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Mise-en scene for music videos

Avenged sevenfold- hail to the king- metal genre

At the start of this music video, we can see an emerging skull from grey coloured clouds. This sets the mood of the song as the two objects indicate a dark theme and maybe about death and evil. This is shown before the music video shows the title of the song.

The title is in an old font that was used in the medieval times which is a denotation for old times where the world was dark. The font can relate to the title with the word ‘king’ this is because of the common stereotype of kings and castles in this time.

In this shot, we have a shot of the guitar being played for the song that we can hear shown as a close up. This is a typical shot for a metal genre as it has a shot of the band playing the instruments. This shot is particularly interesting

as it is shot with a blurred effect from time to time from clear to not. The shots throughout the video are all in black and white. We can see in this shot the logo of the band on the fret board of the guitar. This can relate to Goodwin’s theory of need to sell artist as the logo is recognisable for ‘avenged sevenfold fans as this logo is on all their albums.

The music video features lots of connotation and denotations. In this screen shot, we can see a rose turning from white to black using the editing of the black and white filter. This shot is maybe a denotation for life to death.

This is the first shot of the lead singer. He is shown with the main lighting directly behind him. Along with the black and white editing, it has given the shot a great effect as we can see the singer’s face with a light in front but less intense than the main light. This effect gives the impression of the divide between light and dark of the video.

In this shot, we can see two of the band members. In focus, we can see the tattoos that both of them have. This is a typical sign of a rock or metal band. The tank top that the singer is wearing is also a costume typically worn on music videos. The costumes of the band remain the same throughout the video.

This shot is the start of the narrative of the music video. This has slowly become popular in rock music videos but the majority has no narrative. This shot is shown as a long shot with the use of a crown. This also relates to the title of the song as kings wear them. The old, dead tree is a sign of

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fear in this shot and shows the age of the king’s crown as it is placed on a pillow under the tree. The figure carries it to possibly the king.

This cut shot from the band is where a dark liquid drips on the white floor. The black and white edit intrigues the audience as to what it is. There is a visual-lyric relation her from Goodwin’s theory as the lyrics go ‘blood is spilt…’ this is a big clue that it is blood being shown on screen. A typical denotation shown on metal music videos as it describes pain and death.

This is part of quick flash shots of old paintings and pictures. This one in particular is a shot of soldiers with negative emotions. They are all looking up like they would do to the king with relates to the title. These quick shots were edited to the quick beat along with other images. One of them also included the word ‘atone’ in black background to stand out from these images. This is a lyric in the song.

This is another example of the lyric- visual relation. The theme of the music video is mainly skulls and old weaponry. In this shot as an example, we see both of them together with swords in the skull’s eye sockets. This is detailing the theme of medieval times and death. This image is combining the two and bound with the lyrics of the song.

The song ends with the crown being presented to a human figure. But the camera tracks from his waist up to his head shown with different cuts of the band and the narrative. The strange use of the skull as the head becomes an odd ending as the song ‘hail to the king’ is about this figure who wears the crown.

Eminem- berzerk- rap

The first shot of this music video is an old boom box being put down shown in mid shot. A classical prop to be placed in a rap video as it symbolises the rap culture.

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This huge cassette player features an old cassette that has ‘beats’ written on it. This goes with Goodwin’s theory of intertextuality as it refers to the maker of headphones that the artist promotes. Therefore, placing it in his music videos is a good promotion for the product.

This shot uses a fish eye lens which widens the shot to make the boom box look bigger. The shot includes the rapper ‘Eminem’ making traditional hand movements while looking into the camera. This involves the audience in the rap. He is wearing dog tags and a white shirt while the other man wears grey and has a big beard to represent the rock side of music.

This is a cut shot of the two rapping. It is an old video of someone falling over. These cut shots are used throughout of different videos that the audience would typically find on the internet to watch shown in long shot in an amateur way.

The camera for this shot reacts to Eminem’s pushing action in front of the camera and the camera moves up to the ceiling. This is showing the rebelliousness of the rapper giving him a status for his career.

Another shot of Eminem rapping to the camera except he is in a different location with tall buildings shown with the fish eye lens. He is wearing a different costume than the last scene. Throughout the scenes, Eminem wears a range of costumes in different locations. This camera

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tracks the rapper as he moves. This shot uses the green screen editing. This means that the sky in the scene can change into bright colours.

This is another cut of Eminem in different costumes and different scene. This time, he is in front of a plain grey wall but still looking and gesturing at the camera which involves the audience. The main lighting on this shot is behind the camera towards what is in focus, brightening the rapper and the wall behind him.

This shot is in a dark alley with the people on camera is wearing all black. One of the people throws money up in the air. These props and location relates to the genre as they are used in the majority of rap music videos which therefore gives a stereotype for rappers. This shot uses a reverse edit as the money flies from the air back to the man’s hand.

Another prop formidably found on rap music videos is the bmx bike, bike that relates to the look of a rapper as they have a trend with them. This shot is set in an abandoned warehouse possibly where the actors can ride the bmx’s around without being disturbed.

This shot uses the reverse shot again. This is used where Eminem sprays the title of the song on the clear screen. The spray paint is typically used on rap videos for pictures, symbols or in this situation, words.

Daniel Powter- Bad Day- piano rock

This first shot is edited to split in two to show the two stars waking up from their beds backed up with the nightwear they are wearing. This is shown

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as a bird’s eye mid shot. This music video is majority a narrative about day to day lives of two people who work nearby and just miss each other every day of their lives until coming together at the end.

The shots are cut at the same time to each other and to the beat of the music. The background in these shots is the focus and the alarm clock in the foreground is blurred.

This shot is a extreme long shot of David powter playing the piano. This shot shows and emphasise the large location of the urban land and the amount of empty space there is. This can relate to the space there is between the two characters in the narrative.

These split shots represent different days of her life. It shows that each day is the same for her shown as a close up as she puts on make-up. Each split shows that she is wearing different costumes as it’s a new day.

This shot of Daniel Powter is a close up of his face as he sings the song while playing the guitar. He is wearing casual clothes which is a recent change to piano rock where pianists commonly wore flashy clothes. But he is wearing normal clothes. There is no obvious make-up but he is clean shaven.

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These two shots show the two characters’ lives starting to merge together and how they relate together. This is shown in both as a mid shot in the subway. In the same location and the same position, the way they are shot shows that if the two shots were put together, they fit together with the space next to them is enough for the other character to sit next to them. These two shots cut to the beat, flipping back and forth to one another.

The artist is shown on the train, the train that the character is on. Shown as a mid shot, he gazes out the window. This uses natural lighting from the lights outside the train. The light goes from left to right.

This is a shot of a water cooler set in front of a blue background shown in a long shot, but the cuts of the cooler get closer as the calendar cuts on screen. This prop is a connotation of an office job as they are commonly found in office buildings for employees. This relates to the characters personas as it describes what they do for work.

This shot is shown as a long shot on the female character. It shows the divide between her and the rest of her life. The other characters are having fun and socialising while she is left out. This relates to the song title ‘bad day’. They are all in smart clothing to show that they are at work set in the staff kitchen.

This shot is the first physical interaction with the two characters. This is a point of view shot where it zooms in on her to make the audience focus on her. The shot is lit with the one light in the room that she’s in and one lighting up her face while outside is naturally dark.

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This shot is placed in centre of the billboard where the character walks in on the shot. It is angled for her to be in mid shot. This scene cuts from her reaction to the board and what she is looking at shown by a variation of a shot reverse shot. She is still wearing her clothes that she wore in the last scenes. This shows that this is all happening on the same day therefore this is just one of her days of her life.

This is a shot with both of the characters in the same scene at the same time where both of the stories merge completely shown by a low angle. This scene completes the narrative of the song where they both go together in the taxi. The appropriate use of the umbrella’s and raincoats help show that it is raining which the characters try to keep dry from.