Song: When I Look At You
Genre: Pop
Structure: Performance
Director: Adam Shankman
This music video allows the audience to experience an alternate style of Miley Cyrus' typical tone of music (usually an upbeat tone). The structure mainly takes the form of a performance with the artist using visual musical equipment such as a piano, however aspects of narrative are also included to add a basis to the video giving the audience a story to follow relating to the lyrics. The video follows a similar theme to which I am considering; heartbreak and love. The artist is singing about her the man of her dreams and the characteristics he has which have lead to her falling in love with him. The music video follows a very poetic tone adding to the slow and caring nature of the lyrics directly relating the song with the narrative chosen. The continuous shots of the couple together are very effective as many locations are used showing how in love the couple are and all of the amazing times they have shared together.
I particularly liked the use of long and medium shots of the couple together showing their close emotional nature. I consider this approach to be a simple way to allow the audience to connect with the narrative as they can visually see the love the couple shared. Also during the second half of the song during which the artist becomes much more passionate towards the lyrics of the song- there is a predominant use low angle shots allowing the artist to appear as strong. Relating with the low angle shots, the video also widely uses focus shots during the start of the narrative possibly connoting the confusion of the artist about the man she has fallen in love with. It is very possible that the use of focus resembles her mind changing regarding her personal situation as her views could be continuously changing.
Miley Cyrus is represented as a typical female during the video- obsessed with contemplating her different options and finding the right man. Soft transitions used between the shots such as dissolve and fade outs connote her kind nature and the innocence of her character during the partial narrative structure. This immediately makes the audience to sympathise with the artist as she has been promoted as the main protagonist. Meanwhile close up shots are used throughout the video of Miley clearly framing her facial expressions connoting the pain and upset she is feeling when singing to meaningful lyrics.
The combination of the different locations used (beach, forest, lake, meadow) adds the natural and simplistic feature of the performance. This is used to enhance the ideology of the loss of her relationship as the audience can visually realise that the artist does think about her lover all the time no matter where the location may be situated. The locations all contain a natural and beautiful tone which connotes how pure her intentions and feelings are towards the man of her dreams.
Cross cutting is another editing technique which has been used during the music video which connects the 2 characters together showing both their feelings, giving the audience to opportunity to witness how both characters are feeling at the same time. This makes the shots containing both models more passionate.
The mise-en-scene used for the female artist is continuous during the music video connoting her vulnerability and innocence. She has been filmed wearing different styled dresses which adds to the simplistic and feminine nature of her personality. Many techniques (including Mise-en-scene) have been used to distinguish the definite different between the genders in the video. As expected the majority of the shots are placed upon the Miley as she is the main artist however also as it is conventional to show the female as the protagonist (and male as antagonist) in terms of love and heartbreak. In society females are steriotypically viewed upon as the emotional and sensitive gender therefore providing the audience with a strong and touching invitation to the characters feelings. I consider the lighting used to be quite effective - shots used which contain the female and male artists together have been given a slightly dark tone which suggests this is a painful memory for the artist from the past.
Notably the music video only contains 2 main characters whilst still managing to convey an emotional urge onto the audience. Prior to analysing this music video I was slightly worried as to how many characters I should include as expectedly a fast paced video with continuous shocking scenarios would be more interesting for the audience. However the poetic tone used is very captivating to the audience allowing them to expressively connect to the song. I feel much more confident about following the ideas for my music video.
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