrays bad memories in there in the past and how she feels like a prisoner and outside is in colour, which shows that she has a sense of freedom in her and in the narrative when she's outside she can be closer to her mum who is 'an angel in the ground'. 
Half way through the song as she finds her dad unconscious, the camera isn't black and white any more, its in colour which could mean that her dad was but a bad memory. 

Sound:
Non-diegetic sound is used in some parts of the music video. At the beginning the emphasis of the thunder and lightning the sound over laps the soft music to show that the video will not be as upbeat as this as a 'storm will be coming' and we presume that it will get more downbeat.

Ed Sheeran- Research and Understanding task

Ed Sheeran has become the nations new favourite artist for his music genre of Acoustic/folk music. 

Ed Sheeran is a very minimalistic artist that focuses more onto his music than his appearance. He uses little editing. For example in 'The A team' The only obvious edit is that the camera screen is in black and white. It is a simple yet eye catching way of making a music video seem more sensitive and possibly not very upbeat, something that has a meaning. 
There is an actress played as a 'crack whore' in his video which gives a story behind his song, which gives the audience members a more thoughtful view on the song, that it is relevant and shows meaning to hat he is singing. 
Keeping the video minimal in ed sheerans video is emphasised through the use of a handheld camera which is easily available commercially. It gives the viewer an idea of the camera representing following her life and possibly seeing reasons why in the past that she died. 

The set is usually in an actual place, not a set which makes Ed seem like an artist that wants the video to possibly be more realistic to his fans. In his video 'Drunk' he is performing in his video but it doesn't change the fact that it is in another realistic setting. It seems like it is in his apartment as he has his cat and sits down with a beer which is a typically routine action when you have just returned from somewhere and want to relax. The camera shots in his videos are nothing out of the ordinary, rather wide shots to give the viewer a clear idea of what is actually happening in the clip.

Overall the reputation of Ed Sheeran is particularly good, and he has had no other newspaper stories than the fact that he has made so much progress over the past few years from no one knowing him and how he has now conquered America. 

Research and Understanding task

Rihanna is an artist that uses a variety of genres within her music. Her main genres are R&B, POP, REGGAE, HIP HOP and DANCE. She swings towards the more mainstream side of music.

Overall, Rihanna is represented as a modern type of artist that tends to break the rules and do her own thing. She stands out considerably due to her use of sexual dances and lyrics which give the audience an idea that she has rather a lot of sex appeal. 

In the video 'Under my umbrella' it particularly caught my eye. There are so many ways in which the video especially represents Rihanna as sexy and powerful. The video has a dark background with lots of edited in rain into all the shots. It's subtly noticeable however doesn't draw too much attention as Rihanna is the character that is watched the most. Also the editing is rather clever because when Rihanna is lip syncing, the screen is blurred in and out to draw yet more attention to her. Further on into the song the editing because more focused on screen as it looked like Rihanna was dodging the raindrops. The fact that she successfully dodged them may give us an indication that the rain in the video could be associated with upset and the fact that she isn't getting wet could give us an indication that she is a strong enough woman. I noticed that the screen was blurred out and then in when she was bending down which is almost teasing the audience as she looks directly at the camera which shows more sex appeal.  The cutting rate in the music video was quite fast and has many different shots inbetween major shots, which portrays her to have two sides to her, and GOOD girl and BAD which reflects the Album name. 

Her costume is definitely what stands out most in the video and in all of her videos, she wears tight clothing to fit around her skinny yet curvy body. The tight, revealing PVC/leather short flared dress shows off her tiny figure which she struts around in wanting all eyes on her. The fact that the majority of the time she is looking at the camera shows that she isn't at all shy and it makes it a more personal relationship between the artist and the audience member. This song is part of her album called 'Good girl gone bad' which may give us an indication that this is one of her most provocative/ sexual songs that she had produced yet.As we go though the video, it turns into a more sensual one as she has less clothes on, fishnet tights and her hair all out of her face revealing her even more. Her prop was the umbrella which was relevant to the video. The prop gets used more sexually as we go through the video which she uses to dance with until the end.  She also moved/danced to the beat of the song which is a very mainstream route to go down- as she tends to produce music that goes into the charts, this particular action works well for Rihanna. 

Rihanna is quite a talked about artist for good and bad reasons. There have been stories that she has been involved with drugs like Marijuana and Cocaine. Photos have been leaked of her doing so and in her tweets (as i follow her) she refers to weed constantly. Her 'code' is the set of numbers 420 which is an obvious link to marijuana. 

Analysis of Only girl in the world- Rihanna

Rihanna- Only girl in the world

ANALYSIS:

In the music video it reflects onto the title of the song, a girl alone in a field represents Rihanna being the  'only girl in the world'. It is a POP genre which is a very popular genre in the music world and chart music so most people would recognise Rihanna and her music. 

Image of the artist

I think that in this video, the artist Rihanna wants to portray a nice, feminine happy and flowy atmosphere- we can tell as the song is very upbeat and jolly. The setting is very pink, which also suggests femininity along with her floaty top. We can tell from this that the target audience would be fairly young people, also females. The use of the red background is striking and adds to the unrealistic idea of wanting to be the only girl in the world. 

Camera, Angles and Editing

The camera continuously is used to shoot the artist as she is the only person in the music video. It also uses slow motion as Rihanna falls onto the flowerbed which suggests an extremely happy,care free girl. The most unusual editing technique used is to change the colour of the shot.