3rd Textual Analysis

Demi Lavato - Skyscraper



The music video begins with a ten second long establishing shot, of what appears to be a dessert and show track marks, setting up the scene. However this is not what the audience would expect initially from the music video, as the audience would expect the ideology to be in a city or built up area, due to the title 'skyscraper'.

After this shot, a cross cut then shows an extreme close up of the artist's face which is effective as through the mise-en-scene, it shows the artist with tears in her eyes and enables the audience to see her emotion. This allows the audience to understand that the mood of the music video is emotional and sad, which matches the sad lyrics. The use of this helps establish the music genre being a soul and pop ballad. Then, the diegetic music begins to play and the common convention of lip-synching from the artist begins, immediately showing that the video has a performance element too it.

A cross cut then takes place to a medium close up of the artist, who is situated in the foreground of the shot, taking up one third of the screen. The shot shows the artist holding her arm across her stomach, this could suggest that the artist is feeling insecure or possibly a gut-wrenching pain that she feels, which could be linked to the pain of the mental abuse in the relationship, which are mentioned in the lyrics. In the background of the shot, you can identify that the artist is by herself, in the middle of the desert. I can infer from this the solitude that the artist feels, as she is by herself in the video, adds to the sad emotion the music video invokes.

In the next several shots that take place in between jump cuts, a range of cinematography including long shots and low angles, show the sun in various of the shots above the artist. This could connote that although the artist in the video feels despondent, the iconography of the sun could be a symbol for providing hope. Particularly in one shot, a low angle first shows the artist blocking the light of the sun; inferring that she believes she has no hope; however a pan across the screen then enables the sun to fill up a third of the screen and brighten up the lighting of the shot, this can connote that although she feels she has no hope, it will eventually come.

The mise-en-scene is very effective in the video, as the man colour throughout the video is white, including the setting and the characters costume, of a white floaty dress. The costume and colour of white symbolises innocence and pure feelings. It is also a protagonist colour and could link to the lyrics, that they are about an antagonistic character and therefore exaggerates the narrative. However, further on into the video, the artist is shown with a black cloth draped around her. This contrasts against the white mise-en-scene of the artists costume earlier on and suggests that although the artist is still a protagonistic character as she is still wearing the white floaty dress, the black cloth symbolises the antagonistic character she is singing about in the lyrics, and connotes that this character is trying to engulf itself around the artist. Yet when a slow edit and pan across the material blow away, this could suggest that the antagonistic character is no longer associated with the artist, or that she has become stronger.  

The video is also effective for linking the four conventions of music videos together. For example, with the use of diegetic sound, it shows the artist lip-synching the lyrics "Go on and try to tear me down, I will be rising from the ground, like a Skyscraper", these lyrics with the use of cinematography, by using a low angle shot on the artist, which makes her appear very dominant and powerful, like a skyscraper, which again exaggerates the lyrics. Furthermore, this is continued throughout the video at various times, when the artist lipsynchs to the lyric "Skyscraper". At this point a long show establishes the artist raising her arms in the air, the shape of the artists body again demonstrates the structure of a skyscraper and connotes that she is also powerful.

The use of editing throughout the video is very effective, with the beginning part of the video containing slow edits which match the pace of the song and thus create the video to appear professional; but also the use of sow edits matches the genre of the song and adds to the emotional narrative. However, as the music video develops, the pace of the editing begins to quicken to the faster pace of the song, this exaggerates that the artist is becoming stronger and more powerful.