Music Video Analysis

Flume- Holdin' on

Sequence of events:

(a range of short cuts between the following)

• the crowd dancing
• artist on stage
• music equipment
• artist outside of work
• backstage
• travelling

The fact that the sequence of events are based around the artist and him performing tells us that it is a performance video. I think it also has elements of a narrative style video as the story and journey of touring is told.

The long shot reveals a specific part of the setting- three girls in the crowd which appear to be on others shoulders dancing. This shot is able to hold both the crowd and the artist showing a connection between the two.

The lighting creates a silhouette of the people in the crowd and highlights the artist on the stage, the fact that the light outlines the three people could represent how the artist and their music has an effect on them. A purple hue is used consistently throughout the video, creating a sense of continuity as Flume's album cover is also in purple. The colour purple symbolises power, creativity and mystery, perhaps these are some things Flume wants his music to be represented as and therefore uses throughout his video.

This scene is edited to sync the footage with the sound of the music. The footage begins in slow motion as the girls jump up and returns back to normality on the beat as the girls fall back down, this repeated. The shot begins in out of focus and returns to focus, perhaps to create a sense of disorientation or to represent the change in pace of the music. 

Similarly to the previous music video i analysed, White noise by Disclosure, the sound is diegetic as we  see the artist Flume performing his music, the fact that we see the audience dancing in sync suggests that we are hearing what they are hearing.

This long shot shows both the artist on stage performing in the background and a mid shot of someone dancing in the foreground, we can clearly see both of them enjoying themselves as we see them dance to the music, it also reveals the artists facial expression telling us he is happy as he has a big grin across his face. 

Again the lighting is purple throughout connoting power, creativity and mystery throughout.  The subject appears to be wearing a simple long sleeve shirt which is suitable for the occasion. The stage set out seems to be symmetrical which enables us to focus on the artist. 

The large light circles across the screen create a divide between the artist and the girl in the crowd, demonstrating how both individuals are enjoying the same music but apart. This shot has also been edited in slow motion to reflect the slower pace of the music.

The lighting on the stage also flash in tune to the sound of the music.

This mid shot presents the artist from the side performing his music from a laptop. He is viewed from a slight low angle which may influence us to think of him has more powerful as we physically look up to him perhaps suggesting how others may admire and look up to him because of the music he has created.
The setting of this shot is outside as we can see trees and buildings in the background, other shots show the artist performing inside buildings as well as outside, this implies the diversity of his shows, some are performed in the day- perhaps these are at festivals, and some are at night- perhaps these are more intimate concerts.
The shot is edited to be broken up in to different layers which are repeated on top of another which causes different parts of the scene to also be repeated, these layers then form together by almost entrancing inwards, which then bring the scene back to normal. I have found that throughout the music video either the shot moves to the beat of the music or cross cutting is used to reflect it. In this case, up until this point the video cross cuts between shots yet here there is no movement to reflect it so the editing has been created to do so.