Music Video Analysis

The above music video is for 'Mama Do' by Pixie Lott. I have chosen to analyse this video as the song that I have chosen is also by Pixie Lott, so I would like to analyse the style of musihttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5412237662200036017&postID=2634260858113959377c video that she uses, and perhaps incorporate some of these stylistic features into my own video.

The first shot we see is a tracking shot of Pixie asleep in bed, which tracks overhead of her. She is in a black room, with a white bed, white sheets and she is wearing white, to perhaps suggest her innocence. The pose she
is asleep in with her arms across her chest over the duvet is a stereotypical image of innocence.


This shot then switches to a closer one, of Pixie awake, and two gloved pair of hands - one red, one black - clapping to the beat of the song from under the duvet next to her. This could possibly suggest a different side to Pixie, with these clapping hands acting like a devilish alter-ego due to the colours. Pixie sings the song to the camera, which engages the audience and make them more likely to watch the whole video as the artist has their attention.

Pixie is then pulled under the covers, to a white setting with a huge bed of feathers. This is presumably the inside of the duvet cover, and is taking ideas from Alice in Wonderland, where Alice falls down the rabbit hole and is then turned small, as Pixie appears tiny here. She begins to crawl seductively across the feathers, again singing the song to the audience and engaging them. The way she crawls and moves across the feathers suggests that she isn't innocent at all and this is a different side to her, and she's a different person when she goes 'sneaking out the door' at night. There are many close up shots of the artist during this sequence of her looking relatively soft. She looks straight to camera again.

Suddenly she is joined by a group of other girls, all dressed in white, so they look similar to Pixie and the pure look is continued. The girls stand up and being to do a clapping dance that can be seen all the way through. This is perhaps showing anger and resentment at boys that have hurt them, through the lyrics 'what would my daddy say, if he saw me hurt this way'. The close ups continue through the chorus, and the girls continue to stand and do the clap dance, and then this switches back to them crawling. There is a medium shot of Pixie putting on an almost shortened red bed-robe jacket, that she wraps around herself. The jacket is red to break up the white colours of the previous sequence, and to also highlight the different side to Pixie's personality. It is short, again to make Pixie seem sexy and easy on the eye, to engage the audience.

The girls all then find a white door, which they all enter and this leads them to a locker room, via a locker door. This type of technique is reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in which they go through tiny doors into big rooms, or doors that lead to completely odd places. The girls that follow Pixie here, are no longer wearing white, but are wearing black, more revealing outfits now. They are also seen putting on boxing gloves. Pixie takes off the jacket she is wearing, which reveals her previous white outfit has changed also, and she is now wearing a more revealing red outfit. She sits down on the bench in the locker room and there are close up and medium individual shots of the girls doing the clapping dance, and getting ready. The close ups shown of Pixie here have changed from soft to hard, with her looking angry and hurt at the camera. There are closeups of the girls chalking their hands, which suggests they are getting ready for a fight.

This scene then switches to a scene inside what looks like a nightclub, or a dressing room to a nightclub. It is black and pink and glamourous looking, which I think gives the setting and the characters a sexy image. This fits in with the lyrics of sneaking out also, as this could be what Pixie gets up to when she sneaks out and her parents don't know. There are close up and extreme close up shots of Pixie and the girls looking at themselves in the dressing mirrors in the room. Pixie is seen wearing heavy black eye-makeup here, and a black outfit rather than the red one. Again, this is like the black glove from the beginning of the video, and she is turning into each one of her alter-egos almost. The girls are seen dancing here again, doing the clap dance, and dancing on the chairs and the middle podium, however the dance is made to seem more sexy now, due to the environment. The dance is also more prominent here, with almost all of it being shown. This sequence has cuts of Pixie singing the song to herself in the mirror with a group of closeups. The close ups here are also shown to be more sexy, rather than the previous angry and soft ones.

The girls continue to dance until headlights are shined on them, and a wide shot sees a bunch of guys on motorbikes approaching the girls. The girls pose and stand their with their hands on their hips, looking annoyed. The boys arrive and take off their helmets. They approach the girls, doing the same clapping dance as the girls had, so the girls follow suit with this until they are all stood in a line, with Pixie approaching one boy in particular. They all begin to dance together, almost like a choreographed fight, and then them imitating each others movements. This dance is all shown through wide shots of the entire group, and then medium shots of Pixie dancing, to highlight that she is the star. The end of the dance is signalled with Pixie slapping her male partner across the face, suggesting that she has won this dance/fight for the girls. The girls cheer over the top of the song, with non-diegetic sound. Pixie then hops on a white motorcycle, perhaps what she won in the fight, and the setting changes to her riding the motorcycle through the huge duvet setting from before. She is wearing sunglasses here. I think a white motorcycle is used, as she is using it to get back home through the sheets, although it does not suggest innocence and purity considering it is a motorcycle and she is wearing black still. There is the an overhead shot of Pixie lying in bed like before with the sunglasses on, and the black gloved hands from the beginning take them off her, presumably so she doesn't get caught with them. This wakes her, and she looks to the camera, with a soft close-up, suggesting she is back to her innocent ways, or that the video was all a dream.




The above music video is Taylor Swift's 'You Belong With Me'. The video was released on April 21, 2009 accompanying the single, and was directed by Roman White. The video involves no performance scene from the artist, instead being entirely narrative, with Taylor Swift playing both the protagonist and antagonist, and Lucas Till playing the love interest of both female roles.

The video starts with two houses sat side by side, with two parallel facing windows lit up. We see the male protagonist on the phone through one of the windows, arguing with his girlfriend, and across in the other house, we see Taylor Swift through the window, looking at what's going on. This part fits in with the first line of the song 'You're on the phone with your girlfriend she's upset'. The pair look at each other through the window, and write a note to each other. Here, Taylor Swift is playing a 'geeky' girl, with huge glasses and dorky clothes. The male character is stereotypically handsome and 'dreamy'. Next, Swift goes to write a note to the boy, telling him she loves him, but he has closed the curtain. This is when the audience realises that she has an unrequited love for the boy. The shots used in the first scene of the video are mostly wide and medium shots of the characters seen through the windows of each others houses. I think these are used to emphasize the points of view of both the characters.

When the girl is unable to show the boy her message, she is feeling rejected, and this is shown by the reflection of the character in her own window, looking sad. The bridge of the song features close up and medium shots of Taylor Swift singing and dancing to herself in her mirror, whilst messing about with her image. This is a stereotypical teenage girl thing to do, and the fact that she is messing about with her image shows that she is self-conscious and wants to change her appearance to suit the boy she likes. The chorus starts with a wide shot of Swift dancing on her bed, and then close ups of her singing into her hairbrush, which I think reflect her youth and innocence. The male character is seen in a close up, peeking behind his curtain, which switches to a view of Swift dancing in her room, through the view of the male character, with the window frame in the shot. The boy watches as she dances some more, then smiles and closes the curtain again, and this ends the chorus. This then fades onto the next scene, with the geeky Swift sat on a bench outside reading a book. This reinforces her stereotypical label, with her outfit also reinforcing this. The male character appears in the shot and sits down next to Swift, and the two start to talk. Swift mimes the words to her song here, which fits in with the scene as it just looks like the is either talking to the boy, or singing her thoughts to him. A red car rolls into the shot, with the boy's girlfriend in, whom is also played by Swift, although with added brunette wig.

This conversing scene is filled with lots of switching close ups between the two characters so that the audience can see each characters reactions. They both seem very happy to be talking to one another, which reflects the line in the song 'thinking to myself, hey isn't this easy'. Once the car pulls up, the boy gets in, and there is a medium shot of the antagonist taking off her sunglasses. She is dressed in pink and wearing lots of makeup and big sunglasses, which make her seem like a stereotypical shallow popular girl that she is assumed to be. There is a medium shot of the pair kissing, with a close up on Swift looking sad at the sight, and a close up of the antagonist looking menacing towards Swift.

This then switches to the next scene at a football game, which we see the antagonist Swift is a cheerleader, which reinforces her stereotypical character. This image is shown on screen as the line 'She's cheer captain' is sung. The protagonist Swift is next shown in a closeup on the bleachers wearing her band uniform amongst the other band members. This activity is very stereotypical for the 'geek' role in society. Again, this fits in with the line 'And I'm on the bleachers'. The scene cuts back to the previous one with the car, as they drive away, and Swift sings the line 'what you're looking for has been here the whole time', in a close up that sees her looking anguished.

The scene cuts back again to the football setting, as the chorus is performed. It's a montage of shots featuring the male character playing football, the cheerleaders cheering, and the band on the bleachers and Swift performing the chorus seemingly to the male character. He wins the game for his team, and Swift is genuinely happy for him, however he chooses to run over to his girlfriend, whom is flirting with another football player. The next few shots are Swifts point of view of the arguement and then her reactions to what is going on.
The next scene features the two windows again. The male character is getting ready for prom, and Swift is sat on her bed studying. Through their windows in medium shots, they again write notes to each other asking about prom. The male character sends her a note saying 'wish you were!', after finding out Swift is not attending the prom, which pleases Swift. He then leaves through a window shot, and Swift stares after him. There is a close up of papers on her bed, and she moves some of them out of the way to find the note saying 'I love you' that she wrote for the boy. There is a closeup of her face, as she takes of her glasses, shedding the old image of herself and thus creating a new one.

This shot then fades into the next scene with a wide shot of people dancing at prom. Two people dancing block the camera, and then disperse to reveal Swift walking into the room, looking completely different, wearing a white dress. Everyone turns and looks at her. There is a medium shot of the male character whom is seen talking until he notices Swift. There is then a close up tracking shot forward of Swift as she walks towards him, and a close up of his shocked reaction. There are then wide shots from both their points of view, to see them both move past people dancing until they are stood in front of each other. Whilst the male character is walking towards Swift, the antagonist appears from the crowd, grabbing the male characters arm and trying to dance with him, in a close up. He shrugs her off and walks out of shot, which cuts to a medium shot of him walking away and her yelling after him. The pair finally meet in the middle of the dance floor. There is a close up on Swift as she unfolds her 'I love you' note in her hands. The boy does the same. There are medium shots to show their happy reactions. There is then a close up as the pair go in for a kiss, and a medium shot of the antagonist in the background storming off. The scene ends with a close up of the pair kissing, ending with the line 'You belong with me'.