TEXTUAL ANALYSIS - DJ Fresh - Gold Dust

 Introduction and Genre

 -Dance
Common features of this genre:
- Upbeat
- Fast pace /fast tempo
- Bouncy/lively
- Energetic
- Culture relates to the type of dance - American culture/South American
- The video is a typical dance video - very energetic and lively
- There are a few slow motion movement which break up the sequence so we don't get lost, and also exaggerate the fast paced action

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?
-  Being a concept video, the lyrics do not have a clean cut, direct link to the lyrics in the song
-  However there are a few cases where they do crossover;
-  When the lyrics say "running away" the visuals are the skipper, running and travelling
- "Hands up" the skipper put their hands up
- "Gold dust" there is someone wearing a gold coat/jacket
-  The skipping is totally unrelated to the song apart from the jumping aspect

What is the relationship between music and visuals?
- The visuals often match up to the tempo of the song at certain points
- For example, during the tempo build up, close ups/establishing shots (like someone shooting a basketball into a net) are used, then when it reaches the peak, cuts back to the fast action skipping
- However, slow motion shots are used during the heavy tempo sections too - to provide a contrast which makes the skipper appear even faster - like it's in fast forward

Are there close ups of the artist and star image motifs?
- There are many close ups used - especially of the young children looking/reacting to the older people skipping
- Establishes culture more
- They don't have much money so can't afford to do typical sports - skipping has been passed down through the generations
- The matching girls' tops say " the new front ear" which could be "frontier" meaning development innovative research - which links to the name DJ Fresh

Is there reference to the notion of looking?
- There is great emphasis placed on the women in the video
- Male Gaze 
- Voyeurism
- Women are perceived as the idols/main focus
- The 2 girls are quite provocative/sexualised
- Slow motion of the men's reactions show them looking impressed/satisfied
- Everyone crowds around to watch the girls 

Is the music video performance based, narrative based or concept based?
- Concept based with an essence of narrative
- More concept - skipping
- Girls/culture - narrative

 Conclusion
- Overall it is a very interesting video which covers the main connections of dance music videos
- I think it is very successful and the unusual topic of skipping suits the song and makes you want to watch more
- To improve it, i would perhaps add a bit more relevance/build up to the 2 girls

Storyboard

Our storyboard for our music video to John Newman's 'Love Me Again'...

Shot List

Our shotlist for our music video to John Newman's 'Love Me Again'...

Our ideas

When thnking about what we were going to do for our music video, we came up with a few ideas. One of which we thought we thought we should do a typical dance video, where it was going to be one bog party with a montage of different scenes and have a number of narratives going on throughout. We then thought realistically and how easy and practical this idea was and decided to have a narrative/ concept based video with 2 main scenes and lips in between one with a couple arguing and fighting in a house and the other scene would be 3 couples having a powder paint fight, but still encorprating the 50's / retro stlye the John Newman portrays in his videos.

John Newman - Representation, appearance and style explored further

Colour - His album cover uses blacks, creams, dull reds. He dosen't use bright colours for any of his sigle covers either.

Fashion - In his music videos he wears quite plain clothes, his clothes are quite dark he wears, blacks and greys. The actors in his video'sgo for a 50's look with bright coloured floral dresses or straight loose fitted trousers (as shown in 'Love Me Again'). Their hair and makeup also match the 50's them with girls with big curls or pin up hair and the male actors some wearing the gel, slick back look

and others just with short "normal" hair.

 

Appearance- In John Newmans music videos and pictures he wears clothing that looks 50's retro i.e. Love Me Again he wears black jacket, white shirt and black trousers and in Cheating he wears black jacket, black and cream jumper

Style- John has a retro stlye to him that comes through from his appearance and music video's.
 

John Newman - Career and early life

The English singer and musician John Newman grew up in Settle in Yorkshire Dales. At the age of 14 he started to play guitar and even started to write his own song. Shortly after he then learnt how to record and produce his own music and went on to DJing, When he turned 20 he moved to London where he started a band and was signed to Island Records where he relseased his single "Cheating" as a download song.

In May 2012 John Newman featured on Rudimental's single "Feel The Love". The single got to number 1 on the UK Singles Chart in June 2012. In June 2013 John Newman released his debut single "Love Me Again" as the lead single from his debut studio album and also went to number 1 in the charts. In October 2013 he released "Cheating" as his second single from Tribute his début studio album.

 

Song Choice

When first thinking of a song we knew we definetly wanted to go for dance as our genre this helped us make our descion when we chose to go for John Newman's - Love Me Again (kove remix) we then asked permission to use his song. Emma emailed his management to ask for the permission and they replied saying that we can use it.