Thursday, 23 February 2012
Monday, 13 February 2012
Craig David- Walking Away Analysis
CRAIG DAVID WEBSITE
The mise en scene is this video is fairly natural, everything hasn't been specifically manipulated in order to create some sort of representation. The two key locations are an urban city setting and a rural forest/woodland setting, these both run parallel with the lyrics of the song. The forest setting represents the artists "walking away" from the stresses and pressures of the city. The rural setting represents a relief from the stresses that are occurring in his life. To represent these stresses, at the beginning of the video he is stuck in a traffic jam, this is a common situation of which people get very tense and stressed. This appears to be a microcosm of his stress as well as his girlfriend shouting at him. Craig David leaving the car is representing him trying to avoid and escape from all of these stresses. The props used in this video are all very natural. Natural clothing and costume (nothing too fancy). Craig David the english artist, isn't conforming to the stereotypes of the R&B genre, he is wearing a chain but apart from that he isn't driving an expensive sports car, his clothing seems to be "normal" clothing, his girlfriend so it appears to be, looks natural and isn't dressed provocatively. There is a quick shot of a man shouting out of a van due to the traffic jam, i suppose you could say this is gender stereotyped as a van is often linked to the trade of building and then is further linked to males.
CAMERA
In terms of camera shots, there are many cuts that match the pace, base and tempo of the song. There are many tilts and pans to represent and show the current situation. For example there is a tilt showing tall buildings down to the traffic jam. This is effective as it lets the viewer know that they are in an urban city setting. There is then a pan to show all the cars stuck in the traffic jam. There is also a pan/track used showing his girlfriend in the car shouting at him then it pans over to him with his head leaning on the window, signifying that he has had enough and can't put up with this stress. There are many tracks and pans used to represent the situation that he is in, also the track helps to represent the lyrics of the song. There is a medium shot/pan of Craig David exiting the car, there is then a long shot/pan of him "walking away" from the car, the traffic jam and essentially all of his problems.
In terms of camera shots, there are many cuts that match the pace, base and tempo of the song. There are many tilts and pans to represent and show the current situation. For example there is a tilt showing tall buildings down to the traffic jam. This is effective as it lets the viewer know that they are in an urban city setting. There is then a pan to show all the cars stuck in the traffic jam. There is also a pan/track used showing his girlfriend in the car shouting at him then it pans over to him with his head leaning on the window, signifying that he has had enough and can't put up with this stress. There are many tracks and pans used to represent the situation that he is in, also the track helps to represent the lyrics of the song. There is a medium shot/pan of Craig David exiting the car, there is then a long shot/pan of him "walking away" from the car, the traffic jam and essentially all of his problems.
There is a low angled medium shot of the artist showing buildings in the background. This shot, along with the lyrics may represent that he is now in control of his actions and the problems in his life as he is towering over the camera. Furthermore the buildings towering over Craig may represent that although he is control of himself, there will always be superiors that are in control of him/the city, there is always something bigger than him. It may also signify that he wants to get out of the city setting, this is then aided by the juxtaposition of locations, remote rural woodland setting as this represents peacefulness and purity. The metallic manmade city represents; pressures, stress, work ethic and business.
ENCODING/DECODING
The preferred reading of this text deals with more social realist ideologies rather than the escapist ideologies that is often represented by other R&B artists such as wealth, fame, sex etc.
"A music video may offer energy through content and storyline which may be something like a party scene or a scene that builds up tension and an atmosphere, it may also be brought by special effects or camera movement/type. A music video tampers with the audience emotions but with the reassurance with melody, tempo and bass. This enables us to create an unusual storyline which could oppose social norms relating to the lyrics." This music video does just this, it offers energy through the content and storyline. It gives the audience some reassurance that everyone has stress and problems and these can be avoided or overcome. In terms of Maslows Hierarchy of needs this video offers affiliation and esteem. It offers affiliation as this may influence people to talk about the stresses in their life, esteem can be offered through people knowing that even the famous have normal problems and stresses in their life. This video also offers social interaction as friends can talk about this video and share it on social networking such as twitter, facebook, blogspot etc. A dominant ideology is that everyone has stresses even the rich and famous, these can be overcome by expressing yourself through music for example.
In order of representing that everyone has these stresses this is aided by the variety of people used in the traffic jam, there is old, young, black, white etc so therefore it represents that everyone has pressures and problems in life.
Editing
In terms of editing, the camera shots and movement have been commented on. The transitions are predominately cuts but there are some dissolve special effects. For example when he is walking through the rural woodland setting, his girlfriend shouting either side of him fades away. This represents that slowly his problems are fading away and the rural setting aids the idea of peacefulness and escapism. There is also a dissolve from the lake back to the city, this may represent that he is back to reality.
The cuts once again link the beat and tempo of the song, this is to obtain some sort of sequence or rhythm to the song and video, Linking the song, video and lyrics together.
Usher- Pop Ya Collar Analysis
USHER WEBSITE
USHER TWITTER
MISE EN SCENE
In this video it takes a slightly different approach to that of a contemporary music video. A contemporary music video will exploit
women in a sexual and provocative manor often with the artist in high quality designer garments with expensive props such as chains, cars, alcohol etc. In terms of the location and props of this music video, it is located in an American city of which the artist is trying to repres
ent conventional 9-5 jobs. One scene is an office setting which is a usual job in a city and also some sort of delivery courier/factory. These locati
ons are used
to represent the conventional
professions and locations that "normal" people do. This is juxtaposed by scenes of him in an expensive sports car accompanied by hegemonic/stereotypical females (good looking, dark hair etc). The props used are fairly stereotypical in some scenes but then these stereotypes are juxtaposed in other scenes. For example he is trying to represent how different his life is to those that do 9-5 jobs in terms of money, fame and fortune. The props used
are chains, expensive sunglasses (shades) leather jacket etc to represent that he is famous and wealthy. The props and costumes used in the city scenes are thos
e that normal people would wear such as a work uniform, a suit etc. This could be used to represent the difference in his lifestyle and that of others, it may suggest a sense of freedom due to him being rich and famous that he doesn't have to fit in the collectiv
e identity of the working/middle classes. There is also scenes of him at a college american football match, this may represent some sort of purgatory of which he transitions from being in a working class job, and then straight to fame. This football may symbolise a possible way out apart from the music as these are two predominate careers that manywish to have. In terms of representation and the use of people, it stil
l represents women in a sexual and appealing way but more tame than other music videos. In terms of other representations they are all very stereotypical, for example at the football match, all the men are the players and there are women cheerleaders.
This is a fairly old video of which may suggest that the attitudes have changed towards women, so this may be why this video differs to contemporary music videos of which females are represented in a provocative way and the artists follow the semantic field of the genre which deals with money, drugs, sex and materialistic objects.
CAMERA
Various camera shots are used to portray or represent something in a certain way for example at the beginning of the video there is a track medium shot of the back end of a sports car, this then pans to show him driving it with women in the car. This is effective as it could have been anyone in the car, but the slow pan adds some sort of surprise element to show him driving it (as at the time the video was made he was a new artist, now he is more of an R&B icon). The medium shot of the car allows the viewer to see what type of car it is and also the road of which it is travelling downwhich is in an urban city setting.Another representation given off is a police motorbike following the artist and then turning off. This may represent many things for example that this artist had trouble with the police but due to the fame this is no longer an issue. Or further it may represent that without this music career he may have turned to a life of crime and the officer turning off showed that he had avoided it. One last representation may be due to the stereotypes of the R&B genre dealing with drugs, sex, alcohol and women that the police are keeping a close eye on him. Lastly it may represent the common ideology that there is some sort of racial conflict between people of a black ethnicity and the police.
Another shot is a close up of usher dancing in the factory uniform, he has added his own idiosyncratic touch as he is wearing the uniform in his style of which stands out from the other workers. He is wearing gloves and a hat turned backwards, this may represent that he is an individual and different from the rest. There is also a medium shot of usher walking across the street in a suit. The medium shot allows us to see his costume and his surroundings. The urban setting may represent that he is from "the streets" as it is often referred as.
Lastly from the transition of Usher working in the city, it then moves to him becoming famous and wealthy of which this is represented by a long shot in a club setting of which looks like a V.I.P. area and a girl is leaning on him whispering in his ear. This represents Usher as some sort of sex symbol to women. The spoken verb "whispering" has connotations of secretism and promiscuous ideologies of which then links to the stereotypes of the R&B genre of which is sex, money, drugs, alcohol and materialistic wealthy objects.
EDITING/ENCODING
The preferred meaning of this video is to represent the artist doing some sort of transition from a normal working lifestyle to that of fame and fortune being adopted by the music industry. The scenes juxtapose each other, one scene will show Usher working in uniform in a factory surrounding, this is then juxtaposed by him in a suit which represents wealth and then a college football match and then usher in carpark exiting a sports car and entering a club setting. This may be used to show some sort of hierarchy. He may be portraying that he is at the top of the food chain for instance, that his profession earns the most money and most people dream to have his job as a music artist. It may also represent that he has left normality due to the wealth and fame. The Gratifications given from this video are that of entertainment and escapism as it is promotes how different their lifestyle is when their wealthy. It offers social interaction as the people within the video will socially interact and talk about the song or video. it offers escapism as people watching the video can imagine living that lifestyle. There are many reprsentations given off in this video, the key representation in terms of collective identity is that these R&B males are somewhat of alphamales as they are rich and can spend lots of money on alcohol, sex, drugs and luxuries. The dominant ideology is that there is different classes that run parallel with collective identities, this is represented through such things as costume, it shows that certain jobs have certain representations and stereotypes in terms of lifestyle. Usher is implying that his profession is the best and it links to the "party and fast" lifestyle as represented by the club setting and the expensive car and good looking females.
EDITING
In terms of editing there is rapid cuts that happen throughout, they're aren't many long shots, the longest shot is the medium shot at the beginning of the back end of his sports car.
The fast cuts aid the bass and tempo of the song keeping some sort of rhythm to the song and video.
Special effects are used when he is dressed in a suit crossing the road. Firstly he is walking forwards and people around him seem to be going backwards, this may signify that he is improving and becoming bigger and other people are going backwards in the sense that they are not moving forward in their life in terms of career etc. Another special effect is Usher swiftly putting his coat on.
Another technique used by camera angled and character movement is Usher body popping and puts his arm out of which a car stops right on time. This also shows him having super human powers as he stopped a fast moving object. Once again this may link into him being different to other conventional people, he is trying to imply that he now has some sort of superhuman status due to the fame and money.
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