Assignment 3 - Research and Planning Task

Creative Concept: Naughty Boy – Running

Sahid Khan, also known as, Naughty Boy is an English DJ, songwriter and record producer. The genres he’s known for are UK garage, R&B and pop. In this song, it features Beyoncé and Arrow Benjamin. The setting for this video is underwater ocean and there’s a male and a female chasing each other underwater. The artists weren’t in the video but there’s a choreography made for the two people underwater. From the video, it seems like the couple are trying to find each other and the male going through an obstacle course to bring his self-closer to the girl. At the end of the video, they’re seen holding each other closely and they slowly rise out of the ocean together. The visuals for the song are quite interesting and even though the song is quite upbeat, the video makes it seem relaxing.

Narrative: Katy Perry – Last Friday Night

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, also known as, Katy Perry is an American singer and songwriter. The genre she’s known for is mostly pop but she also does rock. She started to work with producers at a young age and this is how her singing career started. The video pans into a house where Katy’s at. She wakes up to the house being a complete mess and it look like she regrets going to the party. Katy is seen lip-syncing to the song and it takes us to a flashback of what happened last night at the party. She enters her house to see a massive party thrown by her friend. She looks like your typical school nerd at the start of the video but this changes when she sees typical high school jock. Not giving her any attention at all, she feels insecure and her friend takes her upstairs to give her a complete makeover. When they’re done, they head downstairs and the jock immediately stops dancing with a girl and moves on to Katy. Everyone’s seen dancing and having a good time. It then goes back to the morning when Katy woke up. Her parents arrive and ask her what happened to the house since there were cups, plates, clothes and people sleeping everywhere. The narrative for this video has been used a lot and just shows what happens at a party.

Performance Element: - Crazy in Love

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles – Carter is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. She rose to her fame by being a lead singer in a favourited group ‘Destiny’s Child’. The genres she’s known for are R&B and pop. At the start of the video there’s a view of a street and it’s speed up so it makes us seem like we’re moving with the camera. It then goes to Beyoncé walking whilst singing. She then breaks into a choreography still singing. It then moves to some sort of alleyway where there’s female backup dancers. The dance moves are all in sync and Beyoncé is in the middle seen wearing an outfit that stands out more than the other dancers in the background.

Camerawork: alt J – breezeblocks

In the first shot of the music video, one of the main characters who is a female is seen dead in a bathtub full of water with a heavy block on top of her. In the next shot there’s a male, who’s also one of the main characters, showing his emotions by burying his head into his hands. There’s then a close up of the male showing that he has a wedding ring on his finger this can help with the narrative for the video. In the next shot, there’s another close up used but this time for the woman in the bathtub. She doesn’t have a wedding ring so she can’t be the male’s wife. From this point, the whole video is reversed and even makes it look more interesting and makes the audience question a lot of things seeing the chain of events that are happening in the video. As the video goes on, the audience can tell that the woman in the bathtub can presumably be an ex and came to attack the male’s wife which their seen fighting. 

Mise-en-scene: Lady Gaga – Bad Romance

In the first slow close up shot, we can see people standing around Lady Gaga and that she’s dressed in short gold outfit with gold cups beneath her. It then opens up to a white bath house with seven white coffins and people dressed in all white with a mask coming out of them. She’s seen wearing a white costume also in the bathtub showing an innocent side of her. She’s getting held roughly by two people as one of them forcefully makes her drink some sort of liquid. It then goes to a shot where she’s wearing an outfit covered in jewels with backup dancers dancing for the men in suits around them. It quickly goes to a close up of her crying and singing. She’s then seen wearing a black outfit with a mask and jewels hanging all around her. The same men she was dancing with are now all seated around her. There’s also a computer with her name on it and a price. This can make the audience suggest that she’s getting sold to one of the men sitting around her who were also wearing black outfits. As the video progresses, she’s seen with only one man who’s sitting on the bed which she sets fire on to. After, she wears a red and black outfit showing a completely dark side to her. At the end she’s seen lying down on the bed which is all burnt up with a skeleton.

Visual effects: Zayn Malik – Pillowtalk

At the start of the video, there’s a set of lights on the ceiling and on the walls. The video rotates and then goes to a close up of Zayn Malik and a model Gigi Hadid holding each other closely. Whenever Zayn mentions “warzone” the effects will make them stretch out and go to shots of Gigi screaming and a woman with gold spikes coming out of her face. He also mentions a “paradise” which brings a completely different setting with flowers and the couple looking like they’re floating. The effects used in the video like the kaleidoscope can suggest that it’s hypnotic and the shots of Zayn with smoke coming out of his mouth slowly. There’s parts of the video here the background is completely red and where there’s blood running down their eyes. At the end, the effect used for the couple is chromatic aberration which makes them look 3D.