Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Video Analysis 1
The first video I am analysis is Look for the Woman by Dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip released in April 2008. They are a British hip hop duo who combine beats with spoken word. This video represents the band as not an average hip hop duo, the conventional hip hop videos usually includes big parties and girls in bikinis whilst this one has a message to it and is set in a run down urban area.
The video starts with a conventional establishing shot or a city skyline at daybreak which sets up the diegesis for the video. It is set in an anonymous industrial looking city and lots of big buildings and colours like grey and brown are used which portrays as boring and dull.It then cuts to the singer Scroobius Pip with angel wings over someones bed. Throughout the video he is the 'guardian angel' of the protagonist whose day we follow. The protagonist never sees him and this lets Scroobius Pip be placed in the background of different scenes in order to have a performance in the video. This also connects the song with the narrative. The narrative fits the song as it is about a failing relationship and the video follows the protagonist on the day he is splitting up with his girlfriend. The idea of having guardian angels following them around makes this rather ordinary video idea more unique.
Another unique part of the narrative is that the main boy and girl have televisions on their heads. This could be used to show how distant they are from each other and also disconnected from life. The audience can see that the man is disconnected from the rest of society as he is always shown walking on his own and he is the only person, apart from his girlfriend who has television set.
Jump cuts are used whilst the protagonist is getting ready in the morning to speed up the narrative, these jump cuts also go to the beat of the song which is a convention of a music video. Another convention used is close ups of the artist which is used a lot. The camera lingers on a picture of him and his girlfriend which shows the audience that she is of some significance to the narrative.
At work he is shown in a cramped office surrounded by technology such as fax machines, computers and telephones. This connotates that the technology doesn't make him happy and feels like it is in his way. The office is very plain and filled with papers which shows how mundane work and life is to him. Again the camera lingers on a picture of him and his girlfriend, the picture is then cast in darkness, this could be symbolic, meaning that their relationship has also been 'cast into darkness' and is ending.
The browns and greys of the industrial landscape contrast with the introduction of the girlfriends guardian angel who has bright orange hair. This shows that she stands out and from the rest of the deigesis and the camera pans across to her to show she is also important. This shot could also been seen as a point of view shot as it is from where scroobius pip was standing, so this means she is important to him. As the couple walk away holding hands there is a close-up of their hands falling by their sides which shows there is no emotional contact with each other anymore.
As the protagonist goes to bed he looks at the picture of them both one more times and turns the light off into pith black. This finalises that their relationship has ended. However the video ends on a high note as the two angels meet up after and walk off together holding hands. This shows that not all is lost and there is still love to be found. Although the video shows a couple breaking up it still ends on a optimistic note to make the audience feel happy rather than sad at the end.
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