Focused Analysis

Character

For my focused analysis i will be analysing four specific aspects to consider for my video. This section is about characterisation.
I have analysed a number of Katy Perry's music videos as i am focusing on her music. I find that characterisation is very important, there are many aspects in a character that you need to consider when making a video, for example what type of character you re looking for to attract your target audience, the age of the character or character's depending on the genre of the song you are focusing on, also the personality of the perfect character you wish to portray.
Jess and I have asked a number of our friends to appear in our video, they are free every Friday and a couple of week nights also. We have already began planning our video, the fact that our friends are acting in it helps us a lot as we can now begin as soon as possible to plan our video and begin shooting.
The type of character i would like to portray in my video is similar to Taylor Swifts video, 'You belong with me'. I particularly like her character in this video for a number of reasons. She plays numerous characters in her video, along with the number of different costumes she wore whilst singing into the mirror portraying different characters, she also plays two contrasting characters throughout the video, 'the innocent girl' and ' the mean girl'. She has blonde hair whilst conveying the innocent girl, and wears light colours to symbolise innocence. In comparison to this whilst playing the mean girl she wears darker clothes and also pulls up in a red convertable, this symbolises being the 'popular' girl from school, and the colour red suggests she is mean emhasising the stereotypical aspects of the video. As well as this, the typical captain of the cheerleaders also suggest she is better than the innocent girl.
I think that both of these characters add excitement to the video and are interesting and fun characters keeping the audience hooked on the video!



Sound/Music

The genre of the sound and music i have focused on is Pop. I wanted to use an up-beat, fun and lively song as i enjoy this type of music in particular, and had many ideas and influences from recent pop videos on television. We researched songs such as Taylor Swift 'You belong with me', Lady GaGa ' Boys boys boys', Beyonce 'Single Ladies' as well as the Katy Perry songs below. Both Jess and I preferred 'Waking Up in Vegas' the song is catchy and we also preferred this video to the others as it has much more activity going on. We particularly liked the songs storyline, as we have discovered that we are able to use and perform the storyline effectively within our video adapting to the quality of our video.
Another reason why I decided overall to choose this song, was because of the target audience of the song, I wanted to create a video where I was aware of the target audience, that they were going to understand and enjoy it. Pop is one of the most popular and most listened to genre of music, interesting a wide variety of audiences which I thought would be helpful to attract attention and the video become a 'hit'.

Mise-en scene

The Mise-en scene is one of the most important aspects involving media as a whole. I believe it is important for my music video as it determines and emphasises the genre, mood and also the target audience of the song. It is very useful as it creates life and excitement to the video and allows the video to attract attention, particularly from the target audience.
The Mise-en scene includes the camera and it's arrangement, the set, props, actors and the costumes. The costumes I would like to include in my video are colourful, fun and fashionable, attracting attention specifically from younger viewers and catching their eye, acting as a benchmark for the video. Concerning the props and set, we have decided to include a variety of props throughout our video; in one particular scene we are set in the actors bedroom, giving an impression of 'the morning after the night before'; we will include typical everyday props such as clothing, shoes, bottles, and even people! Suggesting the events of the former night, and also adding an aspect of humour to the video.
Camera angles are essential in making a video succesful, we have thought and planned about the many differing camera shots we wich to include, giving variety and a professional look to our video; again I have researched some videos with many impressive angles and shots, which i will list below.
As the Mise-en scene developes the storyline, we have thought carefully about what aspects we would need to include in order to create a succesful and more advanced video.
Christina Aguilera's video 'Candy man' impressed me a lot, it includes every aspect of Mise-en scene that could be considered in a video, such as, costumes, props, location, characters. Each of these things are included in her video, making it a perfect video to analyse and get inspiration from. This video influenced my perspective of my music video, giving me a number of ideas i could use for the Mise-en scene, making it look professional and include everything needed to make it an effective and inspiring piece of work.



Location

To decide the location of our music video, I wanted it to look exciting, busy and colourful. The location for the original video 'Waking up in Vegas' is set in Las Vegas; However, Jess and I wanted to keep the same outline involving busy streets, bright lights and a lively feel. Therefore, one of our locations we have decided is going to be set in Trafalger Square, (the closest we could get to Las Vegas!) keeping the atmosphere of the video roughly the same.
Another location also in London we are using is Carnaby Street; this is because we liked the idea of the busy street and the cobbled flooring, when set at night would give a very artistic look to the video, initially conveying the actors isolation and confusion matching the lyrics, 'I lost my fake ID, but you lost the motel key, spare me your freaking dirty looks now dont blame me' we thought this was a good idea as it matches our storyline.
The rest of our video we will do in one of our bedrooms, and also when out and about, ie walking down the street.
The impression I am aiming for is a professional one, involving many locations adding variety and not to bore the audience. The location is a key part of the video and will help determine the outcome.
I have focused on a particular video for location, i have chosen Pinks video, 'Who Knew'; i have decided to focus on this as i like the fact that her video is different, and stands out from others i have seen. The location is of a fun fair, making it busy, and colourful allowing the audience to become interested in the video immediately. Taking into consideration the theme of my music video, pop, and the type of character and genre i am including, this video really impressed me, and i shall continue researching for extra knowledge and ideas about how to produce my music video.