Analysis of Roses - The Chainsmokers

Roses - The Chainsmokers

Camera:
For the majority of the video, particularly the narrative scenes of the couple together the shots are filmed on a hand held camera and are following the couple around, this allows the video to be more realistic as when the shots are slowed down it has a better affect. Whilst the female character is dancing the camera seems to be in the same place for most of it but pans in order to follow her movement around the room. Some low angles are also used in the dance scenes which gives her the illusion of being high up when he jumps or dances.

Editing:
Whilst the couple are together the shots are more slow pace and longer in order to show the ease they have when they're together. Then when the male character leaves it feels a lot more intense with the use of fast pace editing and shorter shots, which shows the fear and upset they both have with being apart from each other. Theres a fade edited used when the male character is leaving which represents the time thats passing from the characters being together then to them being apart.

Mis-En-Scene: 
The lighting used throughout is almost always dark, the only occasion when the lighting is slightly brighter is when the female character is being filmed which gives her a sense of innocence compared to the male as he's the one that has left the relationship. The dance scene is dark and smokey with two spot lights which is later revealed are used to represent the car when the male character is driving. The affect of the dance scene being dark and smokey allow the female's silhouette to be shown and this is also shown as she's wearing a flowy dress, her body is outlined making each movement significant. The floating and jumping dance moves she does mainly occur when she's with the male character which may be used to represent her being 'high' which also relates to the drug references throughout the song when the lyrics state 'smoke a little weed..'. Finally towards the end of the song as the characters reunited red confetti is used to represent the happiness and love the couple have for each other.

Sound: 
Sound isn't a significant part of the music video, there aren't any sound effects or natural sound. Only the song itself is played throughout. At the end of the video when the song ends silence is used which draws the audiences attention on the couple and on them kissing as this is one of the most important parts of the video.

Representation:
The two characters as a couple are represented as having quite a difficult relationship, it isn't made obvious why the characters are away from each other so much but we can see their relationship as a whole is that they are in love as they both don't want to be apart and are very tactile when they are together. The male character looks like the one that finds it easier to leave the relationship as he's the one coming back at the start and he's the one that leaves half way through. Therefore the woman looks more affectionate and innocent as he;s the one hurting her when he leaves each time.

Target Audience:
I would predict the target audience of the song is mainly teenagers or young adults as it's the type of music that is associated with clubbing. This is shown in the video itself by the couple being young and through the references to drugs and the visuals being them together and kissing which may relate to a lot of young people and young couples, particularly people in love perhaps in a long distance relationship.

Performance and Narrative:
The video itself is both narrative; as there are clips of the couple that related to the lyrics 'Say you'll never let me go' relating to the part of the video when the character leaves. Additionally the video is also performance based as the female character is also dancing throughout. The dance she does related to the narrative and expresses her feelings, when he leaves the dance moves are a bit slower and smaller however when they;re reunited she dances a lot quicker and jumps around as if to show her happiness to be back with him.

Conventions

Camera;

Music videos tend to include a range of different camera shots,

Long shots are usually used in order to show the setting of the music video, particularly if the setting reflects a theme or feature of the song or lyrics.

Close ups are used mainly to show emotions of the actors in the video or to attract the attention of the audience to focus on the artist themselves. This is particularly used for female artists in order to convey a theme of lust throughout the video.






An extreme close up may be used to portray emotion, particularly sadness by having an extreme zoom on the eye perhaps if the actor is crying, like a close up an extreme close up could also make the video sexual as the close up may be on a body part.


Mis-en-scene;
The mis-en-scene in music videos often refers to the mood of the song, the lyrics themselves, or the genre of the music. The mood may be shown by the colours used, for example red to represent love or passion, or alternatively dark colours may be used to show a bad situation or a song that has a dark meaning behind it. The lyrics themselves would be shown through the acting in the video, the actual story may be acted out or props may be used that show the story behind the song itself, additionally the costume and makeup of the video may tell us something about what the songs about, and often the story can be shown ultimately through the mis-en-scene and can be understood without the music. Finally the genre of the song can be shown through the mis-en-scene, again with the use of colours the genre is often shown, dark colours usually being used for rock genre and bright colours being used for pop. Additionally effects such as smoke or dark lighting may again be used for rock or punk whereas wouldn't usually be used for a pop or hip hop song.

Editing;
The difference scenes of a music video are usually put together using jump cuts in order to keep up with the lyrics of the song and whats happening in the song. During the editing stage animations or special effects may be added in to portray more of the meaning of the song, additionally there may be a filter added like black and white or the colours may be made more vibrant depending on the theme of the genre.

Sound;
Predominately the sound in a music video is the song itself which is usually lip synced with the actor or artist in the video. However on some occasions sound may be added in like for example if the video is a narrative dialogue may be added to set the scene and show the relationship between the characters in the video, usually before the song begins or at times may come whilst the song is on. Other sound effects may be added which may help set the scene or add extra meaning to whats being shown.

Research into the music video industry

How are music videos generally made?

Pre-Production;
The first stage is usually for the production company to be chosen, the production company is normally thought to be the best if they will make the video well and if the production team have a good reputation in producing music videos that are known to the public they will be able to make sure this video is also successful and will be viewed by the public. On the other hand they will make sure not to choose a non-successful production team as the video may not be made to a good quality and will therefore not be enjoyed and consumed by a large amount of people.
Also at this stage there may be thoughts about the structure of the video and how it will go, this may also be discussed with the production company in order to find out if they can help achieve the ideas of the video.
The budget may also be set in order to know the restrictions for the next stage so no over spending is done unintentionally.

Production;
The next stage is for crew to be hired in order to help with the production stages, once everything is sorted with the props, lighting, costume, setting etc the filming will begin.
During the filming process many takes will be filmed so when it comes to the editing stage there is enough footage to work with in order to get the best result. If in the editing stage they realize a clip hasn't been filmed to the best standard its almost impossible to then film it without any obvious continuity errors, wasting a lot of time and also money.

Post-Production;
The final stage is to put the video together in the editing stage and add in any sounds or special effects needed, a specialized team will be involved with this stage so the editing is done to perfection and so all the lip syncing is in time.
The video is usually created in different formats so the distribution process can take place successfully for a wide audience.
Stills will also be collected for Digipaks and Digipak adverts.

Purpose of a music video for the companies/artists that make them
One of the main purposes of a music video is it is another way to make a profit from the product, with the extra promotion of the song coming from the video it allows more fame and therefore more financial gain for the artist and record company. The main reason for the song being more well known is because it's now not only played on the radio and online on music sites like iTunes and Spotify but also can be seen on music TV and on video sites like YouTube which for some is more easily accessible as it is free.
If a music video is exciting or different it's more likely for the audience to share it with others, again informing more people of the song, this is more likely to happen than for the audience to share a music file with friends. As well as if the videos slightly controversial it may go viral online, therefore achieving more views and sells for the song than it would have achieved without the video.
More money can be made through videos as product placement can be used, this is where a company of a product may pay the record company to include their product in a music video in order to get that more recognition and the record company more money.

Famous music video directors and why are their videos so well known?
Spike Jonze
Michel Gondry
David Fincher
Kanye West


Budget for the average music video
The average music video is likely to cost roughly £50,000 up to anything around £500,000.
Some music videos are particular high budget for example Scream by Janet and Micheal Jackson cost a total of $7,000,000 and Express Yourself by Madonna cost $5,000,000. The main reason big names like these would be likely to spend more is because they know they're popular and are highly likely to be able to make the money back. Whereas someone producing their music video for their debut single is more likely to not spend as much as it will be harder for them to earn it back.

Audience access
The main methods of accessing music videos for an audience are through online websites such as YouTube and music channels on TV such as 4Music.
YouTube is possible the most effective way of reaching a large audience, the current top three most viewed music videos on youtube are;
Gangnam Style - PSY (2,633,844,481 views)
See you again - Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth (1,986,963,181 views)
Uptown Funk - Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (1,806,605,243 views)
showing the mass influence YouTube has had in reaching a large audience.

Intertextuality in music videos

Intertextuality: when media texts reference other media texts, usually done in a humorous way

Examples

You know me: Robbie Williams

This video uses intertextuality as there are references throughout to the Alice In Wonderland film. These references are shown through the location of the video and the costumes. Firstly throughout Robbie Williams is dressed in a White Rabbit costume then towards the end of the video there are female dancers who are dressed in pink leotards with hearts on them, this is a reference to the Alice In Wonderland character the Queen of Hearts. The location is also a reference to the film as at the start he seems to fall through a hole like Alice did in the film, theres also a shot of Robbie Williams dancing on a long table which is very similar to the scene from the film at the Mad Hatter's tea party.


Love Story: Taylor Swift

The song Love Story contains many references to Romeo and Juliet in the lyrics and the video reflects these references. Throughout the video the main scene is of Taylor Swift wearing a long dress standing on a balcony, similar to the scene in Romeo and Juliet where they're talking over the balcony. There are also scenes set in a ball which is also another intertextuality feature. There are also shots of the male and female character sneaking out at night to see each other which is possible the biggest reference to Romeo and Juliet as that is the main plot.


We Made You: Eminem

The music video for We Made You makes a number of references to celebrities, films, other music videos etc. These references include Kim Kardashian, Star Trek, Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse. This is done in a humorous way in the video and is done for entertainment purposes.











Why use intertextuality?
Intertextuality can be an effective tool in making a video humorous, at times seeing a particular artist pretend to be someone else or part of something else can be quite comical, particularly if that artist is an opposite genre to the reference they make, for example a rock artist making references to a boy band music video. Using intertextuality can also increase the popularity of the video as fans of the text that are featured may also decide to be a fan of that artist.

Categories of music videos

Performance based videos
A performance based video includes the artist/band physically appearing in the video and performing the song, they either perform in short clips or sometimes throughout the whole video. This category of music video is the best for the budget as no grand location, props and costumes are needed, just the band and the right equipment.





Narrative based videos
A narrative based music video tells a story that is normally featured in the lyrics of the song. The structure of the videos often follow a generic beginning middle and end order.

Concept based videos
These videos are based on a single idea or theme.

Preliminary Filming Task Evaluation

How filming went:

Filming the music video wasn't too difficult, we chose the first 1 minute of the original video as this had the easiest shots that we were able to film with the equipment we had and in the locations we were accessible to. We were able to film the whole of the minute in my house and didn't have much difficulty in doing this as the shots were as simple as pouring water in a cup. The camera we used worked very well at doing the more difficult scenes that involved a change in focus, however we managed to do it as the camera allowed us to.

How editing went:
The editing was also relatively simple, we edited the clips by cropping them, muting them and adding a black and white filter as that is a main feature in the video. No other effects were needed in the video which made it a quick and easy process to do.

Problems we encountered:

- Minor lighting issue as some of the shots were quite dark so it was hard to be able to have such a dark scene in the middle of the day
- When we uploaded the videos we imported them and then couldn't find where they were on the laptop, this wasted a bit of time as we were searching for them for a while
- We decided we didn't want to stop filming in the middle of a verse so our video ended up being 1 minute and 10 seconds which is longer than the copyright restrictions on youtube allows us to upload. To overcome this problem we had to split the video into 3 clips so the clips were all under 30 seconds which allowed us to upload them to attach to our blogs

Strength of the prelim:
- The camera we used was effective, especially with the more technical clips that needed a lot of focus change
- We got every shot we needed to and they were all very similar to the original video
- We managed to get the filming and editing done in one day to ensure it was completely by the due date
- My partner and I worked well together, we worked particular effectively because my partner was particularly good at the filming aspects and i didn't mind acting in the video, I also worked mainly on the editing so we were able to help each other out in order to produce a good final product.

Preliminary Filming Task

For my preliminary filming task I decided to pair up with another student in order to recreate the music video for Hello by Adele.