The Conventions of Genre: (Pop)

The music video I chose to analyse was Pixie Lotts ‘All about Tonight’ and i looked at all the different features and conventions to represent this. 

The cinematography consisted of a range of various shot types and camera angles. The first example was the full body shots. It was portrayed in the video when we saw Pixie and the backing dancers dancing in the street. The full body shots create emphasis on the location of where the artist is, which in this case she is dancing in the middle of the street at night with the spot light on her. Another popular shot in this music video is the close up shots. These shots were more common when the music slowed down. The close ups in this video tend to show the emotions of the artist but reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist. The last common camera angle is over the shoulder.

Most of the lighting in the video is artificial, and there is hardly any natural light used. This may be due to the fact that the video is filmed in a night setting. There are bright spotlights on Pixie Lott herself throughout the majority of the video. This is to show the artist in detail and also to see her beauty.

There are a few different editing techniques which have been used in this video. Some shots have no transition at all and it flashes from shot to shot but in other parts of the video, two scenes have been merged together. An example of this is where there is a shot of the artist which is a close up shot and the shot of the destination is a long shot so you can see the detail and work out where the location is. (New York)

The mise-en-scene in this video consists of mainly minimal clothing, dark colors, glamorous outfits and popular cities, The location used looks like it is in the middle of a street. This could be as they are on their way out and are so excited to get to the club that they feel the need to dance on the way there. They want to be the centre of attention as the lyrics state that it is ‘all about tonight’ and therefore they want to make the most of it. Pixie is wearing very minimal clothing throughout the whole video, however she looks very glamorous, especially with the neat make up and bright red lipstick. Considering it is nighttime in which the video has been recorded the lighting is very dim and the backgrounds are very dark but spotlights are seen to be added to make Pixie stand out from the rest of the dancers.

 

There is a close up shot of Pixie texting a friend saying ‘Ready to go?’ which has been exaggerated to make the viewers feel involved in her night out. It is also very realistic and shows to us that she is just like every other normal young girl. It also is an advertisement as we see the Nokia logo on the phone, and so her fans may want to be like her and buy the same phone.

The audience is left to feel on edge throughout the entire video. There are very regular outfit changes and therefore the viewer doesnt know what to expect or what she will be seen wearing next.