Solo artist Marina & the Diamonds has been heralded as one of 2010s breakthrough acts of the year and she has already soared in to the charts with her pop/indie single ‘Hollywood’ and accompanying video. New to the music scene Marina has only released a handmade EP ‘Mermaid Vs Sailor’ through her myspace page. She is known for her ‘keyboard-based ballads to more up-tempo new wave-style songs with full band backing.’ Her current music videos include ‘Hollywood’, the lead single from her debut album, ‘Obsessions’, ‘I Am Not a Robot’ and ‘Mowgli’s Road’. They all have a bright, flamboyant, pop/indie feel all with some creative quirk. Marina has stated in interviews how she likes to try lots of different things and be creative, that "you may as well experiment with your work". Marina won runner up in the BBC Sound of 2010 and is nominated for the critic’s choice BRIT award. Marina describes the album as a “body of work largely inspired by the seduction of commercialism, modern social values, family and female sexuality”. This is apparent in her lyrics as she tackles how fame is a fickle distraction from the art of making music particularly for the modern pop female. Already filmed, ‘Obsessions’ is to be the third single released from the album.
The video is set in a large white room with a grey floor, this is mainly covered by a large white sheet draping down from the ceiling. The video follows the artist Marina as she assembles a large ‘flat pack’ diamond frame, the video shows us a very human, fun side of her as she laughs and looks towards the camera in contrast to most modern female pop artist. As a new artist this promotes how she is different and the themes of the album, I think the music market is ready for this as it grows tired of stereotypes and looks to new fresh artist such as from Empire of the Sun and Ellie Goulding. When the pieces are assembles they are propped up and as the camera rotates to face the work full on the shape of the diamond becomes apparent. In the middle eighth and towards the end of the video we see dark clips of small red, blue and green lights (the primary colours) being thrown around on it, in particular a close up on a diamonds stand out. This is very foreshadowing of what happens in the end and adds further intrigue to the video enticing the watcher to carry on watching. This emphasises the diamonds and therefore the artist name. Marina’s Surname is Diamondis which is were her stage name is Marina and the Diamonds has been derived although she is a solo artist. Marina attaches small glow in the dark lights the frame and in the end when the lights are turned on the diamond glows. The theme of the video is hard to pinpoint as the song lyrics could have many interpretations. It seems to me that she is struggling to stay in a relationship and trust a man “We’ve got obsessions, I want to wipe out all the sad ideas that come to me when I am holding you” and that she obsesses about this. The video seems to have little to do with the lyrics and seems to be truly a promotional video in the way that she exaggerates her name and is present throughout the video, the main focus is always on her. It also shows how as an unconventional artist she has a slightly unconventional video as in the way it does not play out the lyrics and create a story like most I have watched as part of my research. I have chosen to look at this artist as she fits my genre well and I like how her other videos have particularly creative aspects, in Mowlgli’s road, which took 17 hours to record, she has concertina legs, arms and stomach. Another of her videos has her face shoulders and arms completely immersed in black glitter.
The mise-en-scene is very plain which just goes to exaggerate what is going on in the scene and directs the focus to what props they do use. The focus throughout the video is clearly the dark metal structure which contrasts brilliantly with the bright white background. The lighting in the video is very black and white, it is either very bright or very dark, and there are no shadows and no in-between. This creates a feel of honesty and simplicity, there is nothing hidden in the video, there is also further intrigue as to the significance of the lights. As the very end comes around and the lights go of and the scene is plunged in to darkness, green lights along the side flash which is reminiscent of when the lights were flashing in the middle eight, then the lights on the diamond come on as the song closes. The lighting has been used to create intrigue, emphasize repetition and reiterate the diamonds and therefore the artist name.
Marinas costume does not seem to be key to the plot, it is very young, fun and fashionable, she has a cardigan with a large cat face on it, she also wears the popular hello kitty leggings and a skirt which boost her image as an artist fans can relate to. On her blogs and one of her songs 'Hollywood' she talks about how she does not want to become a 'celebrity' that revels in the glamorous lifestyle and that her focus is her music. Her outfit looks like it could come from any young woman’s wardrobe and complements this belief. The interesting thing about her choice of outfit is that it is entirely black and apart from her face none of her skin is exposed, she even wears gloves only her face is showing. My initial thoughts where that this was just to add extra emphasis to the colours and striking contrast between light and dark that is dominant throughout the video. However I think it also makes her face stand out more, as well as her name the aim of the music promotional video is to make her face recognisable as well. Her clothes also seem very normal, simple and honest which in contrast with most of today’s pop females, she is not selling her clothes and her image. Although I said her clothes were those of a young woman and fairly fashionable it is still hard to place her image, I think this will give her a more universal appeal, other popular female artist such as Lady Gaga and Shakira have outfits that would push away some music lovers and may cause controversy with some audiences.
The cinematography is vital to this music video purely as it adds to the final illusion and is also used to create intrigue. The video opens close up of the back of Marina's head, it is obvious she is doing something but you can't see what it is adding to the intrigue, she then walks forward and the camera zooms out in to an establishing shot. This is followed by a range of mid-shots and close ups zooming and panning fitting with the tempo. In the middle eight this changes to a wide shot and we see the jigsaw coming together, it makes us even more curious as to what she is constructing. As the last chorus comes and the music slows right down we get about ten seconds of a wide/mid shot which is the longest shot in the video, this is followed by a long wide birds eyes shot which reflects the slow music. As the momentum begins to build the length of the clips becomes a lot shorter and they are a lot closer. The video then slows down again to end and the camera pans across a wide/mid shot of the complete structure, then the clips changes and marina is standing in front of it and she walks off as the camera tilts up to take on final look at the diamond before the lights flicker off and the diamond lights up.
The editing is very simple and often the pace of the cutting fits with the pace of the tempo which is very important to the song. There are no special effects and the cutting is very clean.
This video is very different to The Killers music video and does not conform to most conventions of music videos, only the fundamental promotional aspect remains. Most of the videos I have watched have a lot more correspondence with the lyrics or a story, it is a popular media convention and is why most people watch music videos. Marina does not do this with most of her videos and focuses more on the fun, creative feel. I wish to uses this but use what I learnt from my research and have some correspondence in my video.
The video is set in a large white room with a grey floor, this is mainly covered by a large white sheet draping down from the ceiling. The video follows the artist Marina as she assembles a large ‘flat pack’ diamond frame, the video shows us a very human, fun side of her as she laughs and looks towards the camera in contrast to most modern female pop artist. As a new artist this promotes how she is different and the themes of the album, I think the music market is ready for this as it grows tired of stereotypes and looks to new fresh artist such as from Empire of the Sun and Ellie Goulding. When the pieces are assembles they are propped up and as the camera rotates to face the work full on the shape of the diamond becomes apparent. In the middle eighth and towards the end of the video we see dark clips of small red, blue and green lights (the primary colours) being thrown around on it, in particular a close up on a diamonds stand out. This is very foreshadowing of what happens in the end and adds further intrigue to the video enticing the watcher to carry on watching. This emphasises the diamonds and therefore the artist name. Marina’s Surname is Diamondis which is were her stage name is Marina and the Diamonds has been derived although she is a solo artist. Marina attaches small glow in the dark lights the frame and in the end when the lights are turned on the diamond glows. The theme of the video is hard to pinpoint as the song lyrics could have many interpretations. It seems to me that she is struggling to stay in a relationship and trust a man “We’ve got obsessions, I want to wipe out all the sad ideas that come to me when I am holding you” and that she obsesses about this. The video seems to have little to do with the lyrics and seems to be truly a promotional video in the way that she exaggerates her name and is present throughout the video, the main focus is always on her. It also shows how as an unconventional artist she has a slightly unconventional video as in the way it does not play out the lyrics and create a story like most I have watched as part of my research. I have chosen to look at this artist as she fits my genre well and I like how her other videos have particularly creative aspects, in Mowlgli’s road, which took 17 hours to record, she has concertina legs, arms and stomach. Another of her videos has her face shoulders and arms completely immersed in black glitter.
The mise-en-scene is very plain which just goes to exaggerate what is going on in the scene and directs the focus to what props they do use. The focus throughout the video is clearly the dark metal structure which contrasts brilliantly with the bright white background. The lighting in the video is very black and white, it is either very bright or very dark, and there are no shadows and no in-between. This creates a feel of honesty and simplicity, there is nothing hidden in the video, there is also further intrigue as to the significance of the lights. As the very end comes around and the lights go of and the scene is plunged in to darkness, green lights along the side flash which is reminiscent of when the lights were flashing in the middle eight, then the lights on the diamond come on as the song closes. The lighting has been used to create intrigue, emphasize repetition and reiterate the diamonds and therefore the artist name.
Marinas costume does not seem to be key to the plot, it is very young, fun and fashionable, she has a cardigan with a large cat face on it, she also wears the popular hello kitty leggings and a skirt which boost her image as an artist fans can relate to. On her blogs and one of her songs 'Hollywood' she talks about how she does not want to become a 'celebrity' that revels in the glamorous lifestyle and that her focus is her music. Her outfit looks like it could come from any young woman’s wardrobe and complements this belief. The interesting thing about her choice of outfit is that it is entirely black and apart from her face none of her skin is exposed, she even wears gloves only her face is showing. My initial thoughts where that this was just to add extra emphasis to the colours and striking contrast between light and dark that is dominant throughout the video. However I think it also makes her face stand out more, as well as her name the aim of the music promotional video is to make her face recognisable as well. Her clothes also seem very normal, simple and honest which in contrast with most of today’s pop females, she is not selling her clothes and her image. Although I said her clothes were those of a young woman and fairly fashionable it is still hard to place her image, I think this will give her a more universal appeal, other popular female artist such as Lady Gaga and Shakira have outfits that would push away some music lovers and may cause controversy with some audiences.
The cinematography is vital to this music video purely as it adds to the final illusion and is also used to create intrigue. The video opens close up of the back of Marina's head, it is obvious she is doing something but you can't see what it is adding to the intrigue, she then walks forward and the camera zooms out in to an establishing shot. This is followed by a range of mid-shots and close ups zooming and panning fitting with the tempo. In the middle eight this changes to a wide shot and we see the jigsaw coming together, it makes us even more curious as to what she is constructing. As the last chorus comes and the music slows right down we get about ten seconds of a wide/mid shot which is the longest shot in the video, this is followed by a long wide birds eyes shot which reflects the slow music. As the momentum begins to build the length of the clips becomes a lot shorter and they are a lot closer. The video then slows down again to end and the camera pans across a wide/mid shot of the complete structure, then the clips changes and marina is standing in front of it and she walks off as the camera tilts up to take on final look at the diamond before the lights flicker off and the diamond lights up.
The editing is very simple and often the pace of the cutting fits with the pace of the tempo which is very important to the song. There are no special effects and the cutting is very clean.
This video is very different to The Killers music video and does not conform to most conventions of music videos, only the fundamental promotional aspect remains. Most of the videos I have watched have a lot more correspondence with the lyrics or a story, it is a popular media convention and is why most people watch music videos. Marina does not do this with most of her videos and focuses more on the fun, creative feel. I wish to uses this but use what I learnt from my research and have some correspondence in my video.
