Music Videos

There was a lot of great music videos shown in class this past week. One of the most surprising videos I saw was Swimming Pools by Kendrick Lamar. Whenever I heard the song before seeing the video or hearing is analyzed I just assumed it was a song about getting drunk and having a crazy night. The auteur has a completely different message. It is about struggling with addiction and how alcohol can ruin a family. Seeing the video blew me away and I will never be able to listen to that song again without thinking of the auteur's message. It had very strong shots that helped portray the message. There is one with Kendrick Lamar sitting alone in a room with only a bottle of half empty liquor. He looks so alone and beaten down. The alcohol is the center of it. The light puts a focus on the bottle. It isn't the only object in the room but the eye is drawn to it.


The video with the most interesting editing was Just a Dream by Carrie Underwood. The scene where her wedding dress becomes the funeral dress is amazingly done and finally reviles the true message behind the song. It flips back and forth constantly between the past and the present. The lyrics don't give away too much of the real meaning but the video hints at it a few times. It is hard to tell if it is a wedding or a funeral for most of the video but the edited transformation scene gives it away.


Diegesis and mise-en-scene can go hand in hand and the music video that I thought best showed them both was Jar of Hearts by Christina Perri. The song is a pop song and became very successful. This was Christina Perri's first big hit and it has helped her other songs become popular.  From the beginning there is a diegesis of sadness and feeling broken. The whole video is black and white. It is smoky and most of the backgrounds and flashbacks are out of focus. The final scene has a great mise-en-scene. It focuses on the girls heart coming back into its jar. The scene becomes colorful and in the background, the black rose petals that have been swirling around the whole video turn pink and start falling gently. It changes the mood from sadness to happiness without any words.