Research Music video analysis 5: Sara Bareilles 'Little Black Dress'

This is the establishing shot of Sara Bareille's music video for 'Little Black Dress'. Currently the shot is panning round a studio with Sara standing left of the frame. Applying Goodwin's theory to this video, this music video is a performance type as the video is just clips of her, studio's and concerts. Using a performance type of music video is the cheapest type of music video to produce to do not having to buy costumes, dancers or makeup and its just a collection of pre made video's.

This is the second shot of the video. it is a long shot from the back of a concert hall. This is the shot that makes the viewer realise that the music video is a performance video as this is implying it is taken from the back of one the hall's before one of Sara's concerts. The main focus of this shot it the colourful centre of the stage and the main attraction of Sara's set on the stage. 

The next shot show's under cranking as the whole speed of the shot speeds up. This effect has been used to show the setting up of a stage by raising all the curtains, lights and back drops. I like the shots of setting up the stage as they are going through all the stages of setting up for a concert. This is interesting for the viewer to watch as they get to see what happens in the run up to a concert for a pop star. 

 The video then changes location to a piece of personal footage that has been taken during the tour. This shot is a medium close up as you can see her shoulders and arm. This is not conventional of a music video as the artist is not looking into camera, but this is due to the video being performance based from when she was on her tour so it would be hard to get many shots of the artist singing into camera. Sara's costume in this shot looks to be her normal clothes that she would casually wear. Costume is very different in a performance music video compared to a narrative music video where there is a story being told and costume is used to help that. We could film apart of our music video in a similar location due to it being her waving over a field with houses in the background.

 During this part of the video she is show practicing at the tour venue suggesting it to be a sound check. This is a medium shot and Sara is right of frame showing off some of the background which is blurred due to having a pull focus on Sara and the microphone. This location would be hard for us to use during our video shoot as we cannot provide the professional equipment which is used on a music tour on a low budget.

 Personal footage is used throughout the video to show how much fun Sara and her crew had whilst they were on tour. This is a extreme long shot with Sara right of frame. Sara's costume in this shot is just her casual everyday clothing as performance video's are made as cheap as possible and are to show for example the experiences they had whilst being on tour so costumes are not really going to be different from the artists everyday clothing.

Personal footage is used throughout the video to show how much fun Sara and her crew had whilst they were on tour. Using personal footage makes the video more personal and gives the viewer a more personal insight. Sara's dress here is black which is a symbol that relates to her tour name 'Little black dress'.

 

Using a shot like this makes the video have some more artistic features. Making this shot black and white is adding more effects into the video and adding variety into the video to make it more interesting by using variety.

 Panning is used for a second time here in the video, by panning around the crowd at one of her tour dates. Using real footage from the performances and showing the atmosphere at her concerts is a great way to get people interested into going to a concert of hers in the future.

This shot is different to all the others from the music video because it is showing footage from an interview of Sara. The shot is a medium close up and again her costume is casual clothing with natural makeup. The background of the shot is blurred so there is a pull focus on Sara. This is a shot we could use in our music video as it not really using anything unusual, however I don't think interview footage or interview style would be appropriate for our music video as it will be a narrative style and telling a story. The shot her has no relationship with the lyrics of the song, however the music video is showing the different stages involved in her tour. 

The music video ends by this message appearing thanking everyone for making her most recent tour a success. To me as the viewer this suggests to me that all the footage that has been shown in this music video is from her 'Little Black Dress Tour'. I believing creating a performance music video of a tour is great publicity for the artist and her tours so when people have seen her music video they'll want to go on her next tour. 

How this has influenced my planning:

• I like the idea of using life footage in the song
• Showing the different stages of her tour all in a song