Task 2: Music Video Anaylisis

The music video has a very strong narrative through out. Overall it is about the events in the woman's life that have led to who she is today, the story goes through various stages of her life that people watching may relate to. In the end, you see she is in fact singing the song to her own daughter telling her she is perfect how she is. It has a strong message about being 'perfect' no matter what others may think.

Shot reverse shots are often used within this music video as it helps the narrative.This particular one is at the beginning of the music video so also helps to set the scene, the shot is a medium close up on her. As it cuts to the teddy bear it zooms in and changes back to the woman before continuing the zoom. This shot is particularly effective as it shows the importance the bear has on the narrative side of the music video. The song doesn't start until you see the bear before this is there is ambient sound.

This is the first of several super impositions through out the duration of the music video, it has added effect as it appears to be on the wall within the room and direction the woman was looking at. This works as a good transition between scenes and adds an interesting feature to the music video. The main sounds of the music are used as a point to change the scene and shot.

This shot provides an interesting angle as its a low angle it makes the surrounding environment seem bigger, the focus remains on the bear. This shot also incorporated a focus pull between the boy throwing the bear and it landing on the floor, this helps to direct the focus onto the subject at the current time. 

Using a fast zoom enables the audience to see the immediate reaction to what has happened. The location of a playground is also related to the age of the child and is something that people associate with them. The pace and volume does increase until this point where the music has built up slightly.

This is another super imposition effect, this time over the performance piece of the music video, this is a unique feature and one I've not seen before. Instead of using a shot reverse shot the music video has been edited using this technique which doesn't provide any interruption. 

Another focus pull is used on the scene of the young girl, there are a number of focus pulls used through out, they are a common feature of this music video.

The music builds up for the chorus of the song of which you see the performance for a majority of the chorus.

Its conventional within music videos to feature a singer performing the song and this video is no exception, although not used as much as in other music videos I have scene. The unique thing about this video is that the performance and narrative are seen at the same time although the singer is not related to the narrative. There is close up shots of her singing that are used several times through out.

This is another performance part of the music video where the camera pans from the singer to the scene super imposed on the background, as this happens that singer becomes out of focus before cutting to the reaction of the mother.

This is with the scene it becomes clear that this is the girl as a teenager, her experience may be related to by others of a similar age, and similarly the mother figure may be related to be parents.


This is another different edit that leads into yet another performance section of the music video this time it appears to vertical track down to the another super imposition effect for a brief performance part.


This next scene features various different panning shots and close ups on the girl followed by another panning super imposition to change the scene.

Since the chorus has ended the song isn't as built up anymore.

This is during the panning shot, featuring an aerial shot of this scene a type of shot that has features as of yet in this music video.




This is the best superimposition effect of the music video, this is still part of the above pan and you see various different scenes behind the performance aspect.

The music tends to build up on the performance areas of the song.



After another scene of the girl where it is clear she may be about to do something, it briefly cuts to a close up of the performance, then goes back to the scene and back to the performance almost acting as a shot reverse shot between the two unrelated things. The music pace build up with the narrative, increasing as the pace of the narrative increases.

This next scene is clearly her reaction from the previous scene, this shot becomes directly after a long shot of her on a pair of scales. This music video is clearly continuing to deal with issues that people of this age may feel like. Another close up performance part follows before the next scene.
 
She next gets into the bath, there is a close up of her foot stepping into water before through a medium close up seeing her clearly in pain. This shot zooms in until her face fills the frame.

 It becomes clear what she was doing, you can see Perfect engraved onto her arm and at this point it looks as though she has given up. The music has decreased in volume significantly, you can hear the dietetic sound of the water dripping.Another shot reverse shot effect shows the bear and this is the turning point of the music video narrative. The music at this point, the lyrics are at a reasonably
fast place, although the the instruments as backing are the same. As she begins to get back up the music build back up again signifying her movement but also showing her change in mind set.


After seeing her pick up the scissors, a close up shows her cutting her hair. The cuts between shots also increase in speed to match the music.





This shot is from an extreme low angle showing the hair falling to the floor, this is an unusual shot and adds to the already wide variety used through out this music video.



An over the shoulder shot means you can see her reflection in the mirror and also what she is doing, although this reflection isn't clear to ensure the focus stays on what she is doing.


Followed by another performance aspect although the singer takes up little room with the main focus clearly being on the narrative of the video.


An extreme close up shows her face in this scene, another                                            close up follows after this.                                                There is use of various close                                               ups through out.

I like the lighting in the background of this shot, although you can tell its artificial as it doesn't appear to be lighting up the room.

This change in scene shows the lighting, she is much more well lit, especially compared to other similar shots in the earlier part of the music video,
the narrative also shows the change in woman and how much more positive she has become.

Another shot that was used earlier in the video is used again. It now appears that the character is watching her own story or this is what she is thinking at the moment shortly after this it fades from the wall.

It becomes clear that the narrative was in fact her memories, that have made her who she is.

After picking up the bear from the same position as the start of the video, she takes it into the room of her own daughter this is a medium shot. You then see a medium close up of the young girl who is asleep.




This shot shows her placing the bear with the young girl. The focus is on the girl as she is lit the most.

 The only time the character narrative sings the song is the final line 'You are perfect to me' to the daughter, the shot is another medium close up used a lot through out. The end of the music video it cuts back to performance before seeing the long shot of her on the bed, it zooms out sightly to conclude the music video.