Cheryl Cole - Fight For Love

The video starts off with various mid-shots of the artist Cheryl Cole. The scenary changes behind her along with her costume design placing her in different shots creates a continuous flow. In the opening shot she is portrayed as sexy and elegant as she stands out from the other woman in the background who are all dressed the same in an all black costume. The scene changes from her being sexy and elegant to tough and street-wise with her being dressed in a hoodie and the background showing graffiti-style drawings matching her outfit through red and black writing and splodges on the wall.

Music videos use close ups to show connection and emotion towards an audience this therefore creates a relationship with the audience making the lyrics sound more meaningful. There is shown a close up of Cheryl Cole's lips whilst she is singing to make the words more meaningful yet powerful. As this is a love song the lips shows connotations with romance therefore creating an even more powerful image by using a subliminal message to portray her 'message' in the song.Cheryl Coles video is a contrast to Jay-z's video Run This Town as this video only consists of the artist singing with various backgrounds yet there is no storyline. Jay-z's video follows similiar suit yet also obtains a storyline alongside the artist singing towards the camera. Cheryl Cole still manages to keep the audience interested by using sexual actions to entice her male audience, yet not being too explicit therefore still keeping female audiences interested. She does this by using different costume designs roughly every other shot to change the scenary and allows the focus to be on her other than the surrounding background if she didnt change her outfit. Her backgrounds would have been shot using blue or green screen to create the effect of computer generated graffitit behind her, using bold colours she matches her outfit to the background and therefore everything looks smart and crisp.

This is a prime example of matching the background to Cheryl's outfit. The crisp colours of the red and black compliment Cheryl's outfit, yet she still manages to stand out in the clear white background. The graffiti style of the background shot still gives the artist a street image even though her outfit is a contrast to the background. Cheryl's video mixes up close, mid and long to portray her. Mainly using mid-shots and close ups she creates a connection with her audience. Using her long-shots and tilted shots whilst she is dancing with her group to give off the group dancers and that she is the leader of the group dancers. Shooting her in close up whilst dancing wouldn't suggest she is the leader, as the attention needs to be on her thats why long shots are used to good effect.

Jay Z - Run This Town

The video starts of with a fast-paced vibe, using fast editing by cutting away from different camera shots. This ties in with the upbeat tempo of the music itself. The scene being shown is trying to depict a story to an audience, i.e setting the scene for the music video to take place. The two artists, Rhianna and Jay-Z are first introduced to the viewers within 44 seconds using mid-shots.

Their costume design set them out as an image of Kings and Queens as the video is showing a battle scene probably aimed to be around the early centuries. All the other soldiers in the shot are wearing the same garments with helmets and swords depicting them as soldiers, whereas Rhianna and Jay-Z can be seen supporting black and gold attire, obviously standing out to the audience that their the main characters. Close ups are used to show emotion and meaning when the artists are singing and in-conjunction with mid shots when the artits are shown moving (walking along the set). A main trait is the artits walking towards the camera whilst singing, this can be seen at 1:10, this interacts the audience by direct address. Jay-Z is then seen to be rapping to an audience of soldiers who are all waving their spears, acting in as a crowd at a concert. Alot of movement by the artists is used to show them performing such as; hand gestures like waving to a crowd, or dancing to show their performing.

Zoom ins are used to show the powerfullness of the artists and all action shots work in synergy with the sound of the music. The lighting is dark, used to show a mysterious yet powerful image, working well in sync with the songs lyrics as the song is all about power and dominance. Bright lights are also used when the artisits are the main centre point of the shot to show their the stars almost, an on-going theme used throughout the video. Fire is used to an effect that also is used as a symbol of power to good effect.

A shot of Jay-Z is used in conjunction with an over-laying shot of a crowd in the distance, giving her a more dominant status, depicting her as the main focus point.

The editing of close and mid-shots alongside shots of the story setting the music video is depicting is roughly around 2-3 seconds each between them, this i feel is changed in different music videos according to the tempo and lyrics of the song, something i have to consider when planning my own music video.