The music video for 'Single Ladies' by Beyonce is very well known due to the classic dance routine and the formation of three girls with the main spotlight upon Beyonce. Beyonce's music is highly popular all over the world and is known as an inspiring icon to the youth today. Her genre is generally R&B and Pop which is how she attracts her target audience from young teenagers to 40 year old's. Beyonce's music video for 'Single Ladies' is known as her signature as an artist due to her hair and the dance routine that most of the public today would have seen.
Camera and Editing
Establishing shot at beginning (fading in from a blackout) sets the scene of a dance stage where the audience will see Beyonce and two dancers dancing in sync to the music, which brings out the sex appeal of the video due to little clothing, heels and the way the artist is dancing.
Close ups on Beyonce's face, hand with metal on (indicating the robot theme), clothing and the lighting which helps the audience to focus their eyes on Beyonce not the other two dancers as much.
Panning around the performers demonstrates the convincing side of the video as it shows the artist from all angles and that she's actually dancing.
Close ups to longs shots to show the comparison between Beyonce and the other two dancers.
Some low angles shown to demonstrate the power, the spot light on Beyonce also supports this.
Eye line - the audience eyes will be drawn to the centre of the screen in which the singer will be. The different clothing of the singer also supports this as you notice the contrast to the dancers.
Master shot shown throughout - Three ladies seen through a long shot to draw out the sex appeal and give contrast to the background as they are in black, bold colours.
'We Are Golden' by English singer Mika was released in 2009 which like his other music is known to have a very lively feel. It involves a variety of bright and bold colours throughout the video which tend to symbolise Mika as an artist and his unique style which always manages to attract attention. The main plot of the video consists of Mika dancing and singing about in his bedroom in which he expresses himself fondly by performing his music to the camera through lip synchronisation. He portrays the sense of 'fun' and 'freedom' whilst showing a collection of items and toys which seem to be vintage and old fashioned; representing the 'Golden Years' which the song is based on. The music video is cleverly done, as it successfully manages to attract a variety of people, from young to old through the bright colours and the contrast of currant and past times shown in the items and the design of the setting. Mika's genre is based on rock/pop music especially in this song which provides fast melodic music with the meaning of the lyrics being based around how to live life to the full and how our age group is the 'Golden' age therefore we should enjoy life. Camera: - At beginning, first shot, close up of casset presenting 'Mika' on the front telling and reminding the viewers who the artist is. This also implies that the music video is based in the past, as cassets are known as old compared to Ipods or CDs.
- Establishing shot at beginning, showing the audience the setting of the video, you also see Mika jump of the bed implying he's like a child especially with the props in the room and the costume he's wearing.
- Another close up of the casset showing the name of the song to the viewers. -gives a long introduction to the audience, provides eager and interest.
- Low angle of camera to indicate powerfulness of Mika, child like as seems like camera is on the floor looking up at him.
- Aerial shot of him on the colourful carpet in his bedroom, showing the bold colours, he look up at camera, central and eye line is towards you as if he wants you to come and join.
- Shots displaying Mika (seeming to hang from the camera lens) and fly around when creating the sense of carelessness.
Mise En Scene:
- Gold boots shown in establishing shot at beginning, identifies the unique, adventurous and ambitious style Mika takes on. - recognition of a young feel to the video. - Long shot of bedroom establishing the setting of the video. -shows the child like feel of the video, very bold and contrasting colours, individual style which creates the fun and freedom element of the video.
- Fairly messy bedroom, indicates the stereotypical boys bedroom.
Editing:
- Cutting rate fairly fast, cuts to each toy/item in room in time with drum/beat of song. -provides interest of toys for audience, -can't keep up, intriguing.
- Some shots are sped up demonstrating the child like approach that Mika is showing, like a kid running, full of energy.
Miley Cyrus is known as a teenage icon through her acting and singing career. From the age of just 11, she rose to fame as a Disney Channel star by casting the role of Hannah Montana, a children's television series about a teenager who runs two lives; one normal and one as famous pop star. Now at the age of 20 years old, she is building up her own unique style and image to attract an older audience rather than the Hannah Montana image and young audience that she left behind a while ago. Being the daughter of the country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, Miley has been in the starlight of America from a very early age.
Throughout Miley's career, she has been represented through various media texts in all kinds of approaches such as photo shoots, music videos, album covers, posters, magazines/newspapers, film and TV. During her time at Disney she was known to be represented as a young innocent 12 year old with her young role in the children's TV series Hannah Montana. The Disney series helped her to make the move towards the music industry by bringing her own songs and voice into the series, which then became so popular they were made into an album. Miley then began to explore the representation of other texts, for example she started to do photo shoots to influence the image of innocent, young, Disney star to her fans and audiences ranging from the age of 7-15 years. As she progressed through Disney, she took on the role as Hannah Montana more seriously with the various released albums and a film which demonstrated her maturing into a teenager. Her soundtrack of the film introduced her to country and adult contemporary markets which helped lead to her adult image.
During the past few years, Cyrus has developed an adult image and mainstream pop sound with the album called 'The Time Of Our Lives' (2009) and her maturing image progressed with the film 'The Last Song' and her third album 'Can't Be Tamed' in 2010. These albums featured more prominent dance elements than her earlier releases and was promoted through sexually-themed performances. In these texts, Miley presents herself as a teenage icon and shows that she has matured from the Disney stage of her career to a more adult career. However she also promotes sex appeal to the audiences due to the long hair, revealing tops, the eye line in photos and the shorts and other clothing she wears to show off her figure.
Throughout the past year, Miley has progressed through a different route as she has developed the ability to perform more revealing and provocative music videos, photo shoots, interviews etc. Her audience first noticed this change when she bought out her latest songs "We Can't Stop", "Wrecking Ball" and when she performed with Robin Thicke at the VMA Awards earlier this year. Her image makes the audience feel like she has moved on from her Disney days to a fun, young adult but some believe the change could be bad due to her younger audiences who were big fans of Hannah Montana, becoming influenced by her actions of drink, drugs and sex.
I decided to analyse one of Miley's older music videos to demonstrate the contrast of her image from 2009 to now. Here is her video for 'Party In The U.S.A' which was released in 2009.
- Sex appeal shown through the camera angles and medium shots of the hips and legs which are shown through the mise en scene of the tight shorts. -revealing top also supports this.
- Cutting rate of the camera in sync with the beat of the song helps involve the audience into the video.
- Master shot of Miley singing with a vintage microphone on a stage with the American flag which supports the title of the song. - Just her on stage brings across a rebellious side as she has no backing singers, instruments or band members.
- Establishing shot at the beginning to identify the desert styled scene and the typical teenage rebellion especially when the friends and Miley are dancing and singing on the back of cars.
- Mise en scene of Miley roughing her hair up with her hands throughout the video supports the sex appeal but indicates the innocents she still holds within her.
- Particular shots of her getting out of a car in style showing that shes the spotlight of the video especially with the cowboy boots.
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