Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud 

Textual Analysis

The extreme long shot at the beginning shows how this video will be set in a posh location, because of the red curtains and staging. The dancer also sets the sexual tone of the piece as she is dancing provocatively but professionally, again showing the classy feel to this video.
The whole video has a vintage feel to it, even the camera techniques were vintage and it was filmed in an old style to add to this. The slow editing also fits into this as it is a slow and romantic tone, which reflects the mood of the piece as a whole. One shot at the beginning lasts for 18 seconds, but after 10 the camera zooms in from an extreme long shot to a mid shot. This adds a gentle feel to the video and in a sense creates more passion between them and makes the audience feel as if they're watching two people fall in love, as it happens slowly. The expressions on their faces throughout show that they're in love as well as the proximity.
The camera often refers back to an extreme long shot including a lot of the background, highlighting the classy feel but also the fact that they are alone; these establishing shots also portray a lot of the dancing, which is the only movement that occurs in this music video so it is vital that the audience get to view it.
Having said this there are closer shots of the couple, such as a mid shot at 1:19, which portrays their intimacy  but we never get a closer shot than a mid shot, perhaps reflecting how a relationship is a private affair.
The lighting is quite soft and low-key in the background but with a bright spotlight on them both, this sets the mood for the whole video and reflects turning down the lights on a romantic date, and reminds the audience of the classiness. The background lighting comes from a chandelier, illustrating the posh mise-en-scene and high-class mood; where as the spotlights pick out the two lovers out of the whole room showing how they feel as if they are the only two that matter, connoting the idea that love conquers all.
For the first seven seconds of the video backlighting is used to highlight the silhouette of the women's body, emphasising her sexuality.
The first outfit we see is the woman's in a panning medium long shot that follows her as she walks, almost as if the audience are being taken on this journey, like her journey of love with her partner. Her outfit is white, perhaps connoting purity, it is also very modern with the back longer than the front- but there is an elegant feel to this outfit, mimicking the setting and adding to the overall tone of the video.
His outfit first becomes clear after hers, and it does not have an initial close up shot as she did, because it is his story about love and she is the important one not him. The males outfit very much fits with hers, he is wearing a suit to reflect the exclusive environment but is not wearing a blazer, again adding a sense of modern fashion to an otherwise classic outfit; but this also shows how comfortable he is around her, he does not feel he needs to be smart to keep her love.
At 00:46 there is a pan shot around a chic chair, showing more of their environment but this also takes the audience away for a moment and reminds them that this is a personal story about love. By including this shot the main characters seem in their own world, again highlighting the joys of love, linking with the lyrics of the song.
The transitions between shots are cuts, but because all the shorts bar the beginning are in the same location, it does not feel choppy but smooth. Also, having several shots that zoom in makes the transitions seem smoother, for example after the shot around the chair at 00:46, the camera zooms in for 4 seconds before cutting to a medium shot; because the zoom is so smooth and quick it sets the audience up for a close-up shot without there being any disturbance for the audience. The zooming and panning shots that are regularly used fit in with the dance routine as it involves the audience because they are seeing more than one side of the characters and scene.
The background at 1:20 suddenly brightens up a little, though it is still low-key, because the wall lights turn on at the same time as the music kicks in some more which is an important feature as the video must co-inside with the music and lyrics. Just after this occurs the camera then zooms in to a mid shot before lowering into a low angle which show them together as being more powerful, this is really important because the shot, music and lighting are all linking to create the whole video; the transitions are really smooth adding to the elegant tone.
There is no extra sound in this music video, just the non-diegetic song that is added over the top, though it is meant to be in the scene.
The medium, birds eye view shot at 2:09- 2:10 just adds to the wide range of shots used, but again makes the audience feel more involved.
The last shot is an extreme long shot from an almost birds eye view shot, to reiterate how relationships can make you feel like the only two people in the world. Also, the fading out at the end adds to the vintage feel of the music video, but also slowly transitions the audience away from their lives, just as it slowly brought them into it.
The editing, though it cuts fast, is done at a slow pace because this emphasises the classy and romantic feel of the video, which is important because if it was fast with short shots it would not fit in with the genre of music.
Despite this music video being in one location, because of the varied shots and intriguing dance routine the audience don't lose interest, but instead become drawn into the dancing and over all mood of the piece. So when I come to producing my own piece I need to use many different shots for just one location to add continuity but to also keep the interest of my audience.

 

Questionnaire Results

The dominating gender is female, twice as many females, 66%, completed this compared to 33% being male. This will influence the type of music video I produce, as I had thought about doing a romantic video and the fact that the majority of the audience are females it would make sense to do a more romantic video as it would typically appeal to the majority of the audience.

The majority of my audience are 14-24 year olds, representing teenagers and young adults, which ties in with the question ' Do you like to see people from your age range in a music video? ' as the majority of answers we from young people and 67% of the answers said they wanted to see someone from there age range, the only participant who was between the ages of 35-44 said 'yes' but even with that answer detracted there will still be 7 people aged between 14-24 who , concluding that most people of that age want to see someone their own age in a music video. This will work with my idea of showing romance throughout the video and I can use a young couple to portray this.

The two most popular genres are 'Indie' and 'Pop', but the whole answers were varied, showing how the audience how a wide taste in music. I will produce a music video to an indie song as I believe that will fit best with the idea of a romantic story line, though the song does have some pop elements in and the artist has produced pop songs in the past, therefore more of the audience will probably be aware of him, thus they are more likely to watch.  To co-inside with the indie genre of music I will also use natural locations, one being in a forest, so it connects more with the song and it will probably be more appealing to the desired audience.

Nobody chose live footage, which co-insides with the theme of romance and an indie style, because I did not want to focus on a live concert but instead wanted a story running through, which was the second most requested feature with 50% of the participants choosing this. As 'The artist' was the most requested element to be on the video I will insert clips of the artist singing on their own as well as the artist playing the male love interest in the story. I don't want to over complicate the video and by analysing the results from my questionnaire 33% of people stated they wanted a simple idea, so I came to the conclusion that to both fit with the genre and the audience I will create a simple story of love, as to not over power the song. 

I will use multiple locations, as nobody who participated in the questionnaire said they were interested in the music video just being shot in one location, and from researching music videos there are rarely any videos with just one setting. I also feel as if the video will be more interesting if it is shot in multiple locations, and my audience will be more appealed to it. I am thinking about using the woods as a setting, as well as a bed because that connotes romance and a gathering on bonfire night.

I did receive mixed responses from this question, but the majority said slow paced editing by 6 votes to 5 which also reflects the editing that both a romantic video and a music video from the indie genre would need. Some reasons were because you 'can focus more on the music' and it's 'easier to watch/understand'. 

I also asked this question last as a more open question just to see what my audience were interested in, the responses I got were very varied (this reiterates the question about favourite music genres). However I researched some of the responses and there was no just one location used. In Demons by Imagine Dragons they also slowed down some of the shots to create more of an impact, I really liked this idea as it also fit in with my chosen genre of music as this video was indie. 5 Second's of Summer's video Amnesia, despite it being from a pop genre, still used features that were transferable to an indie music video- there is a point where one of the artists is in a room on his own, the next shot is then of him with his friends in that same room laughing, almost like a flashback, which stirs emotion within the audience; which will go with my song as it talks about a relationship with both a sad and hopeful tone.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VHXZSNY​


Music Video Questionnaire

X-Factor Auditions

Sondesh Kumar

The producers decided to include this clip because it adds humour to the show and conforms to the X- Factors aim to entertain and offer escapism.

Throughout there is fast editing because the don't want to spend ages on him as he is not very good and is only there to be laughed at; therefore they only include the funniest clips and edit most of his audition out.

Tulisa introduces him and already before he has even sung there is a mid shot of Kelly looking weary about this performer, hinting to the audience that he won't give a very good performance. 

Sondesh then replies to Tulisa with what is made at as a humorous answer, he believes he can be compared to 'Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, Prince', which the audience view as funny because the producers have already hinted he won't be very good through the reactions from the judges, fast editing, but also because there is no back story or inspirational music; which usually appears on the fantastic acts, as the producers like to spend more time on them. Louis' reaction whilst Sondesh answers is that of confusion and disbelieving, which makes his answers that much funnier. It is also interesting that the same amount of time was spent on Sondesh's answers as Louis' reactions, showing that he is not that important and emphasising how absurd the judges are finding this.

He then spend around 5 seconds singing, which is shown in a long shot, highlighting how bad and awkward he is, but also showing his feet, hinting he is about to dance.

The next 20 seconds contain quick editing of Sondesh's awful dancing and the reactions from both the judges and the audience, showing them laughing at him, provoking the audience at home to laugh.

The lighting is high key, but it is throughout all the auditions for continuity.

Over-all, the fact that they spend less than a minute on him shows he is not very good or is going to get through.

Signs and Signifiers

Friends, with a little bit more...

When making this film poster we decided to focus and emphasise age (the youth of the main characters) and also sexuality. We were aiming to represent the younger generations; the woman from the middle class and the man from a working class background. The woman's boots show her middle class status, where as the man's trainers portray the working class. This gave us the opportunity to explore different classes from the same age range.

The position and proximity of the hands and legs show that they're not just friends, as the title suggests but they are close. He is typically sitting how a male would sit, for comfort; where as she is sitting with her legs crossed, a more feminine and formal position. Her hand is placed on his knee, suggesting that women are the more forceful ones and breaking stereotypes that men have all the control in a relationship.

The red blanket and his red shoes connote love and passion, but also danger, which hints at what would be to come in the film. This then links in with the red writing and the theme of love, it gives the poster continuity.
The watch on her wrist suggests that perhaps youth don't always have as much time as they think, just because they have lived less years it isn't guaranteed that they have loads more. Also, linking in with the use of the use of the colour red throughout our poster, because they could be in danger if they don't have as many years left as they presume.

We were influenced by both the TV show Friends and the film Friends with benefits, which helped us create our piece.

Textual Analysis

Company magazine

This magazine was released in summer 2013, which the by line informs us of; there are some hints on the magazine front cover to suggest it's a summer edition. For example the masthead is bright yellow, which is a colour connoted with happiness, but also because of the sun and longer daylight. This is also true of the anchorage text for the main image, because peach is seen as a summery colour as it's light and on the same scale as yellow; the words 'Haliee Steinfeld' also look highlighted in the peach colour, connoting youth because it relates to school, but also drawing the attention of the readers.

Company magazines are aimed at teenagers and young adults, between the ages of 15-25; we can see this because the cover girl is young and fresh herself, therefore relatable to the desired audience. Also the language is quite young and informal, the main cover line uses, 'road trip'(s), which are related to the younger generations as they have more free time and a greater sense of adventure. Cover lines suggest as to what age the audience are as well, 'bloggers' tend to be read by people in the age range as they are more technologically aware and also tend to have more time and care to read blogs. Also, the producer decided to not use capital letters, as this is seen as a young and hip thing to do, related with texting and social media as many young people tend to leave out capital letters, especially when tweeting.

The magazine 'Company', is aimed at females not only because of the colour scheme, or the fact that the main image is of a young female, but also the topics talked about- 'hair special' is only something that girls care for, and if it were aimed at men they would word it differently. The font of the writing is feminine, we associate curled writing with girls and not men. 

This cover is also very busy, with lots of images and text layered on top of each-other, this also hints at the age range because younger generations tend to have more active minds and can focus on more things at once, thus finding it more attractive; by using more images it also represents more of what is in the magazine and the fashion choices would appeal to the target audience and make them want to buy the magazine. 

The direct address from the main cover girl also entices the desired audience because it entices them in and makes them feel involved. She is dressed in fashionable clothes, which again appeals to the audience and parallels the modern yet classy feel of the magazine, but they are still true to her. The yellow coat connotes summer, which ties in with the special edition as it's a bright colour. Against the plain background she stands out and is the first feature somebody will see when they pick up the magazine because she's placed in the centre but is also on a slight diagonal which conforms to the rule of thirds.

The social economic groups that this magazine is targeted at are groups C1 and E, this is because the people from the target audience would most likely to still be in education, or in their first jobs- and because this magazine appears stylish, members belonging to groups C2 and D probably wouldn't care for it.

George Ezra - Blame it on Me

Textual Analysis

The initial establishing shot of George and the Chinese man sets the scene, it's high-key lighting connotes happiness despite the scene being pretty plain and on a basic, run down street making it relatable to the desired audience.
The Chinese guy then asks George a question, "Are you sure you want to follow the yellow brick road?", illustrating that George is going on a journey, because of the reference to the Wizard of OZ.

The bright lights could also connote youth, along with the young, pretty females who aren't seemingly wearing any make-up which has childish features to it.

The mid-long shot of these girls and George's reactions are shot reverse shot, maybe suggesting flirting or just highlighting the fact that people live there, despite the initial thought of it being a run down area. They are both wearing modern clothing and have their hair down with minimal make up, showing again natural elements.

The bird's eye shot of the gold glitter symbolised as bird poo draws the audience's attention to this moment and how perhaps it is seen as lucky. By using a close up shot it show's the details within the substance; the gold and the glitter. Or instead of it being lucky, perhaps because it's gold it could suggest that the people who live in the most run down areas value joy the most, having down to earth morals, thus making them rich. George is wearing a smart shirt which makes the 'bird poo' stand out even more because it's more unfortunate that it happens when he's looking smart.
George looks in a car window to try and sort himself out, which is shown by an over the shoulder mid- close up, but then using quicker editing than the rest we see a young boy in the car  holding a hang gun. This clearly represents how Ezra's life has been turned upside down as a boy who connotes innocence is so majorly linked with a weapon that connotes war and danger. We then see a plunger shot being fired,  relieving the tension we felt because it was not deadly- similarly like with the 'bird poo' that turned out to be glitter.

When the guitar smashes there is a mid shot- highlighting the disaster but also offering more information by showing more of the scene than a close up would, showing the full damage. Here we also see who smashed the guitar, which is ironically a police car who are supposed to help not hinder; however the siren lights are flashing, suggesting they have someone else to save who is more important than the main character. First, however, the guitar is caused to drop by a dog, which are usually represented as cute and cuddly but in this case it helped cause sadness for George, perhaps suggesting that things aren't always what they seem, or that mistakes happen?

Throughout the music video there is a mid shot of George whilst walking, using elements of tracking, that constantly appears to give a continuity to the piece and also to give the video meaning to the song, because he is singing.

There is then a long shot of him walking under a rain cloud looking sad, which is then juxtaposed by other's around him who are relaxed and happy in the sun. This could be suggesting to the audience that without his guitar he feels as if he has lost a part of him, or that just because you are happy others around you may be sad. He then slams the guitar case on the floor, which is a diegetic sound showing his annoyance; this contrasts with the constant non-diegetic music.
This then goes from a mid shot to a close up of him under the rain cloud, highlighting his unhappiness and anger towards how his journey is going.
The close up of the rugby player turning towards us makes the audience feel involved as we have direct eye contact, this then transitions into an extreme long shot of him running towards us, thus charging towards Ezra, to emphasise the kind of impact that they are going to have on him and highlighting to the audience how Ezra feels. This clip lasts 8 seconds, which is one of the longer clips in the video, before focusing on it for another 6 seconds- this informs the audience on how many people are running towards him, and also because the producer's decide to linger on this clip it builds tension.
Then it cuts to the opposite view, the audience are now behind Ezra, viewing the action through a mid shot, which makes them feel detached from the video whilst the action is taking place. After 5 seconds it cuts to a mid shot of Ezra's reaction now, placing the audience behind the rugby players, again representing the feeling of safety. These cutting back and forth has elements of shot reverse shot, showing all the reactions and more of the scene. The lighting is still bright but the costumes are dull colours, for example George's shirt is a pale blue, perhaps representing how he is feeling tired of everything going wrong.
The three short shots of the rugby men piling on Ezra mimic the fast paced shots that an action film would usually contain, showing how quick everyone is moving and keeping the audience involved. The smooth zoom from a close up to a long shot quickly establishes the scene and situation that George has got himself in to with also showing the expressions on his face, highlighting the struggle he is going through.
The fact there is a woman in the car breaks stereotypes that only men are capable of bad deeds, which is then reiterated by the close up of her choosing to crash the car into him; this could be seen as controversial because she is committing a crime. The over the shoulder shot through the car window, from the perspective of someone in the car creates huge tension, however it's only on for 2 seconds so that it can cut to a long shot to show more of the action.
He has started to look scruffier, representing the impact that his journey is having on him, and how it's taking a turn for the worse.
The solo, repeating shot, of Ezra singing is now showing more happiness and emotion, contrasting all the problems that are occurring in the other half of the video.
The police car also occurs again, revealing the emergency it was heading to- a shoot out.
The camera then switches to a shot which has elements of tracking in it, because it moves forward, going nearer to the people with guns, also using elements of an over the shoulder shot giving to the audience a greater sense of the scene. Then by using shot reverse shot we cut to another moving clip of the police with guns then back to the original men with guns.
By using fast paced editing, it again mimics the action genre and helps build tension and makes the scene look more chaotic then it perhaps is; this consequently creates a bigger juxtaposition with the repeated clip of him singing.
Throughout this section there are mid shots of the perpetrators and the police, highlighting their facial expressions so the audience recognises how they are feeling, it also adds more tension because we are getting closer shots of their weaponry.
The editing then really speeds up with each shot lasting for around 2-3 seconds but some only single second shots, to portray the zenith of the action. Then after this the editing slows down and resumes it's normal pace, after the repeating shot of George singing happily. By using a slow pan as the first slow shot it allows the audience to see the contrast between our protagonist's unhappy, tired face with the perpetrator's shooting in the background- the scene still has that run down feel, with large dustbin bins being used as a 'safety barrier' for the fighters to hide behind. The slow shots include one's of people's faces, highlighting their concentration and determination to beat the others, the slowness of the editing also allows the audience to subconsciously reflect on the events and make their mind up about what is happening. The music the quietens and Ezra sings the last note, lengthening it slightly giving a silence about the scene. This then emphasises the diegetic sound of the gunshot and it's damage on the barrel; because the audience have been focusing more because of the slower shots it makes the gunfire sound even more dramatic. After a close-up of the first shot entering the barrel and the same gold glitter that represented 'bird poo' earlier on in the video drips out, there are then 2 more gunshots fired from the police, since we do not see them hit the (or another) barrel, we are to presume they hit the perpetrators. The producer's then choose to switch back to the barrel with it's glitter pouring out and stay here for  two seconds, just long enough for the audience to realise what it is, and clearly it's significance in this run down town.
There is then an establishing shot of Ezra walking away that lasts the remaining 5 seconds of the video, truly letting the audience see the ruin and wreckage that the shoot out has caused, perhaps reflecting the amount of trouble our protagonist has found on his journey? Though the lighting is still bright, which is not typical of an action scene such as this, however there is smoke which is typical as it shows some damage has been caused.