Case Studies On Music Videos

 

First Case Study

I researched music videos for ideas towards my music video. This music video of Ne yo- one in a million, was very captivating with the main male actor of Ne yo, costumed in smart clothing. The smart clothing emphasised on the fact that he really liked the main female character and was trying to impress her. The music video starts off with ne yo trying to impress the lady with a dance with two other male dancing characters, the location is set in a café. The lad then walks off with ne yo following her. The female main character is dressed in a top, cardigan, jeans and heels. This isn’t as glamorous as the male character. This could connote that she is not easily pleased and the casualness of feelings she has towards Ne yo. He then does many things to connote romance, by kissing her hand and magically lifting up a rose without using his hands. The red rose can connote romance and the fact that he didn’t use his hands to pick up the rose could suggest that his love for her is magical and natural. Then he leads her towards the street and dances and sings to her besides three female dancers and two male dancers. Ne yo then gets distracted by a female dancing as she is dancing on him, this is empathised by using a close up. The main female character walks off and gets into the cab using panning and a medium shot showing her getting into a cab with a close up of the cab.

The music video is performance and narrative based. It is both because there a story line throughout the music video from start to finish. The aim at the start of the music video was to impress her by dancing, laying romantic gestures such as giving a rose and kissing her hand. The performance aspect to the video was the superb lip synching of the lyrics by Ne yo and the dancing. This allowed the music video to be very interesting at all times. There was also humour throughout the music video. When the lady rejects the rose and moves her hand from the kiss. It was seen as very humorous by the close ups of Ne yo’s facial expressions. The story of the music video concludes with the main female character driving off in the cab, with Ne yo magically jumping in front of the car and stopping the car from moving. There is dialogue used with the female character saying ‘what the hell is wrong with you?’  This music video is seen to end in suspense.

The motive was fulfilled in this music video as it seemed that the producer of Harmony aimed to make the music video seem humorous. It teachers the listener/ watcher that if you get rejected keep on going cause you may succeed. The representation of Ne yo (the main male character) was in terms of his costume, is that he is very glamorous, he is a new man (cares about his appearance) and is seeking to impress the female main character. The female main character was dressed in a cardigan, top, jeans and heels, this represented that due to her body language she was not really interested in the main male character and her costume connotes this. The lip synching of the male main character was excellent, therefore to me, as a viewer it seemed very realistic.

There was various camera angles of long shot, close up, extreme close up and mise en scene of each new location that was brought to screen. The special effects of a fake bubble stopping the taxi from moving and the rose magically given to the lady without him using his hands.  The target audience is aimed at the younger audience of people interested in love, interested in slow songs of RnB/ slow jams. The age range would be universal, because it could relate to any viewer at some points of their lives.

The ideas I could take from this music video are to be more humorous, to work on the performing aspect of the video. This could be to involve dancers into my music video or to add dialogue at the beginning od the music video to make the music video more interesting. In this music video the lip synching was believable and achievable and this helped to make the music video of the story line look more natural. I will use this music video to inspire me on my music video by the lip synching and the performance aspect to Ne yo- one in a million.

 

 

Second Case Study

The next video I researched was Diggy, with the song being called Do It like you. The music video is about the main character of Diggy spotting a girl (main female character) outside his house, he is about to approach her, when he approaches her it shows how they will be if they were in a relationship. There are shots of the main female actress and male at a funfair. In the end of the video Diggy decides not to approach the girl. This is shown as Diggy (male actor) is shown with a two medium shot of which he smiles at the girl, she smiles at him and he continues to walk on.  During the beginning of the music video there are special effects used, as Diggy’s friend spins the basketball and it spins in slow motion with a close up and slow motion of Diggy turning his head to look at the main girl with a close up once again.

The music video is narrative based as at first it shows the story line of Diggy considering approaching the main girl. Diggy is with his friends and the main girl is with hers, which is similar in contrast. It shows two options, if he approaches the girl, he will be in a happy relationship or if he doesn’t choose to, he’ll be single. In the end he chooses not to, so tis captivates the listener/ watcher by the beginning, middle and end of the storyline of the music video.  This is all edited together by the cut away of different locations (funfair and the street), editing techniques such as slow motion and blurs. The slow motion is also used in the funfair when the cheerleaders are dancing. Natural lighting is used when Diggy and the girl are on the road and at the funfair. However, synthetic lighting is used during the end, of when Diggy and the girl (at the funfair) are in a room and the light goes off. This could connote that this is the end of the road, and Diggy does not want a relationship.

 

The motive of this music video is for the main male character to find out how it would feel to be in a relationship. The producer (Pop and Oak) motive was to make the storyline look like a teenage relationship of a fulfilled happy relationship. At the funfair, the rides could connote freedom which could be represented during the end of the music video where Diggy chooses to stay single and to enjoy the free lifestyle.

The representation of the main character is that he is a normal teenager, judging by his costume of a jacket, top, jeans and trainers. This could connote casualness of his lifestyle and mainly his age. The main girl is dressed in a jeans jacket, top, jeans and converses, this also represents that she is young by her costume. The location of the funfair also connotes the young.

There are many shots used in this music video, these are close ups, in this music video the close ups are mainly used for the props which is the basketball spinning which could connote time spinning of when he imagines being in a relationship and close up of the candy which could represent the sweetness of their relationship. There is a mise en scene shot of panning of a flower tree, to outside Diggy’s house of where he is with his friends. The first shot of the flower tree could represent that he could choose to have a beautiful day with his possible girlfriend. There are many medium shots of the main girl and her friends, the continuous cut away with Diggy and the rapper at the funfair and a medium shot from behind of when Diggy is walking towards the main girl to approach her. This shot is repeated during the end of where he chooses not to approach her.

The target audience would be aimed at young people (teenagers- young adults) who like RnB/ slow jams and enjoy love songs. The characters of the music video reinforce the target audience for this song.

The ideas I could take from this music video is that I am aiming for the characters of my music video to be young, to costume them in casual clothing and for the setting to be not too glamorised, but somewhere to reinforce their age range and the target audience for my music video. The inspirations which I gained from this music video was how love was represented between young people. From this, I will take ideas on how to position my artists in this particular role. In this music video there were various shots, such as high angle, low angle and close up. My aim for my music video will be to use various shots to reinforce the mood of the song.

 

Third Case Study

The third music video is sung by Mindless Behaviour, which is called Mrs Right. The group of boys are searching for their perfect/ideal girl. Young girls are competing for the heart of the young boys.

The music video is performance based as there are dance routines, acting at the beginning of where a teacher is teaching a class and in the school hall where there are cheerleaders performing and drummers. This illustrates how powerful the performance was in the music video.

The motive of the music video was for the producer of Walter and Goldie to make the audience/listener understand the purpose of the song. This was to find their ideal girl.

The stars are dressed casual in jeans and jackets. This connotes their age and the specific target audience’s age. The role of the performance and lip synching in this video is to make the video more engaging and realistic. The main characters are represented as being popular, cool and attractive. This is shown by the medium shots in the classroom of the girls dancing to impress the main characters of the boys. There is also a focus on the boys as they are the only boys in the class, the rest of the pupils are the opposite gender. These boys are represented as being popular; this is because in the school hall, there is a long shot of girls holding posters stating ‘mindless behaviour’.
 

There was a variety of shots of long shots in the classroom, showing the pupils in class. A medium shot of the main characters singing on the school table and various other shots. The mise n scene of this music video was based in a school environment of a classroom and a hall based inside the school. In the classroom, the camera zooms on of the boys individually and the camera pans using a long shot to show the classroom. There is also an editing technique of the camera snaps of the boys when they are dancing, to enforce this technique when the camera clicks they turn black and white. In the sports hall, as the boys are dancing the camera shines on the boys, and dims out the light in the background of the girls. This is to connote that they are the main roles of the video, and everyone’s attention is on them. A cut away is repeatedly used to show the cleaner dancing, this is humorous and reinforced by a medium shot to show his body language and facial expression. In the end of the music video, the camera dims to black to show that the video is over.

The target audience that would be encouraged to buy this record are young people, interested in RnB/ Dance music. The gender would be aimed at girls, as the song compliments girls by saying ‘we don’t discriminate girls, yeah we love them all’. This reinforces that girls regardless of their ethnicity/ disability and class may like this record. This is shown, as in the classroom there is a long shot of the girls in the class and they are all from different ethnicity backgrounds. During the beginning of the video there is dialogue of the teacher introducing himself and trying to teach the class and subtitles indicating the song title and the name of the group. There is also a non-diegetic sound of the sound of a school bell as the music video begins to indicate that the music video is held at a school setting.

The ideas I have gathered from this music video is that performance of dancing engages the viewer and a more natural setting will help the viewer establish the target audience of this song. Therefore, as my group are aiming for our music audience to be aimed at the younger generation, this music video has helped us to involve a more performance based music video of dancing. In this music video, the performance based is not only dancing, but in the music video there are drummers. This is shown in a long shot in the hall, there are also cheerleaders dancing too. The cheerleaders allow the viewer to know that this music video is based in a school environment.