Dodie - Intertwined

The music video for Dodie's 'Intertwined' was released in April, 2017. The artist
began on youtube and the genre is alternative/indie. As Dodie's career began on
Youtube, she amassed a following before officially beginning her music career,
which meant she already had a huge audience to cater to. Due to her platform
being Youtube, which is known for being used mostly by teenagers, her music video
was aimed at teen girls, which can be seen through the first shot of the music video,
a dollhouse, which is similar to the aesthetic of the videos for Melanie Martinezs
videos, which play with the ideas of stereotypically feminine upbringings and typical
girls toys being applied to more mature situations.
Her target audience is mostly centred around the B, C1 and C2, as around those
socioeonomic groups is where the focus on aesthetic is most prominent. In terms
of psychographic groups, due to the young age of her target audience, a majority of
them fit into the aspirer and explorer groups, as they tend to be focused on
appearances and individualism rather than social awareness or stability.
The first shot is an establishing shot of a dollhouse, with the colour palette featuring
only pastel colours. This sets up the song for a sweet tone which builds off of
childhood and the idea of a perfect home and life, which is a theme that is
contradicted later on in the music video. This theme is also represented through the
font used for the title of the video, which also matches the colour scheme. This first
shot is then juxtaposed with a close-up of two dolls in lowkey lighting, contrasting
the light, happy colours with darker, much warmer and saturated colours. Although
the colours and lighting contrast, the theme of a dollhouse is kept, with a child's
toys being used to represent more intimate adult scenes with sexual implications to
portray the meanings behind the song.
The music video makes use of parallels between the lyrics and the visuals, aligning
the shots of the female dolls hair in the male dolls face and a close-up of the dolls
feet with hair in your mouth // Feet touching feet. This links to Goodwins theory
as the video makes use of one of his 8 main principles of music videos, in this case
the link between lyrics and visuals.
The dolls shown in the first few shots are then introduced with close-ups
of their faces, both in highkey lighting. Through the use of highkey-lighting
and the cuts between the close-ups, the suggested relationship between
the dolls is reinforced and is set as the main theme of the whole video.
This is then followed by a cut to a wideshot of the interior of the
dollhouse, showing the domestic and normal type of relationship
between the dolls. The video then cuts to another establishing shot of the
dollhouse, this time at sunset. Through these establishing shots, the tone
of each scene is re-established with the darker lighting meaning darker
themes are going to be introduced. This is seen in the first cut from the
second establishing shot, which shows the female doll again, but this time
with her head cut open and her 'brain' being visible. This shot lines up with
the lyrics and timing of the song, with the song playing Things in my brain'
as soon as the shot begins. This also parallels with the tone of the song
and how more gory language is used to juxtapose the innocence of the
beginning of the song. When the shots of the female doll in daylight and at
sunset are compared, it can be seen that the doll has been angled,
creating an unsettling tone which is reinforced by the set smile in the dolls
face, and that a mid-close-up has been used instead of a normal close-up,
suggesting motion in an inanimate object.
The shots that are cut between often feature very different aesthetics,
with highkey-lighting being contrasted with shots of lowkey-lighting and
the colour schemes being completely different. As well as this, the cuts are
synced up with the most stressed words in the lines as well as the beat,
which emphasises the two sides to the relationship and reinforces the
unnatural and creepy elements of the two dolls being used to represent
people.
The theme of the outside lighting reflecting the theme of the inside of the dollhouse
are carried on with the third establishing shot, this time around showing night-time.
The scene following this shows the female doll holding scissors, after which she is
shown to have cut all of her hair off. A close up is used to show the now hairless
doll, with her being lit from behind and her entire face being cast in shadow, with
her eyes specifically being the darkest part of the shot. Immediately following this,
the song features the lyrics because I cant stand them, with there being a pause
before them and harmonies being used to emphasise the word. This is synced up
with a shot of the male doll, which when the harmonies start, is shown to be sitting
on the bed while the room is flooded with a red liquid. As well as this, slow motion
is used to reflect the length of the notes for the word them, and this use of slow
motion is then repeated for the rest of the long notes throughout the video, all of
which feature some type of destruction or dark imagery which stands as a metaphor
for the relationship between the dolls. The use of high-contrast lowkey lighting
reiterates the nature of the relationship, and replicates the lighting used in horror
movies, showing how unhealthy the relationship is. Throughout the entire video, no
human actors are used, and so the motion of the characters on screen is always
static, although slight changes are made between shots, creating an unsettling tone
in the video. The use of dolls also shows that the video is an imitation of the artists
stance on relationships, as it plays out a fake relationship with metaphorical imagery
rather than a realistic portrayal of a relationship. This relates to her target audience
of teens as people in their teenage years tend to be focused on relationships and
tend to exaggerate what happens to them in an 'edgy and over-the-top manner.
This focus on 'edgy' images by teens is derived from the 'emo' movement of the mid
2000's, and the imagery of the movement has carried on to current music and art,
with artists like TwentyOne Pilots, Halsey and Melanie Martinez using similar darker
themes to appeal to a teenage audience. Due to the central theme of love and
relationships, this video, in a western audience, would appeal to teen girls rather
than boys, as the idea of love is encouraged in girls and women and is overall seen
as feminine.
 Hayley Kiyoko Gravel To Tempo
Hayley Kiyoko is an artist signed to Atlantic, a major American record label which is a subsidiary of
Warner music group, which covers a large range of genres, with Hayley Kiyokos music fitting into
the electropop genre. This gives it a broad range of conventions it could fit into, and the music
video can be defined as a concept performance video, featuring the musician and five main
characters. Due to the themes tackled by the artist herself, often featuring LGBT themes, the
artists target audience is narrowed down to queer girls and allies, although a focus is put on
younger queer girls, ranging from 15 to 25 years of age. Due to the target audience being a
minority group, a large portion of them would fit into the reformer psychographic group, due to
the want of the entire community to be treated equally and fairly in their countries. As well as
this, the older end of the target audience would fit into the struggler psychographic group, as due
to the minority status of the queer community a large amount of them are forced out of financial
stability by their families and a majority of queer spaces being bars and clubs. This also outlines
the socioeconomic standing of her target audience, featuring mainly those who fit into the D, C1
and C2 groups.
The video itself begins with a simple white title overlaid over a close up of the back of Kiyokos
head, the font of which matches up to the minimalist aesthetic of the most popular posts spread
by the target audience on social media. This is then followed by a long shot which establishes the
setting; a high school filled with other teenagers. By setting the narrative in a school, the story
establishes itself as a universal and relatable experience to the target audience, successfully
promoting the artist to the audience.
As well as the setting, the usual stereotypes of high schools are introduced, including a clique of
five girls, who are introduced through a series of mid shots and close ups featuring boys on their
shoulders. Through introducing these five characters with other boys, the main conflict is
introduced, as Kiyoko is renowned for creating lesbian-centric music videos.
A mid shot is then used to show the contrast between Kiyoko and the clique, with the five girls
showing their backs to the camera as opposed to Kiyoko, who is visible between the shoulders of
the cliqu. This use of two sides presents Kiyoko with a seemingly judge audience, presenting them
as the antagonists of the narrative, which is focused around self-acceptance and self-esteem. This
idea of the clique judging Kiyoko is reinforced through the close-ups of each of the five girls, who
are all affected by Kiyokos presence in some obvious way, with two of them being visibly confused
or disgusted y her appearance. This is reiterated when Kiyoko then begins dancing, which is used
as a representation for not caring about the judgements from those around her, reflecting on the
universal reflections often found within the lesbian community. This concept of the dancing is
then used throughout the rest of the video, repeatedly being done in the direct line of sight of the
proposed clique.
Both Intertwined and Gravel to Tempo are hybrid music videos, both being concept and
narrative videos. Both use conceptual ideas to portray their narrative and the meaning of
the song, with Intertwined using dolls and Gravel to Tempo making use of dancing and
a school environment, both of which are appropriate for their target audience, which may
crossover. Although they feature different styles in terms of what shots they use, with
Intertwined featuring extreme close ups and the use of lighting to highlight key features
of the narrative, Gravel to Tempo makes use of the links between the music and visuals,
as well as costuming which clearly separates the main characters from the extras, with the
main characters all featuring a distinct colour as opposed to the dull colours of the
background characters. On top os this, both videos use colour grading to emphasise their
genre and narrative, with Gravel to Tempo making use of a high saturation and a more
prominent yellow to reflect the confidence of the main character and Intertwined
making use of boosts to the warmer hues to create an artificial intimate tone which is
juxtaposed with low-key lit shots with a boost to a colder yellow reflecting the lighting of
horror movies. Through analysing the general camerawork and editing of these videos, I
will have examples of the different types of effects I could use to add dramatic effects to
my own hybrid video, such as the slow motion in Intertwined or the colour grading in
both which reflects the tone of the entirety of the video.