MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS: PRIMA DONNA

Carol Vernallis Analysis

Narrative

The video is a visual response to the musicThe video suits the style and genre of the music and the look of the

artist. It also cuts in time and rhythm with the soundtrack.

There is not necessarily always a balance between narrative and performance The narrative is not always complete- it may be a partial, fragmented narrative The structure of the video may appear disjointed

• This is typical to the pop genre as it relies heavily on the artist’s performance rather than a storyline. The different scenes are incomplete/ disjointed and do not really tell a story, conforming to the ‘quirky’ indie pop genre.

Something drives the video forward, but often it is not the narrative. It could be the music, the performance, a mixture, or some other element

• The video is mostly driven by the performance (pop convention) and the story within the lyrics (indie pop convention) maintaining the viewer’s interest throughout the video.

Cont.

There may not always be a clear resolution (closure) at the end The video may pose questions that it doesn’t actually answer

The video uses similar shots and the same settings throughout the song and the narrative doesn’t really amount to anything. The video seems to make sense, however the lyrics are not explained in the visuals, for example Marina’s song involves a love interest that is never really shown or explained through the visuals, which could be purposefully done to give a message about the character we are watching.

• There may be a narrative or theme running through the video, but in a montage style

The style of the video shows a theme of a certain style. Everything included in the mise en scene is eccentric, vintage and generally expensive-looking. This is shown through use of different camerawork and editing different scenes in different settings to create a montage effect of the performance. There is no narrative, however the type of visuals the audience is given, corresponds with the messages in the lyrics about the type of woman the character is, and what she is trying to put across about her love interest.

Editing Editing may match the musical phrases or the beat

The video in general cuts to the beat of the music or in time with the lines in the song to run fluently alongside the music. Every movement, action or cut in the visuals fits with the rhythm of the soundtrack.

For example, in the space of ten seconds in the video (0:40-0:50) there were ten cuts averaging at approximately one per second, in time with the beat

The video may disrupt/ break many of the ‘rules’ of continuity editing- this is a clear convention of music video editingThis music video breaks a lot of the rules of continuity editing. It uses features in the

visuals such as jump cuts or complicated transitions to make the editing more of an obvious aspect to the music video than continuity editing normally would.

For example, during cuts, alternating between these two colour filters, drawing attention to the cuts/ transitions.

Editing may become ‘foregrounded’-the edits may be really obvious, to draw attention to themselves as opposed to invisible, continuity editing

The cuts in this video tend to be quite jumpy compared to other editing techniques in the indie pop genre, such as Florence and the machine’s rabbit heart where the cuts are fluid and logical. This could be to draw attention to the editing, or also to give the video an imperfect, almost quirky look to fit with the themes of the song and visuals.

Jump cuts using slightly different shot types within the same frame of the artist

Use of interesting/ fancy edits and cuts such as this transition using the broken video look and then coming back into focus with another scene.

A style of editing that runs through the video and is distinctive to that videoThis video uses jump cuts and some unusual transitions with an overall montage look to

the video which combined is distinctive to the music video however the features are common in editing in other indie pop videos

Camerawork When it comes to shot types, extremes are very common

Extreme shots are common (extreme close ups) however aren’t as common as mid shots and close ups, familiarising the audience with the face and look of the artist.

The style of framing and movement may run through the video and be distinctive to that video

A lot of panning/ turning shots using mid-long distance to match the ongoing action and movement of the artist and scene.

The camera may move in time with the music The camera may move on the lyricsThe camera moves and cuts in time in this video, either to the time of the lyrics, or the

rhythm of the music

The master shot (or other establishing shots) is used frequently, as are the close-upsThere are two master shots used frequently in this video, within the montage of clips to

give some continuity to the video.

Diegesis The diegesis may be revealed quite slowlyThis video is unconventional in that it is based completely on performance, basing the

visuals more on running themes of the video rather than a plot or narrative.e.g. Eccentric styling and themes throughout

Actions are not necessarily completed- they may be disrupted or interrupted in some wayA lot of the character’s actions are almost random/ confusing and the fact that there are a

lot of fast cuts in the video mean that a lot of the actions are cut part way through and then returned to after another scene making some of the actions fragmented or disrupted.

Character or object movements may move to the musicBoth the character movements and the camera movements are in time and rhythm with the

music, whether its a panning shot or the character twirling around in a scene to add more fluency to the video.

There may be gaps in the audience’s understanding of the diegesis-in time and space, music, performance and narrative

There is not really a relevance of time and space in the visuals, however there may be gaps in understanding for the viewer, within the lack of narrative and the reasons for some of the styling of Marina’s performance.

Cont.

Some frames may be more important than othersSome of the master shots or close ups of marina are more important to the continuity of the video

and also increasing the familiarity of the artist to the audience .Some of the shots that are used in the montage for the video are just used to conform to the themes of the visuals for the music video and song.

Significant: Less significant:

There be many repetitions e.g. Musical phrases, the beat, other musical elements, themes, lyrics, performance, colours, images, camera positions

Because of the montage effect used on the video, all of these features are repeated during the song to add a feeling of continuity to an otherwise fast-paced and slightly disorientated video. All of the sound features are repeated, certain shots such as the master shots and close ups are used repeatedly, the colours/ filters are used throughout the visuals to fit in with the theme of the vintage look of the video, along with the performance and lyrics. Finally the images used are repeated a lot as they are key to representing the theme of a vintage style and eccentric looking video, with the use of expensive objects (huge chandeliers), old style outfits, hair and make up and use of random/ odd features such as the Alsatian and tortoise.

Conclusion

Overall, I feel that this particular indie pop video conforms to the conventions that Carol Vernallis discusses in her theory of music videos. However, it also shows a slight stray from the common features of the genre’s music videos, which is actually a convention of indie pop. I feel this video, the artist and the themes fit in well to the style and features of the genre and the areas discussed by the theory I have looked at.