Poppy Power - Howl
These students chose to recreate a music video to Florence
and the Machine’s song Howl. The song fearing Poppy Power fits into the genre
of indie rock/indie pop. This video caught my eye because of many reasons such
as, the amazing edits which has really inspired me and I’d love to be able to
create something half as good as this. The ideology of the video is of freedom;
the girl wants to be free, she runs through the forest being free and at one
with nature.
Goodwin’s theory –
In terms of Goodwin’s theory, I believe that this music
video uses mainly disjuncture. This is because the shots use do not illustrate
the lyrics and she does not act out what they are saying. We mostly see random
shots of her in different places. However, I believe that a bit of
amplification is used here too because the song is called Howl, therefore the
idea of a wolf arises. They have used shots of a wolf running on a projector,
which shows directly how they have interpreted the song. We also see shots of
the girl running through the forest as if she is being chased by a wolf. There
are such shots in the video where the girl does a small action to reflect what
the lyric says which is a interesting personal touch that they have given it.
The lyric says “if you could only see” and on the word “see” she opens her eyes
which reflects that they have listened to the lyrics carefully and done a lot
of planning to add the finer details such as this.
Vernallis theory –
The edits move in time with the beat of the song, just like
that Vernallis’ theory states as what should happen in a music video. For
example, in the first part, at 0.15 seconds the piano sound plays and the
performers eyes move in time to it. This is a very creative thing that the students
have done because it’s the little details like this that make the video very
intriguing. There is obvious edits used such as some slow motion and a lot of
jump cuts through out. As the song progresses the beat gets faster, therefore
the cuts speed up with it to fit in time with the beat.
Mulvey theory –
In terms of Mulvey;s theory, the performer breaks the
conventions of how women are usually presented in music videos. The girl wears
clothes that cover her up so she is not represented in a sexual way. However,
there is one shot at 0.20 seconds where she is lying down in a dark room and
the camera moves up along her body so we are shown a close up of her leg. This
is not used is a sexual way however to show her vulnerability, like her pure
innocence of being alone in a dark room.
The girl is given a stereotypical representation of women as in the video she is seen as vulnerable as she is being hunted by the wolf and she is alone with no one to protect her. She is fearful and trying to escape from being hunted.
In conclusion, I feel that this music video is very inspirational and the finer details are what make it truly amazing. I aspire to be able to make a music video as good as this one. I have taken some valuable information from this video that I will be able to use in my own video, such as the editing, I believe that the disjunctured style of it gives a really great effect and this is something I’d like to use in my own music video.
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