Real Media Comparison

This medium length shot is from Taylor Swift's 'Love Story' music video, it displays Taylor in a period setting with a lake in the background and her standing on the 'balcony' (referencing the Romeo and Juliet styled lyrics)! We can also see a wall mural on the brick situated behind her with a fern like plant positioned in the bottom left hand corner. She is wearing a cream corset dress with her hair up in curls to maintain the period feel for the audience, whilst also creating a sexual appeal towards the artist.  

Similarly to our own still we opted for a more minimalist background to help focus on the actress, however Swift's video includes a more diverse location but the complex framing of the two pillars and darker tones vs the creams also helps to frame Taylor (who is similarly directly positioned in the center). Another similarity is that both are dressed in a romantic sense with the red connoting love and Taylor's stereotypically 'sexy' corset connoting romance. To improve our shot, we could have included better props like the iconically romantic red lipstick and perhaps introduced a more romantic setting such as Romeo and Juliet's balcony or a pretty garden to help connote a romantic image to the audience. I could also improve the real media still, by introducing red roses within the fern plant, since they are iconic props when referencing a romantic image, since they are largely used to connote love! Both stills reference the romantic image I tried to great with my own still shot for the audience. Taylor has created a romantic image by introducing the romantically iconic balcony used to reference Romeo and Juliet's 'Love Story'!

This long shot has been used in Florence an The Machine's 'Delilah' music video to help establish to the audience that she is performing at Glastonbury festival. A long shot was chosen here to help convey that to the audience, because it displayed Florence positioned off center on a stage with high key lighting from spotlights situated all around. From this shot we are able to see props such as the mic and its stand, as well as other back-up singers and performers.

In a similar way we have shown the upbeat vibe Florence has created in this shot simply through posture whilst on-stage, by positioning our own actresses in an almost identical pose with their hands in the air and body language very relaxed in a dance-like pose. However unlike Florence's music video we have not used high key lighting, disco ball back drop or glittery suit to identify our shot with a performance music video. Therefore if we were to improve this shot, I would suggest including a better on-stage setting with lots of high key lighting and spotlights to replicate larger scale performance to much bigger audience. To improve the Florence and The Machines shot, I would use a camera shot from behind Florence facing out on to the Glastonury audience, as it would confirm the festival performance. Both shots fulfil the performance genre though, as they both show footage of the artists performing with the aid of musical props such as the mic or the tambourine.



In this shot we are able to see Drake in a 'dingy' toilet this is connoted through the graffiti on the side of the hand-dryer. There are various layers that have been built up to reference the use of drugs, explaining the after effects to the audience with the blurred double vision of Drake (which has been created by the overlapping of two separate shots)! A saturated filter has also been applied to again reference the use of drugs.  


Unlike our medium long shot taken from the doorway to display the setting, Drake's shot uses a close up from within the toilet (which is still effective when showing the audience the setting but also allows the audience to feel present, since the hazed blur suggests they are looking at the shot through Drake's eyes). However they are both similarly taken from within a toilet location, suggesting both contain a dark narrative. Another similarity is that both shots have the saturated filter applied, however Drake has saturated whilst we have desaturated. To improve this still, I would use a better angle (perhaps a high angle shot, to connote her vulnerability) and make-up such as runny mascara and a prop like drugs to emphasis her pain (since drugs connote pain relief). To improve the real media shot, I would display more graffiti in the toilet with writing and markings on the walls, in order to create a better dingy club vibe. Although Drake's shot does reference the usage of drugs via overlapped shots, these two particular shots don't do much to suggest a narrative music video besides the fact that they are quite depressive shots which tend to appear in narratives. So I would therefore improve by including graffiti in on the walls of both shots which either have meaning to the lyrics or repeat the lyrics, so the audience can gain more insight to the narrative.