Taylor Swift

The artist we decided on has been Taylor Swift, therefore i shall make a general overview of how she is represented and the conventions of her music videos.
Main themes that music videos are focused around are the lyrics, which most of her songs are based around innocent young relationships, most of her videos reflect the story of the song. For example this happens with "you belong with me" where the characters imitate the lyrics "she's cheer captain, and i'm on the bleachers" the main character is performing in a bleachers uniform whilst the other character is cheering. This happens again in "Back to december", the setting is set in a cold winter season where there is lots of snow around which the audience will connote with December.
Another key feature if a Taylor Swift video is that she appears to always be included in the narrative,usually the main character, this happens in "you belong with me", "Back to December" "Tear drops on my guitar" and "mine. Also in the narrative she lip syncs which happen in all her videos, this is something we will definitely use in our production.
Another feature in the videos she uses is pathetic fallacy, the mood of the song is reflected by the weather for example  in mine the song is happy therefore filled with lots of bright sun and when the sadder moments are shown they are shown with a darker tint or shown in a dark setting, like at night in a badly lighted garden. This also happen in white horse, at the start of the video it focuses on the grey rain coming down on the window foreshadowing to the audience the sad nature of the song before the song even begins. In the video "Fifteen" the background is cloudy covering the sun but it slightly shows,  this could be interpreted as the hopefulness of the song, or even an extended metaphor of the, not completely understanding the world as a naive fifteen year old girl, therefore clouded judgement and when it rains it symbolizes the pain of the character.
Most of her video's feature an artist set however few times she is shown actually performing with her guitar, but this does happen in "fearless" , "fifteen"and change features a whole band set which our group may want to consider including to create more contrast in our video.
The sets are also typically realistic, with exception of "fifteen" where there is a typical fairy-tale mood to it as the artist set transforms in to the narrative and the graphics are made by computer editing, for example a door appears in a scene of clouds which then transforms in to a school. However most sets are typically set in houses like "you belong with me" in the bedroom, "tear drops on my guitar" a school environment and "mine" at a lakeside.
These features we should all take in to account when we plan our video.

Eminem music video Analysis

The main concept of this video is to reflect the emotions of the lyrics, its a song about about abuse. This text is encoded with numerous codes to reflect these emotions, for example the fire which is shown continually through the video, during performance and narrative, can be decoded to read as the reflection of anger, passion and destruction in the relationship between the narrative characters.

 When the artist is in the meadow this can be decoded as liberty, freedom, that he's escaped from a claustrophobic, destructive relationship, the freedom is emphasized even more by the use of the camera shots as the tilting camera and the use of it panning around the endless scene of grass and sky gives the audience a better sense of the space he now has, and the sun behind him can be perceived as his own enlightenment.

In this video the artist's lip sync in to camera which is a typical convention, however in this video but also in this video they use a broken convention, in a moment of the narrative the characters lip sync to "I'm leaving you" "No you ain't".

The video also uses the iconic image of Eminem by his clothing him in a white tank top, this conveys his genre (hip hop/rap) but also its a device used to create recognition and familiarity with the artist to increase his popularity.

Like a typical convention of music videos, the editing is synced in time with the rhythm/beat for example the edit is made when the female character opens her eyes, the next beat it cuts to the scene with the artist.

This video also does not demonstrate temporal continuity, it's not in chronological order as the video cuts between the past and the present making the audience aware that they are engaged with a text.

Blink-182 Music Video Analysis

Feeling This – Blink-182

This music video uses several conventions first of all it starts of with a narrative. It is opened with 5 close up’s differentiated by the 30 degree angle convention of different young males all having their heads shaven in the same place. The close up’s highlight the disdained emotions of the characters as the audience can infer its against their will as the mise en scene has bar’s in the background which is code for imprisonment and disregard for liberty.

The idea of this hegemonic community is then carried on in the next scene. The scene uses all the conventions of a prison with all the young prisoners locked up fighting to break free from the bars whilst they are separated from young females who are also dressed in identical clothing made to walk in two orderly lines. The camera shows this from a high angle shot which the audience can decode as the young prisoners being monitored as it gives a CCTV impression.

The next scene uses a long shot to focus the audience on the body language on the next two characters shown, an elderly man and the young prisoner. The elderly man is clearly in charge as his body language is controlling and forceful over the young man. This gives the audience clues on who the people are who are keeping the young characters to adhere to this ideological lifestyle.

Another convention of a music video Vernallis states is “quick cutting or editing on the beat” which this music video adheres to and the musicians are first shown in sync with the first proper drum beat and the start of the lyrics.  The camera has focuses and zooms on the instruments and the musicians this shows that the music is important to their persona however they still want to promote their message through the narrative as qualities of the mise en scene is included in their part of the video by the fences and even show’s their personality from the comical props of large inflatable toys in the background. The audience could infer that this is code for what the elderly generation are trying to separate the younger generation from, that their trying to get them to adhere to their personal ideology.

The totalitarian lifestyle for the younger generation is continued through out the video and the characters demonstrate that their actions have to all be done in unitary in an orderly fashion. Low angle shots are shown of the elderly characters to show that they are in power and the zoom on their face is meant to show the angry emotion that is intended to be reflected towards the younger generation.

The whole narrative could be decoded as the feeling of the young generation being felt like they are being tied down by the way the older generation treats them signified through elements of the mise en scene of including the jail setting, the uniform and routines they are made to do by the superior authority.

As the young prisoners start to rebel a vary of things start to change. First the threatening camera angle starts to change, instead low angle point of view shots, it begins to level out and through a series of cuts develops in to a high angle shot representing the power they’ve gained over the authority.

Another code to show the breaking away from the authority is signified by the removing of clothes. This works in two ways. One is that it’s a classic stereotype of being naked that it signifies freedom, another is that they are removing the signs of conforming to the authority as they were all made to wear the same uniform.

In addition actions like climbing over the fences indicates also the freedom as they’re breaking down and ignoring the restrictions. The rebellion is also shown through the destruction of the mise en scene for example throwing down the lockers, props being thrown etc.

Ultimately the definitive sign of their freedom is shown when the narrative world and the bands world are fused together, view points from the crowd are engaging the audience in the video. This can be decoded as that the band are a symbol for freedom and liberty.