Rae Morris – Closer
The video follows
the artist through the seasons and as she is travelling she is changing with
them. The colours are all wrong and there are hidden characters, everything
appears fake and out of place. This links to the song lyrics because she is
singing about a partner who has left her but she she is not ready to let go of
them and she is trying to keep links with them that really aren’t there. The
song is about distance, and how that distance can make bonds feel stronger, so
they feel closer but aren’t.
Tim O’Sullivan says that media texts tell a story, and this video,
although it is mainly performance does tell a story through the use of
mise-en-scene and characters.
(1)The use of mise-en-scene is effective in
the video as it helps to tell the story. Here we see that the trees have no
leaves, therefore suggesting the season is Autumn, but the colours that we
associate with autumn are not there and warm colours have been used. This
confuses the audience but also links to how maybe she is feeling confused about
why she feels closer to someone who is actually further away.
(2) Here
the use of other actors/dancers helps to tell the story. In the red circles I
have shown where the hidden characters are. She is singing about feeling closer
to someone who isn’t there. Therefore the characters here represent the person
she is singing about. They aren’t there because we don’t see them, yet she can
feel their presence.
The video tells a
story that is relatable to the target audience. The theme of the song is love,
something that everyone has experienced and therefore can understand. Although
different scenarios are played out in different media texts everyone
experiences different things and therefore can relate to different situations.
This video
supports Kate Domaille’s theory as
she argues that every story ever told can fit into one of eight categories, and
this video fits into the Orpheus category. The artist is dealing with the loss
of someone special and the whole video and song follows her journey after they
have left and shows how they feel.
Andrew Goodwin’s argument that ‘narrative relations are highly complex’
is also supported by the video as the meaning we take from this video will be
different depending on each individual’s music taste. He argues that based on
our own preferences we create the meaning on the video to fit us individually.
In this video there is not set narrative, therefore we can interpret the action
differently.
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