Music Videos Revision- 18/06/2020

Quiz

1. Burn The Witch uses intertextuality as the narrative of the music video has similarities and references to the film 'The Wicker man'. The visual display of the music video is also similar to the style of the Trumpton trilogy which were popular children's TV shows. 
2. Emeli Sande's song Heaven was released in 2011.
3. Radio Head released the song Burn The Witch.
4. Burn The Witch can be found on the album 'A Moon Shaped Pool'
5. Jake Nava produced the music video for Heaven. He was a high profile director who had worked with A- class celebrities such as Beyonce, Kanye West and Alicia Keys. 

Emeli Sande- Heaven 

What are the big ideas or messages being shared in this video?

• It is harder to live a good and pure life in today's society as there are many temptations and bad influences. 
• Young people grow up really fast and are influenced by what they see around them. 
• Each person's heaven is very personal and influences their decisions. 

How does the video help construct the Sande's Star image? 

• The video constructs Sande as a serious singer as there are lots of performance shots of her which shows her passion for singing. 
• The British urban connotations within the video show Sande to be cultural, authentic and linked to the London music scene. 
• The majority of camera shots of Sande are close ups of her face or mid-shots so her body isn't focused on as she wants to be taken seriously for her music and not sexualised. 

In Heaven, which elements of mise-en-scene do you find most memorable and engaging and why?

• I find the scene when a young boy is sat on the stairs very engaging as the young boy is looking directly into the camera and has connotations of fear and sadness in his facial expressions. This then makes me wonder why the boy is feeling this way- is it his family? Has he been naughty? Or is society stopping him from having his sense of 'heaven' due to his skin colour? His location looks as if he is sitting on some stairs in a block of flats which creates the connotations that he may feel trapped and doesn't have access to the natural world which other models in the video can be seen to embracing. This may be suggesting the struggles that young children now have to go through and the effect this could have them on them for the rest of their lives. 

How did the audience respond to the music video? 

• The video has had 23 million views on YouTube.
• The album in which Heaven features on was critically and commercially successful as it won the award for best selling UK album in 2012
• The video tried to connect to a wide audience as a range of people are shown within the video. 
• The video tried to connect with the audience through the use of different messages, scenes and a range of people included.

Levi Strauss- Structuralism

• Strauss believes that stories build meaning by creating a series of binary opposites. This can be shown in the music video 'Heaven'. 
• Good vs bad: shown in the video by the purity of showing young kids vs the temptations that adults give into e.g the lady walking in a red dress down an ally way.
•  Pain vs relief: A homeless man is shown at the start of the video to be suffering but then is shown to be happier as he looks to be praising God.

Editing, camera angles and shots

• No full length shots of Emeli as she is not sexulaised.
• Extreme close ups of characters to gain a personal connection with them and feel the pain that they are going through. 
• Close ups and extreme close ups of Emeli to gain a connection to her and see her as an important artist. 
• The camera is hand held which creates an element of authenticity and realism. 
• There are lots of transitions to show that there are lots of ordinary people that are faced with temptation.
• A colour filter has been used to create a vintage and original effect..
• There is a close up of Emeli's eyes with the lyrics 'will you recognise me' which shows how she is wanting to be recognised as a solo artist. 
• There is a shot of the sky taken at a low camera angle and shows Emeli to be looking up which creates religious connotations. 

Radiohead Burn The Witch

What are the big ideas or messages being shared in this video?

• The dangers of mob mentality.
• The pressure to conform to the 'norm'
• The evil, victim-blaming that lies beneath seemingly civilised society.
• A critique of western politics
• A critique of western society's response to the migrant crisis. 

How does the video help construct the Radiohead's Star image?

• Due to this being Radiohead's 9th album and them becoming an iconic, globally successful British band, there was no need to establish a star image. 
• The use of the video being created using little model figures rather than actual people shows the band to be alternative which they are with their music too. 
• The video is full of meanings which shows how the band likes to create messages about society. 

In Burn The Witch, which elements of mis-en-scene do you find most engaging and why?

• I find the scene where the man is painting a red cross on the door of the lady's house very engaging as moments before this same man was using the paint to paint the postbox which is a normal action and now this unusual event is happening which shows how society can be unusual. A red cross on someone's door use to show that they had the plague so by this happening in the video creates a sense of unease.

How did the audience respond to the music video? 

• Burn the Witch was named one of the best songs of the year by Rolling Stone and was nominated for the Best Rock song at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards.
• The music video has 37 million views.
• The video takes iconic British culture of a well-known show and mixes it with a disturbing movie to create a sinister effect and show that there is wrong going on.

Todorov and Strauss

• Todorov believes that stories have a structure- equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium. 
• This can be shown in the video as the village can be seen to be 'normal' then the inspector arrives which causes disequilibrium and results in him being set on fire and the village people go back to a 'normal life'. 
• Strauss believes that stories build meaning by have series of binary opposites. 
• This can be shown in the video with peace vs chaos as the bird at the start and the end represents peace but the scary actions of the villagers shows chaos. Good vs evil can be shown as the inspector represents good whilst the villagers show evilness towards him as he is an outsider.

Editing, camera angles and shots

• Fast cuts in village to show normality.
• Fading transitions to when weird things happen.
• Jump cuts with village and Inspector travelling to show he is an outsider.
• Close up of the bird to signify peace and normality both before the chaos and after.
• No establishing shots of the village, only close ups of people to allow for mystery.
• High angle shots make it look as if someone is playing with dolls.
• Low angle of the wicker man which makes it look powerful. 

Questions

1. 'Heaven' and 'Burn The Witch' are very different one another.
   Do either of them challenge or subvert the norms of music videos? If so, how and why?

They both subvert the normal conventions of music videos. Heaven- Doesn't show a full length shot of Emeli which is unusual for a music video with the artist in. Emeli doesn't focus on her looks in the video which a lot of female artists do- instead she has shots which focus on her singing as he wants to be judged on he voice not appearance. The naturalistic setting of the video is unusual to typical pop song music video as they are normally in flashy locations and big studios but this contrast shows the authenticity of Emeli. Burn The Witch- Has an unusual overall presentation as most music videos are live-action with models rather than created models from materials. This allows the band to show that they are different from society and should be listened to as they have important messages.

2. What impact has the artist's career had upon the construction of the music video? Why did Sande create this particular video at this point in her career and why did Radiohead create this specific video at this point in their career?

Heaven was the first music video in which Sande released by herself as a solo artist therefore it was important for her to structure it to represent what she wants to be shown as as a female solo artist. The video focuses on Sande singing which represents how she wants to be taken seriously in the music industry. Burn The Witch is part of Radiohead's 9th album therefore they didn't need to focus on establishing their star image like Sande and weren't even present in their video. They had built up a good following and had an established place in the music industry when releasing this song therefore they were able to play around more with the video and messages as they didn't need to focus on them as a group.

3. Are the representations presented in the music videos still relevant and recognisable to a 2020 audience? If so, why? If not, why?

The representations are still relevant and recognisable in a 2020 audience as the issues are still present in which both music videos talk about- temptation of evil, mob-mentality and unfairness in society. 

4. if you had to watch one of the videos on repeat for 24 hours, which one would it be and why?

I would watch the video Heaven as every time I watch it I discover something I hadn't picked up on before as there are so many hidden messages and different representations.