Lover to Lover - Florence and the Machine:
This is the Artist Florence and the Machines Indie-Pop music video for her single 'Lover to Lover'.
-Conventions of the Genre: This Music Video conforms and uses the conventions of its Indie -Pop genre by placing the Artist of the song within the narrative of the music video itself. This is common and conventional within music videos of many genre's as it allows the artist to be promoted with the song itself and its meaning, it enables an audience to connect with the artist as the artists communicates the ideology, message and meaning of the lyrics/song itself through the narrative and story the Music Video visually tells and presents to us. Placing the Artist within the narrative of the music video ads a personal, relative touch to the media text, meaning an audience are more likely to remember the artist and the song as a package and therefore are more likely to buy the song itself, making the music video successful at marketing the artist and the single in order to make money through it as a business. This music video also uses the conventions of the genre by creating realism and verisimilitude through the narrative, representation and visuals of the music video itself. A convention of Indie-Pop music video's are that they usually portrait a realistic narrative that gives an accurate and believable, often harsh representation of reality through there music video's. This convention is used within this music video by conveying the universal issues of love, relationships, domestic violence, hardship and heart ache in a way that is naturalistic with real life locations such as bedrooms, the beach, roads, garden and houses alongside straight cut edits creating continuity, verisimilitude and realism, portraying a more accurate and believable representation of society today. This allows an audience to connect to the music video as they can relate the universal issues and contemporary context/locations displayed within the music videos and the narrative, as if reflects the society of today. Another convention of this genre of music video is that Indie-pop music video's are also usually represented and presented in a way that shows the artists identity, individuality and uniqueness as well as connoting the ideas, within the visuals of the music video, of being raw, rough and edgy. These conventions are used within this music video to an extent by showing Florences Individual Identity throughout her music video, Florence has her statement red locks and pale skin with her vintage, unique dress sense and her quirkiness in her singing and movement. Though in this music video Florence is the main protagonist, another convention of music videos and is represented as a beautiful women in the public eye. The way see appears and dresses in this music video reflects her style and identity in real life, shown through other media texts such as live interviews, her on awards ceremonies, festivals, social networking sites and in real life imagery. This gives of the positive ideology to its audience that uniqueness and individuality is a beautiful thing and that its good to be different and being yourself is what makes you the most happy. This allows the artist and music video stand out from the crowed in a positive way for being unique and different, making an audience fell connected and like/idolise Florence as an artist and therefore want to buy her music, allowing her to make more money from her music and build up her fan base. This Music Video also uses the Indie-Pop genre conventions of being raw and edgy through its context of placing the music video is naturalistic settings like a rough, average house and using outside/outdoors locations like roads and a beach in a much more casual, care free way with no glitz or glamour or heightened reality creating verisimilitude following conventions and allowing the music video to reflect the harshness of reality and society thud directing connecting to its contemporary audience as it reflects there real life lives, problems and issues.
-Use of Cinematography: At the begining of this music video there is a lack of drastic changes in cinematography with few camera movements or angles used, esspecially when the camera is on the artist of the song, Florence. This emphasises the the narrative of the music video and the lyrics by suggesting and connoting the concept and ideology of Florence feeling unable to move on from this lover and feeling trapped within the world of love. This concept of not wanting to move on and feeling trapped in loved is emphasised in the lyrics 'From Lover to Lover and black to red cause I believe, i believe theres no salvation for me now', allowing the narrative of the music video to develop clearly. When there is a use of cinematography within the music video it is usually done subtly like a slight tilt, pan, movement or track which emphasises the action within the diegisis, by soing this it adds to the realism of the narratitive, creating versimilitude for an audience and therefore allowing them to feel connected to the story as it reflects there modern day life and society. An example of this is the use of tracking shots on Florences Lover which follow his action as he moves, this emphasises and highlights the fact hes waking away from her, developing an audiences understanding of the narrative and allowing the action to become more clear. There is also the constant use of close-ups esspecially on Florence as the story builds, this alows an audience to see her emotions more clearly enabling them to feel closer and more connected to the artist throughout, building up the tention and emotions to a climax and developing audience understanding of the narrative. Their is a lack of cinematography and when it is used it almost appears with movement that is quite shakey, unnproffesional and raw, not quite steady, this complements the Indie-Pop genre of the music video and the rawness, roughness and edginess of the genre conventionally as well as refecting and complementing the connotations and appearence of the music video itself. This lack of cinamatography but use of shakey movement that is raw and unsteady could also be interpreted as being like a home made video and these images could be taken from either a CCTV camera or camera Florence the artist put up to reveal his violence or camera that her lover put up as a form of recording his kinky ways or violence like a pervert or for his own pleasure. This interpretation and connotation also complements the narrative within the diegisis which follows the issues of liove, sex, abuse and domestic violence, therefore developing an audiences understanding of the narrative, complementing the singles rough, raw and edgy indie-pop genre and adding anouther layer and depth of intrest for an audience through the use of cinematography, connotation and representation.
-Use of Editing: Within this music video there was the contstant and maintained use of conentional straight cut edits throughout its entirety which allowed for continuinty and created the illution of versimilitude and realism, as if it was real life. This complemented the mise-en-scene, visuals and narrative of the music video which are also displayed in a naturalistic way which reflect the reality of real life society and therefore this allows the creation of versimilitude and realism to be maintained as a theme throughout which develops an audiences understanding of the narrative, appears proffesional, creates continuity and allows an audience to connect directly with this music video as it reflects there own lives and society we live in. The use of straight cut edits throughout also creates continuity and don't distract an audiences attention away from the action that is being portrayed within the diegisis and therefore maintains there intrest in the narraative itself. This creates continuity and allows the action to flow seemlessly from one lip to the next proffesionally, giving the illution of invisable editing creating versimilitude which maintains and upholds the realism behind this music video. The edits themselves also build with the proggression and climax of the narrative which deleveops an audiences understanding of the narrative clearly and allows the structure of the music video to flow naturally with continuity in a way that makes sense to its contemporary audience. The climax of the narrative within the diegisis of the music video features the modern day contemporary issues of vilolence, heart ache, serious upset and broken love qhich relate directly to the modern day, contemporary audience by allowing the edits to build with the narrative upto a point of climax, this enables the creation of tention and suspention which is effective, adding a diverse structure within the narrative and maintaining an audiences intrest in the context and narrative of the music video as they become intrigued to see what will happen next.
-Deconstruct the Text in Relation to Connotations: At the beggining of the music video and narrative there is one bright light shinning through the darkness which the artist looks at connoting she's seeing a small glimmer of hope, at the end on the narrative and music video there is anouther bright light shown through the darkness but this time its in the form of a fire, theis gives of the ideology and connotation that no matter how bad and dark life, times, situations and society may seem, there is always hope if you go for it, moral of 'light at the end of the tunnel'. This is emphasised by the fact all of the rest of the shots are taken in dark colours and settings with miserable, almost derelict locations which connote depression, sadness and heartache. This use of light between the constant darkness develops the narrative as it allows the audience to connote, connect with and follow the story of the music video as well as being backed up by the fact the visuals represent and complement the lyrics for example 'No salvation for me now', creating a running theme thoughout which develops an audiences undersanding of the narrative also enabling them to connect to the song and relate to it directly. The use of the light and darkness within the narrative with the use of fire could also be interpreted and connoted in a different way such as being blinded by love aswell as the negative connotations of being rebellious and heartbroken, this concept also complements the lyrics of the song 'road to road, bed to bed, lover to lover and black to red' which suggest and connote love, heartbreak, confusion and violence too, allowing the narrative to flow in a way that an audience can understand and relate too. Their is also a lack of cinematography and when it is used it almost appears with movement that is quite shakey, unnproffesional and raw, not quite steady, this on the one hand complements and connotes the Indie-Pop genre of the music video and the rawness, roughness and edginess of the genre conventionally as well as refecting and complementing the connotations and appearence of the music video itself (which connotes rough, edginess, hardship, violence, rawness, reality). However on the other hand this lack of cinamatography but use of shakey movement that is raw and unsteady could also be interpreted as being like a home made video and these images could be taken from either a CCTV camera or camera Florence the artist put up to reveal his violence or camera that her lover put up as a form of recording his kinky ways or violence like a pervert or for his own pleasure, depending on an individuals interpretation, representation and connitation of the narrative, visuals, mise-en-scene and diegesis itself. This interpretation and connotation also complements the narrative within the diegisis which follows the issues of love, sex, abuse and domestic violence, therefore developing an audiences understanding of the narrative, complementing the singles rough, raw and edgy indie-pop genre and adding anouther layer and depth of intrest for an audience through the use of cinematography, connotation and representation. Within the diegisis, mise-en-scene and narrative of this music video many contemporay issues are shown such as violence, domestic abuse, sex, love, vandelism, hardship, upset, hurt and being heartbroken which connote and refelct the realities of modern society. However anouther person may interpret and connote these contemporary issues as acctually emphasising reality as they may feel that in there real lives, these types of situations don't happen, this may suggest to them that acctually the artist want an audience to sympathise with her and is therefore using hightened reality to build the tention and suspention, making things appear worse than they are in reality. Although it also could be argued that these connotations are reflecting different aspects of peoples life styles and in fact it is an accurate representation of society itself but some people never experience this in there life because they live a lucky, privalleged life style and are almost wrapped in cotten woll. I believe this music video opens its audiences eyes up to the harshness and realities of society that many people experience and allows them to be educated and understand the depths of hurt and hardship some people go through in life. On the one hand this could connote the ideology of educating people of the pain and hardship people go through in life and just an accurate representation of the society and world which we live in today. On the other hand this could connote the ideology of being an overexadurated representation of real life and as being a bad exapmple to younger, more naive people as it could be seen and connoted as representing the concepts of violence, abuse, sex and violent relationships as okay and normal, leading young people to think its okay to do these things.
-How is the Narrative Developed?: A key thing about the narrative, which is conventional of music video's, narratives, media texts and stories of any kind are that the start of the narrative links back to the end and creates some kind of resolution and completion of the story that an audience can understand and relate too. At the beggining of the music video and narrative there is one bright light shinning through the darkness which the artist looks at as if shes seeing a small glimmer of hope, at the end on the narrative and music video there is anouther bright light shown through the darkness but this time its in the form of a fire, theres develops the narrative by linking the begining of the story back to the end of it through the structure of the narrative and gives of the ideology that no matter how bad and dark life, times, situations and society may seem, there is always hope if you go for it, moral of 'light at the end of the tunnel'. This is emphasised by the fact all of the rest of the shots are taken in dark colours and settings with miserable, almost derelict locations which connote depression, sadness and heartache. This use of light between the constant darkness develops the narrative as it allows the audience to connote, connect with and follow the story of the music video as well as being backed up by the fact the visuals represent and complement the lyrics for example 'No salvation for me now', creating a running theme thoughout which develops an audiences undersanding of the narrative also enabling them to connect to the song and relate to it, remember the song and therefore become more likley to buy it allowing the artist and record label to make more money from the single. The use of the light and darkness within the narrative with the use of fire could also be interpreted and connoted as being blinded by love aswell as the negative connotations of being rebellious and heartbroken, this concept also complements the lyrics of the song 'road to road, bed to bed, lover to lover and black to red' which suggest and connote love, heartbreak, confusion and violence too, allowing the narrative flow in a way that an audience can understand and relate too. The narrative also develops alongside the use of edits and cinematography which complements the narrative and develops an audiences understanding of it. For example the edits build and get faster as the story develops and build to a climax and the use of cinematography such as tracking shots follow the action of Florences lover and therefore highlight the fact he's walking away from her and allows the audience to understand the narrarative my emphasising the action in a naturalistic way that complements the visuals, narrative and lyrics themselves. The concepts, ideologies and issues displayed throughout the music video and narrative are also very conventional of Indie-Pop music video's as the derilict, dark, old naturalistic locations gives of the connotations of being rough, edgy and ready which create versimilitude and reflect real life and society without the glitz and glamour of some mainstream-pop music videos use. This use of realism and displaying real life issuees within the narrative like love, relationships, suicide, self harm, cheating, domestic violence, aggression and heart ache in a natiuralistic way allow an audience to connect with the single itself and music video as it reflects there real life and society itself, allowing them to allow connect and sympathise with the artist Florence. The use of rough and edgy settings and locations like houses, gardens and a beach reflect the lyrics and edgy tone of the song aswell as complimenting the realistic issues the song itself displays. The structure ofnthe narrative of this music videos is episodic and flashes forwars and back between different shots of different locations from there house to the beach to outside in the garden, however within each location the narrative within the scene is constantly developing and moving forward in chronological order. This allows an audience to follow and understand the story of the narrative clearly, enabling them to feel connected to it, as well as complexness of the narrative keeping there intrest, focus and attention on the music video and song itself as they want to find out what will happen next, making it a successful marketing tool for the song and a succesful media product in itself.
-How does the Text Appeal to the Audience?: The target audience of Florence and the Machines song and single itself would be at young people aged around 15-25 who are a primary audience who are typically have the most intrest in indie-pop music, people of this age group are also more impressionable and are most likley to relate too and aspire to be like this young artist, as well as beiing able to connect to the lyrics in the song. The music video itself's target audience appears to be targeted at a wider range of people, even those of an older age group such as women around the age group 25-40, this is because the way the narrative convey's a message through the music video, it covers and visualises through the mise-en-scene a whole range of issues such as violent relationships/marraiges, suicides and long term break-ups, these are scenario's that typically happen to women of this age group and therefore they are more likley to relate to and understand the message and ideologies behind this music videos and its narrative. It could also be argued that this music video directly targets violent young men, typically those around the age group of 18-30, as it is visually showing these men through the use of characters within the narrative and through the use of mise-en-scene what there violent actions do to women and therefore educating them about the error of there ways and that what there doing is wrong. Through the use of mis-en-scene such as the contrast of darkness throughout the musc video and brightness at the begining and end of it through the use of a light and a fire, it could be argued that this music video is directly targetting those people who suffer from a mental illness. This is due to the connotation of the bright lights of the light and the fire symbolising that theres always a light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how bad things mayn seem throughout there life. As this is a mainstream indie-pop music video with a mass audience, different types of people with mental illness may watch this music video and connect with the depressing, awful emotions and representation shown through the lyrics and the visual/mise-en-scene/narrative but also pick up on the hidden message, making them feel like people understand and that if an artist can find a the light at the end of a very dark tunnel, so can they, thus ideolising her as a result. For example suicide itself is covered as an issue within this narrative as Florence appears to feel like diving into the see and getting rid of/drowning her pain away, however in the end she comes out of a bad situation much stonger, finds the light and happiness, looks towards the future and moves on, this therfore gives of a positive ideology to a target audience of those with mental illness or suicidal thoughts that everything can and will be alright in the end and that they can get through this. This implied and connoted message is much more powerful and connecting with its audience as Florence Welch is a respected artist in the public eye who people look upto and therefore the message is more likley to be communicated accross to its mass mainstream fragmented audience.On the one hand the target audience for this music video would be working class people as this music video's narrative covers very typically working class issues such as violence, realtionship breakdown, suicide and domestic violence which a working class audience can understand and relate too. However on the other hand it could be argued that those of more middle class and upper class may be intrested and intreiged by this music video as it allows them a unique insight into a world they are not used to and therefore shocks them with intrest, keeping them watching to see what happens next because its human nature, opening there eyes up to a different side on society there not used to therefore educating them on the harshness of reality. It could also be argued that younger more impressionable people who like Indie-Pop music may also therefore like Florence's music and therefore watch her music video. People of an age under 20 are typically very impressionable and therefore may look upto Florence as a role model and ideolise her. They may therefore find it 'cool' to be rebelious, violent and living on the edge and therefore try to eminate Florence's behaviour which could be giving of the negative ideologies that its okay to live a hurtful, rebelious, non-achieving life.
-Link back to Theorists: narrative theorist - climax, complex, lights
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