Research; Music Video - Agnes 'Release Me'

Agnes’s video for ‘Release Me’ begins with a black silhouette of the artist lying back in an open position. This highlights the artist figure and her gesture/position as it’s quite sexual. This links to the stereotypical idea of women and their appearance right from the beginning of the video.
The video then proceeds to a tracking shot of the streets and gives the audience the feel that they are driving through the use of a hand held camera. This produces the feeling that they are off on a night out and allows the audience to identify with the video.
When the artist appears in the video a range of shots are including medium, medium close and close ups. She is always framed centre fame, or within the rule of thirds, showing her importance to the audience and allowing them to clearly see her emotions and expressions. The artist is also framed in a number of two shots, first to show her intimacy with a male character and then later in the video on a night out with female characters. In both occasions the artists is framed more central and within the forefront of the frame reinforcing her importance. An over the shoulder shot is also used when the artist is applying her make up allowing the audience to identify with her and therefore relate to the situation and the song.
When the dancers in the video are framed, they are often centre framed but with the use of medium or even long shots connoting that the dancers themselves are not important but the dancing action itself is, as it links the song back to the genre of dance.
As the video progresses there are a number of tracking shots of the artist as she walks. The gesture in which she walks is a large and bouncy movement connoting her power and therefore breaking the dominant ideology of woman being weak and needed to be saved by men.
Another shot used is a close up of the males arm around the artist. This connotes love and intimacy and suggest that the song is related to these. It also connotes the male as protection to the woman and could reinforce the ideology of the male ‘saving’ the female character.
A number of the artists shot are solo of her. These shots tend to be in street or alley way situations creating a sense of isolation and connoting this as one of the negative emotions of the narrative, so therefore love.
When the artist is not shown, there are a number of shots of dance floor scenes again linking the video to the genre and allowing the audience to link the song to nightclubs as places they would expect to hear it again allowing them to identify with the video. Furthermore there is also the use of shots, which look like CCTV footage, of youths dancing suggesting all social classes and people under the age of those allowed to go nightclubbing can also identify with the music are also part of the target audience. Finally the video also includes shots of groups dancing with a range of different races within the group connoting equality and the fact that any class, race and gender can relate to the song therefore widening the target market.

The editing of the video is very fast paced which seems a key convention of the genre as it is present in the majority of the videos I have analysed. The pace is created by a number of jump cuts. The jump cuts tend to jump from the artist to either a setting or a dancing scene connecting the artist and what she’s singing about with these shots and the gestures, such as dancing, which are produced in these shots.

The lighting of the video is very dark as it’s representing a night setting linking the video back to the dance genre and particularly nightclubs. At the being of the video the artist is lit up in the darkness by what seems like a car headlight passing. This could be seen as a spotlight again linking back to the dance genre.
When the artist is shown a key light is used on the artist allowing us to clearly see her facial expressions and emotions connoting her importance as she clearly stands out on the background. This is also clear in the nightclub scenes as you are unable to clearly make out the characters dancing in the background but can clearly see the artist, in the foreground, due to the key light reinforcing her importance. Another example is the close ups o the artist as the lighting allows us to clearly see her expressions and features such as her pink lipstick connoting love and passion and showing these as characteristics of the song.
Another use of lighting, within the video, is the use of flashing white lights. This gives the effect of disco lights and again links back to the genre.

The predominant colours used within the video are black and white. This reinforces the idea of a night setting and connotes mystery, purity and perfection. These are all emotions which can be felt when in a romance/love linking back t the song narrative. Red and purples are other colours included in the video reinforcing the idea of romance and adding a sense of wealth. The finial colour which is common, within the video, is orange this connotes high energy and matches the gesture of dancing within the video.

The artist’s costumes resemble those that every girl would wear on a night out again linking to the genre. The colour scheme continues with the black and white reinforcing the connotations of these. The dancers and the models costumes are quite average and therefore allow the audience to clearly relate with the video and link it and the narrative of the song to realism. The predominant gender of the characters in the video are female, this suggests that the target audience is female. Also the use of a range of ages reinforces the age range to be from teenagers to young adults.

The narrative, within this video, is not very clear. Without the lyrics of the music the audience would be unaware of the narrative. This means Todorov and Propp theory is not clear in this video as its quite hard to follow. However the focus on the woman throughout the video may suggest that she's a 'princess' character although it i not particularly clear.