Textual Analysis

Analysing an existing Indie/Pop music video

The text that I will be analysing is Florence and The Machine's song Rabbit Heart (Raise it up). I have chosen to analyse this text as it is the same genre of music (indie/pop) as the music video I would like to create.

  The video for Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)  

The video starts with the artist behind a jewels glinting in the bright light focusing the viewers attention. The other notable feature is that there is a hazy filter on the video making it look mystical again this will draw the attention of the viewer.

The next shot is a zoom out to a close up to show the artist surrounded by other people. The lighting is very desaturated to give the video a laid back mystical feeling which is parallel to the song. From what you can see in this still from the video the location is outside in a meadow/forest, the costume looks quite regal and the viewer is drawn to the artists hair as it is the brightest part of the image.

The camera then zooms in on the artist to an extreme close up. The lighting becomes more focused and bright to emphasise the pale skin contrasted to the artists hair, still keeping to the codes and conventions of an indie/pop music video as the colours are still neutral and not for example bright greens/blues etc. The make up is simple to fit in with the simple feel to the song and music video so far.

It then cuts to a close up of a harp, this is definitely a convention of an indie/pop song/video as a harp isn't a mainstream instrument to use and it makes the song more individual or 'indie'. The lighting is back to being less saturated and neutral and the light is glinting off the strings of the harp making it the main focus of the shot.

In the next shot we see it is a close up of the artist on top of a mid shot of the party going on in the video. This duel shot creates a mystical feel to the video in keeping with the feel of the music. The lighting is again saturated keeping with the neutral theme running through the video. From this we can see the costumes faintly, they are dresses for the women and suits for the men, this is contrasted with the outside scene as you would expect them to be in more casual clothes this in keeps with the individual style of the music video.

This then cuts to a mid shot of a long table with a banquet on and everyone sitting around it but the camera focusing on Florence in the middle. The lighting has stayed the same and so has the costume/make up/hair. This shot is an establishing shot of the banquet.

 The next shot is a long shot of the table and we see the people around it throwing the food at each other and tipping the table up to create a sense of chaos which fits the song at that moment in time. We also see this from the lighting it has become much brighter and not so saturated. We can also see that the people at the table are not the only people at the 'party' there are people in the background adding this sense of chaos as everyone is everywhere.

The penultimate shot of the music video is an extreme close up of the artist. This is to emphasise the song lyrics as this is the calm after the crescendo, so this shot is to emphasise the meaningful soft lyrics as the video comes to an end. The light has gone back to being mystical and saturated.

The video then ends on this duel shot of the artist and a coffin floating on the water. The shot of the artist is an extreme close up and the shot of the coffin is a long shot, these 2 contrasting shots create a sense of calm and end the video in a sombre way. The expression of the artist makes me think that the shot of the coffin is meaningful to her. The lighting is very saturated now almost like the video is fading away which fits in with codes and conventions of an indie music video.

From doing this textual analysis of an existing indie music video I have realised that:

• You don't need to use black and white to get the desired effect of an indie music video but using a saturated filter on the video makes it look mystical and does create a nice effect still sticking to the codes and conventions of an indie music video.
• The costume and setting need to be appropriate for the type of music and for this genre the woods/meadows are a suitable option.

Test Footage and Settings

 

Here is some of our test footage that we took to see how well lip syncing would look and to get a sense of how using this type of background would look with the song.

We used 2 different types of shots as we didn't have much time. We used a close up with the actress in the centre and one of a medium close up with the actress slightly off centre so the audience could see the background more clearly.

We also took some pictures of this filming location so we could see what was around it and if it would be usable for the final music video. From the pictures we can see grey buildings etc which take away from the shot meaning this might not be the best place to film.

From doing this test footage I have found that:

• To emphasise the lyrics, when the actress is lip syncing, the camera needs to be in a close up. So in my final text I will try to use close ups frequently to emphasise the lyrics.

• That this setting probably wasn't good enough to use in my final text as you can see cars, buildings etc in the background with make the shots look unprofessional therefore I need to find a more suitable place to film eg the woods.

Audience Research

Once we had figured out what type of music video we wanted to create we now needed to do some audience research to find out what people would expect to see in an indie/pop music video. We played each of our interviewee's the song above (Home) and asked them a series of questions so we could gather the relevant information to make our music video what people want to see.

The questions:
What would you expect to see in an indie/pop music video?
What do you think of when you hear this song?
What would you expect to see in the music video for Gabrielle Aplin - Home?
What do you think is cliche for this genre of music?
Who do you think the target audience is for this song?



 

From the answers given we found out that the target audience will be primarily girls between 13 - 20. I imagine the target audience to look like...

People want to see the kind of cliche look about the video as thats what is recognisable in an indie/pop video. Also they will be expecting to see a mix between seeing the artist perform and some kind of story to go along with it. Now we have this information we can start to story board our actual music video.