Research/ 3 Case Studies

Channel: delilahvideos

Title: Delilah-Go

Producer: Balistiq

Date: Sep 6 2011

Synopsis of video: She is unsure about her love for someone and is thinking whether to take a risk or not. She is walking through the streets of London and this expresses the risk she is wanting to take along with other things in the video such as the dog and the male getting "run over" being connotations for her wanting to take a risk.

Is the video conceptual, narrative or performance based?: This video is lip/synch based and is conceptual as she is expressing the whole concept about her not being in control of being in love with someone. Walking in the dark in London could create a metaphor for how she is feeling for example "She's walking in the dark but doesn't know where she is going"

Themes/ motifs: Words that could describe the video's theme would be uncertainty, risk, mysterious, dark, and blinded. The theme overall is about how someone has fallen in love unintentionally

Representations of stars: Delilah is represented as dark, majestic, mysterious and this is shown through her dark clothing which expresses her personality and the way she feels. The dog is represented as the fear of falling in love and Delilah walks away with the dog at the end of the video. This connotes that she takes a risk and accepts it. The representation of the 'man getting hit by the bus' and disappearing possibly shows how easily it was for her to fall in love and becoming vulnerable in her situation.

Camera Shots: Unsteady point of view shots are used are used to mirror her unsteady feelings towards the person she has fallen for. It may also indicate she is walking towards an unsteady decision or path in her life. Wide shots are used to show her walking in the streets of London at night looking vulnerable and lost. A wide shit is also used at the end when she is walking away with the dog. Tracking shots are used showing the camera moving with the star while she is walking towards it. Several close up shots are used to show desperation and lust in her face and ecu shots are used especially on her lips and eyes. This could be the main focus points when she looks at the one she loves? or possibly for more of a professional way of showing her lip-synching.

Editing: Fast cutting rates are used when the song speeds up to show her distress or possibly as a way comparing to her fast heart rate showing that her love is intense and risky. Shot reverse shots are used between scenes which show the location she is in which puts her in a vulnerable position. Slow motion of the male walking in London is used to possibly hint that something negative will happen to him. Fading in and out/ blurring is used to introduce new scenes and the blurring in particular could connote the fact that he has been blinded by his love.

Mise-en-scene: the location is in the streets of London at night which brings out the mysterious feel to the video. Delilah's clothing is dark which expresses her dark side in terms of her risk taking and her being mysterious and majestic. There's the dog which again is used as her fear of love and the red bus which supports the idea that the video was shot in the streets of central London.

Audience: The audience includes between the ages of 16-25/30. This young age range mostly relates to this idea of being lost because of unsure feelings for someone; people who have not settled down with anyone yet. Furthermore, the audience would be those who enjoy alternative/RnB music.

Ideas I would take from this video: this includes the whole innuendo/double meaning of certain things in the video such as symbolic locations, clothing, scenes/ shots and editing that express the lyrics and the way the singer is feeling. For example, the actors in our video could be wearing dark clothes to express depression, sadness and hurt. Also, because we want our video to be simple, we would express that through the actors wearing simple plain clothing in parts of the video/song that expresses sadness and hurt.

Channel: lovemspenny

Title: Christina Perri- Jar of Hearts

Producer: Barrett Yeretsian

Date: Jul 27 2010

Synopsis of video: She got hurt by someone and she uses the metaphor "jar of hearts" to imply that he has been collecting hearts. In other words he's been collectively hurting people on and on. Also the sucking of the souls in the video suggest he has wiped the life off her. Right at the end of the video we see Christina sucking the soul out of the male which implies revenge or retribution. Furthermore, the Contemporary dancers dancing around her are to express the distress of the as Contemporary dance itself is very expressive.
Is the video conceptual, narrative or performance based?: This video is lip/synch based and could be conceptual because it expresses the pain concept of the lyrics. It could also be performance based because of the Contemporary dancers. The two kind of mesh together as the Contemporary performance in the video is used to express its conceptual theme.
Themes and motifs: When I think of the words that could describe and characterize the topic of "Jar Of Hearts" words like hurt, love, hate, discontent, revenge, retribution, pain, regret; and these are all expressed throughout the shots in the video.
Representation of stars: The role of the star is to be the character who is hurt and in pain of what her previous partner had made her go through. She is the main subject and the soul who is trapped in one of his "jars". Christina is represented in quite a strong and powerful way even though she seems to be trapped in his world. She is portrayed as destructive with everything going on around her almost as if he has made a monster out of her and that she is fighting back for retribution. The several women in the video who's hearts are being "consumed" possibly represents the moments where the star herself has been "consumed".
Camera shots/ angles: There is a medium close-up shot introduced at the start of the video and it immediately appears when the piano of the backing track starts to play. This is a good way to make the video dramatic and sudden. Wide shots are used to show Christina appearing from behind of "destructive" looking cars and the camera slowly pans when she is walking. This kind of shot is also used when the contemporary dancers are introduced into the shots and they are shown to be fight against the males in the play to express Christina's fighting back attitude.The panning is steady and gentle to appeal to the slow contemporary genre of the music and to somehow show that she is in a vulnerable situation. Extreme close-up shots are used to show the "sucking of the souls" in the video.
A low angle looking up at Christina is used near to the end of the video where she is walking towards the male in the video to show her powerful attitude. Moreover, this then leads to a final wide shot where we see her walking over the male she has just "killed", she walking away showing that she is walking away from the pain and the she has accomplished her retribution. There are some blurred shots which become focused again which could expressed how she sometimes would fall apart but pulled herself together again.
Editing: This music is very graphical in terms of the use of containing the hearts inside of the jars. The jar appears on Christina's chest almost like a moving tattoo which shows that she's "learned to live" with this hurt almost like you would live with a tattoo forever. Shots are introduced with fading in and out which again appeals to the smooth lyrical content of the song. The whole colour edit of the video is very dark and almost cinematic which fits into the dark content of what is going on in the video. The video brightens a lot when she has "restored" her heart almost as if she has been saved and has got away from the darkness. Shot reverse shots are used at quite a fast rate between the contemporary dancing and Christina lip synching to portray her fighting aggressive emotions towards her discontent.
Mise-en-scene: The location as a whole is very dark and destructive which is kind of a reflective view of how she is feeling. There is smoke in most parts of the shot to show how she has been almost blinded and lost because of her pain. There are burnt petals falling from the sky and this enforces the idea how something beautiful turned cold and into ashes. The clothing of the dancers and the star are quite subtle and plain as apposed to the clothing of the men in the shots which are dark as if the men are the criminals and the women are their victims.
Audience: Similarly to the previous case study, I would say the audience would be 16-25/30  years old who enjoy smooth rock/contemporary/ alternative  music. Again, this age range could relate to the heartbreak and destructive relationships theme of this video.
Ideas I could take from the video: I would like to use Contemporary dancers in my video to, as I feel it is an exceptional way of expressing heartache and pain. The lighting and scenes are also very dark in this video and this would be something to consider for my own video to reinforce to dark and mysterious feel to it.

Channel: RihannaVevo

Title: Rihanna- Diamonds

Producer: Benny Blanco, StarGate

Kuk Harrell

Date: Nov 8 2012

Synopsis of the video: She is in open waters and looks very alone. She uses diamonds as the "ecstasy" in her roll up. The diamonds represents the artistic nature of the video. Using the diamonds as the ecstasy represents her singing about how her partner/person she is interested is being compared to a "vision of ecstasy". The video is very complex as it tries to pin-point the truth about fiction. It raises questions like "Are the arms of her and her lover coming together or going apart? Is she drowning in the open waters or is she just under the influence of ecstasy?"

Is the video conceptual, narrative or performance based?: the video is lip/synch based and is conceptual. The bright lights in the video are the concepts and expressions of the lyrics "shine bright like a diamond" and vision of ecstasy to indicate that she is possibly under the influence of drugs possibly because of her being hurt and running away. The lines are blurred between the idea about whether this video celebrates or criticizes the use of drugs, However, the singer in this video possibly uses drugs to heal her pain and comfort her which possibly suggests that the video celebrates rather than criticizes the use of drugs.
Themes/motifs: The theme I get from this video is her trying to find beauty through the pain she is experiencing
Representation of stars: As well as in Christina Peri's Jar of Hearts, Rihanna is also shown to be destructive in this video. In contrast to Jar of Hearts Rihanna seeks beauty in her destructive surroundings as we see everything that is being destroyed, coming back together like how it was before. Perhaps her rebellious choice of being under the influence of ecstasy has made her see things this way and it is only making her seek pleasure in the pain and hurt she is feeling.
Camera shots/ angles: Ecu shots are used of Rihanna's hands running through the diamonds perhaps to show how she lives for them/ is addictive to the ecstasy which could also mean she is addictive to the person she is singing to as she describes them as a "vision of ecstasy". Ecu shots are also used of the hands coming apart which could describe that is why she is in pain because possibly, someone has left her. Again, ecu shots are used of the smoke coming out of her mouth to reinforce that she may be under the influence of drugs/ or that the person she is singing about is the drug. A medium close-up shot is used which introduces her singing. This happens quite sudden which is straight to the point and makes the catch phrase of the song" shine bright like a diamond" precise and important to what she is singing about. There are wide shots of the broken things coming back together and unsteady wide shots of her running and the horses running. This suggests she is always on the run. A bird’s eye view shot is used when she is in open waters which slowly zooms out. This shows how lonely she is in such a disserted place. Although she finds beauty in pain technically, she is still alone.
Editing: Fast cutting rate or shot reverse shots are used between scenes. This gives us a sense of running and an unsteady mind set which she could be in because of the "ecstasy". Reversing is used of broken glass coming together, things that are burning being put out, and hands coming apart. This shows she finds comfort in ecstasy which makes her see things in a different way. The aurora lights in the sky are also another editing technique that reinforces her vision through the influence of ecstasy or the influence of the person she is singing about.
Mise-en-scene: Locations are all destructive and dark. Some are quite bright and subtle to show how she sees the beauty in the pain. The clothing material she is wearing in the scene of the horses is quite similar to the surface of the horse's skin which suggests that she may be the actual horse in the video and that she is running just like the horse is running. Props such as the diamonds represent her addiction. The shattered glass may represent her shattered heart. The strong white lighting are used to represent the message of the song "shine bright like a diamond".
Audience: I would say the audience would be those who enjoy pop/RnB music. This type of song is harder to understand because of the unsure theme of whether she is really under the influence of drugs or not. I would say the age of the audience would range between 17-25.
Ideas I could take from the video: For my own video, I would too have a medium close up shot of the star in a dark room at the start of the song as soon as she starts singing for a sudden effect and we could see straight away from her facial expression, that she is unhappy and hurt. I would also have unsteady camera shots in my video when the people are fighting or arguing to express the aggressiveness of the situation