The Golden Path-Chemical Brothers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlgsfLkAUVg
Representation
It is a mostly male work place. There is a hippy girl maybe the main man’s girlfriend? She is pretty. The work place is dull and boring; they all represent the working class. He doesn’t seem happy ay work but he seems to be really happy in his fantasy world. The main singer is a dreamer, it is all brightly coloured when he is thinking about the girl. The lyrics show that the chemical brothers are free spirited.
Genre
The video has a narrative but no performance by the artists. The chemical brothers have developed their own style/genre of video. It’s like dance music, there is dancing at the end… with drum and bass.
Narrative 1
Man goes to work and the lyrics suggest it as Hell. He often escapes to a hippy populated field which contrasts to the setting and characters of the work.
Narrative 2
Slight connectivity between lyrics and video e.g. Exploding coffee cup-volcano, work=some sort of hell, printer-the devil/demon, field-the golden path.
Narrative 3
Beginning- He is walking to work, very repetitive, he crosses roads without looking. Next everybody is in the lift, it is full.
Middle-He’s transported into a better world that contrasts with the work place, with it being happy and colourful. “The Golden path” is dull and colourless.
End- He escapes the dull work place for his happy place.
Narrative 4
It has a linear narrative structure- Shows a sense of progression. It’s linear throughout.
Narrative 5
Boss=Villain- Tough, gives rubbish wage.
Worker=’Princess’ Not amazing at job, bad wage, crappy life.
Girl/Hippy=Hero’s- Free to do what they want save worker from bad life and job.
Narrative 6
Work/Play, Control/Freedom, Good/Bad, Happy/Sad- Binary opposites-Stress/Calm, Colour/Black + White
Lily Allen-Smile
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WxDrVUrSvI
It contains a narrative, lypsynch. Its genre is pop, very British.
The video foregrounds Lily Allen performing the song. The performance combines with narrative-often merging together in the same scene. The genre of music is British Pop (with reggae beat)-Reflected in gritty, working class, urban mise-on-scene, and generally unspectacular cinematography.
Narrative 1
The narrative focuses on Lily getting revenge on her boyfriend for cheating on her. The narrative illustrates and amplifies the meaning in the song-‘With a little help from my friends’-friends help Lily to take revenge.
Beginning-She is alone and sad
Middle-Taking revenge in different ways
End- She is alone/happily smiling
Narrative is generally linear but with lots of ellipsis and flashbacks.
Characters relate to conventional archetypes-boyfriend=villain, Lily=princess/hero, friends=helpers.
Binary oppositions-male/female, sweet/nasty, kindness/cruelty, violence/pleasure, together/alone, sitting/walking, smiling/not smiling, colourful/drab, pink/black, looking at the camera/not looking at the camera.
Media language- Mise-en-Scene
The key signifiers in mise-en-scene is working class locations-flat,café,street,club. Lily is girly, feminine but tough, she wears a dress with trainers and jewellery, with pink eye shadow and black eye liner. Lily’s facial expressions are smile/frown. Lily’s flat is bright, colourful. Her boyfriend’s flat is drab and colourless. The other characters are you typical ‘chav’ with there outfits, baseball hats, hoods, etc. The final scene Lily is walking down the middle of the road- this shows confidence.
Camera angels-There is a close up on Lily;s face white singing-this shows the connection between audience and star. There are mid shots that show fair, hair, jewellery and costumes showing Lily’s personal style. There is a long shot into Lily’s bedroom this emphasises her aloneness. There are frequent tracking shots in the bedroom, emphasis Lily’s stillness, stuck. There is use of hand held camera during violent scenes, this creates realism. The final reverse tracking shot in the street this emphasis Lily’s power and control of the situation. There is no overlay of dramatic shots, such as arail shots, crane shots etc, down to earth.
Editing
It is generally fast paced editing, no shot is longer than two beats. There is opening flashbacks which show her remembering happy times. There is some continuity editing used in narrative scenes, but ellipsis is used a lot to condense the narrative making it shorter. Cross cutting shows Lily doing nothing while her friends take revenge on boyfriend, there is editing used to emphasise binary opposition between them. There is a shot reverse shot in the café, this again emphasis opposition between Lily and boyfriend.
Representation
Lily Allen is represented as feminine but tough, sweet innocent grain of voice contrasts with harshness of lyrics, facial expressions, costume and makeup all contribute to this representation.
The gender representation is for males as dishonest and cheating. Females are represented as victims of male dishonesty, but not weak they are capable of being devious and cruel themselves.
The social class/age representation is that working class/youths are generally unsophisticated-driven by basic urges, revenge, money, etc, use violence to get even.
Audience
Target audience-Youth, female? British?
The song is addressed to ‘you’ (boyfriend) but in the video she sings to the audience not to him-sharing her secret thoughts with the audience. The audience get pleasure at sharing Lily’s revenge. The video might influence female fans to be less accepting of male dishonesty in relationships. Viewers might find the video useful in thinking about their own relationships, or in sharing their liking for Lily Allen with other fans.
The Lighthouse family-I wish I knew how it would feel to be free
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCAkrg4fNE
Aspects of performance/mode of address
The aspect of development shows people on a train, it shows their thoughts and their lives and what they go through. Mode of address is used in the music video. The man on the train is in the band, as the audience we know this because he is walking up and down the train looking down at the camera. The camera is tracking. There is no dance moves used in the music video. It is mostly narrative based, which relates to the performance which is in the narrative.
Narrative
The narrative is non-linear we know this because; there is a use of flashbacks into people’s lives. Throughout the video there is a clear, beginning, middle and end. Beginning-Everybody gets onto the train. Middle-The artist sings to them. End- Everybody gets off the train and walks into the light going up the escalator.
How does the video create an image for the star artist/band?
There is a lot of close ups used on the main star, His face is our main focus. This video suggests that the lighthouse family lifts people’s lives and spirits. There video sends out a message to the audience. The video creates a laid back and cool atmosphere.
Mise en Scene
The artist stands out from everyone else he is wearing a black hat, black leather jacket and black pants. There is a big contrast between the train and the train station. The train is packed but the station is really empty. People can relate to public transport the way it is set on a train. The people on the train are dressed in rather normal clothes.
Use of camera
At the beginning there is an establishing shot, which shows the train track. There is a tracking shot used throughout the video which follows the man down the train. There is an over the shoulder shot used to get the characters point of view, through there eyes.
Editing/Special effects
There are flashbacks used to show peoples problems, fades are also used to illustrate this. The special effects in this music video are rather simple, and are used through editing techniques. Also the transitions from each shot are smooth.
Representation
The people on the train are either lower or working class. Between the artist and the passengers there is a status divide. Even though the artist doesn’t stand out, he takes of his hat, as a sign of respect. The lead girl is a stereotype with blonde hair girly porcelain skinned face. Religious connotations are demonstrated through this music video, through the light. As the underground is dark and is signified as hell, but the top is signified as heaven as it is a lot lighter and pleasant.
Channel
This song may be seen on a music channel like Magic, VH1 and Smooth because they are very mellow music channels and are targeted for an older audience.
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