BIRDY - KEEPING YOUR HEAD UP
Birdy is a 20 year old British musician, singer, songwriter. In music video 'Keeping Your Head Up' Birdy is lying down on her bed as the camera gets close to her eye, we see what is in her mind. Demons and angels appear in her mind throughout the video. In the end we see Birdy shown again on her bed where she is still lying down.
At the beginning of the video there is a close up used on Birdy to show her lying down on her bed. This puts all of the focus onto her, the shot slowly zooms into her eye while she is lip syncing to the track. This puts further attention onto Birdy. Soon after this there is then a kaleidoscope effect where she is shown singing from multiple angles. This gives the dreamy and mysterious effect that she wants to convey due to the concept behind the video. There is also a lot of unfocused shots throughout the video, this disorientates the viewer again to back up the concept of a dream. There is also a lot of quick cuts which match the beat of the song when it hits the chorus, this makes the video seem more upbeat and fun.
CAMERA WORK & EDITING
One of the main visible factors of mise en scene in this video is the strobing neon light, we first see them at the beginning of the video when the close up of Birdy lying down on bed and they go over the left side of her face, this makes a perfect transition into her dream, the lights then continues using orange, white and blue, this gives a youthful feel to the video in some ways the lights seem to be hypnotic creating a dreamlike feel. Normally the female character within the video will have heavy make up on, whereas Birdy is not wearing hardly any, this doesn't sexualise her at all. The costumes Birdy wears throughout the video are very modest. I believe that she doesn't want to be perceived as the typical female singer/songwriter that is overly sexualised but just wanted to focus on the music she makes.
MISE EN SCENE
Reception Theory can be seen throughout the video, as neither the media or the audience have full control. It is also Polysemic meaning the audience int passive but they can interpret the video based on their individual, cultural or life experiences. Male Gaze is not used much in this video as Birdy isn't sexualised at all, however Personal Identity is used within the video as the audience can relate to Birdy, if they have struggled with dreams before.
THEORY
