The mise en scene is located in a 1950's looking office presumably owned by the man sitting in the room the signs of this are the dated furniture around the room and the way that the characters dress. The male specifically is wearing a hat, suit, tie and braces which are typical for a man in this period of time to wear. Beyonce is wearing a low cut silk dress and stockings with implies that she is trying to look seductive towards this man and the audience that is watching. As said in Andrew Goodwin's theory, i feel that this has been demanded by Beyonce's record label to look sexy and appeal to specifically men and also other audiences watching. This video typically shows a black and white, film noir, Hollywood glam theme with the artist as the main attraction and coming across as the femme fatale, which makes the audience seem as though they are watching a film. This catches the audiences eye and makes them interested and wanting to watch more of the video. The song Beyonce is singing is called dance for you and is based around the artist but at the same time the music video is narrative based because it is shown like a story. The artist and her dancers dance through out the video performing for the man and also the audience, they are presented in a way to look sexy, seductive and main focus, especially Beyonce as she is lit up in most of the shots to create focus on her.
I think the target audience for this video is people who favour r'n'b music. There is a voyeuristic view of Beyonce in this video because as she is dancing for the male character and never really looking at the camera face-on, she's always looking to something behind, so this makes the audience feel that they are intruding on whats going on.
Video 2: Rihanna- We Found Love
In This video you are shown a lot of characters but mainly Rihanna and a male character. The video is narrative and artist based as the audience are shown a story-like video explaining the words of what she sings. The connotations of this are that Rihanna and the male look as though they are in a relationship as they are always together and are shown having intimate moments on screen which also reference to the words of the song title "We found love".
They are shown having happy moments together- partying, skate parks, eating out and then there is a big contrast showing the bad moments together referencing the lyrics "we found love in a hopeless place", the characters are shown taking all types of drugs, arguing, drinking and it all ending in tears.
The locations of this video take place in a lower class inner city, the connotations of this are that you can see that they live in an estate flat and the area is shown with lots of takeaways, corner shops and littered streets. I think the target audience for this video is teenagers because i think some teenagers will of experienced something along the lines of this story because some experiment with drugs, alcohol, sex and partying and it doesn't result well so they ca relate to watching this video. There are notions of voyeurism shown when Rihanna and the male are sharing intimate moments together because the audience feel they shouldn't be invading the privacy they are being shown which is very typical for R'n'b music videos.
Video 3: Kelly Rowland- Motivation
In this video you are shown the characters of Kelly Rowland, Lil Wayne and other male dancers. Kelly is represented as the powerful character and the connotations of this are that she is always surrounded by men dancers wearing black and she being the only female is dressed in a small blue swimsuit made to look sexy and stand out against the men.
The video is located in a dark warehouse which is lit up around the characters which is to create a focus on the storyline for the audience. There are links between the lyrics of the song and the actions that take place. The audience is shown a room full of men and women having intimate moments together and Kelly sat amongst several topless men which links to the lyrics "I just want to feel your hands all over me baby" and the title of the song "Motivation", she wants to be presented as someones motivation and to be sexy and appealing and this draws in the audience more which is very typical of r'nb videos.
I think the video is artist and performance based because Kelly Rowland is performing in the majority of the video and gets all of the audiences attention, which is intended, and to enhance this attention she has eye contact with the camera a lot of the time to keep the audience drawn in and it makes them feel like she is talking to them and making them feel as though they are included. This would draw in a large target audience of men because they see her as an attractive artist which makes them interested. There are notions of voyeurism when Kelly is dancing in a swimsuit which is quite revealing which creates tension for the audience as they feel they are seeing something they shouldn't be. In the video you can always see the colour blue, dark blue represents knowledge, power, seriousness which links to the meaning of the video and that the artist is in control and has the most power in this video.
Conclusion
In conclusion to the three music videos I have researched I have seen similarities between them. The videos all represent their artists in the same way by showing them with notions of voyeurism and representing the female artists to appeal sexy and powerful so that they grab audiences, particularly men, to want to watch more, which is typical for r'n'b female artists. All the videos lyrics have links to the action happening in the video. Rihanna sings "We found love in a hopeless place" and the audience are shown her falling in love and it all falling apart with sex, drugs and alcohol which links to the "hopeless place". Beyonce sings "Tonight i'm gonna dance for you" and throughout the video you see her dancing and performing for an unknown male. Finally Kelly Rowland sings "Baby Ima be your motivation" and the connotations of the video are shown with multiple intimate moments with actors and Kelly herself dancing with a group of topless men, this denotes that she is the motivation of the video and is trying to grab the male audiences.
I found out that the locations don't have a link between them as they are all different. I think this is because the locations are decided by the song, so whatever the song is about they try and get a location to fit in with it.
All the female artists dress in a similar way in these videos. They wear the latest fashion and also show a lot of skin in there videos typically because of what they're singing, but mostly because they want to be represented as the ultimate female attraction and to grab the most attention.
Terminology is coming through and reference to Andrew Goodwin and media theory - this is a very good sign Olivia! Keep up with this depth and lets start seeing the drafts now!
ReplyDeleteMiss H