Craig David- Walking Away Analysis

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MISE EN SCENE

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.

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.