Brick By Boring Brick- Paramore
The video opens with a tracking shot, revealing the mystical world in which the video takes place, the camera then zooms in on a young girl running amongst the trees. From the first shot we can see that the video has been extensively edited to the point where it looks superficial and fake. This, along with the brash colour scheme and blurred effect on the edges of the screen, imply that what the girl is experiencing is some sort of dream or hallucination.
We then see a slightly low angled shot of Hayley Williams on a swing, and the camera slowly pans up towards her. It then transitions to a blurred and unfocused shot of what appears to be branches, and once the camera focuses we see it is in fact the little girl running through a forest-like terrain. Through the use of a close-up shot, we can see that the young girl look scared and panicked, as if running away from something. After seeing the girls face and attire up close we can see that she bears a close resemblance to Hayley. There is then an extreme long shot showing Hayley on the swing, a young man digging a grave, and the little girl running across the shot. in the background we can see the outlines of a mystical world. Up until this point, the sound has all been non-diegetic, however in the next shot, it appears as diegetic as we see a medium close-up shot of Hayley lip-syncing along to the song. During this shot, she presents herself as very innocent, wide-eyed and childish, which links the the innocence of the lyrics, 'She lives in a fairy tale'.
It then switches to a shot that shows the little girl continuing to run from something, and we then see that she has reached a hill with a door in it. Cut back to a high angled shot of Hayley dancing next to the grave, and the camera slowly pans down, almost in time with some of the leaves falling across the screen before a motivated cut that sees the girls going through the door.
Soon after a shot follows which links somewhat to the lyrics at that particular moment, there is a medium shot of the young girl from behind, which allows us to see fully the fairy/butterfly wings. At this exact moment the lyric 'she's ripping wings off of buttterflys' occurs. The camera then tracks back as the girl walks further and further out into the mystical wood. There are several shots of random and ethereal objects to add some sort of context to the strangeness of this world. This happens throughout the video, including a number of shots panning through a forest of mushrooms where characters associated with fairy tales reside, and also a series of panning shots through an animated castle filled with mirrors, with a puppet emerging from them. Again, these are things commonly associated with fairy tales.
Shortly after this, the little girls version of the world becomes dark and more erratic, and this can be seen not only by the obvious change in colour scheme but also by the camera movement which becomes quite shaky and has an element of hand-held to it. This allows for us to understand that the world she is in has turned into something completely different to what it once was. From here on shots involving the little girl are warped and scary, featuring brooding and menacing characters appearing from the mirrors that surround her, and close-up shots of her face are used to show her reaction to this. These new dark and intense shots contrast to the shots featuring Hayley, because they continue to be bright and cheery.
The little girl manages to escape from this warped world and runs away, and then there is a shot that parallels one from the beginning, where she runs across in front of Hayley, however this time she falls into the grave that has been being dug the entire video. After she falls in, Hayley picks up the doll that she dropped, and throws it into the grave, symbolising the death of innocence, a theme that is present and debated throughout the video.
Mise-en-scene is used to reinforce femininity, through mainly props and costume. Any females in the video are wearing dresses, which is thought to be the most feminine of clothing items. Also, the use of a doll as the young girls prop also contributes to this idea of girlishness, as a doll is often the gender assigned toy for girls in society. However, having Hayley appear as an incredibly feminine figure is ironic, as by being the lead singer of a pop punk band, she goes against the modern view of women and also the norm for the genre and industry. This links to David Gauntlett's second theory of 'girl power'. It can also be linked with his third theory, of masculinity in crisis, as Hayley essentially emasculates the band and the industry. As well as this idea of womanhood and traditional femininity, the delicate, floaty costumes and the doll, create an idea of innocence. The pastel colours and style of clothing encourages us to think of both Hayley and the little girl as delicate and dainty. As well as this, the swing, fairy wings and the toy doll also creates the idea of innocence and childlike-ness.
Obviously, as the video is centered around the idea of a fairytale land, props are mise-en-scene plays a big part it creating that. The most obvious and poignant is the use of a giant mushroom, which is an ideology associated with the Alice in Wonderland franchise, creating an intertextuality between the two texts. There is also a shot which features an old woman and a unidentifiable creature having a tea party featuring an over sized cup, which again links to Alice in Wonderland. As well as these, the butterfly wings the little girl wears allows for an element of fantasy to be created, as do the jars filled with fairies. All these ideas are incorporated to reinforce the absurdity of the world that this little girl has wandered into.
All elements of this video, editing, mise-en-scene, camera movement and angles are used to create all these themes of innocence, fairy tales, femininity and confusion, and they all contribute to the narrative of the video, the story of the little girl being trapped in a mystical and terrifying world.
Fucked up World- The Pretty Reckless
Mise-en-scene is one of the most important aspects for the video, because they are challenging so many aspects of the music genre and society. Through the use of costume, props and the signs the video manages to simultaneously cater to the 'Male Gaze'(a theory developed by Laura Mulvey) and protest against it. The video sees women depicted in hardly any clothing, frolicking on the beach with their friends, wearing bikinis and jumping around quite a lot. This kind of represents a slightly tamer and withheld view of women, as despite the fact that they look sexually appealing, they aren't really doing anything that isn't featured in many modern music videos of varying genres. However, there are several shots of two half naked women being intimate, and this is what caters to the male gaze as it is verging on pornographic. But, these shots are also the protest against the ideas of female representation as towards the end of the video the two women hold up a sign saying "Is this what you want to see", which confronts the audience because the image of naked women is something that is almost demanded by today's society, women and their bodies are seen as objects for pleasure, whether that be through pornography, music videos, films, adverts etc. This idea is also crushed by the words 'Not a whore' being painted on the back of one of the girls in the music video. The issues represented by the video link to the entire song, even just the title, 'Fucked up World'. The song comments on many elements of modern society that aren't right, unjustified or unfair.
In terms of costume, the colours seems to mirror the time of day in the video. During the daytime all people involved in the shots are wearing bright colours, tie dye, fluorescent colours, and in terms of accessories, its mainly flowers in various forms, sunglasses and necklaces.
However when the shots transition to night time, everyone is wearing black, Taylor Momsen simply wears a black version of the tie dye shirt she wore in the previous daytime shots. The two girls accompanying her are in black versions of the clothes that they were recently wearing.
The entire video is shot in mainly panning shots and close-ups, and despite the fact that the entire band features in the video, there are barely any shots of them. The entire video is focused on Taylor as she is the lead singer, but also she is a woman in a video about sexism in the music industry. At the beginning of the video, there is a shot showing the filming crew, watching all the women who are barely clothed, and the most interesting thing about this shot is that they are all men, there are no men. It is in fact a crew of men just ogling a collection of young women in bikinis, which again links to the songs message. As well as this shot at the beginning of the video, there is an establishing panning shot which reveals the setting, which is the beach. This video is just overwhelmed with close-ups of the women featured in the video, often in slow motion.
The video is all cross-cuts, with no real narrative arc. its almost just like a mintage of shots, which all link together to put across the desired message. Perhaps the clearest example of this is the fact that there are multiple shots placed together which don't even happen at the same time of the day, it featured night time shots followed by daytime shots.
All elements of the video, editing, mise-en-scene, camera work, are utilised to draw attention to the way in which women are used in the industry, as objects for pleasure, to be looked upon by an audience and be judged. We chose to analyse this video because of the message it promotes, and also the fact that the band has a female lead singer, just like Paramore, which further emasculates the industry and specific genre in which they fall.
All around me- Flyleaf
The video starts with an establishing shot to reveal the white room in which the entire band is situated, the camera then starts to move around, panning shots, crane shots and close-up shots are used to reveal even more of the room and what is in it. The shots are edited together so that they appear to be pulsing and jarring. There follows some long shots of the room, that reveal the red paint pouring down the walls. During the build up to the chorus, more and more paint streams down the walls, then when the chorus finally comes, it cuts to a shot of the room when it was still white and pure. Throughout the chorus is cuts between shots of the room being white and being flooded with paint.This could be symbolic of a force or power disrupting the blank canvas of someones life. Considering the bands Christian faith and the meaning of the song, it can be concluded that the paint symbolizes God's influence on the bands life. The camera shots are not particularly complicated, as the point of the video is to focus on the change in the scenery. Also, there is no narrative to the video, it is purely performance, which is also to allow for more focus on the paint flooding the studio.
The majority of the shots are of the lead singer, Lacey Mosley. In the same way that Hayley Williams and Taylor Momsen did, she emasculates the band, and by having the camera focus mainly on her throughout the video reinforces this idea. This links to Gauntletts second theory of 'Girl Power'. It is also known that Lacey is perhaps the 'most Christian' member of Flyleaf, so focusing on her during the video helps to show the connection she feels to God.
Mise-en-scene is quite important in this video, obviously the band members have their instruments as it is a performance video, but perhaps the most important prop in this video is the paint. It is constantly there and symbolizes so much. All elements of the room are white, including the seemingly random props like the bench, the table and the speakers. Also important are the costumes, all the band members are wearing white, symbolic of purity, and their instruments are all white as well . However Lacey is wearing a grey dress, which sets her apart from the rest of the band, makes her stand out even more.
When it comes to editing, the video is edited to create a pulsing effect, so the shots seem more intense and more connected to the beat of the song. The shots have also been edited together to show the extreme contrast of the initial white room and the room once it is flooded with paint. Some of the shots are also put into slow motion, and some into black and white. However, in the black and white shots the paint in the background remains in colour so as to intensify the effect, showing how much of an impact God has on their life.
All Around Me is the song we have chosen to do for our music video partly because of the beat which is easy to edit to, but mainly because of the fact that we can create a completely new idea for the video. The existing video is quite simple and has no narrative, so allows us more freedom to create a narrative to fit with the theme, tone and lyrics of the song. We also felt that it was important to do a band with a female lead singer, as they represent an uprising of women in the industry, this is why all the bands we analysed have had female lead singers, because the concept of 'girl power' in the music industry is one that interests us and one that we feel needs more attention.
