Miley Cyrus- When I Look at You.

When we were asked to analyse and compare two music videos, I wanted to choose two completely different styles. This is so I could get a better understanding of the different characteristics of each style and why that technique is used. The two songs that I chose were ‘Warriors Dance’ by The Prodigy and ‘When I Look at You’ by Miley Cyrus. I chose these artists and songs because they are widely known and also they don’t have any similarities to each other in style or genre, therefore the analysis and any relation between them would be more detailed and they could be compared more effectively.
The producer of ‘Warriors Dance’ is Liam Howlett. He is a member of The Prodigy and also he is one of the founding members of this independent record label, Take Me to the Hospital where The Prodigy is managed. Therefore, the post-production of making the video would have benefitted the band extremely as they wouldn’t have to pay extreme amounts of money to make the video, as they own the record label. The producer of ‘When I Look at You’ is John Shanks. He is well-known by Miley Cyrus as he had written other songs for her such as ‘Party in the USA’ and ‘I Can’t Be Tamed’. This is efficient for Miley as she has worked with him before and these previous songs were big hits in the USA.
I was asked to come to a conclusion of whether my videos were performance, narrative or concept based. This is important in analysing a video as we can gain a more in-depth approach in why they chose to use these styles and techniques and whether they pulled it off effectively to their targeted audience. ‘Warriors Dance’ by The Prodigy is purely concept based as it is very abstract and not very realistic, whereas, ‘When I Look at You’ by Miley Cyrus is more performance based however, there are some scenes in the video that do have an element of some narrative style to it. The reason why I came to the conclusion that ‘Warriors Dance’ was concept based was because the director used moving paper-cut outs as the main character. As a media student we know that this type of technique is unrealistic and abstract therefore making the style of the video concept based. The director has used different shots to establish this, such as; close-ups of the moving paper-cut out and also extreme long shots to highlight the style of concept. He has done this so we see the vast majority of the paper cut-outs so we never forget that this is unrealistic, therefore he highlights on this with different proxemics and tracking shots. ‘When I Look at You’ is more performance based as we see her singing throughout the video. However, this song was written and produced for a film, ‘The Last Song’, which Miley Cyrus was cast in. In the music video we see scenes from the film, narrating to us what the film is about. The reason why I know that it is mainly performance based it because there are a variety of different features and camera shot methods addressed directly to the audience, such as; we see close-up and mid-shots of Miley Cyrus singing directly into the camera looking straight at us. This is used effectively as she is drawing us into the video, it makes the video more intense as we can see her facial features and body language clearly, we see all her emotions and the proxemics between the characters shows us, the audience, that she is in love. It is used for a dramatic effect.
The genre of ‘Warriors Dance’ is Electronic Rock, this is seen efficiently in the video when the music vibrates so does the image and also the scenes are fast, matching the fast pace of the music. These add obscurity to the video making it look more abstract and strange. The genre of ‘When I Look at You’ is Pop. This is achieved effectively as it has the traditional boy meets girl and falls in love. The slow pace of the music matches the pace of the video, making the video smooth and also the music matches what happens in the video. As the song is about teenage love, the traditional conventions such as running along the beach and holding hands are used in the video emphasising the genre as it is very colourful, cheerful and there are a lot more outfit changes compared to the other video.
‘The Last Song’ was first published as a book, written by worldwide known Nicolas Sparks. By casting Miley Cyrus as the lead role and also making her release a single for the film, ‘When I Look at You’, it not only attracted those who were fans of Nicolas Sparks but also fans of Miley Cyrus, making the film and the single attractive to a wide audience between 7 and 18 years old. In this video they are trying to sell both the artist and the song. This would make the single very popular and it would make a lot of money. The main targeted audience for ‘Warriors Dance’ is only the fans of The Prodigy. In this video they are trying to sell the song instead of the artist. This is because they weren’t that well known when this single was released. However, those who are fans of The Prodigy would be able to recognise them because of the iconography on the moving paper cut-outs of The Prodigy’s logo- still attracting its main audience. This emphasises the concept style more because we are remembered that the characters are unrealistic as they are cut-outs but we still remember and associate them with The Prodigy because of the iconography.
Looking at both videos there isn’t very much reference to the notion of looking. In the terms of Voyeuristic view and male gaze there isn’t any. In ‘Warriors Dance’ the cut-outs are supposed to symbolise the ‘Warriors’ and in ‘When I Look at You’ it is showing young romance therefore the women aren’t there for men to look at as objects to sell the music.
The relationship between the lyrics and visuals in ‘When I Look at You’ is very slow pace and romantic. Such as, when they walk towards each other, you can see the intensity between them. This is an inter-textual reference as it is a convention of a romance story we see a lot of them in other music videos and also movies- we can attach this kind of convention with romance and love. When it comes towards the chorus the beat picks up more and the pace of the video also does to. Also, when her voice goes higher it zooms out to a mid-shot of her. This attracts her audience as we can see her upper-body language and facial expressions clearly therefore, making the song very powerful and we can see all her feelings and the emotion she is putting into the song. There isn’t really much of a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in ‘Warriors Dance’. However, there is some; the cut-outs are supposed to be the ‘Warriors’ in the video. This gives us sense that these ‘Warriors’ are supposed to be identified as the fans of The Prodigy. I think this because they each have the emblem of The Prodigy on their chests and also because the fans would only be able to identify them by the song. This effectively attracts the audience of fans because they would be the only ones that would be able to identify them.
If we look at star image motifs, what stands out with Miley Cyrus is her piano. In many of her other videos and also in her television programme ‘Hannah Montana’ her piano is a big part of her singing career. In The Prodigy’s video, the only star image motif in the video is the logo. This logo is seen in many of The Prodigy’s videos therefore making it a star image motif. These are there to allow the audience to recognise and establish what artist they are watching and listening too, hence attracting their targeted audience.
Mise en scene is a huge part of making a music video successful. Miley Cyrus has a host of different costumes in ‘When I Look at You’. This is a key convention of a pop video as she has a different outfit for each different scene. As this song is to promote her film ‘The Last Song’ they have taken scenes from the film and put it into the video, thus also showing us her costumes from the film.
Costumes are a key feature in a video because it gives the audience a sense of the genre of music. Her outfits attract a younger audience because they are colourful. This is a change from what she wears in the film, which is darker. This is a different look for Miley as normally in her videos she wears more teenage punk rock outfits. However her costumes in this video, suit the pace and style of the video making it more effective. There is not a clear costume in ‘Warriors Dance’, but the cut-outs could be seen as a costume. The colours of it, such as black, grey, orange and blue match the style of the video and also match the other scenes. Costumes in music videos are very important, but the use of no clear costume works in this video as it makes it look even more abstract and unrealistic which fits with the style of concept. This draws the audience in because this is a convention of what The Prodigy like to have in there videos. Their fans are familiar with it, but they never get bored of the abstract and strange concept.
The lighting in ‘Warriors Dance’ is very dark and dim. The only light that we do see is the light from the street and the fire. This makes it more secretive and mysterious, fitting the style of concept. These conventions of dark lighting are enormously used by bands or artists that produce electronic rock music, so they lighting fits perfectly with the video and the music. Therefore, attracting the audience in as it fits with the conventions. The lighting in ‘When I Look at You’ compared to ‘Warriors Dace’ is very bright and sunny. The lighting fits the genre of the song, pop, as it is very happy and lively and it also fits what she is saying in her lyrics. Some artificial lighting could have been used on the beach, as the weather may not have been good on that day.
Makeup is also important. In ‘Warriors Dance’ no makeup had been used as it is paper cut-outs. Nevertheless in ‘When I Look at You’ she uses mainly natural make-up with some eye-shadow. This fits the style as it is a romantic song and also it shows us what she becomes like at the end of the film. This attracts the targeted audience as they want to know what happens at the end, and the single shows that. The makeup also fits the song as it is a very slow and gentle song they wanted her to look like that to. This is called graphic match.
Props are also a key feature. In ‘When I Look at You’ her main prop is her piano. In every different scene her piano is present. This also links back the film as her piano is a significant feature- this helps link the single back to the film. This fits the genre as a piano in this video symbolises friendship and love. A vital prop in ‘Warriors Dance’ is the alcohol and cigarettes. I think this because this is what they use to start the fire, which is the main part of the video and it is the only time that we really see any real lighting in the video. This keeps the audience interested as they begin to realise what the paper cut-outs are doing.
There are many different setting in the video ‘When I Look at You’. This helps create that romantic feel to the video as each of the different settings are by a romantic building or on the beach. This is a typical convention of a ‘young love’ video as many young girls like and enjoy watching things like that. Also, the lighting matches the setting e.g. the beach. There is only one setting in ‘Warriors Dance’ and that is at a back street shop. As soon as we notice that we know that the video is going to be dark and mysterious. This draws in an audience effectively as they want to see what happens to the paper cut-outs. This style fits the genre because most of these songs are produced to look abstract and unrealistic, so it fits the conventions and listeners know what type of genre it is.
‘When I Look at You’ establishing shot is a low angle pan right shot over the city of South Carolina. This gives us a sense of where the video is being filmed. This draws the audience in as they are looking over the city and then we get drawn into Miley by her piano. The audience wants to know what happens next. The camera in ‘When I Look at You’ pans right to left, this gives us more of a view of the setting and also it makes it feel more romantic. This is key to attracting young girls to watch it as they enjoy watching romantic things like that. There is also the use of the zoom in and out effect. We zoom into her character and this adds a dramatic effect to the scene. We see her body language and facial expressions more clearly. We can see her emotions clearly- making the song more powerful to the audience the character. There is a use of tracking shot. We follow the main character and we get a clear view of her emotions and what she does. This adds a dramatic effect to the video. It keeps the audience updated to what is happening and it looks like we are constantly watching the character. They have also used high and low angles. This indicates to us the love the character has for him. The different proxemics shows them as vulnerable and young. This is adding more of an effect to the ‘young love’ which is what the film and the song are trying to show. Most shots were medium close-ups, long shots or close-up shots too draw the audience in on the setting and to highlight the characters. Each of these camera shots were done to keep the audience interested, they wanted the audience to see each part of the characters life; the problems she faces and also that she fell in love. This is effective the camera shots signify important elements in the video.
The narrative of ‘Warriors Dance’ is told in chronological order. The establishing shot in the video is of the setting which is set by a dark alley outside a dim looking shop. This establishes the whole of the video as we know that it’s going to be mysterious and strange which emphasises the concept idea. The movement of the camera pans from right to left and then left to right. This creates more of an abstract effect; we get to see the majority of the ‘Warriors’. The director wants us to only focus on them and watch what they’re doing. He also used the zoom in and out effect. This helped to create a more dramatic effect, making it appear more abstract as we focus in the cut-outs.
The uses of the Tracking Shot allows us to follows the main character and see what he does and then moves onto other characters highlighting to us what they are doing. This keeps the audience entertained as there is something different and abstract to watch. They have also used high and low angles, this shows them as small and vulnerable and then the low angle shows them as powerful and dominant and also the use of canted frame, making the camera angle seem tilted and skewed, creates a more obscure and abstract effect, which is what the director wants to achieve to make it a concept style. Most of the shots that the director used were medium shots, from waist above. This is to highlight the characters. These camera shots were used to emphasise the abstractness of the song and the video and to highlight that this is a concept video. These are all conventions of a concept video.
It must have taken a long time to create ‘Warriors Dance’ the producer had to film each movement of the cardboard cut-outs which would have taken a long time. However he could have used CGI to make it look more effective and smooth. Part of the editing they used eye-line match at the beginning from where the main character looks at the other boxes and the camera follows it. This indicates to us that something is going to happen and we want to keep watching. Most of the scenes are straight-cuts but they’ve used graphic match, where the scene is dissolved and then it is met by another scene- this helps the audience to see the different things happening and also it adds a bit of change to the video instead of using straight-cuts. The director has done all this to emphasise the concept idea. It is also done to make transitions and to symbolise certain things.
Also with ‘When I Look at You’ it must have taken a long time to create, as they have many different settings and also having to move the piano to its allocated place. Also most of the video is filmed in the daylight, so they would only have a certain amount of time to film each scene. There is also an eye-line match from her eyes to the piano. This symbolises to us that the piano is very important to her and also the piano emphasises the romance in the scenes.
The graphic matches that are used in the transitions are mostly straight cuts to the next scene but there are some dissolve shots to the next scene. This makes the video more smooth and adds a bit of difference to the video instead of making the whole thing the same.
What I have learnt from this video analysis is that each style; performance, concept and narrative have totally different characteristics to make them work and I have gained a better understanding of that. When it comes to making my own music video, I think that I would preferable do a narrative or performance video instead of a concept video because in a concept video you would need a lot of high tech-equipment to achieve this and also a lot of detail has to go into this. I have also learnt that mise en scene is very important in making a video as it can represent certain things and also each one has a characteristic to the genre of music making it extremely important.