Media Equaluation

2. My music video is structured in a narrative based form. The story within my music video is based on two girls; one
girl representing the freedom from the addiction by dancing around a big abandoned building and the other
girl being trapped in her addiction by being capture with extreme close ups in a blacked out room looking
deeply hurt and trying to suffer with a mixture of emotions. However, at the end of my music video they both
portray the same emotion of smiling to the camera to illustrate that aftermath of addictions. I followed the
structure as I crosscut from story to story of the different girls backgrounds to show the audience the contrast
between the two. This helped the audience understand it was a narrative based structure due to the clear
story behind it.
The song I used for my music video was ‘Chandelier', originally sung by ‘Sia’ but I chose a cover by ‘Madilyn Bailey’
for copyright purposes. My music video explores themes such as; alcoholism, partying and addiction which is
portrayed using various locations and props. For example; the red cloth of which the dancer is tightly holding
while dancing expresses danger and death; she uses it in a way that represents being strangled by wrapping
it round her neck. Another example is the abandoned locations, during the dancing scenes it is very clear that
the building has been abandoned due to the broken glass over the floor from smashed windows and graffiti
over the walls. I chose this location to link in with the theme of being lost and trapped which is a common
emotion when being stuck in an addiction. Another prop which was significant within my music video was the
UV paints, this was used to represent emotions during the party scenes. I used an actor who lip synched the
words of the song while covering her face with UV paint which represented the many emotions she was
feeling, such as; the blue lines down her cheeks represented tears, the multicoloured chaos she created all
over her face and hair represented the mess her life was in after being an addict and feeling lost and the hand
print mark she created round her neck by printing her UV paint hands around her neck to again represent
being strangled and wanting to die.

3. When deciding on my song for my music video, I created a mind map of all the different genres out there in the music industry. I
wanted my music video to have a narrative behind it so therefore I chose an expressive song in which you really get a feel of
the lyrics and relate to them based on your background story. The genre of my music video (pop) allows the narrative structure
to be used as after researching typical pop music videos it is clear that they use this type of narrative structure too. An example
of this is ‘Katy Perry – Last Friday Night’. Within this music video she sings about her experience about her Friday night
partying session. The context of the video is showing us as an audience the type of events she experiences that night, such
as; the process of getting ready, the moment she walks into the party, the actual partying and the morning after reminiscing on
her night. This is clear to us that it is a narrative structure she is telling the story of her Friday night.
As I said previously, I chose the song ‘Chandelier’ by ‘Sia’ due to the powerful feel of the words that is sung and the continuous
climax that is given to the audience when listening. Because I wanted a narrative behind my music video I researched and
studied the lyrics of the song very carefully. The results I got back from my research was that it explores the themes of
partying, alcoholism, abuse and pain. ‘Chandelier’s’ music video didn’t explore these types of themes, instead it when down the
route of mental health and the struggles of living inside of a body in which your mind is telling you what to do. I could clearly
see this from the music video as the dancer portrays pedestrian movement, such as: screwing to the head using her finger to
illustrate something’s in her head and she wants it to get out and also continuous jumping around to represent trying to escape.
Another real media text that explores various themes like ‘Chandelier’ does is, ‘Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better’. This song
explores the story of a girl who is stuck in an abusive relationship and Shawn trying to rescue her by singing about how “He
can treat her better”. Shawn likes this girl and is trying to get across to the girl that she is wasting her time with the guys who’s
abusing her and that she should be with him. Again, this music video is structured in a narrative based form as the context of
the video is showing the story of the girl in the abusive relationship and Shawn getting angry that she’s not leaving her abusive
boyfriend.

4. A list of conventions Andrew Goodwin used within his theory:
1. Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals
2. Relationship between the music and the visuals
3. Genre Characteristics
4. Demands of the record label mean that lots of close ups are used to
sell the artist to the target audience

5. My music video very much supports and uses this convention of Andrew Goodwin’s theory as I show a clear
relationship between the lyrics and the visuals within my music video.
After researching the song lyrics and coming up with the themes that surround the words of the song, I then did a
full analysis of the meaning of the lyrics. I did this to help me when it came to filming my music video and to
relate the visuals to the lyrics. For example; “Swinging from the chandelier” is a well known metaphor for
partying to excess – I used the phrase ‘partying’ and made that a theme within my music video. The scenes of
the partying is shown when my actor is located in a dark room with a black back drop behind her and a disco
ball creating multicoloured lights which reflected all over her face, while this was going on the movement of
my actor was portrayed to show she was partying, for example; the hair flicking, the head banging and the
smiling shows she is having a good time. Another relationship between the lyrics and the visuals was “I’m
going to fly like a bird” – this implies she is trying to escape her darkening life and be as free as a bird. I
represented this lyric during the dancing scenes, the dancing is a feeling of being free as you’re expressing
your emotions through the use of dance, this relates back to the theme of escapism as it’s located within a
abandoned building to get that sense of freedom again. Another clear relationship between the lyrics and the
visuals is “I’m a mess” – this is self explanatory, saying her life is a mess from all of the partying and
addictions. I have shown this lyric during the scenes of when my actor covers herself with UV paint, this is
clearly showing the chaos and the mess she is feeling.
As well as this, props can also have a significant involvement when having a relationship between the lyrics and the
visuals. For example, one of our main props was the red cloth which was used within the dancing scenes.
The colour red has connotations with words such as; danger, death and love. The lyrics speaks a lot about
love, saying “feel the love” which relates to the cloth.

6. Literal meaning of the lyrics and visuals matching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMivT7MJ41M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevxZvSJLk8

7. My music video supports and uses Andrew Goodwin’s theory as I show a clear relationship between the music and the visuals within my music
video.
Cutting to the beat:
When my music hits the climax of the song and the tempo increases, my dancer shows a fast paced intensity of movement when dancing. In
contrast to this, when the tempo softens, my dancer slows down her movement to a more flow like action to create a relationship
between the music and the visuals. Cutting to the beat of the song is a typical feature of music video as matching the music to the visuals
is a great way to ensure that your music video flows seamlessly and for it to have an effective impact on the audience. Within my chosen
genre of pop, cutting to the beat is very important as commonly pop music is very upbeat and contains a lot of climax, therefore ensuring
that the content of the music video matches the tempo of the music for it to have a clear link. An example from a real media text that
shows this is the example on the next slide – ‘Adele – Hello’. The music is very slow which reflects the visuals as they are made at a
slow and steady speed to create a relationship between the two.
Pacing:
The pacing of my editing reflects the relationship between the music and the visuals as when the tempo is increased within the song my editing
is increase to a fast paced – my clips cut from one to another at a more fast rate to show the intensity of the music and the climax it is
hitting. During the ‘party’ scenes of which my actor is portraying, the sound is very soft and slow to link to the sad lyrics that is being sung
– because of the slow tempo I made the editing of these scenes in slow mo to create a relationship between the music and the visuals.
Mood:
The mood within my music video relates to the lighting I used. For example, the low-key lighting of darkness is shown when my actor is partying
which is set at the fast tempo of the song – this is a common lighting for partying scenes. Whereas, the lighting of brightness is shown
when my dancer is dancing in the location of the abandoned building – I used this lighting when both the tempo was slow and fast to
relate back to the theme of freedom.
By having clear relationships between the music and the visuals allows for the music video to flow seamlessly and for it to have a greater impact
on the audience.
This shows my music video does use forms and conventions of real media products as cutting to the beat, pacing and mood are all involved
within my music video, the same it would be in real music videos.

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQHsXMglC9A&list=RDQMWbZ-wZIrZKw

9. My music video does two things when relating to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of genre
characteristics; it supports/uses but also challenges this convention.
Sia’ displays a pop genre with the use of narrative within her music videos. Within ‘Sia’s’ music
videos you never see her presence at all, therefore, because of this, she brings in
actors/actresses to perform a narrative behind the lyrics of the song. A lot of her music
videos involves dancing – this supports my music video as I have involved a dancer
performing. This type of video is a conceptual type of video. Concept videos are based
around a single idea or concept and are usually unusual, even surreal for the audience.
The unusual content is an attraction for the audience which draws them in. This type of
genre does this very well it is a unusual narrative behind the story which entertains the
audience.
In contrast, my music video also challenges this theory as a lot of pop genres lyrics are happy
and involve happy scenes with bright colours to convey this mood. For example; ‘Sorry’ by
‘Justin Bieber’ has a lot of bright coloured clothing and bright lighting to present the mood
of the song. However, within my music video, I use dark coloured clothing and dark lighting
to represent the mood of feeling lost. This is uncommon for a pop genre as they normally
express their lyrics in a happy form instead of a deep, sad feeling.

10. Another genre characteristic includes using different colouring. My music video
challenges this convention as my music video stays in colour throughout
and doesn’t cut to a black and white scene for example. Colour is shown
throughout my music video, for example during my dancing scenes there is
colour to pick up the various aspects of the abandoned building, such as
the brightly coloured graffiti. As well as this, during the party scenes there
is a coloured disco light reflecting on my actors face and then she used
coloured UV paints which covers her face and hair which represents the
different emotions that the lyrics are portraying. The reason I used colour
throughout and didn’t switch to a black and white theme was because the
mood of my music video was already very dull due to the emotions that is
portrayed through the lyrics; therefore, I wanted the colours to express the
emotions and create a sense of reality when it came to the party scenes. A
real media example which uses colour throughout its music video is
‘Ed Sheeran – Castle On The Hill’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ibBPhiaG0

11. As well as colour, genre characteristics also include using various camera shots to capture effective footage for the
audience to enjoy watching. This can be done simply using a range of different camera angles. Within my
music video I used a shoulder rig to capture affective angles during filming my dancer in the abandoned
building. The shoulder rig allowed me to follow the dancer around using a tracking shot – this type of shot is
very effective for the audience to watch as they feel like they are part of the music video and are following the
dancer around too. The shoulder rig, in some way, acts as eyes, what I mean by this is that the movement of
the camera flows and looks around like a pair of eyes, so therefore it is more realistic and visually interesting
for the audience to watch.
Another camera shot I used quite often within my music video was close-ups, I used this when it came to my actor
during the partying scenes. Because I wanted to capture the clear brightness and action of when she applied
the UV paint over the face, I did a close up of her face to capture very detail that is being drawn. A close up is
a typical form of convention within pop genres as they like to capture the emotion the artist is singing about.
For example, a smile on the artists face would illustrate happiness, whereas a dull facial expression would
illustrate the upset.
As well as these camera shots, I also used wide shots and establishing shots during my dancing scenes in the
abandoned building. To capture these shots I put the camera on a stand and placed it at the back of the room
to capture the whole of the location. I wanted to have an establishing shot within my music video for my
audience to pick up on the small details the location brings, for example to spacious room, the graffiti and the
broken glass to signify the abandoned building and the free feeling the dancing is feeling. The wide shots pick
up the dancer flowing within the whole space by her movement, this represents the freedom she is trying to
portray reflecting back on to the lyrics of “I’m going to fly like a bird” – the idea of trying to escape.

12. Lighting is also another aspect of genre characteristics when talking about Andrew
Goodwin’s theory. The lighting within my music video changes throughout. During
my abandoned building scenes with my dancer is lighting is all natural, meaning
we had natural lighting shinning in on us through the windows of the building. This
gave the audience a sense of realism and allowed the camera to pick up very little
detail of the building. In contrast to this, during my partying scenes I set my
background in a dark room with a black backdrop, I did this in order to pick up the
lighting from the disco light reflecting on her face but also pick up the neon colours
from the UV paints. Having a black backdrop during the scenes when using the
UV paints really captured the brightness of the colours making them stand out on
the camera. It gave the overall appearance look extremely effective to the
audience. Compared to real media texts, lighting can vary in pop genres, it all
depends on what the song is about and what story is behind it. For example, again
with the example of ‘Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better’ because the story was
based on a deep topic the lighting was very low-key to present the mood of the
lyrics. Whereas, in for example. ‘Beyonce – XO’ the lighting is very colourful and
bright to represent the happy mood.

13. The editing I used within my music video varied. In parts of my music video I used slow mo to
capture the partying scenes of my actor flipping her hair around. This gave an effective look
on the shot making it more appealing to watch as it changes up the camera shots more
frequently. Furthermore, slow mo is often a common thing found in pop music videos as it
captures important moments. An example of which slow mo is used in real media texts is
the music video ‘Calvin Harris – How Deep Is Your Love’. The slow mo is used throughout
the music video to capture the movement of the main actor. An example of slow mo that
you can see clearly is in the video is when she dives into the pool and gets out again; that
is all done in slow mo to capture her movements and also, linking into ‘Laura Mulvey –
Male Gaze Theory’ to represent a sexual manner to the men watching her from besides
the pool.
Another editing example I used within my music video was to edit the colours of my lighting
during the UV paint and disco scenes. The reason I did this was to make the colours more
bright and visualising to the audience. By having strong, contrasting colours enables it to
stand out more as the colours are all contrasting with the black background so both the
actor and the colours are visually appealing.

14. Clothing:
The clothing within my music video was very basic. My dancer was dressed in a black
oversized hoodie with dance shorts and tights to represent who she is. Whereas
my other actor was presented as if she hasn’t got any clothes on so you could
focus more on the brightly colours lighting over her. The over-sized jumper will link
in well with the meaning of the lyrics; dealing with alcoholism, this shows the rough
appearance meaning she needs help.
Props:
The use of props within my music video is minimum as I wanted to focus more on the
lyrics of the music rather than on the props. One main prop that features within my
music video is a red cloth/piece of fabric, this symbolises the battle she is facing; I
did this by showing the prop through the dance movements with the use of the
cloth. Another prop I used was the coloured strobe lights to create a contrast with
the dull background and related to the theme of partying linking in with the
meaning behind the music video; alcoholism.

15. The last concept of this theory is the idea that the demands of the record label is met. The common way this is
shown within a music video is that there are; close-ups of the artist and artists appearing in a narrative perspective.
My music video supports/uses this concept of the theory as I have extreme close-ups of the artist mining the lyrics
of the song but also acting in a narrative perspective as she’s pretending as if she’s at a party by whipping her hair
around and covering her face with UV paint to portray a party scene.
The close up shots within my music video allows the audience to feel involved with the artist but to also make the
audience capture every emotion which is being portrayed throughout my music video. I used multiple close ups
within my music video. One example was during my partying scenes, I used a close up on my actors face to
capture the motion of her movement, for example the hair flicking and the emotion on her face while presenting her
dancing as if she was at a party. Another example of a close up of which I involved within my music video was
again during the partying scenes but when my actor was covering her face with UV paint to signify her emotions. I
wanted a close up during this section to make my audience aware of the emotions she is trying to portray, for
example it was clear to us that the blue streaks from her eyes represented tears. The reason why I made my actor
present the UV paint as emotions is to relate back to the lyrics. The tears related to the lyrics - “Feel the tears as
they dry”. The mess of the multicoloured she created on her face and in her hair related to the lyrics – “I’m a mess’.
Close ups are important within my music video as I have many emotions which need to be captured on camera.

16. Close-Ups of the artist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf_wVfwpfp8&index=27&list=RDQMHPuzrh5_txo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up7pvPqNkuU
Artists who appears in a narrative and performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ScjucUV8v0

17. So overall how well does my music video show a relationship between the lyrics and the
visuals, show a relationship between the music and the visuals, demonstrate genre
characteristics and demands of the record label.
It is clearly obvious to the audience that my music video uses all of Andrew Goodwin’s
theory conventions because of my detailed explanations referring to my music video and
comparing them to real media texts as examples.

20. One of the main forms and conventions seen within ancillary products is synergy to their music
video. They often have clear connections with props or often have a similar art style to their
digipak and music video in order to make a obvious link.
An example from a real like media product that has clear synergy is ‘The Weekend – Starboy’.
The CD cover shows that ‘The Weekend’ is dressed in a leather jacket and a cross
necklace. During the music video of ‘Starboy’ he is also wearing the same leather jacket
and cross necklace – this instantly shows a clear connection between the two. Again
throughout the music video, there is always a link to the cross, it is shown as a lit up neon
coloured cross. This again shows clear links to his album cover with the use of the cross.

21. As you can evidently see from the screenshot to
the right that I used neon paints throughout my
music video. To link my music video to my
ancillary products, I used the neon paints again
in both my CD Digipak and Magazine Poster in
order to keep a continuity between all of my
products.
The use of my dancer clearly seen
throughout my music video is also evident
on my CD Digipak, this again is to keep the
synergy throughout my products making a
clear connection between the two in order
for my audience to understand better. We
also positioned her in near enough the
same movement.