Research and planning. Analysing Videos, Bruno Mars: The lazy song

How are the band/ artist represented? Is this similar across the videos?

The artist is represented in a comical and cheeky fashion. The artist bears resemblance to the dancers. He is wearing casual clothes as are the dancers and throughout the video a co-ordinated dance is shown.

What relationship exists between the images and the lyrics in the chosen videos?

The lyrics indicate the actions of the dancers and te artist. E.g "throw my hand in my pants" is the point at which they do so whilst swaying to the beat. Any lyric that can be interpreted as an action is done further adding to the comical nature of the video.

What relationship exists between the music and the images?

The music has an impact on the images and examples of this is shown througout, an example of which is when the artist strums a guitar around three quarters of the way through the song. At this point the music does exactly the same thing so they have timed the dance routine and coincided the images with the music.

Is it possible to see any common features in the music video?

The conventional things found in this video are dancing. Again, the dance is co-ordinated to the lyrics and beat of the song, this is common among todays music videos because they usually find it more interesting than watching people play their instruments and/or watching a scene emerge or conclude throughout the course of the song. It is a more modern touch to a music video. However, there are also unconventional points in this video. Firstly, there is ever only one shot/angle used to capture the entire video. This is so the dancers and artist are constantly kept central and the entire dance can be kept in one space rather than take several angles and take longer to make and edit. Additionally, the clothing is more modern which isnt a convention but are generally more common in music videos of the present unless the producers or artists purposly dress otherwise. Such an example is sunglasses, this could have been done for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was released early summer 2011 so he could be portraying to the audience that summer is around the corner.

Basic conventions in my chosen genre of music videos

The genre I have chosen is hip hop but with a sort of pop-rap twist. I think it is the easiest to impersonate without becoming too difficult to produce ideas.

Also, with the majority of songs in this genre have a relatively fast beat, lots of cutting will be necessary which is something I wanted to do anyway which additionally keeps the video new and exciting. I have decided on my genre but I must now search for songs which fit this criteria.

The criteria or conventions of the genre is as already mentioned, (fast beats more often than not) so therefore the cutting in the film will need to be plentiful and essential. Firstly, the words usually tie in with what the artist is saying so I need to try to incorporate that technique into my work, they also mouth some of the words when less action is taking place in the scene. Not only this, but the cuts include differences in background, camera angle clothing changes and amount of people included. (lighting, Camera, Mise en Scene and editing). Exceptions can be made however, an example of an unconventional is the Lazy song by Bruno mars which I will research on my next post along with four other similar videos so I can study in detail what makes each video work and why.