Beachcombing

Lady Gaga - "Applause" [COSTUME]

This video is a very symbolic production. As the artist is known to be an icon of her genre, she has used this video to fulfill that view that the public has on her. One way that the video stands out in terms of costume is how the singer pays tribute to other famous performers. One of these is the famous French pantomime character Pierrot. At 0:29 Lady Gaga is seen with a lot of face paint and eye makeup, so that she can have a more exaggerated version of the performer. This allows her to capture some of the consumer's eyes as she has included a form of intertextuality.

This can enable the reader to understand the video more, thus wanting to watch it a possible several times. Another thing about the costume is that she has many that are quite unusual. At various points, such as 1:29, she wears a bra that is of hands, so it looks as though somebody is holding her breasts, which is a provocative image to portray. As this is something that is not seen very often in videos, people may watch back to see this part of the video, which may get the song stuck in their heads. This is complimented by the plenty amount of unusual costumes included in the video, making it unique to other simple videos from her competitors.

This has inspired me to include some form of tribute in my video as it can help people to feel a greater sense of familiarity with it, thus maybe being fond of the production overall. I could possibly pay tribute to a singer such as Taylor Swift as she is known for having some acoustic/love songs, so it would be quite relevant. Lady Gaga used Pierrot as that was a performer that was not afraid of taking risks, just like Gaga herself, so it has some similarity with my idea as well.

Katy Perry - "The One That Got Away" [NARRATIVE]

As an artist that is popularly known for creating many enjoyable and lively songs such as Teenage Dream and I Kissed A Girl, she may have wanted to go for a different approach with this single. Although it is still quite a fast paced song in terms of the beat, the lyrics are quite emotional, particularly for someone that does not really release many sad songs. In order to create this upsetting state, having the story be told through the music video would be a perfect route for it. The first thing that it is quite engaging is that the story is told in a non-chronological matter; the beginning depicts the pop star as an elderly woman with a husband that she is not very fond of. As soon as the song begins we then see many shots of her with a former lover of hers, where she is much happier. To emphasise on the happiness differentiation between the two scenes the director has decided to have:

1. Brighter lighting during the scenes with the former lover. As brightness is a symbol of a pleasant atmosphere and darkness is a symbol of a dismal. This makes the consumer more aware of how upsetting the current scenario is as it is being compared to a much happier time.
2. The shots last much longer in the scene set at the present time whereas there are plenty of more cuts in the other scene. I like this idea because longer shots tend to connote a slow pace or a feeling of sadness as they last longer and do not create the upbeat atmosphere presented from shorter shots.

These are both great ways to make the audience more enticed by the production as it creates a very sad image. The narrative structure is quite useful to this image as the constant switch in times emphasises the difference in feeling as one moment the singer is happy and the next she is heavily upset. As this is not something typical of Katy as a performer, audiences of all kinds can find it refreshing and may be more fond of her in the future.

As my song has a similar emotion to it, both being about the hardships of love, I could have flashbacks of when the times were good and also include moments where it is very upsetting. By focusing on this I could denote the story very well through comparisons of positive and negative times so that the viewer can understand the current emotion coming from the girl being described in my chosen song.

Eminem - "Berzerk" [STYLE]

This is an intertextuality video as it includes many different references to other members of the music industry. Eminem includes many different artists in this video such as Kid Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Rick Rubin. These are all artists that have recorded iconic tracks that are of the hip hop genre. Although some may have other songs of other genres, some of their most known pieces of work are from the hip hop one. 

As the song in the video is a tribute to 80's hip hop, Eminem has decided to include some form of intertextuality in it. Although these three artists are either from the 1990's or 2000's, there are a few aspects within this video that have been seen elsewhere in a 1980's music video. One example of this is at 1:37 we get a visual that was also seen in the 1992 song "So What'cha Want?" by the Beastie Boys.

This is a great way to get people to reminisce on times from the past and have them enjoy your video. As he has so many different forms of intertexuality from both the past and present it is a great way to keep the viewers entertained. This is also something that can create a great load of 'rewatchability' as the more things that are included in the video that strike the viewers' eyes means that there is more for them to talk about and reflect back on. This can then reflect buzz on the video and make it more popular and iconic.

From this, I can tel I have the chance to include a form of intertexuality in my video. As I do not know anybody famous, I cannot have a celebrity in it, but like Eminem did I could include something that was seen in another video so that people can recognise it and then speak about it to the people they know. This can then raise the artistic levels of my video up as I would have worked hard to make sure that the details were very symmetric of the thing being interpreted.

Birdy - "Skinny Love" [CONVENTIONS]

There are many conventions of this video that make it the highly emotive piece that it is. A main focus of this video in order to make it seem very sad is the mise-en-scene. One thing that I found very important was that Birdy was the only person in the room, highlighting her emptiness. Another thing I liked was that plenty of the scenes are particularly dark (0:09) which emphasises on the pain as black is very symbolic of sadness. This emphasis of hardships is also furthered as the singer herself appears to be very pale (0:45) as well as wearing a white

dress (0:53). I am very fond of this technique as it conveys how vulnerable the girl has become after the loved one has left her, and as she is wearing white, this can be metaphorical of how innocent she is. The mise-en-scene is used a lot of times with broken glass (1:43) as well as a hanging key (2:17). The glass is a nice touch to the emotion as it showcases the scene almost as if she has been emotionally "shattered" by the person that she is singing about, whilst the hanging key can be symbolic of how she has been left alone. As keys need something else to complete their function, such as a lock, the fact that it is not with that only thing that makes it work the way it has been designed to can connote how

Birdy feels the exact same way. A final thing to note is that during the video there are times where the light grows brighter (1:28 + 0:00). The fact that the video starts off fading but then at the end it all fades to black (keep in mind that although at points it does grow darker, it never fades to complete darkness) this could symbolise that Birdy's hope for the love, the brightness, is finally all gone by the end of the song.

I could include this in my video as they both tell a very similar story. The lighting can be easily incorporated as there is a lot of natural lighting used and I do have access to artificial lighting as well so can work my way around that. This video is very simple and fits exactly with the image I have of my song. I shall include minimal people in each place to highlight the loneliness as well as possibly using props for an artistic touch.