Welcome!

Hello, I'm Hannah Johnson and welcome to my A2 Media blog.
Each stage of creating and producing my music video, digipak and advert is posted here, as well as the different stages which lead to the development and creation of my final product!
Thank you and enjoy!

Link Masterpost

Research and Planning:

Three Analysis' of Music Videos:

• Katy Perry - The One That Got Away
• Leona Lewis - Happy
• Adele - Someone Like You

Two Analysis' of Album Front Covers:

• Adele - 21
• James Morrison - Undiscovered

Two Analysis' of Artists Biographies:

• Adele
• Ellie Goulding
  
   
• Create a Biography of Your Own Musical Artist
• Mock Up Album Cover
• Analysis of Advert - Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall
• Directors Pitch/Pitch Board 
• Lyric Deconstruction
• Contact Sheet 
• Shot List/Animatic (coming soon!)
• Audience Profile

Finished Products:

• Digipak
• Website
• Advert
• Music Video

Evaluation:

• Question One
• Question Two
• Question Three
• Question Four

A2 Media Music Video | Mollie Simpson - Landslide

Digi Pack

Website

Advert

Media Evaluation - Question One

Question One:  In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge 

forms and conventions of real media products? 





Media Evaluation - Question Two

This is the link to Question Two: How effective is the combination of your 

 main product and ancillary texts?

or it's in writing below:

Media Evaluation - Question Three

Question Three: What have you learned from your
audience feedback?

Media Evaluation - Question Four

Question Four: How did you use new media technologies in the 

construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

When creating my music video, I filmed everything on my HD flip camcorder and then loaded it onto my laptop. Photoshop helped me edit a few shots, and to choose the right effect for a majority of them. Sony Vegas was my next step, where I imported all the clips, chose the correct ones (as some of them were either bloopers or weren't up to the quality I needed) and began to order them chronologically. The majority of the software listed was used when I began to create my digi-pack. Tumblr was a great help as it gave me certain links to images and textures that I could download and use. 

During this process, I used an external mouse to ensure I had to utmost control on what I was doing. 

However, during my research stage, I used pen and paper to jot down any ideas I thought of instead of physical software. It enabled me to erase or change any ideas, and I could constantly carry it around with me if I struck inspiration whilst I was out and about. This research included a lot of time using such websites as Adele's and Ellie Goulding (as they are inspirations for my artist) and seeing where I could create similarities. 

Pitch Board/Audience Profile

Contact Sheet

contact sheet of potential digi-pack/website/album cover images

Lyric Deconstruction

Landslide is about being afraid of the change that you go through in life and that when you get to the end of it and look back, you can be proud of the changes you made. But also accepting and acknowledge all the difficulties you faced to get to that proud moment, as well as being okay with the fact it’s scary to change.

I took my love, and I took it down. I climbed a mountain and I turned around. – Refers to how you’ve got to take things back to basics, and struggle over that mountain blocking your way, along with any obstacles, the way you were born – alone. You can’t be prepared for the changes that surround you, and only when you do that can you begin to come to terms with the relationships you have because over the mountain your vision becomes clearer.

I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills, where the landslide brought me down – the snow refers to the purity and innocence, and you realize that you’re changing and growing, and you won’t remain the person you are. It may be easily seen or accepted, but the landslide will bring you back to reality because it’s unravelling.

Can the child within my heart, rise above? – You realize that as you grow up, you’ll become stronger because you’ve got to develop your own independence. So the child inside you has to grow up at some point. You can’t remain true to the innocence inside of you whilst giving your love to someone, and things change and you can’t control it.

Can I sail through the changing ocean tides, can I handle the seasons of my life? – You don’t know whether you can, and you ask if you can change whilst remaining true to yourself.

Well I’ve been afraid of changing, ‘cause I built my life around you - about being in love with someone, and realizing that without them, you may struggle to manage your own life because they’ve always been there. It’s referring to when you give up a part of yourself for that person, you let go of something personal, and you will become fearful of what you’ve lost when things change.

But time makes you bolder, children get older and I’m getting older too – realization that time makes you bolder, and that it’s finally reached that point where you need to look in the mirror and decide who you want to be in life. About finding the courage to make changes and leave behind a love that may not be giving you what you need. It won’t be until later in life that you’ll find joy in your heart at having found the courage to do that. But you know that as you grow up, you’ll be stronger without the child-like innocence you once possessed.

If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills, well the landslide will bring it down ­– is talking about how she hopes to look back to still find that person she gave up, and maybe that person will embrace the love she still has, because the landslide will bring it down.

Director's Pitch Activity

Ideas for the video: concepts
I plan for the artist to be walking alone, singing and then gradually moving throughout the scenery and possibly seeing flashbacks of herself as a child, with the guy she's singing about. As she passes these flashbacks, she begins to see the guy as his teenage self and she walks towards him. Then at the very end of the video, she turns to him by her side, reaches out for his hand but when she tries there's nothing there because he was just an illusion.


Intertextual references? What is it like? What should it remind us of?
Katy Perry - The One That Got Away (flashbacks)




Glee - Somewhere There's A Place For Us (illusion)


Adele - Someone Like You (tracking movement and independent shot)



Locations/Special Features needed
Location: Polesden Lacey


Special Features: 
Film grain effect for flashback

Slow Motion

Advert Analysis - Adele

This advert above is the only advert I could find used by ADELE, and it advertises her concert at the Royal Albert Hall where she performed such songs from her albums 19 and 21, such as Someone Like You, Hometown Glory and Turning Tables. This is also the cover for the DVD that can be purchased online.

The dominant image in this advert is of ADELE with her fans watching in the background. As the lighting is directed towards her, highlighting her face as well as a few of the audience to the left. This immediately suggests that there's an intimate connection between the two as she isn't the main, highlighted point of this picture. 

The monochrome effect used on this fits in with her newest album, 21, which is a extreme close-up of Adele's face (see here) and all the connotations still apply. The black and white cover suggests that ADELE is going back to basics and back to older days where music was purely music and there wasn't any voice enhancers or memes to attract the audience to the artist. It shows that ADELE is just about the music, and focuses on this in her performance.

The monochrome effect also connotates simplicity, and fits with the phrase 'nothing is black and white' because it's going against this and ADELE's trying to show that music can be that easy, which is conveyed through this advert. However the black and white could also represent the dystopian narrative that comes with ADELE's songs which show the hardships of love and life.

Biography: My Artist (Mollie Simpson)

Unlike most artists, Mollie Simpson didn’t grow up wanting fame and fortune. “I wasn’t one of those kids who bounced around their living room, microphone in hand and performing to their family,” she says. “I was a quiet kid, and it wasn’t until secondary school that I actually came out of my shell.”

Throughout her childhood, she listened to bands like S Club 7 and McFly, but never girl bands such as Spice Girls. “I hated when my friends would rant on about how amazing the Spice Girls were. Sure, they were good but I was never into them,” Mollie said. “I used to sit in my room with my tape recorder, listening to S Club 7 with my headphones in.”

Growing up in the small town of Cobham, twenty miles outside of London, Mollie never expected to be releasing her first album by the young age of 18. “Honestly, I never actually thought about going after those dreams because I was a realist, and therefore to be a Cobham Loser for the rest of my life. There’s a guy who sits on a bench every Thursday morning and rumour has it, he has been doing so for the last fifty years,” she giggles at the memory.

At 15, Mollie’s mother moved up to the north-east of England, it left her with her father back in Surrey. During the few years she lived with him, he worked a majority of the time and it created the strong, independent woman we all see today. “I didn’t mind being on my own, to be honest. Most of the time I preferred it because it would leave me alone to write out my thoughts,” she continues, her eyes clouding with nostalgia. “It seems kind of depressing when you actually think about it, but it’s just things went. I always had plenty of friends, my social life was buzzing the majority of the time, but when I was left alone, I really was alone.” Sensing the subject was touching a nerve, she starts laughing, “It’s alright though, my past led me to be the person I am today.”

Mollie is probably from the most un-musical family around, despite her harmonious alto and knack for heart hitting lyrics. “My family isn’t exactly musically talented – they’re more agricultural. My dad works for the environment agency, my mum now lives in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farms and my sister is obsessed with horses!”

Much to our surprise, Mollie has a twin sister and an older sister! “Oh, yes! I do have siblings! I’m not that surprised no-one knows about them, though. Allie (her twin) and Gabby (elder sister) do support me, but they like to keep out of the limelight because they like to do their own thing! I don’t mind, I understand where they’re coming from. To be honest I definitely miss my old life, where I could be a complete dork and no-one would know about it. I do so many stupid things, and back before Mercury Records signed me, and Landslide came out, only my friends would laugh at me – but now it’s pointed out to the public! It’s so embarrassing!”

We then asked her what she would classify as ‘stupid things’ to which her reply had our interviewer laughing hysterically. “Oh, well, my stupid things aren’t typical stupid things. For example, back when I was in college, my friend had this pot of homemade pasta, and it had ‘blackberries’ written in marker pen on the top – long story short, her mum freezes blackberries to make jam.” She explains cheerily, “Anyway, I tried to read it, and for some reason when I read it, it didn’t seem to make any sense, and so I asked her if it was in French and she just burst out in laughter. The entire common room fell into a giggling fit and I went so red I was called tommy (short for tomato) for a week.”

“Only last week, I went to Halfords with the same friend, and I was so caught up in staring at something in the shop, that when I turned back to guy holding open the door for me – bear in mind this is a complete stranger – I yelled hello! In a really cheery voice instead of thank you,” she squeezes her eyes shut at the memory like she’s trying not to remember it. “And he just smiled at me weirdly and walked by. That was pretty bad too.”

Mollie’s friends are a big fan and great supporters of her music. All the way through secondary school and the beginning years of college, her best friends - a group of five girls, two of which don’t go to college - helped her with difficulties in her life and even suggested she write the song about a specific time in her life. The result of which is her number one hit Landslide!

“Did they influence me?” She repeats the question, eyes glazing with thought. “Oh, definitely. If it wasn’t for them I doubt I would’ve ever even considered writing a song. My college wasn’t exactly a lot of help seeing as we our college director was all about academia, but they managed to help me.”

The Surrey College Mollie attended presented great challenges when pursuing her dream, on account of the fact it was purely academic and the music department was limited to a single teacher. However when visiting London on a spur-of-the-moment trip, she was singing out loud in Oxford Street with one of her best friends, when a rep for Mercury Records spotted her.

“It was literally insane,” she explains, smiling widely. “One minute Anna and I were singing along to Usher’s Without You and the next this guy pops up and says my voice is label material,” she quotes. “Obviously my friends and I were a bit wary, I mean a guy talking to a group of seventeen year old girls in the middle of London was pretty strange – but then he presented a card and told me to ring the number when I got back home seeing as it may have looked a tad strange. I got home, rang the number and everything kicked off from there.”

However, due to Mollie’s age, there were certain restrictions to her career because of college and coursework, as well as people criticising her ‘lack of life experience’ in reference to her lyrics. During her first year of college, she dropped out of college to pursue her dream – however she is planning to get back and finish coming out with three A Levels. We asked her why she thought it was important to come out with qualifications.

“I could get to twenty and my music career could be heading down the pisser,” she laughs at her language, saying she would apologise but she’s not going to hide herself for an interview. “That’s what interviews are for, to get to know the artist, right?” She says, shrugging. “Anyway, yeah, it’s definitely important to keep track of qualifications and not give it all up for one dream. That dream may not be all it seems and if I don’t finish school, then I could end up working in the back of McDonalds, spreading mayo on hundreds of burger buns. No offence Ronald!”

Anchoring all of this information together, the interview decided it was time to delve into the deepest crevices of Mollie’s life and the back story behind her album ‘Love is a Losing Game’ and number one hit Landslide. “For me, Landslide symbolizes my realization that time makes you bolder, which I turned into ‘time makes you bolder; children get older” in my lyrics,” she explains, carefully. “It’s about realising that it’s finally time to look in the mirror and decide who you are, and where you want to be in life. It’s about finding the courage to make changes and leave behind a love that may not be giving you what you need. It won’t be until later in life that you’ll find joy in your heart at having found the courage to do that.”

“Landslide is about being afraid of the change that you go through in life and that when you get to the end of it and look back, you can be proud of the changes you made. But also accepting and acknowledge all the difficulties you faced to get to that proud moment, as well as being okay with the fact it’s scary to change.”

Mercury Records was quick to promote Landslide, and make it the sole focus of the album. As amazing as the rest of the hits on Love is a Losing Game are, Mollie made sure Landslide was to be the first song to be promoted as it was the one that meant the most to her, as well as being the one she spent the most time writing – even at the tender age of 17. “As soon as I put the pen to paper a day after my 17^th birthday, I knew that this song was going to be the hardest to write, but also the most emotional. It did take a hell of a lot out of me, and not to embarrass myself or anything, but I did spend a lot of time crying when writing it.”

Despite appearing guarded about the subject, Mollie just takes in a deep breath and continues. “A lot of people will criticize this song after I say this, but I’m not ashamed to tell them where the inspiration for the lyrics came from. You win some, you win some!”

“During primary school, I met this guy who turned eventually became my best friend. We stayed close for a number of years, fifteen, I think? Anyway, we went to the same school, and spent so much time together and he was without doubt the best friend I’d ever had. But of course, it only took a while to realize that there was something more than just friendship between us, and we started ‘going out’”, she smiles, “as we used to say, back in year 8. Of course, being 12, a lot of people will say how stupid it was – but instantly I knew that he was something special. Over the years we grew closer and had all of our firsts together, like concerts, kiss, holiday and other things - which we won’t delve into – and I think it was 16 when I realized I was in love with him.  It came to leaving secondary school and moving on to a college or sixth form, and we went our separate ways – him to a school on the other side of the country, and me at the same place, and something just happened. We were getting older and we just started growing apart. Daily phone calls became weekly texts, weekly visits became bi-monthly and even then they were limited to a day or so.”

“Just before Mercury signed me, we decided to split up after five years of being together, because we just realised that we were different people and couldn’t be together. It scared me because I was struggling to manage life on my own because as I’d grown up, I’d kind of moulded myself around him – see “built my life around you”. Landslide was my emotional outing, where I vented my feelings and wrote explained how utterly terrifying it was so try and become myself, instead of relying on him. I did doubt myself on whether I could make it alone because he was always there – not only was he my boyfriend, but he was my best friend as well and my entire life included him. There was barely a picture of me without him since my family practically abducted him! He had more possessions in my room than I did!

“’Can the child within my heart, rise above?’ refers to the dreams and fantasies children have because they have a unique way of believing anything is possible, and can do anything they want with their life. They’re not so worn down and disappointed by the trials and tribulations of life yet and during the aftermath of the break-up, I really wanted to hop in a time machine and go back to when things didn’t hurt as much.”

The signing of Mollie was the beginning of her happiness. Not only would she go on to relieving herself through lyrics, but she got to influence and help thousands of people around who went through similar things. “One thing I love about Landslide is that the theme is transcendent and ever-changing. Several people have written me letters to say how much they the song has helped them through pregnancies, their children leaving to go to University and even deaths of loved ones! It means a lot to me that they can relate, it allows me to have an intimate connection with them. If I could I’d meet every single one of my fans!”

It’s still early days for Mollie, but she has a bright and promising future ahead of her already. Such lyrics as “Oh, what are we doing? We are turning into dust, playing houses in the ruins of us” in her collaboration of ‘Broken Strings’ with James Morrison, have also opened the opportunity to follow the path of becoming a lyricist if she ever gets fed up with the celebrity life. “I get bored quite easily, so I wouldn’t be surprised if having my pictures in magazines eventually pissed me off enough to make me want to ditch that life!”

Mollie’s debut album Life is a Losing Game is certainly a heart-wrenching album and delves into the territory of a teenage girl’s love life after a rocky road. “I guess there really is light at the end of the emotional tunnel.”

Album Cover - First Attempt

Biography Analysis – Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding is another artist similar to my artist, as she’s a British artist that writes about personal experiences and voices them through her songs and lyrics. She’s an artist whose lyrics are refreshing and describe ‘the highs and lows of love with her airy, gossamer voice.’

Like Adele, a large part of Goulding’s biography is written quotes which elaborate an original thesis. Throughout the entire content, she describes what her songs mean, and how she grew up in Hereford, a small town 16 miles east of the Welsh border. Her whole history is present, and once again, she uses an informal mode of address to talk to her readers through her biography, to initiate an intimate relationship between them.

Features of this biography that I will use in my own will be the mode of address and language as it creates a friendly, loving image of Ellie Goulding and despite being a celebrity, it describes her to be “one of them” instead of having the slightly intimidating celebrity status.

Biography Analysis: Adele

Adele is known for her intimate lyrics and meaningful songs, as well as not really caring what other’s think, shown by her response to Lady Gaga’s comment about her weight and how she should “move around a bit more, instead of sitting on a chair” – see Rolling In The Deep Video.

This attitude reflects in her biography as straight away, instead of all the facts and information like her birthplace and last name being pasted in a small box in the top right hand corner of the page – it seems like Adele is actually addressing the audience herself via an informal mode of address through quotes.

A large majority of the content on her biography is a starter line, describing a certain statement about herself and then following it up with Adele’s own words to elaborate. It shows the journey through her life, and what inspired her to become the artist she is today. Her whole life’s history, stemming from what hardships pursuing music brought her and how one of her friends set up a page for her music in late 2004.

The language the biography uses is definitely informal, and gives a friendly tone towards the audience as she continues her previous attitude about not caring with curse words inside of her quotes. Clearly, Adele prefers to be ‘real’ with her audience and to show who the real her is. This thesis is also reflected in her memorable lyrics and how she reaches out towards the audience by letting herself go and becoming vulnerable through song, allowing them to delve into the deepest darkest parts of her life.

Whereas Adele’s biography does establish the idea that the reader and her are ‘friends’, it does supply an increased amount of information that only outlines Adele’s life – leading us to believe that whilst the content may be informal and friendly, there is a sense of formality which creates Adele to be a celebrity, therefore drawing a line between friends and fans.

Biography

James Morrison - Undiscovered


The album cover for James Morrison's 'Undiscovered' immediately attracts the audience towards it with a close up of the artist himself. It's quite effective since it creates an intimate bond between Morrison and the audience because it lets them see him up close, and reflects in the songs featured in this album.


Several of the songs featured on the album reveal Morrison's feelings through his lyrics. Such as You Give Me Something was originally intended to be a 'harsh love song', as the lyrics mean that the protagonist of the song doesn't love the person as much as she loves him, but is willing to give the relationship a try. This suggests a darker side to Morrison already there must be some type of experience in his life, whether he was the protagonist, or whether he knew someone who was the protagonist - but this only enhances the intimacy between him and the audience. Other songs such as Wonderful World, The Pieces Don't Fit Anymore and Undiscovered also reflect this assumption of dark feelings.


However, whilst the close-up and expression on Morrison's face could connotate that he's opening up to his audience, and allowing them to see what he's like up close - his eyes are staring into the distance, which could suggest that Morrison is still quite distant about his feelings, and his songs featured are deep and meaningful. 


This goes on to reflect the genre of Morrison's music as from the cover, it's pretty clear that his songs aren't going to be heavy rock or drum and bass - they'll be calming and soothing. Which is later confirmed, if the songs are listened to, by the increased use of acoustic guitars and the raw power of his voice.


The size font of Morrison's name up in the top left hand corner suggests that he wants to be recognised by the audience more so than the title. Also, the use of a dark green to lime green gradient as the colour for the lettering suggests that maybe there's been a dark to light journey for Morrison. That does blend into the general colouring of the album cover as it has a slight greeny/yellow tinge to it - and it's known that green is usually associated with nature - possibly meaning that Morrison's songs are natural, and come from something nature-given, like the heart.


The album title Undiscovered gives the connotation that the album is revealing a certain side to Morrison that hadn't previously been discovered.

Adele - 21

‘21’ is indeed a very simplistic album cover in comparison to others such as Katy Perry’s One of the Boys or most pop sensations. However, despite first appearances, the single image of the soul songstress Adele with simple lettering depicting the title and the artist of the album - actually creates an image that’s more effective than any amount of photo shopped images and variety of colours seen by most pop artists.

She’s always been a confessional singer-songwriter who explores themes of anger, revenge, heartbreak, self-examination and forgiveness, and uses her own personal experiences to write her songs.

When first released, Adele went on to explain the inspiration behind her new album and it’s title:

“I’m very excited, nervous, eager, anxious but chuffed to announce my new album! It’s taken a while and it knocked me for six when writing it. It’s different from ‘19’, it’s about the same things but in a different light. I deal with things differently now. I’m more patient, more honest, more forgiving and more aware of my own flaws, habits and principles. Something that comes with age I think. So fittingly, this record is called ’21.’ The whole reason I called my first album ‘19’ was about cataloguing what happened to me then and who I was then, like a photo album you see the progression and changes in a person throughout the years.”

Now when examining her album title, the emotion behind the simplistic design seems so obvious.

The monochrome effect gives the audience a sense of nostalgia, as it’s usually associated with events that have happened in the past. This basically depicts Adele’s lyrics and song writing skills as she stems her hard-hitting lyrics from events that she’s been through. For example, take her song Someone Like You - Adele wrote the song about a past love who moved on with his life, with someone new, and she was unable to do the same.

It also has an impact on the audience as it stands out from the typical, bright album covers, almost reflecting Adele’s status as an artist because she is an individual artist who makes music for herself, and not for the money or fame. The colouring could also connotate the darker meaning behind the songs featured, and suggesting that maybe the lyrics are a little more hard-hitting than her previous album.


Using the monochrome effect, also allows the cover to be aesthetically pleasing to the audience as it suggests a calm and relaxed feel, which reflects in Adele's songs as they're ones you can kick back and relax too.

The expression on Adele’s face, as well as the body language suggests a certain fatigue for her emotions. The closed eyes connotate her tiredness, and if you listen to the tracks in her album, this assumption is reflected by her songs showing her heart-ache and struggle with love. Adele’s hand placement backs up this as when tired, most people lean on their hand to prop themselves up. 


The lighting on the cover could also represent that this album is Adele's way of coming out of the shadows and revealing a little more of herself, since the light is directly pointed towards her face. Her first album 19 (see image below) is a shot of Adele mostly in the shadows. So possibly, with the development of her songs, and albums, she's revealing herself more and more towards the public - with a little more of her shown in each album cover.




The positioning of the text on 21, suggests that she wants people to know who wrote these songs, but doesn't care all that much as it's positioned to the bottom right of the cover. Just like the picture featured on the cover, the lack of creativity in the font doesn't reflect in Adele's song writing skills, and backs up the idea that she doesn't really care for material things as long as she gets her point across.

The One That Got Away – Katy Perry

Genre

•        Pop – focuses on the theme of love, in this case, loss of love.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

•         The visuals amplify the lyrics and the idea that Katy Perry had a soul mate once upon a time, and then lost it.
•        The very beginning of the video, it shows an elderly version of Katy Perry with a husband. However towards the end of the video, it’s obvious that this husband isn’t the same man as the one shown in the majority of the video.
•        In another life, I would make you stay ­– the young man gets up from the bed, walking away from Katy Perry, suggesting a link between the two despite the lyrics actually painting a bigger picture.
•        We got matching tattoos – later in the video, it shows Katy Perry getting her tattoo.

Relationship between music and visuals

•        At 1:18, the beats in the music behind goes with the change of what’s on screen, flicking between a selection of different photographs.
•         Further into the video, each shot becomes longer and more lingering – for example, the shot of Katy Perry as an elderly woman.
•         The editing mostly matches the tempo of the music, and maintains quite a fast speed for the first half of the music – along with frequent scene changes and locations.

Close-ups of the artist and star image motifs

•         Katy Perry is known for having memorable videos. For example, Last Friday Night, E.T and Firework. All of which either include some incredible CGI or a story line that’s impacting and/or amusing. This is another one as it impacts the audience emotionally through the combination of lyrics and visual aids.
•        There are many medium to extreme close-ups of Katy Perry as the elderly woman and as her young self, highlighting how the emotion is etching on her face and supporting the narrative of the video.
•        The video has an underlying serious issue about losing someone you love, suggesting that Katy Perry may have gone through something of a similar sort (i.e. Russell Brand). This suggests that instead of her usual voyeuristic or comedic videos, she’s trying to send out a serious message to respect and cherish the time people have with their loved ones.

References to the notion of looking

•        There’s one reference with a few photographs of the young Katy Perry and guy that come on screen.

Intertextual references

•        There aren’t any.

Performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?

•         It’s a narrative-based video as it starts with a shot of Katy Perry as an elderly woman, married to another man, and then proceeds on to show the tale of her lost love through flash-back type scenes.
•        The video is almost a little performance based as it shows Katy Perry performing towards the camera, and towards the elderly version of herself in a two shot.

Happy – Leona Lewis

Genre

•         Pop – focuses on the simple theme of love.
•         R&B – has the typical groove combined with piano and heavy use of drums towards the middle of the song.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

•        Throughout the video Leona Lewis is shown as laughing, smiling and generally being ‘happy’ around the people she knows.
•        I’m just trying to be happy – shows Leona happy with a guy she likes.

Relationship between music and visuals

•        Towards the end half of the video, the music dictates when the shot jumps to another one. The piano cuts from Leona to visions of the wedding, to flashbacks and then to the guy.
•        In the same half, every other drum beat leads to another cut. For example, 2:54 is a shot of a ring being placed on a finger, then 2:55 is a close-up of Leona Lewis’ face, then towards an over the shoulder shot of Leona and this guy and so on.
•        The video only chances pace with the music towards the end when the heavy drum beat kicks in. For the first half, the tempo is relatively slow, and the shots are more lingering in comparison to the second half.

Close-ups of the artist and star image motifs

•         Leona’s record label, RCA Records has signed other acts such as Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne in the past. They’re known for being women who created themselves and made a living out of their meaningful lyrics.
•        Leona is being offered to be a single, independent woman that despite her difficulties, is trying to be happy with herself and the world around her.
•        This video relates to her other, Better In Time, which represents Leona to be a strong woman who knows that despite the present, everything will get better with time. In that song’s case, it’s referring to a break-up, but if relating to all her songs, she could be referring to life in general – that despite hardships, life will get better.

Reference to the notion of looking

•         During the video, starting at 1:35, there’s a montage between Leona Lewis going out with her friends, and her changing into a white dress and matching shoes. This is an implied sexualised display.
•         Towards the end, there’s a reference to a wedding as it shows the image of two people getting married, and then off towards the reception as if the audience is watching Leona and this man’s wedding. Even though it’s revealed that he in fact married someone else.

Intertextual references

•         There aren’t any.

Performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?

•         The video is mostly narrative based as it attempts to tell the story of Leona Lewis falling in love with this man, and eventually seeing how their relationship blossoms and where it goes.
•        A large part of it is also performance-based as the whole video is a montage of clips, flicking between the telling of the story where it’s purely acting and shots of Leona singing in different situations, like leaning against the wall, or with the back drop behind her being the ocean at night

Adele - Someone Like You

Genre

•            Pop – focuses on the simple theme of love and romantic relationships.
•            Soul and Jazz – heavy use of piano

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

•         The relationship isn’t highly distinctive, but it’s still apparent that the overall meaning of lost love and heartache reflects in the visuals in black and grey – suggesting a haunting and emotional state of mind to those who watch it.
•         Adele’s expression also portrays the face of a broken hearted woman, looking back at her old love and reminiscing at the love she lost.
•         During the end of two of the chorus’, the camera moves off into a 360 rotation of the surrounding area as if to emphasize Adele’s lyrics – Don’t forget me, I beg’ – this enhances the idea that despite the world and everything going on in the other person’s life, she doesn’t want them to forget her.

Relationship between music and visuals

•        The video rarely strays from its tracking shot of Adele walking along the Parisian bridge.
•        The arrangements of the lingering shots and camera movements correspond well with the beat of the song as it’s slow.

Close-ups of the artist and their star image motifs

•        Adele is known for writing and singing songs about her past experiences with love and relationships.  So the image of her being offered is one that reflects this, by using lingering shots, distant expressions and slow camera movements.
•        This video relates to the rest of her videos like Make You Feel My Love and Rolling In The Deep, where despite the different genres, all seem to have similar cinematography.
•        The video has serious elements towards the video, suggesting that Adele is serious about her music and writes about real things that affect a person.

Reference to the notion of looking:

•        There aren’t any notions of looking as the camera is solely focused on Adele, and she’s the only one that stars in her video.
•        However, this suggests how she’s feeling whilst she’s singing this song, like she’s alone.
•        She doesn’t need any back-up singers/dancers or special effects to steal the limelight, because her voice and the lyrics make her a true artist.

Intertextual references

•        There aren't any intertextual references.

Performance-based, narrative-based or concept-based?

•        It’s mostly performance based as it features Adele performing the song for the majority of the video.
•        It also has elements of a narrative based video, as it shows the story behind her song. The whole store isn't elaborated, but judging by her ability to stir heartstrings in this simplistic video, and the shot of a man walking away from her at the end – it sort of gives the tale of the video away.