Music Video case study research sheet

You will need to research the two set music video case studies: a realistic music video and a postmodern music video. You
need to be aware of the differences between them as you may need to compare them in your exam answer. You should be at a
stage where you can discuss the following for both case studies with solid examples:
Case study artist: Emeli Sande
Realistic or Postmodern? Realistic
Performance and/or narrative in the video?
1. Textual Analysis:
Cinematography
The shots are taken from mainly handheld viewpoints
of one or a small group of people, no more than about
3-5 people are used in a shot.
There’s multiple short cuts which lead from the artist
back to other things that are happening, whether
they’re artistic shots or jump cuts to Emeli in a
different setting from her original windowsill/sidewalk
that she appears on throughout the music video (this
and her hidden within a meadow filled with flowers).
Multiple artistic shots are used in order to great some
sort of affect that is creating abstract short slips
which looks like a short bit of ‘heaven’ throughout the
video.
There’s multiple jump cuts to happier and sadder
moments throughout her music video, ending with a
white screen after she’s standing in the middle of a
tunnel, as she moves away out of the frame to just
leave a singular figure there instead.
Close ups are mainly used throughout the video, as
well are midshots and medium close ups on Emeli’s
face as well as others during the video.
Sound
Technical added in soundtrack over the back of the
performance.
This slowly starts to add the drums in over the strings
and the synths that are playing in the background.
This then progresses by adding in vocals into the
foreground of the music video.
Emeli keeps the same musical score throughout the
video with slight higher pitches and notes which
playing before the chorus with a short cut from music
before Emeli returns to singing the next verse of the
song.
During the bridge before the final part of the song
there’s a short silence in which her voice harmonises
over the top of the strings which are used in a grave
form throughout the bridge section of her song before
becoming lively again and repeating the same higher
toned sequence that appeared throughout the
previous parts of the song before cutting to silence
sharply.
Representations present/how is this achieved?
1.
Editing
Editing involves just short jump cuts and sharp
fades/dissolves inbetween different shots present
throughout the music video.
The same mode is used throughout to keep the video
moving swiftly and it keeps the audience interested
into what’s happening on the screen.
Old style video camera editing is also used
throughout to show a certain time period that the
video is surrounded by. This has been used
throughout the video in order to create the effect that
it’s old. This has been done using a vignette which is
a definite border that is created around the shot,
usually used in photography to make a circular or a
square border around different photographs and
effects throughout the different cuts and clips that are
previewed throughout the music video. This is
present also at the end of the video to once again add
in that old ‘video-recorder’ idea within the video.
Mise-en-scene
At the beginning of the video mise-en-scene is used
to show a white backdrop which can symbolise
heaven and purity, which is what the colour white
generally represents.
Throughout the video Emeli is generally presented on
the left side of the frame, with some clips featuring
her in the middle of the framing, this shows of she is
and isn’t the main focus throughout the video.
Emeli also wear the same outfit throughout the music
video, keeping the same black (death) outfit
throughout the video.

2.

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2. Institutional information:
Record label and who else they produce.
Genre details:

3. Video Production:
What technology has been used to produce the
music video?

Who directed the music video and what else

have they made?
Interesting information about how the video was made:

What kind of music genre is the artist working in

and what do you know about it?

Who funds the promotion and video making?

4. Distribution, exhibition and exchange:
Where might this video have been originally
viewed?
Does/did the artist perform live? Where?

5. General information:
Net worth of artist
Who writes the music? (If band, are the writing
credits for songs distributed across all the
members?)
Biography of artist.

6. Context – social, cultural, historical