Analysis of Previous Student Work: Raindrops

The video begins with a wide shot of a doll house. From there, the camera zooms in slowly towards the door where you realise it is taking the audience to have a look inside the doll house. This symbolises her feelings as she is trapped in that moment of time, the same way she is trapped within the doll house. Nine seconds into the video, you see the artist with her back towards us, playing the piano which builds on the suspension and becomes a little misleading towards the theme of the video as one would expect it to be a horror first. As soon as the piano starts playing, we are shown different shots which cut to the beat. Things we are shown are elements such as a newspaper and a dead leaf which could make the audience aware of time moving forward yet the artist is still locked in her past.
Majority of the camera shots are close-ups of the artist which allows us as an audience to connect with her supported by the fact that she looks at us every now and then. There is good use of camera angles as it looks smooth and professional. The camera angle that stood out for me was the P.O.V shots as it suggests we are looking over her giving us more power and authority over the artist and making her helpless.
Throughout the video, there is constant reference to her hand which could suggest that she is trying to reach out to the audience for help.
Majority of the transitions are fades which fits in with the song as the tempo of it is calm for half of the video. You could also say that to an extent, the artist herself is fading away from reality. This also links with the lyrics when she says, "and it all begins to fade", which therefore links to Goodwin's theory as he suggested that there is a link between the lyrics and the visuals. Goodwin also referred to barthes when talking about grain of voice, how artists have a particular 'fingerprint' to their voice when you hear them. We hear this in the song which fits in well with the artist's image. Her look is innocent which is seen through her costume and light make-up. She wears white throughout the whole video which signifys peace, purity and innocence which matches with the song. Her look also seems like she is a doll which links it back to the first shot of the doll house. The colours blend well together as everything is neutral, suggesting that life goes on. What you notice about the colours is that you have shots of the neutral colours and then shots of the bright blue water. This contrast suggests that her view of looking at life is colourless, whereas in actual fact there is colour to life which is supported with the black and white special effects. The colour blue also emphasises the title of the song 'Raindrops'.
The location used is simple yet effective as it reflects the theme, the scenario and artist's feelings well.
In this video, there are no other characters which suggests that the artist is solitary and isolated.
Overall, I think the video is good as the group have used a vast majority of camera shots and angles accurately, good location and a decent song choice. However, to improve this video, I think the narration could have been better as it was slightly confusing. Looking at the start of the video, one would assume that it has a horror theme to it as we are not shown who the artist in the first 20 seconds and have used props such as the web.