Research for Music Video: Analysing a music video

In order to get a better understanding of how music videos work and get inspiration for our own music videos that we will produce, I have taken and analysed one of my recent favourite music video and song of mine, Pixie Lott - All About Tonight . This is a song all about having fun, dressing up, being with your friends and having a great night out not worrying about tomorrow. This is a mainstream pop song which is aimed at girls to really get our there with their best friends and let loose and have a good time. I also like at the same time the empowering message it gives girls, that you don't need a man to have fun, 'Cause I'm so over you, and it's all about tonight'. On the contrary, her lyrics contradict themselves as she then continues to sing, 'Ready to show all the boys what I got'. This along with her costume being a very revealing leotard connotes that her video is also for the males viewing pleasure along with the females. Regardless, the mise-en-scene and dance choreography of this video is fantastic and I really like it. I think it is a great example of a music video as there is dance, performance and great shots overall.

The mise-en scene of a club/city scene, really captures the essence of going on a night out and having a great time. The bright lights and extreme high angle shots of the city at night helps to capture that. Additionally, the layering of the scenery over Pixie Lott's face helps to mesh the two together, giving the audience the message that she is in the scenery and that she enjoys it. Her tight revealing costume and heavy make up also match the lyrics and the scene and her image as an artist, and as a person, a young 20 year old who likes to party and experiment with looks, as shown by her various costume changes into different party outfits.

The dance choreography is a great example of how music videos should structure the video - having the main dance within the chorus (the repetitive bit in the song). It is simple and sweet yet still effective to give a sense of movement and fun within the song. Furthermore, it does a great job of promoting Pixie Lott as an artist because she gets most of the camera time, she is mainly the focus of the video and it ends with a close up of her face smiling, so the audience gets a everlasting picture of her youthful face in their minds

Until then!

Stephanie