Music video analysis

1. PALOMA FAITH –
STONE COLD
SOBER
MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS 2

2. The genre of this music video is indie pop/jazz. It follows the genre
characteristics by being predominantly colourful and bright and also
cutting on the beat of the song (Goodwin). This video was directed by
Sophie Muller in 2009 and focuses very much on Paloma Faith’s star
image, which is orange hair, red lipstick, and her very unique voice
directed this video. She is very vintage looking which is very popular
in this day and age.

3. This video starts with a party scene in black and white with low-key
lighting; this is unconventional for a pop video but quite
conventional for a jazz video. This then cuts to indoor woodland
and quickly pans around a tree to her, it also switched to colour
when it cut. While the intro to the song is playing it shows her in all
the different scenes and costumes she’ll be in in the video. Once
she starts singing the lighting switches to high key. The video has
some relevance to the lyrics ‘I’ll be the late night lady you won’t
recognise’ while singing this she has red lipstick on and a red
dress and looks very voyeuristic which is conventional of a female
pop artist. During this scene the camera zooms in and out a lot
bringing our attention to her all the time and so we can see she is
in a very run down corridor.

4. During the chorus it looks like hand held camera was used
because it is a party scene. Using the hand held camera
makes it look more intense and interesting an makes us feel
involved with the party; although this is rarely used in pop
vidoes. There are also very bright lights as she wanders
around over passed out people. When the video quickly
switched back to the run down corridor it is enveloped in red
light.
The next verse shows a small party scene where everyone is
passed out but her. There is high key lighting and lots of
mirrors so we can see more of the room without panning the
camera. The end of this verse cuts to the active party scene
and again there is lots of zooming in and out but always
focusing on her as she sings.

5. During this chorus she is dancing and singing. Her dancing fits
with the lyrics and is again very voyeuristic which again fits with
the pop video convention. Hand held camera is used to make it
look more intense and like we are dancing with her. This time she
has other people dancing around her because it is a party scene
so it is only logical. There is then a very wide shot of a big stage
with a figure running across it with a big bunch of balloons.
The lyrics then fit with the visual ‘In the madness of the storm’
there is a lot of wind as she runs towards a bright light and
confetti is blown all over the place. This is in black and white so
we can only see her silhouette and the confetti and it looks very
artistic and like it belongs in a jazz video but not a pop video. I
think this scene is slightly over cranked too to add to the effect.

6. There are a lot of close ups of her face as she is singing
which is a convention of music videos in general. It then cuts
to a wider shot of her in a box dressed as a pin up girl which
is again very voyeuristic. There is a quick cut to the party
scene and then back to in the box dancing with a mime; I
really enjoy this scene because it is so odd. Finally it finishes
with her and the mime in the box.