To get a better understanding of music videos we were asked to look at music videos and analyse them to get better understanding of the conventions used and how they are put together. I wanted to make it similar to the sort of video I would want to produce which is why I have chosen a happy, upbeat, pop song with a girly feel to the song.
I have chosen Katy Perry's California Dreams track, although it has a story it is not a strong meaningful narrative but plays on the idea of fantasy and dreams, mixing bright colours and candy to attract the attention of children into a fantasy wold while letting the performer still be sexy and show her feminine side.
Synopsis:
It starts with a chocolate box opening up to show Snoop Dogg looking over a board game, he then places Katy on the start line and everything comes to life, Katy tries out some of the plants and trees and tries to make friends with 2 gummy bears who are rude to her. we then see Snoop rolling some dice, to show us that this is a board game. Katy makes friends by saving the bubblegum girl and keep eyeing the world she finds her self in in total amazement. The next major development is the tree snakes which Katy climbs up to the clouds which are made of candy floss where she lies naked and eats the Candy Floss around her. She then carries on her journey around the board game and helps save the Jello girl and collect sweets from around her again we have snippets of Snoop every now and again to show he is involved.We then see Katy dressed as a girl scout she and the other girls go and help a gingerbread man be happy and then they continue to eat him, the girls then change outfits and bounce of trampoline, this then continues onto a large dance scene.We move onto a section that crosses between Snoop solos and of him and Katy interacting.Pimp Snoop and the gummy bears enter the candy world to watch Katy dance, Katy changes outfits to and shoots whipped cream from her bikini top which melts the gummy bears to Snoops shock.Snoops surrenders and the rest of the song is spent in dancing and interacting between the characters.
Snoop Dogg's intro:
We see a mid shot of Snoop which then zooms out, it then straight cuts to an extreme close up of his hands showing his ring and him placing Katy on the start line to establish the setting and the main character.
Verse 1:
Katy starts in a long shot with a slight pan this then moves to a mid shot on the left side of Katy this shows her excitement and interest in her new surroundings. we then cut back to the first shot for about 2 seconds before moving to a shot of a flower bed of ice creams to set the scene and help intrigue the audience in the excitement of the new land.We then go to 2 close ups of Katy tasting the world around her before returning the the long pan shot among the cotton candy trees. We then go to a close up of Katy's face which is excited we also see her wave during this shot so can tell we are about to be introduced to other characters, we are introduced via a close low shot to 2 gummy bears who swear at Katy in return to this gesture Katy looks upset and shocked we see this through a close up. we then again see a close up of Snoops hands which the camera follows smoothly across the board to watch the falling dice. we then see in long shot Snoop watching on in the background a Katy looking at a floating bubble which appears to have something in it, the bubble matches the bright colour scheme of the world around being pink! we then go to a close up of a person trying to escape from the bubble this is followed by a close up of Katy with a shoe, she ponders the decision and then uses the stiletto to break the bubble and release the girl, which is seen in a along shot followed by a close up of the happy bubblegum girl. although we can tell that this is a different section to the board game at the start we are aware the location is the same. this is then followed by several close ups of Katy and Snoop in their separate locations, this again reassures us that Snoop is still apart of the goings on in Katy's life in the board game. We then go to a long shot of katy touching some tree's which turn into snakes again these are bright and fit in with the mise-en-scene of the video. she finishes this verse with a wide angel long shot of her climbing up a candy cane into the clouds above.
For the majority of the chorus we go from pan close ups to pan mid shots of Katy lying on Candy floss cloud, we see several close ups of Katy's face which could be seen as sexy as she is highlighting the fact she is naked, however she is using the use of the giant fluffy pink cloud of Candy Floss to make the scene more innocent and appeal to her younger audience members.
We then go to a long shot of Katy crossing a strawberry straw bridge and then an extreme long shot to show the dangerous and black world beneath the bridge, which is a big difference between the pastel bright colours of the rest of the video.We then return to a close up of the Katy on the pink cloud a scene of Snoop in mid shot dancing is also added to show he is enjoying the game.the first chorus is finished with a long shot of Katy walking through a lollipop forest and another close up of her face, constantly reminding the audience that she is the main performer.
Verse 2
The Verse starts with a mid shot of Snoop Dogg rolling dice still sat with his glasses on a sweet suit to keep in with the style of the piece, we then go onto a high shot of Katy spinning around of the board before a long shot of Katy finding another girl this time trapped in Jello, this helps add to a story line and gives an interesting way of introducing more characters into the video.
we get a close up of Katy touching the jello and then an over the shoulder shot to see the girl inside the jello.We then have a close up shot of Katy from within the Jello this is interesting and a unique shot which has not been seen before, we then get an over the shoulder shot of the girl coming out from the jello, this leads in to shot of Katy picking up sweets and another shot of Snoop Dogg on his name to establish that this is who he is, during this shot he clicks and we see Katy drop her collected sweets, this is followed by a shot of Snoop laughing to again establish that Snoop is controlling this game again also adding narrative to the video. We then move to a different location which shows a angry Gingerbread man in front of his gingerbread house we then see a long shot of the three girls in girl scout outfits walking to the gingerbread man, this then goes into a close up of Katy adding a sugar heart and this changed the emotions of the gingerbread man this section is in extreme close up, this then moves into a close up of the three girls gathered around a singing this also involves Katy eating the gingerbread man, before we move to the chorus we see a long shot of Katy dancing with her sweets a long high shot of the half eaten and broken up gingerbread man still dancing on the floor in pieces.
Snoop's Rap:
This starts with a close up of Snoop as he has been seen at all earlier stages in the video, this shows he has power and maybe is not so important as Katy as we have not seen many varying shots of him before. We then move to another close up of Katy on the Candyfloss cloud. we then go to a mid shot of Katy and Snoop surrounded by girls dancing on the beach both characters are in different outfits and are now interacting in a positive way, this leads into a close up shot of girls abdomens dancing again on the beach, we then go back to the originals shots we have seen earlier on this time Snoop is address the camera when he sings, again assuring his authority and power.We go to a close up of Katy on the cloud pulling a shocked face in response to one of Snoops lines we then go to a low shot of a cartoon 'Popsicle' which melts into a giant puddle on the ground.we next see a long shot zooming in of katy and Snoop and the girls dancing on the beach again the next few shots are close up of a dancer, long shot as seen before, close up of katy eating candy floss on her clouds followed by a shot of snoop sat down again, these are all quick and create a pace and rhythm, as this is a long song (over 4 minutes) it is important to do this. the last few shots consist of shots already seen which are the mid shot dancing, close up of Snoop and close up of the other girls dancing. This section is ended by an over the shoulder shot of Snoop looking at the game board this is followed by long shot of Snoop entering the candy world via the gate of the ice cream castle.
Chorus 3/ending
This chorus consists of more hots and a different story to the other 2 choruses we have seen,
We start by seeing Snoop and the gummy bear army enter this scene is very bright and adds to the happy colorful feel of the video.We then see a mid shot of the girls dancing followed by a close up of them flicking their legs and the sand around them to again establish they are on a beach.we then see a wide long shot of Snoop giving up on playing the game and then a long wide shot of the girls dancing. we then see a few close up shots of dancers to establish the pop and girly feel of the music video. we then see a wide shot of all the characters from the side looking at each other almost in a battle type look.The next shot is a mid shot of Katy in a red sparkly 2 piece suit she looks angry and along with the dark red background we get the idea of some sort of battle, we then see a close up of snoop challenging Katy with a beckoning hand gesture to show there is a definite battle about to happen. We then see several close up shots of Katy with whipped cream coming from her bikini top she looks happy and this shows you that she may have won the battle this is followed by a close up of Snoop who looks to his side and shows confusion we then zoom out to a long shot to show why and this is because all his gummy bear army seemed to have melted around him and he is left alone. we see a close up of katy chucking away her whipped cream to symbolize the end of the battle and they we are met with a long shot of everyone getting on and dancing, this lead into a shot of the 4 girls on the beach with Snoops head in the middle all following a foot routine and looking happy and enjoying themselves this adds a happy feel to the video and makes it fun and enjoyable to watch in the ending shots we see various scenes repeated, these include a lot of pans and close ups, the video ends with a close up of Katy throwing some sand in Snoops face.
This is a very fun and energetic video, it doesn't have a serious meaning or narrative but does entertain and make people use their imagination, this is classic Katy Perry and fits in with her cutsie style and love of things fruity, sweet like and vintage making it a recognizable video that she knows her audience love to see.
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