3. Music videos display genre conventions – performance for rock
music, dance/performance for pop music, narratives for indie
music.
Relationship between lyrics and visuals. For example using
performance to illustrate the lyrics to create narrative.
Relationship between the music and visuals. Using the beat of the
video in contrast with the music video.
The artist of the song is also performing to make the lip synching
look more realistic.
The use of intertextual references as music video influences. For
example Jessie J in Nobody’s Perfect. Often inspired by
television, film, other music videos.
Star image – focus on the artist as the main centre of attention.
Shots primarily aimed at the star to make the video appeal to its
target audience.
The technical aspects of the music video and what is used to
make the video, this is made up by the editing, misé en scéne,
special effects and lighting to make an impact on the audience.
4. The use of the close up and the
low angle illustrates the star
identity of the boyband with the
other group members to show the
group’s identity. The use of eye
contact creates a possessive
ambience to the audience. This
could be signifying their success as
a group in the charts. The boyband
uses a direct gaze into the camera
and the director uses camerawork
and movement to follow the
performers using an eye-line
match.
5.
6. To keep the audience engaged with the music video the video
uses a variety of shots to follow the narrative/performance
elements of a music video.
This shot uses a mid shot to show the
performer’s actions and movement
swinging side by side to make the
audience visualise being on scene. The
use of equipment used on location
creates an industrial ambience to the
music video making the video unique to
generic videos based on pop music.
This shot can be perceived as various
shots. It can be seen as a long shot of
where the performer is to make the
audience familiar with the scene or as a
point of view shot as another member of
the group. Since the shot contains two
people it may be perceived as a two
shot with the performer and the
professional at NASA.
7. A long shot is used to show the four
members of the group. It creates the
band identity and demonstrates the
chemistry in their performance.
Between the two yellow annotations this
appears to show a fading performer. This
suggests that performer is leaving the
location to prepare for a new scene and
leave the audience’s centre of attention
and drawing attention to a new
performer.
These two shots are using the same shot
in different points of view. They both
are using over the shoulder shots. In the
first shot a person is looking over the
performer’s shoulder to see where the
performer is concentrating at and what
actions the performer is doing. The
second shot shows a person looking
directly over the performer’s shoulder to
see the robot copying the actions of the
performer. You can see the performer’s
actions slightly to represent the use of
technology.
8. This last shot is taking advantage
of the space which is provided on
location. Two performer’s are
camouflaged in black clothing to
disguise themselves as the soloist
is performing. The soloist is
represented in the white t-shirt to
draw attention to the main
performer. The low-key lighting is
effective for the music video as
space connotations are primarily
dark and night so the video
follows the concept well. The high
key lighting is the spacecraft’s
undercover to show the expense
of the location being used and the
implication that the performer’s
success by using locations and
equipment of high production
values.
9. The music video follows the boy-band lip synching to the song using
performance. The song follows conventions to the genre by using
performance to illustrate the lyrics to the song. The music video
was filmed at NASA and had a space inspired set and the band took
advantage of their location to enjoy themselves which is what the
audience expects from a young, pop, boy-band. The value of
production is illustrated by the use of technology like robots,
buggies, costume and various equipment. The lyrics “I’m not
scared of the dark” references the space theme to the video and
relevance of the setting to the lyrics.
10. The song has a techno, electric guitar, synthesised instrumental
to the song making the music feel modern and futuristic which
links to the appropriate use of location.
The use of claps represents the beats on the music commencing
at 1:00, this is use to change movement and angles in the chorus
of the song.
The song has backing vocals overlapping the main lyrics to create
texture and dimension to the way the song is being performed by
the band.
11. Editing: The music video uses special effects to create the starting sequence to the music video,
the music video uses this to illustrate the location the music video is being shot at. The song
uses many jump cuts to move from scene to scene making the video fluid and flowing for each
location/shot change.
Camerawork: The video’s main focus is eye-line matches to follow the performer’s solos to
create an intimate relationship with performer and audience. Each eye-line match uses close-
up’s and mid-shots to make the direct gaze more personal to the viewer. Other shots include
long shots to set any location change for example moving from inside the NASA space stations to
outside in an empty runway, this is also demonstrated when each performer gets to use the
space equipment.
Misé en Scene: From 0:47 to 0:51the scene transitions from night to day. The camera moves left
to right and early evening becomes night. The costumes worn by the performers changes across
the video starting in orange space suits to their own clothing which the audience recognises from
previous videos and tours to create the boy-band expectation of wearing trendy and current
clothing in order to create a sense of popular culture. The scenes filmed on location at NASA is
well lit and uses high key lighting with studio lights and soft boxes to create a clear image of the
performers, this changes when the scene relocates outside where the scene primarily relies on
the time of day and the outdoor lighting on lamposts to create the night scenes.
