MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS - BEYONCE WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME

Beyonce plays the role of a traditional 1950s housewife named BB “Homemaker”. The video follows many  of the genre characteristics of 1950s homemade movie; elements such as the artificial lighting, credits on screen, colouring and costumes portray this. However, throughout the duration of the video Beyoncé acts out a number of traditional housewife “responsibilities” such as cleaning, cooking and gardening, assisting in the overall perception of the video. 

Beyonce is the only subject on screen throughout the whole video. She is dressed in tight fitting outfits and traditional 1950s underwear whilst rolling around, crouching and crawling on the floor whilst singing “Why don’t you love me”. It could be suggested through the videos portrayal of Beyonce that she is inanimate – purely an object of desire for the egotistical male that doesn’t really love her. This ideology or concept of sexual fantasy or desire is highlighted by Beyonce exaggerating or flawing her female assets such as her breasts, bottom, midriff, legs and face. The face is particularly highlighted as a main focal point through the elaborate eye make-up and bright red lipstick connoting feelings of lust and infatuation; where Beyonce bites her finger it could even allude to the idea of promiscuity when considering that during the 1950s, what is perceived to be acceptable in Beyonce’s video by today’s standards, would have been classified as a form of pornography.

Throughout the narrative there is a conscious portrayal of BB.Homemaker’s vivacity and contrastive nature to that of “traditional” or “real” 1950s housewives e.g.. Tries to carry out everyday tasks but manages to fail (sets food on fire). The ostentatious and exaggerative jewellery connotes wealth and luxury, projected stars behind BB Homemakers silhouette signify honour, glamour and her clothing conveys BB Homemaker as lascivious , unique and desirable woman. This is done primarily to juxtapose Beyonce’s aesthetic with the lyrics of the song – why wouldn’t any man want to love a woman as gratifying as this?  This is justified by the lyrics 

“Why don't you need me, tell me baby why don't you need me?

When I make me so damn easy to need.

I got beauty. I got class. I got style and I got ass.

And you don't even to care to care. Looka here

I even put money in the bank account don't have to ask no one to help me out

you don't even notice that.”

Camera movements 

The cuts and soft focus reflect genre characteristics to indicate an air of age and authenticity. 

There are various straight cuts and zooms throughout the narrative to emphasise the body of “B.B Homemaker” and also creates a sense of voyeurism which also abides by Goodwin’s theory of reference to notion of looking, and the demands of the record label being reflected through the video . 

At the beginning of the video there are mainly straight cuts in mid shots and long shots to act as a topic marker – what we see is Beyonce standing over a steaming bonnet of a car in a cropped chequered shirt, stockings and high heels. The camera then cuts to a medium shot of Beyonce rolling a tire on the floor towards the car. 

The camera then cuts to a close-up of Beyonce’s face showing her hand wiping across her forehead leaving a dark greasy stain. Here the female is juxtaposed with very traditionally male traits such as grease, cars, steam and mechanics to add to the air of mystery and ambiguity which is so keenly portrayed. This shot could suggest that Beyonce is taking on the role of a male – maybe she had had to learn to do things for herself as the male she loves so dearly is no longer in her life, hence her lyrics “Why don't you love me, tell me baby why don't you love me. 

The evident pattern of shots in the narrative is from close-up to medium or long shot; close ups to convey emotion or implied meaning through BB Homemaker’s facial expressions and long shots to purposely reinstate the theme of female gender representation as an object of sexual desire.

When BB Homemaker carries out traditional house wife responsibility there is emphasis on what task she is doing through the conscious crafting of mis-en-scene and camera work. The low angle shot shows the mop juxtaposed with her high heel shoes, followed by a mid shot showing her expression as well as the scenery (an ironing board and washing detergent is visible in the background as every object within the frame remains in soft focus)

Sound and editing

To work in conjunction with the theme of the music video, and the time period of which it is set, there is a section of the video which pauses whilst “B.B Homemaker” takes a bubble bath using cheery yet slow music resembling a theme tune as a sound bridge. The camera then cuts to “B.B Homemaker” dressed in a maids outfit dusting off her 16 Grammy awards – the sound here is parallel; just as the camera cuts back to the narrative the music does in conjunction with the action to restart the narrative and the sound resumes as contrapuntal throughout.

The dissolves or cuts into other scenes flicker and are sepia/aged in colour to create the illusion of a deteriorated 1950s home movie – the quality of the image is expected to be far less than videos that are made today.

MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS - RIHANNA WE FOUND LOVE

We found love is a song written by Calvin Harris but song and filmed with Rihanna. The music vide is directed by Melina Matsoukas, who describes the singers as a "drug-abusing thrill-seeker in a relationship that quickly spirals downward into addiction and violence". The music video won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.The song reached number one in the charts for a total of three weeks.

The main character is played by Rihanna, and there was a lot of scepticism on whether the video was relating to a past relationship she had. I personally really like this music video because it is a prime example of how good narrative music videos can be when performed correctly. It provided a lot of inspiration for our video.  

The video starts off with an extremely long intro to the video, nothing to do with the song, as it is narratively commentated over by a lady. What this does it is set the scene for the video and help explain to the audience what is going on between the characters. The director uses quick cuts and fast paced editing, of the same two characters, in lots of different places to imply how quickly time has flown bye together. 

The atmosphere seems very depressing and dark with the shots showing the two characters in broken down scenes. From shots of the two of them sitting in a bathtub in a grotty smashed up apartment to a shot of them smoking curb-side to a road at night-time looking slightly under the influence of a substance. These visuals are connoting a sort of "Live Fast Die Young" attitude with the drugs and the carefree attitude. There is one particularly disturbing close up of Rihanna with her hair all wet and looking general dirty that just summarises the intro.

Then as the music kicks in the "temperature" and mood of the song changes dramatically. The overall appearance of the characters improves and they look a lot more taken care of or "refined". The facial expressions have also changed from the serious stares during the intro to fun, clearly enjoyable, happiness. A massive contrast change in atmosphere. 

In the build up to the chorus the viewers are met with a montage of drug related shots and sexual scenes, giving a real sex drugs and rock & roll theme. Creating a sort of euphoric look to drugs with the multi-coloured cigarettes and pills and relating it to sex by cutting scenes of the two characters in between. Then as the beat drops for the main riff cutting to a music gig outside. 

As the video progresses it carries on into madness. The upbeat happy atmosphere that we were seeing at the start of the video eventually breaks down into fighting, with the final scene being her leaving him passed out on the floor. The whole video represents how relationships can turn out. Although they may seem amazing at first its so easy how they things can turn around to be the complete opposite. In this case love. 

Although the video seems very simple when watching it there are many small things that i picked up on throughout that influence the mood and story to the video. Colour has been massively edited with during the video. There are several different scenes that have been colour graded to have a completely different tone to it. Looking below you can see the differences and this tone can reflect on the way the audience can perceive the shot. For example the shot far left makes her look very innocent and shy due to the calming blue tone to the shot. However if you were to replace that with red then it makes her look fierce, the complete opposite. 

Camera wise the video is shot not steady but not hand held, its sort of in between. There is movement in the shots have this is not smooth which works cleverly because it helps the audience connect with the video and fill more emerged visually. The camera angles are relatively horizontal as well with 9/10 being eye to eye contact level. There are a few high angle shots but this is during the mud gig scene where high shots help to show the amount of people involved in the gig and not connote dominance to a specific character etc. 

Overall I think the video works really well. The story is based around love and how rollercoaster the relationship can be, and I think that visually it fits perfectly. Honestly I can find almost nothing to fault or that I could improve upon. 

MUSIC VIDEO ANALYSIS - WILKINSON AFTERGLOW

The music video to Afterglow was first released onto YouTube on 10 September 2013 at 2.52 minutes long. The video is about a couple’s five years relationship and the numbers, hours, days, and statistics of what they have done together since they first met. Australian actor, Leighton Sharpe, plays the role of Paul in the video and Danish model, Ida Marie, plays the role of Dana.

The idea for the video is unique and takes some different structure to a normal dance music video, which sometimes can be risky but in this case I believe it worked. The video itself touches upon a variety of themes and has a very modern outlook on a 21 century relationship. Expanding on that, I have taken a few screenshots which I believe fit into certain categories which are some of the main theme and why they were chosen.

 The first being a modern/ theme including, video-calling when they are alone, video games, instagram, facetime, sex or similar aspects, festivals and ‘so called romantic dinners’ aka fast foods. Incorporating these in the video as what is said to be a modern relationship is a brilliant idea in my opinion as its rare to see people talk about things we can relate to, such as instagraming your food and going to festivals and loosing your tent. Sound silly but these are little things that People can relate with the actors so have self involvement.

The next theme has a similar aspect but involves teenage to early 20’s ideas of fun aka bad habits, for example drinking, smoking, drugs, texting, parties and the regular use of contraception. This idea of incorporating reality and being so open about these themes has developed over time, so for instance I am pretty certain back in the old music video days the thought of someone having sex, taking drugs, drinking etc was a very frowned upon idea. But we cant blame the producers, artists or whoever’s involved on the idea, its modern society and not incorporating new, popular themes in your videos would be naivety to the way the worlds heading and frankly business decrease because unfortunately that is what people want to see and there idea of fun.

Another theme is a more realist one, when couples do have arguments, some jobs don’t get done, you get the wrong directions, you forget things, you don’t have time for your friends. Its all part of a normal relationship for things to sometimes not work out and using this theme shows the realistic side of a relationship and its not all happy happy and people can relate to this and actual make the audience believe this relationship is just like a real one.

After the negative sides of a relationship it shows what a real relationship stands for, the memories, connections between the two people and gives the audience a warm feel, the actors present it in such a way that the audience believe there love and warm to whole idea.

And finally ending on a passionate kiss as the song fades, completes the music video story line, leaving them with a positive feeling and that all the numbers, hours, days, and statistics of what they have done together since they first met, they are happy.

Why did they choose these characters?

The actor and actress were chosen to represent an ordinary young couple, the use of two attractive people is due to societies look upon this media nowadays, it is rare to find an unattractive character who is trying to appeal to men or women. The choice of age is due to the themes throught-out the video and the idea of a modern 21st century relationship, therefore using a couple in there 80’s wouldn’t be effective. I believe The ethnicity of the couple has no particular meaning, if they were of different ethnicity the same message would be applicable.

How can the audience relate to the story?

The audience can relate to the story because although some old-fashioned people will not agree but the themes throughout are a typical young couple who are having fun and couples can relate to that, people can also aspire to have what they have, and people may just relate to small things such as instagram, call of duty etc

Does the story have any relation to the song itself?

The lyrics to afterglow have some message similar to the video itself. The lyrics convey that don’t worry when the party’s finish, the afterglow will just be as good, this could suggest that there enjoying being young and all the things that come with it, but afterwards when they grow older together it will just be as good. The whole idea is a positive attitude because its not moaning the partys finished its looking forward to the next chapter, which is similar to the layout of the video as its all in chapters of there relationship.

Whats the idea behind the multi camera shot story?

The idea behind the multi camera is that its original and as I just said, like chapters of there relationship, good and bad but they get through it. The unique idea invites audiences to watch as it doesn’t take the stereotypical dance music video of just a wild party and a dj set but embraces a new happy idea.