Monday, 18 July 2011

Example: The XX - 'Islands'

We looked at an example of a music video to see what conventions it follows, challenges and why some audiences may like this and why some may not.





What conventions does this follow?
-Commercial exhibitionist
-Dance routine - repeated constantly
-Narrative - not a traditional one - kissing and relationship moves apart - dancers tell a story
-Shots/pace/cuts is in time/rhythm with music


What conventions does it challenge/break?
-Shot is quite lenghty
-Lyrics don't link with visuals - contrast - lyrics contradict - its a happy song but the video seems depressed
-Narrative hard to understand
-No big dance routine - staged -same moves constantly repeated - easy to copy normally - but this dance is depressing/hard
-Focus on dancers more than artists
-One single location 
-No close-ups of artists face - we are unaware who the singer is
-Performance by dancers but artists are not part of it
-Video tells opposite story
-Band is not dancing
-Doesn't use characters (Deborah Holstein)


Why might some audiences not enjoy this video?
-Boring
-Repetitive 
-No fast cuts
-No variety of locations
-Same shots
-Same dance routine


Why would some audiences like this video, where conventions are broken?
-Different
-Unique
-Repetition balanced with difference - if everything's the same why would you bother with it 
-May think that dance routines are not important
-May be directed to underground viewers?
-Trying to show relations go through the same thing again and again - repetitive dance
-Density makes us pay more attention 
-Stunning use of mis-en-scene

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