CB: Six Key Frames Analysis

We Cant Stop (Miley, 2013)

 

 



In this shot, Miley is positioned within the rule of thirds, slightly off centre to the left hand side of the frame which diverts the audiences attention directly on her. As the shot is a MCU, it clearly captures Mileys abrupt, rebellious facial expression that presents her star image to have anti-authoritarian motives. The use of the plain white background further places Miley to be centre of attention, with nothing else to look at in the frame apart from her. In filming our own music video, we could include this technique in order to establish a rapport with the audience whilst also appearing present to them by breaking the fourth wall.

 

This shot again is positioned within the rule of thirds, placing the actor to the right hand side of the frame. This makes the shot visually interesting as we are forced to concentrate on one aspect of the frame which is manipulated to connote rebellion and promiscuity. The key visual signifier presenting this attitude is the addition of the 'censored' sign over the actors mouth, which communicates to the audience that she is possibly saying something inappropriate. The dark black colour of the actors costume is juxtaposed by the crystal blue colour of the water, as blue connotes a sense of purity in contrast to the harsh black which formulates an image of recklessness. We could use this idea of contrasting colours within our video as it would be appropriate to the mood of our track, with emotions such as feeling lost and hopeless being felt.

The skull made out of chips is a very conceptual and unique idea that features within the video. It represents many aspects of negative connotations associated with youth in that the chips can be identified with the well known fast food restaurant 'McDonalds' and the skull itself can be linked with rebellion and anarchy (commonly connected with teenagers). On the other hand, taking an objective view of the skull we could also say that teenagers are presented in a positive way, as artful and talented which goes unnoticed as their creativity is kept within the domestic family sphere.

This shot is presented to the left hand side of the frame and is again a conceptual shot, with the actor pretending to slice their fingers off. The pink paint which is used to represent blood takes away the seriousness of the action by providing humour and child like connotations, with the act being idiotic and unnatural. The incorporation of the act being carried out on a clean white surface could portray how teenagers are pure when they are first brought into the world, but become impure with the amount of social media symbolising them in a disturbing manor (such as music videos). I like the idea of using colours to create meaning in this video and think it could be something we could definitely experiment with when formulating ours.

This conceptual shot in my opinion is very clever, in the way it creates the illusion that the actor is facing us straight on with her glasses slightly tilted to the right. This is created by the pair of lips drawn on the side of her face with make up which makes her seem as if she is abnormal possessing 2 pairs of lips. Although I have previously distinguished the colour contrast between white and black to represent different attitudes, in this particular shot it looks very retro and stylish.

 

This shot uses quite cold colours of blue and purple which add a sense of mystery to Miley's character. Her non verbal language of holding herself up out of the water could further suggest that she wants to come out of the dark and show people the true her.