Duran Duran – ‘girls on film’ video analysis

So again I will be analysing another music video, this research is really helping me not only to understand more about the conventions and stereotypes of music videos, but also to allow me to come up with some more ideas about; shots, editing, lighting, and camerawork techniques.

I've chosen 'Duran Duran - girls on film' to analyse today as I've never seen this video (to be honest until this year I thought the lyrics were 'girls on girls') and also it's not recent music video so it contrasts the last video I analysed!

Here it is firstly;

Duran Duran - girls on film

Some background information:

•It's their 3rd single from their first album, and became one of their signature songs.

•It was released 13th July 1981 and became extremely popular via radio

•The video was directed by the directing duo 'Godley and Creme' and was created two weeks after MTV was launched, I thought this was especially interesting as it reflects my research before this post that MTV had a huge impact on music video history, therefore this music video perhaps shows that this is true!

•The uncensored video caused and uproar and it was banned from BBC, it was also demanded that the video was heavily edited for MTV and other showings.So for this music video I have also decided to focus more on applying Goodwin's theories to it, and how it fits in with the conventions of the theories - the outcome is interesting as it fits in with some and pushes the boundaries of other theories.

Links between music and visuals:

•Although there are few definite direct links between lyrics and visuals, the entire music video is based on the song lyrics.

•The lyrics describe a perhaps raunchy photo shoot,paparazzi, and taking photos of a seemingly famouswoman, and the business of either modelling be itpornographic or safe.

•This is linked with the video as there are numerous shots related to photo shoots and the paparazzi for example the set is laid out as a catwalk, and also there are numerous flashes which seem to be from cameras taking photos of the models.

•The raunchy aspect is shown through possible 'sexy' situations, like the beautiful woman massaging the man, the mud wrestling scene,

Genre characteristics:

• Poprock is linked with performance of the band, which obviously happens a lot throughout this video

• The bands outfits are also conventional of theirgenre; they’re wearing soft punk/glam rockclothing for example bandannas and tight clothing.

• Also a lot of bands, but especially rock and metal bands around this time were often associated with beautiful women which is definitely reflected in this video! There are numerous women in small amounts of clothing throughout the video, fitting with the conventions of the genre!

Links between visuals and music:

• Although there isn’t a direct obvious link between the music of the song and the editing or visuals, the visuals and concept do fit in with what the song is about.

• There are a few direct links to the music beats, for example when the sumo wrestlers stomp in time with the rhythmic beats of the music, and also with the intercutting shots of the drummer playing drums and the woman massaging the man in a way which accentuates the drum beat in the music.

Record label demands:

• There are lots of close-ups of the lead singer, a common demand of the bands record label so that the band is recognized for singing that song, and the band can begin creating a motif of them performing in their videos. Like one of the first shots where you can see the band in the background and the camera zooms until it’s a close-up of the lead singers face!

• Regular jump cuts to the lead singer allows the audience to recognize and relate to the band. Although the other band members are not shown as much as the lead singer due to the fact that the record label probably demanded that only the lead singer gets close ups, however the band still do have some mid-shots on them so they are still seen.

• A lot of the shots of the band are low angles, this makes the band look like they have power and status , therefore making the audience feel that way too.

Voyeurism:

• There’s a lot of preference to looking at women in this music video, mostly because this is what the song is all about!

• The first shot is of a camera, so setting up the idea of voyeurism already. You then see the band through the viewfinder.

• The entire way through the music video there are clips of videoing beautiful women and taking photos of them via photo shoots and catwalks!

Intertextual references:• There are definitely intertextual references because, again, the song is all about capturing women on film and cameras, therefore it would be conventional for the music video to have different types of media in it!

Camerawork: • This video uses a huge range of camera shots; from close-ups, long shots, low angle shots – which are mostly used on the band and so gives them a high status.

Editing:• Most shots are 2-3 seconds long, there is an establishing shot of the band which is long. The editing isn’t exceptionally fast paced but this fits in with the pace of the song.

Mise-en-scene:• The mise-en-scene fits with the raunchiness of the song; massage oil, mud wrestling (and in the unedited version there's alcohol, fur coats etc) which all fit in with the mood of the song.

Lighting: •Used to create a catwalk mood, fog, bright lights and flashes to show cameras.