Textual Analysis Video 1

Carousel is an alternative pop music video and song. Performed by Melanie Martinez it is part of her first album Cry Baby. It was first released on her Dollhouse EP and the second music video she released. The song is based on the character Melanie created, 'Cry Baby' and her first love. She wanted it to be magical to capture those first love feelings, and yet still express the dark side of how toxic a one-sided relationship was. The music video does match the idea and images of the song lyrics which for alternative pop videos can be commonly the case. I'm going to do a textual analysis on the video as it is under the same genre as the song which I am looking to produce a music video for. We can analyse a video in terms of LIIAR: Language, institution, ideology, audience and representation. For my textual analysis I am going to focus on the four key areas, editing, cinematography, sound and mise-en-scene.

When we first see Melanie a long-shot is used to establish the scene she is in and show is her as a character. We can see from here her costume and surroundings. By showing this we can see how the rule of thirds is applied. at one side is blue lighting and at the other pink, she is in the middle of the shot. Possibly this could be showing the pink/blue gender stereotypes that she is in the middle of being herself and falling in love with a boy. Her posture makes her appear very 'lost' and confused. She is looking around like she is out of her depth. Her costume is very girly and makes her appear innocent and child-like (the big bow in hair and frilly socks) This portrays her as an vulnerable character. However looking at her hair, half is black and half is blue, the darkness of these colours could depict something darker about the situation or about the character.
At the beginning we see the editing of the horses in the carousel flashing, carousels are associated with the fun fair and children, having the quick flashes and dark background makes the audience feel unnerved and that there is a darker edge to the music video. The horses are lit up blue which could symbolize the male gender or connote sadness, coldness.

In this scene she is looking into a fun house mirror, the editing has duplicated the image and copied it onto the other side. This is effective as it confirms the idea that she is in a fun house, it also shows possible delusion, confusion and mystery from the 'warped' image. The lighting also adds to this image because it is dominantly pink/purple it sets a dark tone which matches the tune of the song.
Editing is used to make Melanie appear like she is 'floating' and chasing the man. The way this is used creates the idea that she has no control over where she is going but she is attracted to him and naturally follows him. Normally when you walk your feet go first however since her head and arms are first it shows how may not be thinking straight and is compelled to follow and reach out to what she wants.  

The editing here shows the man on the left fade out as she says 'It's like you disappear, where'd you go?' Which matches the lyrics. Also I like the effect of the fading out of him but the rest of the scene is the same, for my music video I am potentially looking at doing a similar edit in one of my scenes.  

In the carousel scene we can see that it relates directly to the lyrics with the song describing love as going 'round and round like a carousel' in the previous scene a ticket was offered to her. Now she is on the ride and he is stood in front of her, no matter how long they went on it for he would always be out of reach. The camera shows close-ups of her face and his while they are on here to show the emotion, she is almost speaking to him however his reaction shows that he isn't giving her anything back.

A close-up shows her hands bound in this scene. The colour of the rope, red, suggests love or danger or even both.This is because red is commonly connoted with these. The ropes show how she is stuck on the 'ride' in this case to him, she cannot leave him as she's fallen in love with him. 'Why did you steal my cotton candy heart'. Another theme of the idea of 'fun fair' with the 'cotton candy' there are also two girls on the carousel who are shown to be eating cotton candy. Throughout this song the lyrics commonly are matched in the imagery.

There is diagonal shot used in this image, it is part of a montage showing other diagonal shots and quick paced editing. This gives the audience a sense of unnerving and a dystopian feel. It has also changed the theme of editing where the bridge (or middle eight) occurs in the song. The bridge is the part where a conclusion or outcome of the narrative is generally shown and gives the audience time to reflect on the story. This is shown in the music video as we are beginning to see the ending to the story that she is stuck on the act of loving him and 'You threw it in this damned coin slot' gives the audience the idea that he was careless with her heart.
At the end of the bridge she throws up a pink luminous liquid. This shows how she feels like the love is making her physically sick a similar feeling to that of riding on a 'carousel' for so long that it makes you feel sick. It is almost like the video has been leading up to this point throughout the video, developing the idea that she is falling for this guy and eventually it has overwhelmed her.
The lighting changes after this point and the fun-fair lights have gone out. She is alone and gets off the ride looking around. The lighting is dark and has a blue tone, the lighting makes the audience feel as though she is lost and alone from the darkness. The blue can show a 'cold' and depressing feeling to the fair and her situation.The change of lighting to darkness reflects the creepy fairground theme which has been reoccurring throughout the song. Perhaps this shows a metaphor that love isn't always rosy and 'fun' there are dark parts to it and in her case there is.

In terms of editing the video uses a mixture between slow-motion edits and speeding up the shot. By creating a slower image it allows the audience more time to take in the narrative and see what is happening. From 2.55 onwards we can see that by slowing down the clip it emphasises how she is stuck. Slow motion can also be used to create a visual effect, throughout the video clips of fairground rides are used in slow motion, the fact the rides are empty gives a 'creepy' and 'disturbed' look. It is also aesthetically pleasing for the audience to see the mise-scene of the rides and location.

Overall the lyrics and the video match very well, the way it is presented is engaging and colourful. It does follow the conventions of alternative pop, we see the bright costumes which she wears including pinks, purples, high heels. All her clothing items are quite bold along with her make-up and hair appearance which makes her stand out. It follows the conventions that the narrative is the same in the lyrics and the video. Lip-syncing is also regularly used in alternative pop videos, throughout this video in some scenes it develops the narrative without her lip-syncing and in others she does lip-sync. There is also a performance part in the song where she is directly lip-syncing to the camera and not taking part in the narrative. These elements are what I can consider as I am creating my own alternative pop video. Therefore I will have to consider the structure when it comes to showing the story, lip-syncing and performing.
Close-ups show Melanie throughout the song which draw to her as the main focus and character, commonly in alternative pop videos there is lots of attention drawn to the artist and the appearance of them. We can see this in Carousel as Melanie's style as an artist is shown throughout the video and we see her as an image. This is always shown across all her videos as she has quite an unique style.