Reflections

In class, we watched more music videos and got to understand the ten terms much better. Firstly, Midnight City, by M83, showed good use of focus. At one point in the video, the subjects are wearing white clothing and are looking at and walking towards a white light. The camera focuses a lot on the light which helps to show that they are going to freedom. And along with the white clothing that shows that they are innocent human beings. Then, diegesis was shown well in Sail, by Awolnation, throughout the video. The underlying theme is that the subject is running from extraterrestrial creatures because there is constantly a light shining into his house and a green light scanning the rooms to look for any human beings. Then later, he is getting dragged out of the house and it seems as though it is aliens, although the viewer never gets to see what he is being dragged by. Flashback and flash forward are shown well in The Last to Say, by Atmosphere, when the editing fades in and out to the future and the past self of the main character. It shows that he is turning into his father because he has built up anger inside of him and ends up hitting his wife, as his father did, which can be seen through the editing forward and backward. In Around My Way, by Lupe Fiasco, shots are used to help enhance the meaning of the lyrics. He talks about how rappers and artists are always trying to buy expensive things to boost their ego, however none of that means anything. Many shots throughout the video show Lupe with cars and chains being put on him, however the lyrics talk about how that's what rappers want, but it doesn't mean anything. Finally, Blink 182 used a story in their music video Adam's Song to help enhance the song. The video shows people being distressed and in sadness and pain the background of many of the scenes where everyone else around is happy. The song is about depression and suicide and they are trying to bring awareness to it, so the plot of the music video helps to show that and can help people who are depressed and need help.

Five for Fighting uses many sequences of shots in 100 years to show how time passes and what he wants to be like as a person. The sequences help to show that it is him as the main character, even though the ages are always changing from young to older. The auteur Martina McBride used a distinct style in her music video for I'm Gonna Love You Through It. She intertwined videos of her singing with pauses where women talk about their struggle in overcoming cancer. The unique style of editing helped impact the viewer by feeling the pain and then happiness that cancer families feel, which really made Martina and her director stand out as auteurs. Next, mise-en-scene was used fantastically throughout The Music Scene, by Blockhead. The video shows the evolution of humans and nature with technology and at many points throughout the video, it can be paused to show an amazing mise-en-scene. Some of them show how nature is always going to be better than technology and will never be influenced by it, but will always continue to stand above it. And at other points, clips are shown where humans are being taken over by technology and in the end it causes the downfall of humans, while nature is still alive and well above the technology. Next, the editing in Never Gonna Change, by Broods, was very well done and helped to get the point of the lyrics out through the use of visuals. The main character was always pouring water which was very well done in the editing, however its use was to show that the man always gets down for a girl, but he continues to go back to her even though he ends up getting drenched by the water he is pouring out. Finally, the genre of Eminem's music video Mockingbird was a narrative. It told the story of his life with his daughter and how he wasn't always there for her. The story of the music video showed pictures and videos of him playing with her as she grew up, mixed in with clips of him not being there for her and her mother going to jail and not being there for her either. This week helped me see more examples of the words we need to learn and I believe that I understand the terms very well now.