Analysing Alternative Pop Videos;Birdy – Skinny Love

Delilah – Inside My Love

By Amy Balchin

Camerawork - BirdyThroughout ‘Skinny Love’ by Birdy we see a lot of medium shots and close ups are used, especially of the artist herself. A lot of these medium shots are used to show the artist playing the piano in an empty, dark room, and also following her walking around an empty house. I discovered a pattern throughout the music video, which is when the artist is singing, close ups are used, and when the video is showing the narrative part, it is mainly using medium and long shots to show what is going on/where she is going.

Camerawork - DelilahAfter watching ‘Inside my Love’ by Delilah, I noticed a few similarities and differences between her music video, and the one previously spoke about by Birdy. I noticed that in Delilah's video, she seemed to use a lot more medium shots than close ups. This was to show the audience what was going on in the video, as the two characters are performing a contemporary dance. There were also a few long shots included in the video, which is different to what we saw in Birdy’s video. There are close ups of the artists face throughout the video to show her singing, and also to portray her emotions to the audience.

Mise en scene - BirdyIn Birdy’s video, ‘Skinny Love’ the artist is shown in a dark, empty, old house. This challenges the codes and conventions of alternative pop videos as the artists are usually shown in an urban like environment. There is a dark colour palette used throughout the video, which conforms to the conventions, and also fits the slow, gloomy feel to the song. The artist is wearing a plain white dress, covering up most of her body, and is very fresh faced with no bold make up on. This also challenges the conventions of an alternative pop video, but again relates to the song and also the narrative based video. The artist is also the only person in the video, therefore focusing all attention on her.

Mise en scene - DelilahIn Delilahs music video we see that she has used a dark colour palette throughout the video, which is similar to the video by Birdy. The video is set in one room, which is quite simple with white walls and focuses mainly on a white mattress on the floor in which the characters are dancing on. The artist is wearing a simple top and cotton shorts, which challenges the codes and conventions of alternative pop videos, and also is very different from her other professional music videos as she is normally seen wearing very stylish clothes. I think this works and is parallel to the music video however, as it is a simple video based mostly on the dancing. The artist is also wearing minimal make up and looks very natural throughout this video.

Editing - BirdySimple editing has been used in the ‘Skinny Love’ video, with long shot duration being the main editing technique. This is parallel to the music as the music is quite slow, therefore the visuals match the lyrics (Goodwins Theory). To create the dark colour palette I think that the visuals have been altered in order to give it a greater effect, creating a dark, gloomy atmosphere. Slow motion editing has also been used in this video by Birdy, which conforms to the codes and conventions of alternative pop videos. A blurred effect has also been added quite a lot throughout the video, for example when the artist is playing the piano and the camera goes in and out of focus.

Editing - DelilahI also noticed that the music is parallel to the visuals in the video by Delilah, for example, the beginning of song is slow, and the visuals match this, and then when the tempo speeds up, so does the visuals – going from long shot duration to short shot duration. Similar to Birdys video, Delilah has also used a blurred effect in her video.

From analysing these two videos from our chosen genre, it has given me a better insight into the typical codes and conventions used in an alternative pop video, and therefore giving our group ideas on what we want to challenge or conform in our own music video.