My favourite music videoBeyoncé Pretty Hurts is my favorite music video. The song relates to a beauty pageant, in which we see female characters changing their appearance to win the competition. The video reflects the preparation on a girls have to go through before entering pageants. The first scene shows series of shots of a group of female characters getting ready in a dressing room. We can see these characters physically changing their look, putting themselves through pain and suffering through the way their physique and facial expressions are shown. An example of this would be when a female is shown in a backless dress, pinching the skin on her body. This is an emphasis on a stereotype of girls in beauty pageants losing weight and willing to change their look to win.

The appearance of the women in the video contrasts in the beginning and towards the end. At the start we see a female character getting ready, applying makeup and a dress. However towards the end these same characters are shown with their makeup on and in an elegant dress. This conforms to stereotypes of women becoming obsessed with their image, always wanting to impress males. As the only male character in the video the judge, he suggests this by the way they are trying to impress him to win. All the girls in the video all appear to be unhappy. This again is emphasizing the girls are putting on a show to impress a male character, using false smiles, hair and makeup to do that also this relates to Laura Mulvey.

The music video shows the storyline of the girls entering a beauty pageant, competing to become the winner. The narrative is shown clearly as a story carries on in each shot. However cross cuts are used showing Beyoncé standing in front of a shelves of trophies. This reminds the audience they are watching a music video, switching back to Beyoncé singing the song. When Beyoncé says “my aspiration in life is to be happy” this also relates to the fact that music videos need aspirations to make a good video so people can connect themselves to the video as well. The camera then cuts to her destroying her trophies. This shows she is not happy in the pageant as she has to pretend to be someone she isn’t. The narrative is shown clearly through the way the music video is edited in chronological order apart from the use of cross cuts and cutaway to Beyoncé singing the song. However Beyoncé sings the song during the talent park of the music video. This makes the story more believable and doesn’t conform to any key features of a typical music video, with high key lighting and over exaggerating.

Props used in the scene are iconic of a beauty pageant. Examples of this includes; trophies, elegant dresses, crowns, and makeup. These props are commonly associated with beauty pageants. This is a contrast of the props that are seen to the girls changing their appearance which reveals more of the serious side behind pageants. For example there is a so which Beyoncé is seen with her face outlines the dotted line as an urgent taking a needle to her face. The props of the needle emphasizing the serious reality being beauty pageants and remind the audience that women in realist do change their appearance to impress other people.

In this music video the setting is varied. The main settings are the stage where the competition takes place and the dressing room backstage. Neither of the settings use high key lighting this is done for a dramatic and dark effect which links to the message and narrative of the song and music video. I think it is successfully done to emphasis the darker side to start the clear location of the music video. The stage and dressing table shows dearly that the music video is set during a beauty pageant as well as props characters.

The song ‘pretty hurts’ is used both dietetically and none identically through the music video the sound being of a just non-digeatic as the women in the changing rooms are getting ready. This is done to introduce our characters before going straight into the song Beyoncé is introduces to the stage by the pageant show hosts. A mid shot shoes Beyoncé stood behind a microphone she begins to sing. In the scene the song started again only this time non digetic played over short slips of Beyoncé purposely her for the pageants. For the rest of the video the sound varies between dietetic and non digestic, showing both the narrative and performance style in the video. Even though the music video uses a mixture of performance and narrative video the contrast works very well to successfully and clearly show the linear narrative of the storyline. The song is very well thought of in terms of the music video and is shown in a much more effective way to the audience notice and understand the video clearer.