Michelle Young:Music Video Analysis

Duffy: Rockferry
Duffy’s music video Rockferry was first released on 3rd march 2008 in both the US and the UK; achieving 4th best selling album in 2008 worldwide. According to Duffy this single is loosely based on Rock Ferry a suburb of Birkenhead. This album was a release to try and make her known as at the time she was still relatively unknown; this was a good move for Duffy as she become recognised and even made around number 4 in the charts in the UK for 52 weeks, making her well loved and successful. Thus this single sold Duffy as a sexy, single attractive young artist showing she would be very successful in the future and suggesting we would be seeing Duffy a lot more in the future.
Throughout this video you see the blonde bombshell has having many moments of self-doubt , you are made to see this through the camera emphasising on her facial expression alongside the greyscale of the video.
The constant movement of the camera, using panning and tracking shots, combined with the shots of trains, train stations and scenery around Ffestiniong railway add to the emphasis of a journey right from the beginning of the video. We also see Duffy literally moving within the shots too; this sets in mind of the audience that Duffy is about to take us on a journey, the greyscale and mood of the song suggest this journey will be a sad journey showing Duffy’s emotions/feelings. Later on in the video we see her get on a train and are therefore shown a literal representation of her journey, showing an attempt to get away, yet is still seen as a strong person. The suitcase she is carrying down an old-fashioned cobbled road also is a visual representation of leaving, travelling perhaps on her journey.
We see Duffy from the beginning in a tree and by lots of nature suggesting she is going to be very open and genuine about her emotions and expressing them as a natural feeling. This could also suggest to the audience that Duffy is a natural person, relating to a literal observation of the nature in the background. Compared to other videos she also is seen to be ‘real’ a natural person with no added effects and she is also not seen covered in make-up suggesting she has a sense of purity to her personality.
In this video long takes are used to add to the ‘reality’ of real time an emphasis on the fact she is a real person and perhaps not as out of reach as many other ‘stars’ are seen to be in their videos. This also shows Duffy as quiet natural and real related to her very emotional lyrics and vocals in this single.
Despite the fact that this single is very emotional due to the lyrics and vocals, Duffy is seen to be very strong as a women due to not using fragmented shots, suggesting she is not like the other female ‘stars’ at the moment, this also emphasises her old-fashioned sense of personality and look that is being portrayed.
We as an audience see her writing in a cafe, we presume this is her writing songs, showing she write her own songs, suggesting she is a very stong female who doesn’t need any help adding to her old-fashioned-look.
We see Duffy doing normal things which ‘normal’ people do such as buying a cd in this case we see her going into ‘COB records’ this is to add to the emphasis that she is old-fashioned yet we still like her in this look.
Despite Duffy being compared to Joss Stone and Amy Winehouse i feel she should be compared to singers in the 60’s such as Dusty Springfield and Lulu due to her incredible vocals through her vintage style of pop soul showing perhaps a tribute to the 60’s. Both her voice and style suggest a reminiscent of their style of bleached hair, blue eyed beauty and soul in music. She isn’t just old school she is old-fashioned, which she makes seem very popular and also sexy. The old-fashioned look is emphasised by the greyscale they added to the music video and by the ‘retro’ style clothes she is seen wearing throughout the whole video; wearing a black and white blazer suit, suggesting subtle femininity and her sexy ‘blonde’ side.
She is seen in the video as recapturing the blue-eyed soul of the late 60s, the band also adds to the authenticity of the song. The band plus Duffys vocals play a big part of adding to the retro vibe of this single. The vocals from this track expresses Duffy’s emotions as genuine mastering the art of emoting, which may be very hard to achieve such as Joss Stone found hard to show genuine emotions. Due to Duffy writing this song she is seen to have more of an emotional investment within the song, this adds closeness with her song, thus adding a closeness to her audience. Therefore showing she is a very emotive person and likes to share her emotions with her audience.
Duffy is shown in this video to express her genuine talent, with her strong ‘retro’ voice and lyrics, combined with her old school vibe is shown as genuine and shows her love of classic soul; this video therefore shows her in this light suggesting she will be a big hit in the future, which she later went on to be . This song sets the stage for Duffy as an artist as well as a person. She’s not prototypical troubled bad girl like Amy Winehouse, nor a nice girl gone wild like Joss Stone. She’s an old-fashioned good girl and her music is a reflection of this. When Duffy is sad or hurt (expressed in this song) she still manages to keep her composure both lyrically and also vocally; this perhaps suggests she will be strong when she has to be.

Audience research

We decided to do our audience research we done this through the form f a closed question questionnaire. Below is an example of our questionnaire which we asked people of various ages to complete, we surveyed 50 people to get an idea of what our target audience will prefer in a music video.

 

Questionnaire:

 

What gender are you? (Observations only)

Female                                    Male

 

How old are you?

10-19                        20-29                        30-39                        40+

 

How regularly do you listen/watch music?

Once a day            2-3 times a week            never                        more than once a day

 

 

What type of music genre do you prefer?

Rock            pop            classical            rap/hip-hop            sad/emotional                        other

If other please state…

 

What type of pace do you prefer within a music video?

Slow                        fast

 

Do you prefer natural scenes or more urban scenery?

Natural                        urban                        other

If other please state…

 

What is your favourite colour?

Black             green            blue            pink            red            orange                        other

If other please state…

 

On average how many times are you likely to watch a particular music video?

Once            2-3 times a week            once a day            more than once a day

 

Results:

We surveyed 27 females and 23 males out of our 50 people sample; the age range was mainly 10-19 year olds having 30 percent of the people asked being within this age bracket 20-29 yea old received the second highest score within this category. This suggests we will be mainly producing our music video within the 10-19 year olds and to both sexes. We found from our questionnaire most people we interviewed listened or watches music at more than once a day (40% of sample) yet the minority said once a day. The majority of our sample preferred either pop or sad/emotional songs. This suggests we should try to choose a similar genre. 34 % of our sample stated they prefer a more slower paced song; we will therefore try to incorporate this within our music video.  The majority suggested they prefer natural scenery; this was suggested as the majority of music videos at the moment incorporate urban or digitalised themes; we will therefore try to use a more natural theme within our music video. Blue was seen as the chosen colour due to 23 % choosing this colour; we will therefore try to incorporate the colour within our music video. The majority (32%) said they were only likely to watch a music video once a day, we asked why and they said the majority of music videos get boring once you see them over and over again; we will therefore try to keep their attention by making sure the music video is interesting.

Location two

We decided to film in this location due to its sense of purity and open spaces; this contradicted the lyrics of the song which we felt worked very well. Nature has connotations of natural, purity ext. Within the lyrics of the song she is being very pure and letting all her emotions out, emotions are seen as natural therefore we felt this location was a perfect way of expressing her 'natural' emotions. we compared this part of Richmond Park with Bushy Park however we felt Richmond Park worked better due to the variations of areas to use. The different sections we used was to show she was enclosed due to being claustraphobic from her many emotions, Bushy Park would not of been able to show this, therefore would have been less affective.

Artist and Artist casting

We choose this person to use as our artist; as the song was all about emotions and natural she had to be a natural looking person which we feel she represents. she has very pure features and is quiet petite which works well with the song, due to petite girls looking very innocent and unable to be as strong as others when it comes down to dealing with strong emotions; this links in with the song so we therefore used this girl as our artist.

We did have another person in mind to be the artist, she was also very pure looking which would have worked well with the lyrics and tempo of the song too. However she was quiet tall and looked as if she was a strong person which would have been contrasting to the song that is why we used the petite girl.

Video Analysis, Lene Marlin - Sitting down here, Natasha Hussey

I have chosen to analyse Lene Marlin's 'Sitting Down Here' music video. It was released in September 1999 and was the opening track on her debut album ‘Playing My Game’. It peaked the UK singles chart at number 5. Previous to this song, she had only released 2 songs, none of which achieved the success of ‘Sitting Down Here’. Lene Marlin is actually a Norwegian solo artist, which may have contributed towards her success slightly as, especially in the 90’s, Europop/Eurodance was a very common and popular genre of music to listen to. Other well known artists from this genre include: Aqua, Whigfield and Venga Boys.
Music videos are a very important part of selling an artist as a brand and marketing them. Music videos also show what extra talents and characteristics an artist may have, e.g. playing an instrument, dancing.
Even though, music videos are so crucial to an artists success, it is within the last 30 years that they have become so popular.
Lene Marlin is signed to the record label EMI. EMI is the fourth largest record label in the music industry, making it one of the ‘big four’ record labels in the world, after Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group. EMI is based in England and is owned completely by Terra Firma Capital Partners. Some noted musicians signed to EMI include, Joss Stone, Coldplay and Kylie Minogue. Usually, because EMI is such a big label, which represents so many different artists, they make a range of music videos, that can be simple low budget ones, to expensive performances. Within EMI there are many different groups like the Capitol Music Group, these have theirown record labels in them, some of which are: Virgin, Capitol and Relentless Records.
Lene Marlin is known as a pop/acoustic artist, because of her piano and guitar playing talents as well as her vocals. In her videos, they usually feature close ups of her face, because her songs are meaningful and the audience should be able to relate to her. Other songs within this genre follow the same pattern, a lot of the time, nature is involved, lots of trees or rivers, to carry on the calm effect that the video translates. For example, in Leona Lewis' 'Run' music video she is surrounded by woodland at dusk creating a very natural and earthly mood.

The target audience for Lene Marlin, is probably maybe around her age, which at the time was about 20. But again teenagers and a slightly older audience, maybe people in their late 20’s early 30’s.
The video starts with the artist, and flashes of a guitar, which shows that her music is important to her, and that her music isn’t just about fame or money, but because she really does have a passion for music and performance. Also, she is wearing very casual clothes, as is the one other male character seen so far, this shows once again that materialistic things aren’t important, just the music and the point they are trying to get across while singing. The location is on a beach, where the first male character has been introduced flying a kite, and in a caravan, with a dog, roaming free and without a lead. This contrast and juxtaposition between the kite (which is always attached to someone) and the dog (who is not on a lead, and trusted to go off freely and do its own thing) could show that the song is about ties and freedom. After listening to the lyrics its apparent that the song is about a partner controlling the other, and how she wants to escape his hold over her. Iconography of fredoom and happiness. That could be why for a large part of the video she is stuck inside a caravan, whilst her ‘partner’ is out, taking other girls, for romantic boat rides, because he is jealous and wants to keep her contained. However, the woman looks completely comfortable and in control and happy with just being by herself, playing her guitar and writing in her little notebook, what she loves to do the most. The notebook could suggest that she’s keeping secrets from her possessive boyfriend, not just the other way round. It must be noted that the caravan is not a grubby, old one, but a clean, well done up silver airstream caravan.
Towards the end of the song, the scene changes to a bonfire. This could signify that she is finally getting ready to get rid of her partner, because bonfires are usually there to burn things and get rid of any unwanted junk. What should also be noted is that, all throughout the song, even during the scene change the singer continues to carry her guitar around with her, showing that her music and her work is what’s important to her. Not her boyfriend. The final image we see is of her sitting alone, on a pier, surrounded by calm waters, showing that she is at piece and finally on her own for good. The pier could also signify going off into a world of her own and a worl of possibilities.
With regards to the camerawork used in this music video, there is a lot of close ups of the artists face, and of her singing. The camera also, tends to move around the characters, more than them moving, to give the feeling that the viewer is really close to them, which makes the artist relatable. Andrew Goodwin, says that due to the demands of the record label, lots of close ups have to be used to keep the audiences attention, he also says that motifs begin to occur across artists different material - a visual style of their own is created.
The editing flows well, but still manages to show the roughness of the relationship, by occasionally using sharp cuts and fast twists.

Young and Rubicam came up with the idea that there are certain types of personality, therefore music video producers should find out which category there music falls into and create a music video to suit it. 'Sitting Down Here' has been made for the 'explorer'. Someone who wants to travel and see the world and be adventurous rather than stuck at home etc. This is very relative to the music video, because the whole time the artist is stuck inside the caravan or stuck in what seems to be a'dead-end relationship.'
All in all, the video portrays the artist as a strong, independent woman, even though she is being mistreated by her partner. Not at any point is she represented as a sex symbol, but what makes her more appealing and intriguing is that she appears very normal, and strong willed.

Props

The props we used:
- Black umbrealla - We chose to use a black umbrella because black means sadness and loss, and we were aiming to make it look as if our artist is sad and trying to find a route to happiness. Even though it is raining in none of the scenes we have shot, we still wanted to use the umbrella to show the audience that she is trying to keep everyone out and hiding behind an umbrella as a way to hide behind all of her problems.
- Sunglasses - We chose to have our artist wearing sunglasses in some of our shots because it brought an edge to her look and also because they were quite big and wide-eyed, made her look as if she was looking around and learning about the world, and taking it all in with her big eyes.
- Photograph - We wanted to use a photograph of our artist and a guy because it gave more meaning to why she might be on a journey, however, we would like to leave it to the viewers imagination, for them to determine why she might be sad about a past lover/friend.
- Gold horse necklace/pendant - We thought that this would be good to have on our artists as horse's are usually assosiated with roaming free, elegance and grace, everything that we are aiming for our artist to be.

Costume and Make up

First costume, location one. Richmond Park
- Pink long coat - We decided to use a pale pink coat because we wanted to show a sense of naiveity and childishness. Often pink is related with being for young girls, who like Barbies and fairytales etc, showing that she needs to grow up a bit in order to find herself and that maybe the world is not as it seems and even fairytales aren't real.
- White top - We wanted our artist to wear a white top because white is a very pure and innocent shade, and they are the chracteristics we wanted our artist to have.
- Skinny jeans - To show our artists petite frame and that she isn't strong, mentally or physically.
- Black ballet pumps - Again to connect with the childish and immature theme, often young girls enjoy and do ballet, so by her wearing a modern version of ballet pumps, it not only makes the artist more contemporary but also, shows her being naive and immature.
- Stripy grey/green cardigan - We thought this piece made the artist look very elegant and natural, as grey and green are both natural colours/shades.
There are 3 layers to this outfit, which shows that our artist is hiding behind a lot and in order to 'come out of her hiding place' she needs to shed her layers and be herself again.


Second costume, location two. Isabella Plantation
- Long blue coat - We thought that we would have another long coat for our second location to tie in with the wardrobe from the first location. The coat is navy blue which is very close to the shade of black, which carries the same connotations like sadness.
- Blue skinny jeans - We wanted to have our artist wearing blue skinny to again show her frailty, but also to keep her all in blue- to make her look like a silhouette, connoting ghost like features and perhaps lacking personality, the reason she is on her personal quest to find out who she is.
- Boots - We used the boots to keep the outfit modern and also contrast against the rest of the dark outfit, and to show that even though she may be confused about who she really is, there is something standing out if the sihouette.
- Scarf and gloves - The scarf was used as another way for our artist to cover herself up (another layer to keep herself hidden) and we thought that the gloves would go with a scarf, as winter items.

For both locations we thought it would be best for the artist to have her hair down as another way to hide herself - behind her hair.

We also tred to keep our artists make- up looking very natural, to tie in with the natural surroundings.

Cd Cover Analysis, Natasha Hussey

I have chosen to analyse Christina Aguilera's 'Stripped' album cover.

There are many different elements that make this CD cover work.

Firstly,there is a link between the abum title and the photograph, the album is called 'stripped' which would usually mean bare and vunerable, however,by looking at the picture of the artist, it is clear that she is anything but vunerable, infact she looks very powerful and confident. Definately in control. That could also be because of her stance and pose, which is very stretched out and long showing height and power.

The photo is also in black and white which ties in with the album name 'stripped' because it shows that everything including colours have been stripped down, so that you can see the artist as she really is, no effects, just herself.

This picture of Christina shows sexuality and that she is clearly comfortable with being a sex symbol and doesn't mind being half naked or that the whole world will see her that way. Where the artists lady parts are, it is a darker fabric, showing that again, she is very comfortable with her sexuality and it is a big part of her life and career. Also, that fact that she has no top on, with just her hair to cover her breasts shows that she is confident with her body and doesn't care what people think about her or her appearance.

Moving on to appearance, she is wearing her trademark 'chaps' which she is well known for. These in them selves are a very risky item of clothing to wear because not only are they very revealing but they are also largely frowned upon, once again showing that she doesn't care what people think of her and that she will be who she wants to be and wear what she likes.

Her hair is also two different colours, which could show that she has two sides to her, and sweet and innocent side, shown by her peaceful facial expression, and a more wild and naughty side, demonstrated by her pose and clothing.

The fonts used for this cover, both say different things about the artist. The name of the album is written in italics and looks handwritten. This suggests that the artists wants to make sure she has a connection to her audience, and makes it feel more personal. On the other hand, the artists name is all written in slightly fancier way, to show that she is the main focus here. Also, her name is written all in ower case, which goes against grammer rules, showing that she is willing to rebel against rules, for the love of her music.

A final point about this album cover is that the layout of the artist and her name are in the shape of a cross, signifying religous/Christain beliefs. She is also looking up, perhaps to God. However, she is dressed very provocatively, which could mean that she no longer wishes please God, even though religion is still important to her.

Shooting Schedule

26TH OCTOBER 2009 - We got to our filming location, Richmond Park (pen ponds) at about 12.00.
12.05 - set up of equipment.
12.10 - begin shooting in first area, close - up (singing)
12.30 - move on to our second filming area, long shots (artist running /walking)
1.00 - move on to our third filming area, bench (tracking shots and mid shots of artist singing)
1.30 - move on to our fourth filming area, pond ( artists walking to and away from camera)
1.45 - move to our fifth filming area, another bench (more tracking shots)
2.00 - final filming area, wooden barrier (filmed the artist sitting)

10TH NOVEMBER 2009 - We got to our filming location, Isabella Plantation at 10.00
10.05 - set up equipment.
10.10 - start shooting in first area, on a wooden bridge ( mid shots, looking away and voyeuristic shots of her reflection walking)
- tracking shots of the stream
10.40 - start shooting in second area, tree (close-up, artist singing, scenary)
11.40 - move on to third filming location, bench ( mid shots and close ups of artist singing)
- walking to and from camera long shots
- shots of leaves 'raining' over her, to reflect her tears and sadness.
12.00 - did some free style camera moves, just followed her around bushes and trees, turning and holding the camera in different ways, experimenting with different shots and angles.
12.45 - shots of artist walking past a pond and sitting on a tree bark, looking sad and upset
1.00 - moved on to a different area, stepping stones/pond ( filmed artist walking over stepping stones, on the other side of the pond)
1.10 - moved over to a willow tree and filmed artist singing.
1.20 - filmed artist by another tree
1.25 - final filming area, tree, bushy scenary (artists singing)

We did film extra sequences, towards the end of our time filming, but we decided not to use this footage because it would have looked out of place and not shown the significance of the song:

20TH NOVEMBER 2009 - Filmed at our local park, Manor Park, arrived at about 1. 30.
1. 35 - set up of equipment
1.40 - 2.40 - filmed various shots of artist singing (close ups mainly used)

15TH DECEMBER 2009- Filmed in a fild,arrived at 10.10.

10.20-set up the equipment.

10.25-10.55- filmed a picture of the artist and her 'ex' boyfriend, ripped up and pieced back together.

CD analysis; Michelle Young

Duffy’s name is written suggesting she has written it herself, This adds to the emphasis that she writes her own songs. This also suggests that she is close to her fans/audience as it Looks written she appears as closer to reality and nearer  to us as the audience.

The train in the background links in to her theme of a journey, both literally and emotionally, this is shown along side her song, Rockferry.  This also suggests that she is quiet down to earth, showing as an audience she is not so far out of reach as other ‘stars’ seem to be such as Beyonce whose album covers tend to be produced in a studio, where its all very alien to us.

Duffy is seen her to be very emotional, we see this in her eyes and body language; she looks very upset within her emotion, this is also emphasized through the way she is holding on her jacket. This gives the audience a clue that her song is going to be emotional, linking with the train in the background; we are set up to feel her song is going to be about an emotional journey.

Her hair looks windswept suggesting she not perfect and is more like a normal person; suggesting a sense of closeness with her audience. Her hair also resembles the 80’s that she is known for by her style, this is also resembled in her clothes too. This therefore brings in a wider audience.

She has minimal make-up on emphasizing that she is not out of reach to her audience and is very similar to us, we therefore can relate with her that makes her more watchable.

Duffy’s album cover is in grey scale, grey suggests individual which Duffy comes across as. However it is also suggested that these colours suggest isolation, which is linked to loneliness, suggesting Duffy may be lonely and is expressing this in Rockferry. White that is also made evident in this album cover suggests, positive and optimistic and pure, yet similarly to grey suggests she is individualistic yet a bit lonely, who seeks a simplified lifestyle; this may link in with Duffy seeming to be more reachable than other ‘stars’

 Rockferry’ is seen in block form lettering, this may suggest made-up as she made up the name ‘Rockferry’, from the place Rock ferry, which she loosely based her song on.

Duffy’s costume is typical to what you may have seen in the 80’s with a modern twist; this may draw Duffy in a wider audience of both the older and more modern audience. This also suggests she has a unique style about her, showing she is different from other singers at the moment; this will therefore pull in a more nische audience.

Location

We decided to film in this location because its full of natural beauty and a very natural place, which we feel links in with the song, because its about natural and pure emotion. We wanted to also, contrast the filming location with the name of the song 'aeroplanes' because aeroplanes are man-made and cause a lot of destruction, whereas the overall feel for the song, is far from destruction.

It was quite a dark and mysterious place, which relates to the song and the mood of the song. Another reason we thought that the Isabella plantation would be a good place to film is because its enclosed and has lots of arches to suggest a sense of clostraphobia - all her emotions are mixed up, shes lost in her ways and is trying to find herself.

We tried to portray the mood (its very complex, with myraid of emotions flowing through it, where someone is trying to find themselves) of the song through the scenery,