TEXTUAL ANALYSISGeorgia Wilson

MIND MAP-The main purpose of a music video is to promote the release of a new album. A music video will often represent a group or individual. For artists music videos establish the artist into the genre, it shows the audience what they’re about and what music messages they incorporate into their music. It increases the fan base of that artist. -To gain popularity some producers pair big artists with upcoming artists, which helps them gain their own fan base. This was done with Emeli Sande in Professor Green’s ‘Read All About It’, since the music video release she has re-released her own version of this song and her increase of popularity led her to perform at the closing ceremony of the Olympics.- Music videos can be promoting sales of not only albums but films too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk4qJ3bzt5U Will Smith made this video to promote his film ‘Men in Black’, this video was made for his large fan base that will then want to see the film.- -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4-732dLRCw This video is promoting a band name Skindred, they have taken into consideration that the creativity of the video is a talking point. Also using attractive dancers for visual pleasure that draws in male attention, this is more commonly know as the Male Gaze Theory.

Phaeleh –Lamenthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuzHBSa_FDs

Codes and Conventions

The genre of this music video is Ambient/ downtempo. The video is slow paced and filmed in exotic places such as the dessert, this is because they are wide open spaces and they connote with peace and freedom. The women featured in the video are young and attractive, they draw in the male attention noted from The Male Gaze Theory – Laura Mulvey, the men want to be with the actors and the women want to be them. Maybe not just through looks, but in freedom, these actors appear to be living a care free life.The use of exotic animals in this video may draw in viewers as it makes the video more exciting. The colours used in the video are very earth based and they connote peace with mankind and nature. Although I believe black is used to show that there will always be a mysterious or down side.

NarrativeAs the music video progresses in a chronological order it is a linear narrative, although as there is no real comprehensive story it could also be viewed as non-linear.

There are fiction and non-fiction elements to the video that make it somewhat relatable for instance the real meaning of wanting a peace between nature and mankind and also everyone longs for freedom. Yet, the fictional interaction between these exotic animals and attractive women in slow motion almost makes the video humorous as it isn’t believable.

AudienceAs I have spoken about before, the video has a sense of the Male Gaze Theory. Men will watch the video and want to be with the women actors where as the woman will want to be them.

In other Phaeleh music videos I believe it is aimed at a younger audience, yet the actors in this music video seem to be around 25-30. I still think that Phaeleh’s audience in general are free thinkers and carefree, those in the younger generation. But the content of this video suggests freedom and I believe it is sending that message to those who are older.

The content of the video also suggests that the audience attracted will be those who want to help the earth and are very nature orientated. They will also want to bring peace to mankind.

Boards Of Canada – Everything You Do Is A Balloonhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQEmaj9C6ko

Codes and conventions The genre of this music is Ambient/ Electronica. It’s this genre that suggests the video will be slow pace as ambient music is about the calming and intriguing effects of visual aids.The music video was originally a safety awareness video for bike riders, although there were elements added and removed for the video itself such as the narration as it is a music video and they added in animations to show the drop in the number of people, which is eerier than the original as it’s basically showing a count down to death .

The last animation and the end of the video is a 1, representing the last child standing. The children wear monkey masks and tails to represent the misunderstanding of communication, in the way that if it were monkeys being told they would not fully understand just like these children didn’t.There is an antique grain added to the film that has been added to make the video look older, this effect goes strongly with ambient music because it adds to the hazy ambience that the music makes you feel.

NarrativeThis video shows a ‘situation’ to the audience. It is non-fictional obviously due to the content of the video. Although the video is very conceptual as it is about events that could happen. Visually the video is linear because the ‘events’ happen in chronological order, there is even a animated count down that allows the viewer to follow every step of the video. Yet, as the video is non-fictional and has been adapted to the music it had a non-linear element as it is a video about a concept: awareness.

The original video tells the whole story of each child and what they did wrong to end up dead. The music video has made each clip more mysterious and quite sinister as you never find out what that child did wrong to die. And then the one child who lives eats the other children’s lunches, by not seeing the original video makes the music video very dark.

AudienceThe original video was made in 1963 and was aimed at children and parents, it was sending a message of safety awareness. The video was then constructed to fit Boards of Canada’s music in the 90’s, it brought in an audience as the video was considered vintage.

Due to the content of the video it was seen as quite visually stimulating as the band were assumed to use psychedelic drugs, the way the video had been edited is considered to be weird, dark and exciting. The word ‘trippy’ has been used widely by people who have commented on Youtube , this refers to the psychedelic trips induced by drugs, a term used since the 60’s, when the original video came out.

The expected audience to this music video are the creative and soulful people, maybe the young generation with minds of their own, this is evident as the music video has been adapted in such a way that it is matter of opinion of what the music video could mean.

“The monkeys are the wild creative desires born into us all. Over time, they die out. From the cars, society's machines of system. From exhaustion; our natural state cannot keep up with the artificial speed of the life. The pothole, a man-made danger, built-in to society. It's a warning that the hustle and bustle of modern life is not at ease with our spirit and nature.” – comment on Youtube

Editing techniques

As the music video is built by extracts from a safety awareness video made in 1963, there aren’t many editing techniques that are the work of those associated with Boards of Canada.

The narrative of the original video has been moved, removed, switched and edited. So that the music video is more mysterious and would not make sense if it was not for the music itself. Also, the voice over to the original video has been removed.

The fact that these editing techniques did not come from those who work with Boards of Canada shows that they already had a meaning that they thought would fit well with the visuals of the original video.

However, they did add an animated countdown in between clips, they do look like very old drawing, using soft colours, that fit with the video well. I believe they added this countdown to make the video more intense and ‘creepy’.