An A2 music video preparatory analysis to guide us towards creating our own. This video studies 'Halsey - Colours'.

1. Music Video Analysis

2. Types of Music Videos
• Spectacle: Interaction with the viewer, direct address, Male and Female
Gaze (Mulvey and Hansen).
• Performance: Artist perfoming, motifs, unusual settings, real life, fooling
around.
• Thematic: Conforms to the theme of a genre the same way that TV
does.
• Narrative: Tells a story through implication and lyrics, film structure of
beginning, middle and end, fast paced, lots of shots, artists can be part
of story directly, as observer or separate.
• Symbolic: Semiotic signs and symbols are used to build meaning,
montage, lighting etc.

3. Halsey: Colours
• Length: 4.14
• Themes: Love, heartbreak, depression, drug abuse, conflicts.
• Type of Music Video: Narrative and symbolic.
• Relatable Theorists: Laura Mulvey’s ‘The Male Gaze’, Miriam
Hansen’s ‘The Female Gaze’ and Roland Barthe’s ‘Symbolic Code’.

4. Mise-en-scene
• 0.07: The establishing shot is immediately of the artist in character beginning to
tell the story as a direct member of the music video. The colour is all white which
provides the implication of the upper-classes, it also infers hope or surrender
which could relate to the story of love and heartbreak (narrative and symbolic).
• 0.11: Cut over to the males playing tennis which is a stereotypically middle/
upper-class sport. They are wearing white which connotes purity or lacking
colour and vibrancy of life (symbolic).

5. Mise-en-scene
• 0.13: The shot of the smiling mother coincides with the lyrics “You said your
mother only smiled on her TV show”. This links to family conflict. The look is
also directed towards the older male in the video which therefore
exemplifies Miriam Hansen’s ‘The Female Gaze’ (narrative).
• 1.18: Inter-textuality of the posters on the walls. The artist, whilst in role,
has posters on the walls of ‘Colours’ and ‘Drive’ which are two of her songs
(links to purpose to promote the band and specific album).

6. Mise-en-scene
• 1.27: The shot changes to an almost over-the-shoulder shot focusing on
polaroid’s, diary’s and uniforms all of which are blue. The most common
connotation of the colour blue is sorrow which again links to the context of
the video about longing whilst contextually within the lyrics it is post break-
up blues which links to Barthes narrative theory of symbolic code (symbolic
and narrative).

7. Mise-en-scene
• 1.44: The main protagonist is seen to be scribbling in her diary much like
young girls do when they are infatuated with someone. This could imply
immaturity or simply the naivety of love (narrative and symbolic).

8. Camera
• 0.19: Close up on the artist in role holding polaroid of her love close to her.
This connotes obsession in the context of the video but in context of the
lyrics it implies nostalgia and reminiscing about the lost love. The
positioning of her legs is also reflective of a teenage girl in love which could
imply naivety of emotions in youth (narrative).

9. Camera
• 0.25: Close up canted angle of the male form which exemplifies Miriam
Hansen’s ‘The Female Gaze’ which objectifies the men.
• 0.28: Close up shot with a short field of focus on the female form. Due to the
composition the eye is taken along the contours of the body and away from
the obscured face as identity is lost in favour of sexuality. This conforms to
Laura Mulvey’s ‘The Male Gaze’.

10. Camera
• 0.00-4.14: The camera is filmed stylistically handheld or without a steadicam. This
gives the impression that, despite the high quality film, the video has a home-made
feel that links to the main protagonist as played by the artist who is often featured
with a polaroid camera and thus a link could be made to capturing film as well as still
frames.
• 2.21: The camera close up pans down to the lips of the female who has food on her
chin where an interaction is warranted, linking to Barthe’s action code, by the true
love interest. It also places women in a position as an object of desire.

11. Camera
• 3.38: Close up camera on the artist whilst playing with her hair. This implies youthful
naivety and how being in love often reduces people to a teenager in love (symbolic).
• 3.42: Extreme close up on the leg of the artist. The lighting is bright and bounces
back off the hairs on the body. This shows the hairs almost on end as though the
experience of being in love is causing them anticipation (symbolic).
• 3.44: Low angle shot looking up at the true love interest which could connote that he
is held in high esteem in the artists characters mind (symbolic).

12. Editing
• 0.00-4.14: Fast paced short shot duration keeps to the tempo of the music, it
also symbolises the fast paced lifestyle of the young. The quick cuts also link to
the short-lived romance or a romance that ended too quickly in reference to the
lyrics (narrative).
• 0.17: Cut in on the hand of the artist holding a polaroid picture. Polaroid's
connote nostalgia. The need to capture the moment and save it could imply the
break up which the lyrics are about which is roughly asynchronous to the video
which tells a different story (narrative and symbolic).

13. Editing
• 1.35-1.40: Parallel editing of both mother and daughter preparing themselves in
the same manner to address the man who they have feeling for. The first
process is lipstick and the next is assessing the reflection. The lipstick chosen
by the two somewhat varies with the mother choosing a soft pink whilst the
daughter chooses a bright red which could imply seduction. The reflection
assessment is an example of the pressures female face about their body
(narrative and symbolic).
• 1.44-1.49: Parallel editing occurs again, this time, in reference to dressing.

14. Editing
• 1.49-1.51: Parallel editing although this time in reference to the girl and the supposed
love interest. They are both in the process of dressing which mimics a liaison in
effect. It also conforms to both ‘The Male Gaze’ as theorised by Laura Mulvey and
‘The Female Gaze’ as theorised by Miriam Hansen. One difference between the two
is the colour filters. The filter on the female is blue and thus implies sorrow whilst the
filter on the male is sepia like and warm. This could further connote, through the
lyrics, that in the break-up she was left heartbroken whilst he became a memory like
a sepia photograph and stayed un-troubled as implied in Roland Barthe’s symbolic
code.

15. Editing
• 0.00-4.14: Cross cuts throughout which makes the continuity of order irregular. This
could simply be to match the fast pace tempo or to imply ideas such as love and
heartbreak leaving fragments of memories or leaving people feeling broken up
(symbolic).
• 0.00-4.14: Colourisation and reduced hue and saturation filters to link to the lyrics and
ideas of everything being “blue” or “grey”. This may be how the artist felt contextually
after the break-up, as voiced in the lyrics, in respect to being left in a world without
colour except for blue which symbolises sorrow (symbolic and narrative).

16. Editing
• 3.58: The penultimate shot of the music video is of a close up on the love interests
face whilst he looks towards the viewer in a direct address which conforms to the
music video genre of spectacle. Also this links to ‘The Male Gaze’ which was
theorised by Laura Mulvey and stated that a male gaze shows power over the gazed
upon which would stereotypically be female (spectacle).
• 3.59-4.03: The final shot duration is much longer than the other quick paced shots
which works in cohesion with the fading out of the music at the end of the video.

17. Sound
• 0.13: The shot of the smiling mother coincides with the lyrics “You said your
mother only smiled on her TV show”. This links to family conflict. The look is
also directed towards the older male in the video which therefore
exemplifies Miriam Hansen’s ‘The Female Gaze’ (narrative).
• 0.00-4.14: Sound bridge of the song over all scenes due to the purpose of
the music video to promote both the artist and the album.

18. Sound
• 2.47: Lyrics/ Narration: The artist is sat almost reflecting upon everything in
a philosophical manner which is why the pace of singing/ narrating slows.
“You were red and you liked me because I was blue, but you touched me
and suddenly I was a lilac sky, and you decided purple just wasn’t for you”
show the idea that the couple were too different to ever work and that in
their relationship they each were a catalyst for change in the other either for
good or for bad (narrative and symbolic).