Tuesday, 4 November 2014

Textual analysis of Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire

Cinematography:
The use of cinematography in the music video has a range of shot types, for example the music video starts off with Alicia in front of a green screen doing a title sequence for the music video, with a shining bright light behind her, and this is showing the audience that she powerful as she is standing upright and strong. After the title sequence it cuts straight to a medium shot of her laid on a bed looking away from the camera and then zooms out slowly into a long shot as this at first shows her emotion on her face then goes to show the location of the room that she is in. Then it jumps to a different scene in a different location with the opposite zoom as it is going from a long shot to a medium shot. Alicia never directly looks at the camera; this could be so that she isn’t directly targeting the lyrics at the audience and so it is to a wide audience. Constantly all the way through this video there is the contrast between the zooming of the camera going from a long shot going to a medium shot, and the other way around. They have used extreme long shots in the scene where she is cleaning up to show the location. Close ups have been used to show Alicia’s emotion on her face. Over the shoulder shots have also been used throughout the music video as this shows the audience exactly what she is looking at for example when she is doing work, this shows the audience what she is looking at.
Mise-en-scene:
Different mise-en-scene have been used throughout this music videos for all different reasons for example Alicia is wearing a very smart skirt and top with minimal make up which makes her look very classy and a strong dominant women which has been shown throughout her dress code. They have placed flowers in the room as this represents that she is very girly and also portrays that she is a homely women. In another shot she is wearing a formal dress with red lipstick which connotes that she is a sexy woman. In the main room that this music video is set, directly in the middle of this shot, there is a window with heavy rain coming down. Juxtaposed with the title of the song which is ‘Girl on Fire’, as rain is the opposite therefore this is juxtaposed with the fire and rain in this song, this could mean that she is not as powerful as she thought as water puts out fire. Throughout this music video, Alicia has changed her outfit 4 times; however they have all been formal outfits with heels which are typical for what a working, classy woman would wear. Half way through the music video, the lyrics state ‘Burning it down’ and the mise-en-scene has adapt to these as there is an orange tint in the background to represent fire.
Sound:
Throughout this music video there is the normal soundtrack for this song playing right through, however at the beginning for the title sequence there is an introduction song which is very cartoon like. There is no specific pace with the song although at the beginning it starts of very slow when she is laid on the bed, but then gets more intense when it comes up to the chorus. There is a constant beat throughout the song behind the soundtrack to make it more effective.
Editing:
Throughout this music video the editing between the shots doesn't really match the beat of the song as sometimes just when the lyrics change the shot will change to a different shot of her singing a new line. When she is using the sweeping brush it goes in time with the beat for each sweep that she does.  Jump cuts have been used all the way through this music video, as this is the only type of change it has between each shot. The editing between each shot gets faster as the song goes on, as it starts off slow. Half way through the song when it gets more intense, the change between each shot its gets faster due to the song getting faster and louder. However at the beginning it started off slow so therefore the change in shots was slower.

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