Media Form

Duration:  

Ratio % of Performance to Narrative : 50/50?

Theme / subject matter:

Toxic Relationship

Any cultural competence needed to make intertextual references?

Music video looks like it was shot in a grungy city (maybe in the UK because of a chip shop.) One part where the star is wearing a Rastafarian hat.

Generic Features

The conventional  ingredients

Look of the video/star: Star made to look glamorous and beautiful in performance scenes but in narrative looks much more like a normal person.

Sound of the music: Quite a fast song and upbeat despite the message.

Narrative Analysis

...illustration

Does it illustrate the song?

...amplification :

Does it add another layer of meaning to the song?

...disjunction

Does it seem to work in juxtaposition to the song?

What does this contribute to your understanding?

This song is amplification, with lyrics such as the constant repetition of “We found love in a hopeless place”. This gives us the general idea that the song is about their toxic relationship that isn’t going anywhere, the music video adds to this by showing the couple doing drugs,arguing etc.

What is the relationship between the narrative and star?

What does this suggest?

The star is the main character in the narrative, showing the relationship of the star and her partner. This could possibly be about the musicians personal experience.

Technical Conventions

Visual Rhythm

Camera Movement and Cutting Speed

Cutting speed gets faster as the song gets faster. There were two scenes where the couple are focused in the middle of the scene and the camera moving around them.

Representation of  The Star

What ideas are communicated about the star and how are these communicated through camera, editing and mise-en-scene?

A lot of the MES shows our star in the narrative looking like a pretty normal person, wearing quite casual clothes and having normal hair, whereas in her solo performance scenes it's her looking all glamorous with her makeup and hair done. The camera work is constantly fixated on the star and her boyfriend always focusing on them, usually they are in scenes just the two of them but even when theres a few people they are constantly the center of attention.

Aesthetics

How is the video designed to look visually appealing?

This song uses quite a lot of visual effects and lots of cuts to colourful scenes such as the cut to all the multicoloured cigarettes, all of the ‘happy’ scenes show them in nice looking fields and bright places but the ‘bad’ scenes are mostly in an apartment that looks half run down.