my chosen music video analyisis

                  

I have chosen the 2002 realised song 'A Thousand Miles' by Vanessa Carlton. Which unfortunately already has a original video. I chose this song because it is a female singer and the person who will be staring in my own original music video will be a female because they have more confidence to act. Also because the beat of the song will be good to work with when editing my music video footage. The genre of the song is pop rock.

Media representations

The singer is being represented because she is the one staring in her music video.  I think she is being represented in a positive way by her record label(institution) A&M records because they want to promote her so can not afford to make her look like a bad singer or a bad role model. The subject is being represented this way to create norms and values to her audience of how much of a good person she is. Shes being represented as a genuine musical person in a fair and accurate way.  Some opportunities exist for self-representation by the subject because she stars in her own music video.

media language and form

In the music video when the artist says 'making my way through the crowd' in the background there is a crowd of children which has high level of meaning because it connotates the lyrics from the song. The piano has a high level of meaning because its the instrumental music in the background of the song. The place where the music video is set has  a great level of meaning to the music video because she says she is going 'downtown' and that's where she ends up in downtown America after travelling from her house.

The significance of the the music video connotations is that the lyrics link in with the video for example when she says 'making my way down town' she is travelling downtown on her piano.

The non-verbal structures of meaning in the text for example the artists facial expressions her mouth goes in time to the music and she focus's on the camera throughout the full music video. Her clothing is very simple and just looks like her normal everyday clothes. Making her look like shes made no effort which goes with song because it is a very calm song. The piano has meaning in the song because the background music is a piano playing so by her playing it throughout the whole song this has effect on how the music video looks and how it goes in time.

The mise-en-scene,set and setting has significance through out the song because of the conventions of the music genre. The setting is really significant in the music video because it represents the repeated line 'making my way downton' is ironic because she is travelling all the way through America from her house to get to downtown America,and we see a really nice view of America. The significance of the mise-en-scene is to create a entertaining music video what has conventions to the genre of piano pop and soft rock. For example the piano and the American countryside scenery to create the calm element to the soft rock genre. 

The sound track of the music video is helping the camera shots to come together. The dominant images and iconography are the artist and her piano because they're constantly in every shot and the most significant things of the text.  Visual techniques like the camera and editing are used to convey meaning because the use of continuity within the sound and the editing makes the music video look professional. the overused mid shot of the artist on the piano conveys how good she is at playing the instrument. Also the variety of different fast shots conveys the pace of the song and how fast she is travelling on the piano.

Narrative

The narrative is organised and structured in a performance form because all the way through the music video she is playing her piano. But from another point of view you can see a narrative structure of a story as she makes her way through her town it goes from her setting off from her house in the morning all sunny and busy to the night as everything gets less busy and she makes her way back to her house. The audience is positioned in relation to the narrative to see the music video as being somewhere in America because of the mise en scene what has being represented in different media products like films and America t.v programmes for example the tall buildings and the stereotypical suburb streets. There is only one character in this music video and that is the artist,she is delineated in a distinctive way because she is a neutral character she isn't a heroes or a villian. Their narrative function is to just perform in a positive way.

The audience will be drawn in by the identification of the icons of America in the background of of her journey. For example the bikers on the motorbikes riding down a empty road full of mountains. The scenery of big tall American buildings,and the American bus's. Not only is the artist performing through out the whole of the music video,you also have everything going on in the background what draws you in. The role of the non deigetic sound is to go with the images and footage in the music video,it has being added in during the editing so it fits in time with the narrative. The role of the iconography (the images) is to represent the music lyrics. The role of the genre within the narrative is to fit in with the mise-en-scene to create a music video what has its own original features to it,depending on the characters,song etc. The role of editing all of the camera footage together is to produce the continuity of her making her way to downtown America on her piano. The major themes of the narrative are society and love because when the artist is making her way downtown she passes different people with different values from America for example little children at a bouncy castle party,the bikers,the violinist's and the marching band. You see America from a different point of view in a positive way. Love is a theme because of the way the lyrics are presented.

genre

This music video is highly intertextual towards the genre of pop with the sub-genres of  of pop rock and piano pop. The major generic conventions with in this music genre are the form of performance,usually any pop video even if it is a sub genre or pop includes the artist performing. Usually pop videos have straight forward narratives. Pop music videos have a happy up beat tone with a purpose to entertain or promote the artist. Pop artists are conventionally young teens who have been manufactured to look a certain way to impress the audience. But Vanessa Carlton is different she is presenting the pop rock genre by dressing in what suits her best.

The major iconographic features of the text are the piano because its what the artist is playing and the diegetic sound of the piano in the background of the music is being played. The major generic themes are the speed of the song it is upbeat and a catchy song which most pop songs are. The artist in this music video is not generically determined because she hasn't continued with the stereotype of been manufactured by the record label. The audiences generic expectations of the text are not fulfilled because she has cheated the genre expectations by not dressing to the pop stereotype. Because of the song this treats the characterstics of the genre ironically because it is said to be pop but the artist has none of the image generic conventions.

media institutions

The institutional source of the text is A&M Records who are owned by universal records. It has influenced the text because of course it is a major record label who has a lot of money so this has given the artist a chance to produce a really good music video with lots of effects. Because Universal is a major music institution this matters a lot when promoting a artist through a music video because they have more interweaving company's to gain more advertising and promotion. More places to show the music video. The text has been distributed through music channels,you tube and all around social networking sites like facebook and google. It was also distributed and had its rise to popularity on the film white chicks.

media audiences

The text is addressed at music fans,fans of the pop rock genre and of course fans of Vanessa Carlton. Or fans of the famous film 'White Chicks' where it became most popular. The target audience age range will be early teenagers to late teenagers,so from 14-23. But on the other hand people in there early 30's who enjoy watching the film white chicks could have caught the catchy song and began to like it. The SEG of the audience will be C1-E just because more higher SEG will have more interest in classical music then teen pop or rock music. Because the song is a love song and the video is based on a girl i think that the primary audience will be females and the secondary audience will be males through the promotion of the film and maybe because of a attraction to the singer.  The music video makes assumptions about the audience are implicit by the wide variety of background characters in the music video it implies that the audience of the music video is more of a wide variety then just teenagers.
The audience are more likely to receive the text in a happy way because it is a cheerful song and from a audience perspective it puts me in a good mood because of the instrumental piano beats.

This impacts upon the formal characteristics of the narrative in the music video because it would be heared on the radio or on musical channels which is were most new songs are heard and these distributors stereotypically play up beat music. I assume that the size of the audience for this music video is very large because again the promotion it gained through being played on White Chicks. People still like and remember the song even eight years after it was distributed.

As a audience member myself i read and evaluate the text in a good way but i think my age effects this because more percentage of the audience is going to be in their teens because its the most loved and popular music genre by teenagers. My background could effect my evaluation of this music video because if i was brought up in a higher class family my ideology would to be listen to classical music and not pop. I think my gender influences my opinion on the music video because girls stereotypically pick out the flaws in music videos and everything else.

After analysing the original music video i have decided that for my music video it will have a lot more shots and editing techniques used to fit to the pace of the music. In my music video there will be alot less going on so you can focus on the narrative and performance of the music video and the artist them self.