Robbie williams - you know me video analysis

'You  know me' by Robbie williams . this video consists of the current Robbie falling into a dream world in which he becomes a lonely rabbit. This video is based on the popular book and movie Alice in wonderland. This popular theme and character helps to attract a larger audience and gives more of a narrative to the video. 

The video consists of the dream character of Robbie williams dressed as a suited rabbit. wondering around the dream land he encounters talking cabbages and women dressed as bunnies. There is a under toned sadness to the song , with the song lyrics being about how he has been left by a women he is infatuated with. 

(chorus)-

'Since you went away, my heart breaks everyday

You don't know cos you're not there

You simply found the words to make a lot of feelings fade away -or(our model feelings)

Only you know me'

the objects in the video are humanised with the rabbit hole that he lives in has books pens etc .But being the video is meant to be a dream it is very over exaggerated with the female bunny rabbits riding oversized carrots. this is to help emphasise that its not real. 

the lyrics in the chorus 'since you went away' implies that the love he's talking about is going to come back like she's only gone away when in fact she has left him but he cant comprehend this. 

the women and men are completely effected by 'male gaze' with the man (Robbie williams) is covered from head to toe but the women are the opposite with them wearing skimpy clothes with allot of flesh showing and is emphasised with the camera zooming on them whipping each other and on the little bunny tales. 

the camera shots in the video help to sell the video with it focusing on women and selling the video through the marketisation of women.

the cover of the video relates back to the video with it having one of the women bunnies on the front but refers back to the marketisation with it showing a scene from the video with the women poking out her bum. this is tactically done with hope that it will help with the sale of the single. Also at the beginning and ending of the video he recreates the MGM signature start replacing the lion with his face dressed as the fictional rabbit character. this is to portray his credibility. 

Outkast video evaluation

Evaluation- I made a chorus video for Hey ya! by Outkast . the video only lasted 32 seconds, i decided to do this song because i thought it was a fun and uplifting chorus. it was a difficult decision to make because we had so many different song choruses that we wanted to use but in the end decided that Outkast had a fun and loveable beat to it .

after listening to the chorus me and my partner spent a long time thinking of what we where going to include in the video. we wanted something that matched the tempo of the song. all that we could think was that it made us want to dance so we came to the conclusion that the video should consist of people dancing having fun. I felt that with the 1 week time restraint we would not be able to create the video we would of wanted but could at least test out methods that we could use for our full video in the future. We used a plain white background so the focus was on the people not the background.

The editing I found easy because i had been previously been editing the media A1 task. We added colour to express the fun of the video and also tried to connect the song with the video. this was by when Outkast sung "get down" the actress ducked down in the camera frame giving a connection between the song and the video

i felt that the task was quick and easy to do and the idea came straight to mind. the only issue i have is the lack of time. in a ideal world i would of rather liked more time because didn't have allot of time to decide what happened in the video and finding a good location.

Ben Howard 'old pine' music video analysis

This indie/acoustic genre aimed at both male and females between the ages of 13 to early twenties. i chose to analyse this video because  i  wanted to recreate the scenery of the outside and rural backdrops. and authentic atmosphere, that attracts the target audience Im looking at.

the indie / acoustic genre characteristics are successfully portrayed throughout this video especially with the use of the scruffy costume design of oversized jumpers and 'messy hair'. and also the location of the seaside and wide panning shots of a variety of places.

the slow panning shot of the grass at beginning helps to create a certain mood. with the use of warm filters with the wheat blowing in the wind helps to create a tranquil feel, with the acoustic guitar of the song playing gently in the background. the landscape shots of the waves crashing against the rocks and of him wondering through the fields is to add to the overall feel of peacefulness. 

He uses a range of filters as the video continues they are used to enhance the glare of the sun to help the viewer feel that its a bright summer and happiness with the  glow of the sun.  As ben howard plays himself while singing about his summer there is a continues shot of him singing to the lyrics as he walks along a authentic road. the illustrative moment is when he come to a holt and sings "we stood steady as the stars" this helps to connect the lyrics to the video.

Of Monsters and men 'Little Talks' analysis

‘Little Talks’ by Of Monsters And Men is a quirky music video, and adventurous story line.The fantasy style animation and storyline add to the quirky appeal of the music video. As the main characters are walking through their alternative, animated world they are shot walking on time to the soundtrack's beat, whilst the cuts from one shot to another is not on the beat. this helps to show the video is linked to the music and it relates so its not disjointed.

A powerful, and interesting contrast is created with the use of a de-saturated background, band members alongside the use of a protagonist that is a fairy like creature helping them along the way.

The video is full of creative shots and clever story telling, throughout the music video the viewer is taken through many abnormal landscapes, and shown allot of strange creatures. these antagonists help to show the viewers that it is an adventure the band are going on. and overcoming obstacles like the big bird that destroys their balloon. this helps to capture the audiences attention and make them feel that they need to see the ending!.  

The onscreen pace is synchronised  to the soundtrack.the footage slows and quickens with the footage. For example, as the song enters the slower bridge, the characters enter an under water world, which is a clever twist. An alternative than just slowing down the footage to match the off screen soundtrack, because of the slow pace of them trying to move underwater. 

The mise-en-scene is unique within this music video, especially when comparing the saturated costume and make up style, the make up style helps to inspire creativity with the characters having tribal like patterns painted onto their faces. the exhausted colour scheme of the black and white is the reason why i analysed this video because i was looking at  using a black and white video with little parts of colour to make the video more meaningful and to show the genre of the song, that this video uses so well. i also wanted to tell a story throughout the video. with protagonist and antagonists  

Mumford and Sons The Cave music video analysis

We can draw useful influences when analysing the video for Mumford and Sons ‘The Cave’ music video.
Firstly there is the way that they introduce the two bands. A long shot at the start of the video introduces the band to the audience. This is followed by another long shot of the second, Mexican themed band in the video. From this we can see that introducing the actual band first is important, to showing you who are the actual performers of the song. By introducing the second band after, shock and contrats will be created.

Costume was a big factor to the second band in the video. We wanted to make our costume quite authentic, because by making the second Mexican themed band in our video more serious, the comedy would seem less cheesy. In the Mumford and Sons video the second band are wearing formal Spanish band uniform. We wanted the costume of the characters in our video to be similar to this costume.

The use of close ups is vital in the Mumford and Sons video. This is something we wish to include in our video. The use of close ups make the audience feel more involved and adds more intensity to the video. Shots of the lead singers of the two bands singing also creates a link between the video and the lyrics.

We want to end our video using a shot like the end shot in Mumford and Sons video. Using the rule of thirds, we see the two bands enter the shot side on. Whereas the Mumford and Sons video isn’t comedic, by drawing heavy influences from this, yet using two bands consisting of the same actors, just costumed differently, our video will be comedic.

Andrew Goodwin "music video theory"

Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that we the audience should look out for.

They are:

• Thought Beats – seeing the sound
• Narrative and Performance
• The Star Image
• Relation of Visuals to Song
• Technical Aspects of Music Video

Thought Beats

Goodwin talks about the thought beats stage in three parts. The first being looking at the structure of the song itself I.e Chorus and Verses. The second step is the voice of the song, the artists voice is very unique to the song and adds to their identification or trademark. Thirdly Goodwin talks about how the artist portrays the song, Songs are often seen as stories and how the artist tells us the story adds to the communication of the music video.

Narrative and Performance

Music videos and songs often fail to tell a full story and the audience is left to make up their own idea of what is being told. Goodwin explains that although music videos are narrative they should differentiate from common narrative, this is important for their advertising. By this he means that the soul purpose of the song is not to narrate but to work hand in hand with the music video performance so that it is easier for the audience to stay interested. Lip syncing is the heart of a music video and needs to be perfect so that the audience feel it is real.

Star Image

The star image is a vital aspect to a music video. The artist is almost always seen in their music videos because this helps with their image and brand and will keep fans interested.

Relation of Visuals to song

Illustrate – Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre.

Amplify – Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown through the video and drummed into our version.

Disjuncture – This is where the meaning of the song is completely ignored in the music video.

Technical Aspects

Technical aspects hold the music video together through use of camera work, movement, angle, mis-en-scence editing, sounds and special effects.

Lightning and colour help set moods and emphasise key moments of the song for dramatic effect.

The mis-en-scence is vital to a music video, it needs to look authentic to be professional.

Disjuncture – Clean Bandit/ Rather Be

Illustrate – Beyonce/ If I Were a Boy

Amplify – Gorillaz/ Feel Good Inc.

Laura Mulvey's "Male Gaze" theory

n 1975 Laura Mulvey wrote her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"; in this essay she described her “Male Gaze” theory.

The concept of the “gaze” refers to how an audience views the people presented.

The male gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. It may linger over the curves of a woman's body, for instance. The woman is usually displayed on two different levels: as an erotic object for both the characters within the film, as well as for the spectator who is watching the film. The man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to the active gaze from the man.

Mulvey's essay also states that the female gaze is the same as the male gaze. This means that women look at themselves through the eyes of men. The male gaze may be seen by a feminist either as a manifestation of unequal power between gazer and gazed, or as a conscious or subconscious attempt to develop that inequality. From this perspective, a woman who welcomes an objectifying gaze may be simply conforming to norms established to benefit men, thereby reinforcing the power of the gaze to reduce a recipient to an object. Welcoming such objectification may be viewed as akin to exhibitionism.

Jonathan Schroeder (1998) “To gaze implies more than to look at – it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze.”

Claude Levi Strauss - Narrative theory

Binary Opposites-
He believed that the way we understood certain words depends not so much on their actual meaning but by our understanding it’s ‘opposite’. He then produced the theory binary opposites. A protagonist and antagonist or Heroine and villain are both examples of binary opposites. Binary opposites are very frequently used in films, especially in the horror genre, many of the films include binary oppositions in their plots. Good and evil is the most common binary opposite shown to the public through the media field on different platforms. They are usually the basis of our understanding of a story as it is a conventional narrative and are used in music videos as part of a narrative to reinforce song lyrics. Levi Strauss’ theory coincides with our 'ideological' perspectives in the world. He also stated that there is a human need to classify.

Preliminary video