I looked at Florence and the Machine’s ‘What the Water Gave Me’ video, and found a number of examples of the use of cinematography, Lighting, editing, mise-en-scene, representation, form, values, and cultural references.
The singer of the band Florence Welch, typically uses performance based music videos, however they are very extravagant and story like, with wacky costumes and strange props. However, her new song ‘What the Water Gave Me’ is extremely contrasting to her previous work; this showed her making the song in the studio.
This video differed from her normal conventions, but she still kept it visually interesting by the use of editing. The was extensive, she has many mirrored effects though-out, she also used overlapping of one image, an example is where she was facing sideways on the left hand of the screen and then her face was forward on the right side of the screen. I found these techniques quite exciting and new, it worked well with the piece and the video wasn’t boring even though it was just her and the band making this video in the studio. There was also lots of fading shots and this made the video look dream like.
The lighting is kept natural; I think this is a key element that she wanted this whole video to be kept very ordinary and not over the top, like her over videos. This also allows the idea that the audience is with her, as if they are standing next to her.
I felt the mise-en-scene allowed Florence’s character to be expressed well, the ways in which she established this were through her clothes and props. An example of the types of props she used were, vintage sunglasses, instrument’s, writing pads for songs, and large extravagant candelabras, all these things allowed us to see her creativity and boldness compared to other artists.
To see the difference in Indie genre music videos, I compared Cage the Elephant’s ‘Shake me down’ to Florence and the Machine, I found one similarity between them and this was their costumes. Their clothes and make up, weren’t over the top and performance pieces, they looked like they would generally wear these clothes, even though some of them are unusual, I would argue that is what they normally wear. This kept both artists looking quite natural. However I would say their style is extremely important to them, the clothes they wear look vintage; this conforms within the indie style genre.
Another aspect I found to be important when analysing this video, is the opening scene, where Florence Welch Is not wearing any makeup; this says a lot about how she wants to portray herself as an artist and how she represents real women not like ones from pop or R&B videos. She has made an unusual music video by not wearing makeup, as most artists like to make themselves look good, whereas she’s rebelling in a way. Florence has kept herself and video very natural apart from the editing, as there are no gimmicks and it’s purely just about making the music.
A cultural reference can be found in the prestigious Abbey Road Studios sign at the end; she is showing us this is where she shot the video. This shows that she is highly regarded in the music industry now as only the best bands and artists were allowed to perform there, most famously The Beetles.
My initial conclusion from watching Indie music videos and analysing the conventions in Florence's 'What the Water Gave Me' video is that indie artists like to remain extremely contrasting, compared to mainstream R&B and pop videos. Where both genre's generally play on sexual gratification, Indie artists tend to differ from this method and perform a story of some significance, as well as including scenes with the whole band playing.
No comments:
Post a Comment