This music video by Ian Brown uses a mixture of natural and artificial lighting. It features many close-ups and medium close-ups of the artist as well as group shots and tracking shots of a marching band, representing Brown's connection to the North of England. The editing ensures the band is always playing in sync with the music. Certain aspects create a sense of realism, while the staged genre means realism fluctuates. It follows conventions like close-ups of the main artist.

1. Ian Brown Stellify

2. This video concentrates on the use of natural light. This is reasonably simple to achieve as the setting is perfect for it. However, for some of the close ups and medium close ups we can see how they have used artificial lighting. The video uses a lot of close ups and medium close ups throughout to promote the artist. As well as this we can see the use of group shots and tracking shots. The tracking shots are widely used to reinforce the idea that this performance is staged in a real location of a street. It’s also very appropriate to use these in order to show the marching band. Furthermore the marching band visually represent Ian Brown’s connection with the North of England, reinforced also by location choices. The editing and post-production work on this track I feel has been done very well as whenever it cuts to a shot of the band, or we can see them in the background, they are always playing in time to the music and to the beat of the track. This music video uses non-diegetic sound as the track has been added in during post-production. Certain aspects of the mise-en-scene, such as the rural location and the typical style of clothing worn by Brown, give the audience an impression of high levels of verisimilitude. However as with all staged performance music videos, levels of verisimilitude fluctuate due to the artificially constructed nature of the music video genre.

3. This music video from Ian Brown falls into the ‘Staged Performance’ genre, as described by Diane Railton and Paul Watson in their book ‘Music Video and the Politics of Representation’. They go on to say how some videos in this genre stage performances “that are out of kilter with the environment in which they are set”, something which is very obvious with this video. For example you wouldn’t expect to see a marching band just walking through what is a very “real location” (the street). This video also follows some of the characteristics which Andrew Goodwin identified as being featured in most music videos. For example, “there is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close-ups of the main artist”.

4. The PoliceMessage In A Bottle

5. This video is located on stage of a music venue and also backstage. The main props in use are, of course, the instruments and a chair. The lighting used is a mixture of natural and artificial. You can see the use of both natural and artificial light when they’re back stage, with the window and the lights on the ceiling. When it cuts to the scene with them performing on stage then just stage lighting is used. The decision to only use stage lighting in parts reinforces the idea that it’s a real live performance thus promoting the artists as “skilled, professional, individuals.” The main camera angles used are group shots but then often zoom to a close up or medium close up of the main artist. These are used to firstly promote the band as a whole but to then remind the audience as to whom is the main artist. This video has high levels of verisimilitude, as is expected with this type of genre.

6. This music video comes under the ‘Pseudo-Documentary’ genre, as described by Railton and Watson. It “portrays the ‘working life’ of the band and as such functions to legitimate them as skilled, professional, musicians” (page 50). As we can see it shows the band war up backstage and then also cuts to them on stage playing live. This video also uses a “shaky hand-held camera” (page 49), a feature which Railton and Watson say should exist with pseudo-documentary. This gives the audience a sense of authenticity and creates a documentary effect.

7. Calvin HarrisFeel So Close

8. This music video is a hybrid of two genres, narrative and staged performance, as defined by Railton and Watson in ‘Music Video and the Politics of Representation’. Joe Gow also identified ‘the song and dance number’ which focus on “the physical abilities of the dancing performers and the vocal presentation of the song, usually through lip-synching” This video not only “embraces the promotional function”, a feature apparent in staged performance, but also appears to be telling a story, as we’d expect with a narrative music video.

9. This video opens with diegetic sound of radios tuning. This aims to make the video to appear realistic and raw. It also helps to promote the narrative genre of this video. The track has however been added over the top for the rest of the video. The camera angles in this video are predominantly group shots or medium close ups. This is important as for most scenes there is a lot going on so therefore everything needs to be seen, in order to tell the story. As well as this, shots which give us a sense of somebody's POV are quite a lot. This is useful because for a lot of the scenes the focus is on one character or a group of. On a few occasions however, a close up of the artist is used. This helps to promote him and to remind the audience who’s song this is. During post production, the director has ensured to use fast cuts between scenes. This is very important as it helps the audience to keep track of the individual stories within this video. The upbeat cuts also work well with the fast paced song.

10. References Music Video And The Politics Of Representation Diane Railton and Paul Watson Music Video as Communication: Popular Formulas And Emerging Genres Joe Gow Music Video: Forms And Conventions Andrew Goodwin