Case Studies Task

Research for advanced portfolio (Video/TV)

Little Mix - Touch

Little Mix’s video was mostly a performance video, where you could see the members of the group dancing in their own scenes and together. The music video was very colourful and used arrange of bright pastel colours to make it stand out. The use of these colours would attract the attention of teenagers, showing you that their target audience is mostly aimed at teenagers and maybe young adults too. The video was very fast paced and would be cut to the beat of the song. Their dancing was also in time with the beat, which made everything look a lot smoother. The cuts seem almost invisible as they would follow the movements of the members when they moved. The fast-paced video matched the fast and upbeat song they were singing. They did quite big movements and dances which really stood out, this could make people want to learn the dance routine to the song attracting more attention towards the song. With different members, the backgrounds in the scenes and the back-up dancer members were different. They would also have their own dances, this is done to show the different personalities of the members. There is a theme of love and attraction in the video which related to the song. The energetic movements almost represented how they reacted when they were touched, relating to the songs chorus “Just a touch of your love”. This video is a representation of how they feel and react when they’re touched by someone with a mutual attraction. Their clothing was a bit revealing and accentuated their body shape, this can attract more male attention, but it can also attract more female attention as the way they were dressed was stylish and fans that look up to them may be influenced by them. From this music video, I feel like cutting on the beat and the transitions they use can be applied in my music video.

• Surrounded by male dancers
• different coloured backdrops
• Revealing clothing to accentuate their body shape
• hugs the wall and pushed against walls
• Dances to the beat
• Thigh high boots
• Different scenes for each member when they're singing
• Slow-mo and fade used for breakdown with faster cutting speed
• ending has shots of members together dancing
• similar costumes to one another but different colours
• location was a maze (studio)
• high key lighting
• tracks whoever is singing
• zooms in and out on person who is singing
• cutting to the beat

Justin Bieber - Sorry

This music video was mostly performance based as the video is mainly a dance video where you see dancers dancing to the song. They’re wearing loud and colourful clothing and lots of accessories which stand out against a white background, the type of clothing they’re wearing trendy, which shows that the video is aimed more towards teenagers as the style is geared more towards that age group. The dancers in the video was quite diverse, which shows that the video I aimed at people of different ethnicity and not just one type. As the music video is mostly dancing the dancers dance in time to the beat of the song to make the video look smoother. Cutting to the beat is not as frequent in this video as the scenes are a bit longer so that people can watch the dancers dance. There is a variety of different shots to show when they’re dancing and when they’re lip sinking to the song, there are close-ups used to show their emotions whilst they exaggerate the lip syncing slightly. This makes the video slightly quirky, which stands out a bit more. I liked how the dancers looked and the style they dressed in, also the studio location fitted the song quite well. From this music video, I would like to use a studio location for part of my video and also to have the actor dressed stylish so they fit the genre of the music.

• Dancers
• Colourful clothing
• Summer clothing
• Dances in time with the beat
• White background
• Uses different shots
• Studio location
• Similar clothes style
• Tracking at times
• long shots
• wide shots
• mid shot
• pull focus
• shallow focus
• cuts and cross cuts
• some beat cutting not obvious and frequent 
• fast pace editing

On my own – Amber

This music video features around the main artist whose name is Amber. The video does not have any colour and is in black and white, until the end of the video where there is one scene with colour. The song is a sad song so it is quite slow and this fits in with the slow camera movements and slow cutting rate. If the song cut too fast it would not fit the genre of the song and would look quite out of place with the song. Slow motion is used in the song to exaggerate the slowness of the song. The cuts used were invisible cuts as a pan would be used with the movement of the scene to transition onto the next scene. The movements in the song were slow too to fit with the pace of the song. The singer in the video smiles and is sometimes expressionless at times in the video to match the theme of the song. The lyrics “This mask is running thin” links with how she smiles in front of other people but when she is alone she looks sad, almost like she has to wear a mask in front of others. There is not much lip syncing in the video apart from the end of the video, instead the video is more of a visual video where it shows parts of the singer’s life and how they act. The target audience maybe aimed at an older audience, like older teenagers or young adults, who may relate with the feelings and themes of the songs. The transitions used in the video are not very sudden, which keeps the calm atmosphere to the song in the video. The attraction of the video is the visuals of the video and the relation between the video and the song. Fans may want to look more into the singer’s life and relate the lyrics to the video almost as if they’re figuring out a puzzle created by the artist. The artist wears quite fashionable clothing which I currently trendy, which creates an aesthetic that the target audience may relate to and like. Tracking is used to make it seem like they’re following the story of the singer. Close-ups and mid shots are mostly used in this video to show the expression of the singer, as the song I mainly about their emotions. Aspects I liked from this video is how it was filmed in black and white and the transitions that were combined with the camera movement to make an invisible cut. From this music video, I would like to implement the black and white scenes into my music video, however only parts of the video will be black and white. Also, I would like to use similar transitions that were used in this video to create smooth video transitions.

• ·         Black and White
• ·         Slow tempo
• ·         Camera follows her
• ·         Slow cutting rate
• ·         Use of panning to transition
• ·         Locations include outside, backstage setting and house setting.
• ·         Last scene is in colour
• ·         Beginning of the video uses slow motion
• ·         Casual clothing style (street fashion)
• ·         Close-ups and mid shots mostly used
• ·         Shallow focus is used
• ·         Not much cutting to the beat
• ·         Tracking the singer