Music video analysis

I decided to analysis the music video to  British singer Leona Lewis hit "Bleeding Love" from her debut album,Spirit. I chose this song because the video follows lots of conventions as a typical pop genre music. It is useful to assess Genre,Media Language, Representation and Narrative against the video to see how they have been uses together with the micro-elements to create meaning. In this essay, all sides will be analyzed as well as my view presented.

Leona Lewis-Bleeding Love

Artist:  Leona Lewis

Track:  Bleeding Love

Album:  Spirit

Genre:  Pop/R&B

Released:  7 October 2007

Video Length:  4:23

The international version of the music video was nominated for Best UK Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. The US version was number one on the VH1Year End Top 40.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Genre

According to Barry Keith Grant(1995), genre allows audiences to identify texts specifically by their familiar and recognisable characteristics. The music video of Bleeding Love has highly followed the conventions of pop music. For example, there 's usually bright lighting and some form of bright object/ costume in pop video. This makes the video stand out more and also appeals to youth (the target audience), as it appears vibrant and lively, something young people are attracted to. As we can see in the video, Leona Lewis is in a bling-bling dress singing in front of the camera. The dress is attractive which people will not wear it in normal life. Additionally, the actor in pop music videos are generally young. They are usually in fashion at that time. When audience watch this music video, they will notice actor's clothes, accessory and so on. This can be regarded as one of the recognisable characteristics.

Desipite this, withe reference to Goodwin, Leona Lewis's "star image" and motifs have always been routed in the idea of being unconventional and innovative in order to stand out and maintain popularity and seccess.There is usually a lot of performance in pop music video. This is because a video can not be full of narrative,otherwise they could be boring. They also want to be taken seriously as artist ,so they show themselves performing.There are a large amount of close-ups of artist from different angles, which is used to let audiences remember her. Moreover, different shots of Leona Lewis changes following the beat of the song, which method is used in common pop genre music video. Hence, Leona Lewis plays around with Jason Mittell's idea of industries using genre to sell products to audiences. Many kinds of pop genre characteristics have shown in the video in order to be a selling point, such as fashion clothes, relationship narrative and modern location. It utilised as a means of increasing popularity and profits.


Media Language

Media Language is used extensively in the video in order to support the narrative, representations and general enjoyment of watching the video.

Laura Mulvey 's Gaze Theory obtains visual pleasure. In film, the male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. A scene may linger on the curves of a woman's body, for instance.The female characters in this music video are all wearing less clothes or skinny clothes.Their body shapes can be clearly seen in order to attract male audience. In pop genre music video, female singer usually wears sexy outfits in order to appeal male audience. Thus, music video of Bleeding love has followed this pop convention.

In term of editing of this music video, there are plenty of different kinds of shots shown in the video, such as close-ups, long shots, medium shots, etc. Close-ups are quite essential for a pop music video, which supports Andrew Goodwin's idea about showing "star image" in music video. To be more precise, showing artist's face by using close-ups is very important. Because a music video is used to promote artist and gain more popularity, and a popular singer should be recognised by audience which is the first step to get the success. In addition, long shot provides a full image to show location, costume and performance of the artist. Besides giving close-ups of Leona Lewis, there are also plenty of close-ups of other female actors to allow the audience to see facial expressions, that show tat they are hurt and upset.

This is a R&B pop genre music, which is quite upbeat. So that the frequency of cuts from shot to shot are quick and changeable.

I personally quite like this wide shot below, which looks very  professional and showing us that hearts are breaking everywhere. It gives the view of different places with different people , it shows the theme of this song which is sad and heart-broken.

Representation

Representation is a quite straightforward in this music video. To begin with, sexuality in this music video is used to present cheating things. The male sleeps with other woman and his wife(girlfriend) is so heart-struck. It is the main storyline of this music video. Thus, there are a number of shots shows that male and female are kissing in the bed in a sexual way. It reminds me of Laura Muvey 's' Gaze Theory again, which says male audiences usually pay attentions in female 's body. Additionally, I have to mention voyeuristic which is raised by Andrew Goodwin. Voyeurism is widely used to sell the artist's music through sex appeal. At the beginning of the music video, the camera is zooming in from a long distance and looking through the window, it looks like somebody using telescope to voyeur.

Furthermore, I quite like the last bit of the music video, when the song reaches upsurge, water pours out everywhere and Leona Lewis likes singing in the rain. She gets wet but keeps singing and performing. This part push the whole video to a peak, and it let audiences feel powerful and shocked, in order to make an deep impression. On the other hand, the water is representing the females tears. The water suddenly pours out everywhere is not gratuitously but it gets reason. It presents females' upset and they are vulnerable. Facing the cheating from their men, they feel helpless but they can't help falling love with their men. 

Narrative

The main storyline is about the male gender cheating on the females. In term of narrative , this is a very typical pop genre storyline which is something about relationship between male and female. To be more precise, the music video illustrates that women are forgiving and even though they have been cheated on, they still want a relationship with the male. The plots in music video is quite match with the song lyrics. 'I don't care what they say, I 'm in love with you,' shows that she still wants the male. According to Andrew Goodwin, the relation of visuals to a song is quite important,as giving the illustration/amplification/disjuncture of the song. For example, when the lyric says:"my heart melts into the ground found something true " , there is a two long shot showing that the woman finds a female's underwear and she is so furious about her man. She flings the pants at her husband and cries out. The video gives a good explanation about "something true". On the other hand, the narrative of this video reflects real people, also, it can be said reflecting something commonly exist nowadays. So that audiences are familiar with the narrative in order to get the sense of belonging. 

At the end of the music video, there is a suspense which supports Carol Vernallis says that video may pose questions it doesn't answer. In the end, a handsome young man knock at the lady's room door with a bunch of roses in his hand. The long shot shows that they are facing each other but the door standing between them. The music video just finishes without giving the final result, it provides audience to image what is going to happen the next. In my opinion, the video do not give ending  in order to let audiences have much deeper impression about this music video. The unknown ending gives audiences more space to complete their own thought. I quite like this bit because I think it is very special.

Final Music Video

Inspirational Videos

In order to create a professional music video,I have watched a large amount of real music videos, especially pop genre music videos. This page is used to document a hub of inspiration.

  

Jessie j -Domino

In typical Jessie-J style, this magnificent music video catches mt eyes relying on her perfect performance and gorgeous mise-en-scene( costume, make-up, lighting, etc). The whole video is filmed indoor, although there is no location shown in video, the visual effects are really abundant. In the music video, the singer is the main feature all of the way through. While Jessie J is singing and dancing in time with the music, the backgrounds in effects are also changing with the beat. It makes the video look impressed and entertaining. Moreover, a variety of camera shots are used to make the video present more rhythmically.
I want to imitate this form to present an entertaining music video, as one of the parts put in my music video. My initial idea of my own product is combine artist performance in front of background(like Domino) with some short narrative/story.
I know the actor I am going to choose should be confidence and desire to show off herself/himself. Thus, I will deliberative in choosing the actor.

One Direction-Live While We're Young.



The representation of this music video is really typical as it presents young people as having fun, attending festivals and parties, enjoying their youth and messing around with friends.A lot of pop music incorporates parties and festival setting into music videos to imply the same young feel.
I am going to follow this convention, which is representing a lot of people having fun in the park through imitating one direction's LIVE WHILE WE'RE YOUNG.

Mika-Happy Ending



Personally, I really like this music video due to its editing and fantastic mise-en-scene. This music video is a typical MIKA style music video, which is following his album theme. In this music video, toys are used like people to do the lip sync. This shot inspirit me that props can be used in many other ways, but not only show them in the music video. They also can create some interesting shots matching the beat of the song. Many props in this music video are exactly what I want used in my own video, such as balloons, toys,etc.




Except Mika, Bruno Mars is also widely known for producing pop music. The reason why I choose this music video is because there are a large amount of close-ups of the artist shown in it. Overall, the mise-en-scene (including location, props, costume,lighting) is very simple. But the artist is always the main focus performing in the video. To be more precise, when Bruno Mars is in the video the monkeys are surrounding him and are usually behind him. This also focuses on him as he is singing. It is of importance as it adds focus to the artist which is vital as he is in the video. This is a performance based music video, the main point of it is artist's performance. From this video I aim to take inspiration from the performance of artist and plenty of close-ups used.



From this music I have got inspiration from the location and using a lot of people to create happy feel.

Question 4

Q3.Drafted Answer

Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I am planning to do some interviews in order to get the audience feedback. I am going to show my media products first, and then ask them some questions. They will be filmed during answering the questions. In this situation, the frist thing I have to do is write down what I am going to ask( my question list).

Here are the questions which I constructed specifically to ask interviewers . I did not necessarily ask every question in every case, or use the exact same wording, it more a case of using questions which best fit the fow of the conversatioin.

1.What did you think of the music video overall?

2.Do you think it look professional ? why ?

3.What did you think the lip syncing?

4.What did you think of William's performance?

5.Could you understand /follow the narrative?

6.What did you think of the editing?

7.What would say is the favourite part of the video?

8.What would you say is your least favourite part of the video?

9.How would you say the video could be improved?

10.Anything else that you'd like to add?



1. What did you think of the digipak and advert overall?

2.What do you think of the star image portrayed in both products?

3.Can you understand the themes behind the video?

4. Would you be attracted to them in a point of sale display etc.

5.What would say your favourite part of the digipak/advert is?

6.What would you say is least favourite part of the digipak/ advert is?

7.How would you say the digiapk/advert could be improved?

8. Anything else that you'd like to add?

After gathering all the audience feedback, I will analysis them and present my result. Although my target audience is 16-20 year group, I decide to ask people from different age group in order to get a more comprehensive result.

Audience Interview(UNCUT)

 

Question 2

Audience Research (video)

This is my audience research video, I have asked a mixture of males and female questions focused on the pop genre and music video in hope to categorise the target audience. From this research I found that most people prefer pop and rock genre music, as they listening to music almost everyday. On the other hand, young adults/teenagers are enjoy pop music more , and some of them are fans of  Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Michael Jackson.  Also, elder people have provided me some brand new information about other music genres and some old band/artist.For example, they like classical music and blue, which are never mentioned by young people. In this situation, I can definitely confirm that teenagers will be the suitable target group for my media product.

 

 

Q2.Drafted Answer

I am planning to use Gologster to answer question 2. Therefore, I have made a quick and brief mind map explaining what I intend to include in it. I have written down what ancillary will be included as well as how they make contribution to my main product(promote artist). The mind map is created by hand, hopefully it can be read.