Research; Music Videos

The music video ‘Save Me’ by Darren Styles starts with a long shot of himself, the artist Darren Styles, looking out towards a blue sky. This creates anticipation towards the audience as they are not shown the artist’s facial expression, just the back of his body, also covering his identity connoting mystery.

The key colours used within this first frame are not typical dance genre colours, as the light sky blue connotes a calm and relaxed feel, unlike what the atmosphere of dance music is about. The rule of thirds is also used within this shot, which emphasises the importance that the artist has upon the video. Within the next frame, the same shot is used, but the artist is positioned on the other side of the frame, which builds up more and more anticipation as the audience are left waiting to find out who this man is.

Although the audience are yet to see this mans face, even after 40seconds of the video, it is communicated to the audience that this person is very important, as along with the rule of thirds being used, the camera is using tracking movement to follow this man, which builds up the mans significance and noteworthy presence.

The slow motion of the multiple different shots of the man, such as extreme closes up of body parts and medium shots from behind create a very tense and anxious atmosphere, which links with the music as it feels like it is building up to something. This is not a typical convention of the dance genre as most music videos tend to be upbeat from the start. The mysterious man the jumps off the edge building and a low angle long shot is seen of him freefalling down the building. This connotes to the audience a feeling of freedom when listening to the music and enables them to get away from reality, which dance music tends to aim to do. This effect of escapism and freedom is positioned very powerfully towards the audience, conveying it is a main theme throughout the video and really tries to connect with the target demographic with doing this.

The lighting within the framing is unlike most music videos as it is seemingly set in the daytime, which is unlike the typical conventions of dance music videos, as they tend to be based at night time within a club or a party. The bright, natural lighting used adds to the sense of freedom which is being created throughout the video. However, the plot and storyline surrounding the video links well with the title of the music video ‘Save Me’ along with the lyrics which relate to what the artist is doing, therefore engaging the audience into the situation, making them feel like they are experiencing his experiences.

When evaluating this video, it was clear that it didn’t tend to focus around the typical codes and conventions of the dance genre within the music video as the other video’s did. It did not have a night time setting, or feature a club-like setting throughout the video, maybe portraying the artist is trying to gain a new target demographic towards his music video. As well as not having the conventional setting, it does not involve a woman wearing revealing clothing and seductive movement, gesture and facial expressions.

The music video does consist of a woman, who looks to be in some sort of flashback. There is a close up of a woman’s face, who looks ‘naturally pretty’ with blonde hair, connoting a sense of innocence and naivety towards the audience, which challenges the dance genre and dance scene as it does not link with the innocence or naïve people. The females costume was typically everyday-like, and unlike the women’s clothing worn in other dance music videos, and her facial expressions, gesture and movement not as sexual or provocative as the typical conventions go within a dance music video.

There is use of extreme close ups of this female character, who is unknown to the audience but slightly implying of a girlfriend or past girlfriend, allow the audience to gain some form of identity towards the character and enables them to relate towards her, gaining an understanding of her feelings and emotions. This contrast’s with what the women have been like in past videos as she is not being seen as a sexual object, as many of the women are in the dance music videos. This would also gain audience as the women seems a lot more down to earth and friendly, therefore allowing the audience, as in the women, to relate to her situation.

It is clear to see this video does not follow the codes and conventions of a typical dance music video, but seems to be trying to engage within a new target demographic, as it focuses on relating to the song itself, instead of having the audience in key mind, making the video seem effective but possibly not to the audience demographic of dance music.