Thursday 2 October 2014

Texual Analysis



How do the following technical elements add to the understanding of the narrative?

Mise-en-scene
Camera
Lighting
Editing
Sound

Blame It On Me - George Ezra

The music video portrays bad luck experienced by George Ezra and this is portrayed in various ways.

Mise-en-Scene

At the beginning of the music video, we see his surroundings. He is on a derelict, rundown street, with graffiti on walls, yellow doors and walls, which presents the 'yellow brick road' the elderly man George is first seen with describes it as. George is dressed quite smartly, in a shirt and black trousers, carrying his guitar. The use of the 'yellow brick road' and him holding a guitar suggests George is trying to follow his dreams as a musician. Palm trees can also be seen in the background which suggests its in a foreign country. This is also connoted through the old man speaking in a different language. There are two girls shown in the video. One is wearing a top which seems to say 'Meet The Stars' which suggests George is trying to make it as a star. George is then seen to have bird faeces fall on him, again connoting his bad luck. The colour of the substance is golden, again reiterating the 'yellow brick road theme'. This is re-enforced when he looks in the car door and the young boy shoots him with a toy gun. This also connotes how no matter what he does, it always ends badly. His bad luck is continually portrayed, for example the dog biting his hand and then his guitar falling out of the case and getting ran over. The guitar, furthermore, may represent his music career failing.  The rain just on him is pathetic fallacy, portraying his mood. The whole music video is shot on the road which may suggest it is never ending and George has always got to work hard to reach his goal, the end of the 'yellow brick road'.

Camera

Various different camera angles and shots are used throughout the video. At the start of the video, there is an establishing shot of the road, showing the location of the setting. We see a long shot of George and the foreign man, again showing the location and also showing the man walking away from George. This also gives the audience chance to see George's attire and the fact he's holding a guitar. As the music video progresses, there are a lot of close ups of George, to portray his facial expressions to the bad luck he experiences. The camera follows George most of the time, therefore making it seem as if it is handheld.  The camera angles seem to stay at eye level, however at the beginning of the music video, the camera starts at a high angle and pans down to a eye level angle. This helps establish the setting and also show the birds in the sky, which indicate to where the substance, George gets hit by as the music video progresses, comes from. We also see a birds-eye view shot when the substance falls on  him, as the substance has come from a bird, therefore the audience sees it from the bird's point of view and adds to the effect. Dolly shots can also be seen as they follow George down the road, however it seems the camera movements are mostly hand held, to get the close ups.

Lighting

The lighting remains natural lighting, however it seems slightly softened. This contracts with the chain of events and the mood within the music video, as the mood is hard, almost connoting annoyance due to the continuing sequence of bad things happening to him. However, when it rains, the lighting becomes a little harder to portray the clouds overhead, raining on him. It also connotes the mood of the video, using pathetic fallacy to do so. The hard lighting also contrasts with the soft lighting used showing the other people in sunlight.

Editing

The editing doesn't seem to be fast paced, with each clip lasting around 4-10 seconds at a time. The effect of this is to clearly show the chain of events happening. Some parts of the video are in slow motion which, again, allows the audience to see clearly what is happening within the video. Various clips are edited together to show different perspectives of the situation. An example of this would be the rugby players running towards him. There is a clip of the rugby player's expression, then of him running. The transition between clips seem to be straight cut, with no transition visible. Being straight cut may connote that the road he is travelling down may seem straight forward, however he finds that its not as straight forward as it first seemed.

Sound

There is the non-diegetic sound of the music, however we see George mouth the words as if it is coming out of his mouth. There are various diegetic sounds, for example the man at the beginning speaking to George. We also have enhanced sounds which are made to seem diegetic. An example of this would be the sound of the dog biting him. The enhancement of this sound, overlaying it with the music portrays the realness of the situation.


Secrets and Lies

Secrets and Lies Episode One

Mise-en-Scene

At beginning of the programme, we see different insects which add an eerie effect to the start of the programme, as insects are seen as quite scary. We then see a man running through the woods, which immediately builds tension because the audience doesn't  what he is running from. Seeing the dead child is quite shocking because it's not what the audience may have expected to have happened.


Camera

At the start, we see close ups of insects, which shows clearly what is being shown and adds to the location which we then see through a long shot. However, the location isn't really clear because that action starts almost immediately. Canted angles are used to portray confusion of the situation, which reflects the way the character is feeling. It also reflects the way the audience feel as they don't know whats happening or what the man is running from. The camera seems hand held due to the canted angles, following his movement.


Lighting

The lighting is low key and hard at the beginning which connotes the mood of the scene as being eerie. Once the running scene has ended and we see the forensic scientists around the dead child, the lighting becomes high key which may connote that the child is peaceful.


Editing

At the beginning of the programme, when we see the man running, the editing is fast paced, to represent the action within the scene. The clips are short which makes the scene confusing because the audience only sees short snippets of whats happening.

Sound

Diegetic and non-diegetic sounds can both be identified throughout the programme. At the beginning of the programme the audience hears the sounds of the woods, which helps portray the setting. When the man starts running, we hear non-diegetic tension music to add to the scene.

No comments:

Post a Comment