Research; Music Video - Ultrabeat 'Pretty Green Eyes'

This music video begins with a number of close ups of different body parts and two shots of two characters that seem extremely intimate. Intimate gestures, such as almost kissing/ teasing, reinforce this portrayal. The quick change and restriction in what the audience can see creates slight confusion and enigma. The video then continues to close ups of the character pulling up her stockings and tying the back of her top. This allows the audience to see a lot more flesh and creates a sexual feel about the video, especially due to the revealing of her back. This could be seen to reflect the nightclub and the way women dress when attending as well as the ideology of women being an object for men to look at for there sexuality and appearance. There is then a close up of a make up pallet and shows a woman applying red lipstick, this could connote so sort of danger about the woman, or possibly passion/romance.

This is followed by an extreme close up of the female’s eye. This connotes its importance to the video and its clear link to the narrative. As the woman blinks, a straight cut is used to change and establish the setting as a nightclub. This is reinforced, as the music kicks in, by the use of coloured lighting, such as greens and pinks, to give a night club effect and link the video to the dance genre.

There are a number of medium shots of the woman characters dancing for the majority of the video. However it is unclear to completely see them at all times as the lighting of the shots is very dark and restricts what the audience is able to see, perhaps to portray a night setting again linking with night clubs. It also connotes mystery which is a key aspect of the video as the audience is unable to clearly see a lot of things causing enigma.

A couple medium close ups, and a two shot of the artist is then shown. However the lighting remains quite dark with what looks more like natural light than a bright key light, that you would expect to see, is used to show the artists face, this suggests that they’re not that important to the video. However the artist gain full eye contact with the audience which challenges this as this shows his importance and engages the audience. The artists are not shown particularly often in the video, which is unusual for this genre. Furthermore all the dancers within the video are female connoting the dominance of female in the dance genre and the target audience to be females.

A zoom to an extreme close up of the artists eye joint by a straight cut to the females eye reinforce the importance of the eye to the narrative and show a connection between the artist and the female, again reinforcing the song lyrics.

Flashing lights are then use to again create a disco feel and relate to nightclubs as this is the most common place for this genre of music to be played. During this scene a quick pan is used creating a chaotic atmosphere and a sense of high energy. This is reinforced by the movement and gesture of the people on screen and their dancing. This again reinforces the nightclub atmosphere and gives the audience a clear idea of the setting. The lighting within this frame continues to be dark and continues to restrict what the audience can see. However the scene does focus on three women and suggests them to be important and reinforce the dominance of women within the video.

The video then proceeds to medium and long shots of the three woman dancing in what seems like there underwear and stockings. The dancing is quite sexual and the women are seen to be using their bodies to engage the audience. This reinforces the ideology of women being an object for men and having to uses there sexuality and appearance to gain identity. The use of woman in restricted clothing and good appearance seems a key convention of the dance genre as it is present in a number of videos and album covers that I have analysed. This suggests that this will attract the target audience and could be due to the audience being able to relate to the situation as a number of girls dress provocatively for nights out.

The editing of the video also follows the key conventions of the dance genre as there are a number of straight and jump cuts to create a fast pace for the edits and match the music tempo. This also causes and upbeat atmosphere to be created and, in the case of this song, quite a happy atmosphere.

The video finishes with the top we saw being done up in the beginning of the video being tied up, being untied symbolising the end of the night. Although a lot of sight is restricted within this video I feel it works well as it relates well to a realistic situation and therefore allows the audience to relate well to it and therefore the song and the narrative of the song.

This again doesn't show a clear use of Todorov's theory as the narrative is not particularly clear and shows shows a romance of focus on a woman by a male. This could suggest that Propp's theory could be applied with the female character being a 'princess' and the male being a 'hero'.