1. Music video demonstrate genre characteristics.
Russian Red in an indie folk artist but the song Casper is more of an indie pop song as the song was created not long after she joined the major label of Octubre (Sony Music Spain) who would have wanted her to create more mainstream music in the hope of increasing her fame. Below you can see the ways in which the music video apply to some of the indie music video conventions.
The setting of many indie music videos low budget and are often very simple, in Casper's case this is a street, a cheap hotel room, and the bathroom the hotel room. These settings were all very simple and would have been fairly cheap to create for a typical music videos. Like in most indie music videos there are additional characters in Casper as well as the artist and all of these 'main characters' are given different costumes so it is easy to tell who each person is and follow the story, the characters are portrayed through a mixture of acting and their appearance. Props are often used in indie music videos in order to make the video appear more realistic, many props are used and are crucial to the music video for Casper in order to do this such a the phone, the vase and roses, and the bottle of pills. It is also common to show some live performance in indies music videos to give the impression that the artist loves what they do, throughout Casper Red Russian is seen to be singing the words of the song in this way. In Casper narrative is added in the music video to add to the story which is another convention in the indie genre, used to create a more interesting story which can make the music video more popular. When a narrative such as this is added diegetic sound can also be added which sometime even matches in time with the music such as the door opening and slamming on beats in the music.
2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
We can see examples of illustrative images later in the piece as when she sings that 'I could be sleeping by your side' we see her slowly drift off to sleep and wake up with him in the room. Images of her sighing and clutching at the curtains in despair are amplifying the idea in the lyrics that she is in despair over man and the whole video shows a part attempted and part imaginary encounter with him. The final lyrics which are also the first lyrics of the song 'there was one and there were two and then I probably lost the count' summarises what is to happen and then has happened in the piece, saying about how, to her, there were two men in the room and then she knocked herself out.
3. There is a relationship between music and the visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
The speed of the editing and number of shots in particular places in the piece changes depending on the speed of the music, having lots of fast shots were the music speeds up and very few, slow shots were the music slows down, ending in the longest shot of the piece at the end where the music is at its slowest . The movements on screen often happen to the beat of the music, in some cases taking the place of diegetic music such as a drum beat for a door slamming and the clash of a cymbal for a vase breaking. The tone and atmosphere created by the music seems for me to be laid-back with a touch of glamour, shown perfectly in the images through the simple hotel room with a woman dressed as a pop star.
4. The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs that recur across their work
Lots of close ups are used throughout the piece and during most of it only the artist is on screen in order to help create her star image, her artist name is also written along with the title of the music video so that more people will see and remember her name. A common motif in her most recent video is the colour red, whether this be in her hair or her lipstick (or in this particular case her dress) which helps people to remember her red associated artist name.
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
The notion of looking is explored heavily in Casper through mirrors, from even the first shots of the video before the music has even begun she is looking at herself in car mirrors. Once in the hotel room she looks at herself or just sits in front of the mirrors in her room and bathroom and her reflection in the windows numerous time, taking up about a third of the shots. Voyeuristic treatment of the female body is used throughout the piece, through both her costume, a tight red dress which shows cleavage and a short white nightie, to the way she acts in them such as pushing her chest up in front of a mirror and moving and crawling sensuously while in the nightie. Both men in the piece seem to look over her body some point, as if they are appraising it.
6.There are often intertextual references.
At the beginning of the piece, before the song begins, the artist flicks through the radio and two different songs come on for a brief few seconds, both of which are intertextual references. In this case the referenced songs are other pieces by the artist which help create an awareness for her other songs from the start.
2. There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
We can see examples of illustrative images later in the piece as when she sings that 'I could be sleeping by your side' we see her slowly drift off to sleep and wake up with him in the room. Images of her sighing and clutching at the curtains in despair are amplifying the idea in the lyrics that she is in despair over man and the whole video shows a part attempted and part imaginary encounter with him. The final lyrics which are also the first lyrics of the song 'there was one and there were two and then I probably lost the count' summarises what is to happen and then has happened in the piece, saying about how, to her, there were two men in the room and then she knocked herself out.
3. There is a relationship between music and the visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
The speed of the editing and number of shots in particular places in the piece changes depending on the speed of the music, having lots of fast shots were the music speeds up and very few, slow shots were the music slows down, ending in the longest shot of the piece at the end where the music is at its slowest . The movements on screen often happen to the beat of the music, in some cases taking the place of diegetic music such as a drum beat for a door slamming and the clash of a cymbal for a vase breaking. The tone and atmosphere created by the music seems for me to be laid-back with a touch of glamour, shown perfectly in the images through the simple hotel room with a woman dressed as a pop star.
4. The demand of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs that recur across their work
Lots of close ups are used throughout the piece and during most of it only the artist is on screen in order to help create her star image, her artist name is also written along with the title of the music video so that more people will see and remember her name. A common motif in her most recent video is the colour red, whether this be in her hair or her lipstick (or in this particular case her dress) which helps people to remember her red associated artist name.
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
The notion of looking is explored heavily in Casper through mirrors, from even the first shots of the video before the music has even begun she is looking at herself in car mirrors. Once in the hotel room she looks at herself or just sits in front of the mirrors in her room and bathroom and her reflection in the windows numerous time, taking up about a third of the shots. Voyeuristic treatment of the female body is used throughout the piece, through both her costume, a tight red dress which shows cleavage and a short white nightie, to the way she acts in them such as pushing her chest up in front of a mirror and moving and crawling sensuously while in the nightie. Both men in the piece seem to look over her body some point, as if they are appraising it.
6.There are often intertextual references.
At the beginning of the piece, before the song begins, the artist flicks through the radio and two different songs come on for a brief few seconds, both of which are intertextual references. In this case the referenced songs are other pieces by the artist which help create an awareness for her other songs from the start.
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