Week 5

Analysis of the video.




My interpretation of the video.

This is a wide shot of Adele the artist, facing the side singing the lyrics to the song. She isn't making eye contact, and makes little movement as she sings, because of the lyrics, and this scene out together it suggests she is angry or hurt. As she doesn’t face the camera it gives the impression she is weak and vulnerable. This helps the audience understand the feeling of the song even more. The camera is also zooming in then does a cut.

The camera cuts to the other side of her, she still doesn't make eye contact with the camera, and this suggests guilt also. This shot also gives the audience a better view of the location which is an abandon house. Her costume is also quiet nice, she seems to be dressed formal however the location is run down, this suggests there is a problem, and that she is not "sane".

As she says “I can see you crystal clear" several glasses filled with water appear, again its not clear what it is suggesting, but it is n sync with the lyrics of the song. In music videos they usually pull away from the artist, to go to a narrative (drama), in this case it is an image of what she is saying. I didn’t really understand this, but it could be that I am not meant to.

The drummer under the stairs, the beat hasn’t dropped yet in the song, but there is a short clip of a drummer.  Although the location of the drummer was weird, there was a constant referral to "beating" in the lyrics of the song, the drums denote this phrase, and therefore fit in well however the location is still confusing.

As the beat drops, instead of seeing the drum which was most expected at that time, the glasses of water appear, and as the beat hits the water moves, the sound of the drums is making them vibrate. The whole room is filled with glass, this could have been a suggestion to how she felt but it wasn't obvious.

 A ninja type character is seen in the middle of a white room, standing still, it becomes clear after this point that everything shown is about to make a move, they jumped to the glass, then when they went back they were vibrating, they jumped to the drummer, the next shot of him is likely to be him drumming, as with this character. I think that these shots were supposed to be unexpected, and different. As no other soul video has done this.

Back to Adele again however she is still in the same room, same chair same position, again not making eye contact with the audience.
The room is dark and has minimal lighting, low lighting always suggests sadness or bereavement.

After this as the beat builds up they jump back and forth between Adele and the ninja/dancer, they zoom into Adele, whilst the dancer starts to build up a dance, they use slow motion. When they finally get a close up shot of Adele she still isn't making eye contact, however she is making more movement and showing more emotion, this helps with the build up to the chorus. Giving the songs various emotional levels, having different levels keeps the audience interested. When the chorus comes, they stop using slow motion and start with a long shot of Adele again. 

Again there is an image, it shows broken plates, each prop or object can be identified as a piece of her, for example the glasses could be the person who hurt her, as she says she can see right through him, the dance could be her range of emotions, suggesting they are all over the place. The broken plates could be her heart, it depends on how the audience views it, it can be determined by the individual. But like all the other clips which are shown as an image/still, and then within the next few shots we are shown them in action.

 She keeps popping up, and the more she pops up the more movement she seems to be making, getting more involved with the song, but she still doesn't make eye contact with the camera. In the video it seems as if we are seeing her from every angle, close up and long shots of her, putting emphasis on her vulnerability even more. The audience has an objective view of her.

After we are shown what was done with the broken plates they were smashed against a board, however you don't at any point see the person smashing the plates, which adds to the mystery and suspense of the video.

We see her use her body more and more, at the beginning when we first saw her she had her hands on her lap, and her head facing in one direction, the more the song goes on she starts to move around, adding suspense, as to whether she will make eye contact, and maybe she doesn't want to make eye contact because she is hiding something. Even though there is no clear storyline in the video her body language tells a story.

 We are brought back to the drummer, after a long wait, and he is playing the drums, also facing away from the camera, which connects to Adele's position as she is also not looking at the camera. The fact we can’t see the drummer also adds suspense and can mislead the audience in to expecting something from him.

Again as the beat picks up we start to see more of her facial expressions, her emotions picking up again. The camera shots become shorter and jump to various different locations within the house. Building tension and suspense as the camera is zooming whilst using slow motion.

In the drummers clip there is a light which constantly flashes on and of, as the beat plays. Although the drummers body parts are shown his face still isn’t seen, again with the dance, the dust which constantly is kicked around means the audience cant see the dancers face.  He unlike Adele is dressed casually also in dark clothes.

A new prop is introduced like all the others it starts of as still, and just a long shot of it, so the audience can see what it is. You can guess from all the other props and people in the video that later on something will happen to it. It is a white model city, again with no colour and no people around it. At the moment it is hard to identify what it could mean, or what it could represent

This is 1 of the 3 shoots were she is shown not singing, and the light has been dimmed. She brings herself down, her hands are out if the shot, and she still hasn't given eye contact. Bringing the lights down brings emotions back down, and makes things calm.

After the audience is brought down, by slow motion clips, and zooming into the white model city. The beat then drops again, and the white model city is set on fire. This repetition of narrative, suggests that everything is not calm for long, and when things do get calm they jump back up again. The various editing and camera shots represent her emotions as up and down, one minute she is angry, and jumpy, trying to hold back her emotions, then she is calm as if she is exhausted and just upset.

After this the song starts to end, they show various shots jumping from shot to shot, cutting and zooming as if they are building up to something. Although Adele is the main clip, the video focuses on 5 other scenes, the dancer/ninja, the drummer, the smashing plates, the glasses of water and the white model city set on fire. I believe that each prop or character represents a part of her.

The video is quiet hard to understand, and I didn’t want this for my video, if I chose to have a storyline; I would keep it clear and understandable.