Analyse Music Video Essay

The genre I am swaying towards choosing for my video is "indie pop" therefore the video I have chosen to analyse is Your Song by Ellie Goulding. The song is a cover of Elton John's original but Ellie puts her own twist on it. This video is a performance as it in mainly focused on the performer, Ellie, although we do not see her literally perform the song we see lots of close ups of her and the whole video is based around her, as indie pop is more of a low budget genre and performance is the cheapest style to make this would be expected. I also think this video touches on narrative as parts of it show a story line of her life also showing others in the video which may link to the lyrics.

As I have said the genre for this song is "indie pop" this genre began in 1980's it is similar to Indie rock but has a more melodic song and less aggression, the pop side of it also makes more commercial and give it a wider audience. There are many conventions of a "indie music" video which we see in this video. Such as indie pop videos are known for having low budget basic settings, the settings used are a train, park, field, house and woods, these are all low budget settings and would be easy to use also this makes the video more relatable for people to watch and therefore people can relate to her lyrics more and make a connection with the song, which I think indie pop will try to do to reach there fans and get a solid connection rather than pop who are seen to be more flashy and get fans through that than a solid connection. Another convention is for the video to be performance based, I have already commented on how I think this is a performance video due to the amount Ellie is seen in, she is the main character throughout and it almost looks as if she is reflecting back on her life. I think this is common as it helps to promote the artist even further as all focus is on them. Throughout most indie pop videos you see that the story is not initially being told but the video connects and the beginning of a story is there. When watching Ellie's video you can see the video is going through her memories and that she is looking/talking/singing towards another character who is not seen. Therefore a beginning of a story is there but a sense of mystery is left. Finally there are many conventions linked to indie pop videos through mise-en-scene. The props are usually very simple in Your Song and very natural to the setting rather than being used to stand out, there is a train ticket which our focus is brought to show us the setting mainly and a cat again natural to the setting around. Also with costume, lighting, make-up these are very natural and linking to the setting which I have already said is usually low budget, keeping the whole video natural and relatable.

Here you can see the natural locations.

Here you can see one of the shots of her,
showing you that it is mainly performance.

Here you can see one of the shots of her,
showing you that it is mainly performance.

Here you can see the natural props used.

Here you can see the natural locations.

The lyrics in the "Your Song" are very love based, they are the artist singing a love song and offering the song to a lover. Explaining how they might not have a lot but if they did they would offer it to them and all they do have is their music which they are offering to them in there own song. This doesn't initially seem to link to the video as the video is just Ellie in what seems to be her day to day life, also non of the acts in the scene link to particular parts of the song. But I think as you look closer in lots of the clips Ellie seems to be interacting with someone who may be this man. Also during the song she seems to be addressing the "lover" and in the video she is seen talking to the camera so this could been seen as if she is singing it to them.

Ellie is shown a lot in this video therefore we see clearly how she is represented. She comes across very normal, we see her doing normal day to day things like playing with her cat, chilling with her friends, walking around what seems like a normal setting. The way she has been styled is also very normal she is seen wearing typical clothes such as Barbour coats and winter scarfs when outside in the cold, and plain jeans and jumpers when indoors. Also her make-up is very natural. She is overall represented very normal and typical, this makes her seem very relatable for people watching particularly young girls. Also seeing her represented like this in the video makes the focus more on her voice rather than what she is/isn't wearing which I think is typical to the genre, whereas some genre make the focus more on the artist's appearance which takes the focus away from her voice. There is not much iconography in Ellie's videos, but in all the videos of her I have watched at some point she is wearing a beanie hat, this links her videos together and also gives us a way of telling it is one of her videos.

Here you can see her normal day to day clothing.

Here you can see the natural setting of a train.

Here you can see the iconic beanie, and again natural clothing and settings.

Here you can see the iconic beanie and the natural clothing and settings.

There are a lot of similarities in Ellie's videos, in all of the videos she is the main part of the video and stays the focus throughout. For example in Burn you can mainly see her dancing in crowds even when there are other people in the background she is the focus, like in Your Song when she is running threw the field although she is with her friends you see her as the focus. Also is all of her videos they give a natural life like theme, as in Your Song she is doing normal things like playing with cat and walking around, Burn has a more upbeat version of this so you see her driving with friends and dancing in a party like environment. I think this natural life like style is initially due to the genre conventions and the low budget, but I think you see this more in Ellie's videos and it seems like it's her style as she seems to dance in the same way and look like she is generally enjoying herself and having fun.

Here you can see Ellie being the center of attention in another video of hers, burn,

Here you can see how Burn is slightly different with more group shots.

The camera work is mainly full of shots of Ellie, there is lots of close-ups of her, mid shots telling the story and establishing shots to show what is going on. At 35 seconds into the video there is a close up of Ellie, I think this is a more significant close up as you can see the emotion on her face, also she is singing into the camera through this shot, which  I think adds to the narrative as you don't see the person she is singing to it gives the impression when she is signing to camera it is to her lover, this shot shows that perfectly and the emotion adds to the amount of love/ passion she has for the other person. Another shot I have looked at is the high angle, long shot of Ellie walking through the stream. This shot shows her full outfit and look, you can see her wearing very non glamorous outfit showing her down to earth appeal. Also you can see the beanie which is significant to her. Finally this is one of the view shots that shows the narrative aspect. The last shot I have looked at is half way through the video at 1:16 which is of the tree which has been carved into, there is a heart in the shot which shows the genre of the song, romance. Also when the shot is being filmed it is very shakey and looks like a hand held camera relating to the indie theme.

Here is the shot at 1:16

Here is one of the many close ups we see of Ellie.

Here is a mid shot showing the story.

Here is another mid shot telling the story.

Here is the sloe up i discussed at 35 seconds.

There is lots of editing techniques in this video at the beginning of the video you can see a sepia edit has been put over the top and also a grained effect which make the video look old fashioned with a vintage style, I think this reflects the genre as the clothing associated with "indie pop" is very vintage. I also think the part of the video is a flash back so the effect makes this more prominent to the watcher. Also blured effects have been used on a shot of Ellie standing on the train, I think this is to make the shot stand up and show the clarity of the shot, reflecting the clarity she is getting from the song. The pace of the song changes throughout, sometimes it is slow reflecting the song, but in other parts it is fast paced although the song isn't, I think this adds to the confusion.

Overall I think this video is very successful, if fits lots of the genre signifie's. The video also seems to show a lot of meaning and emotion through Ellie expressions and the flashbacks seem to add to the emotion you feel also through the lyrics.