Rhianna Flett

The video for Macklemore's song "Downtown" uses both performance and illustration to convey the lyrics. These elements are conventional for pop music videos, as they are the most commonly used techniques to portray the song and appeal to the viewer. The illustrative technique allows for the artists to portray the humourous tone of the song throughout.

 

Throughout the video, bright colours are used, and emphasised by high-key lighting, to demonstrate the upbeat, fun, happy vibe of the song. This is conventional in pop videos, as the genre is generally seen to be upbeat. As pop music is generally aimed at a youthful audience, the casual costume worn by the characters in the video helps to associate them with youthfulness, whilst also making them appealing and relatable to their fans. We are also shown a humourous side of gangs, by using props such as mopeds, and silly dance moves. This shows that the song is for fun, and shouldn't be taken too seriously in its meaning. The graffiti shown at 0:51 adds to the humour of gangs, as Macklemore cleverly writes graffiti about himself. This also portrays the youthful side of his personality and song. An extravagant prop is used at 1:22, of a motorbike embellished with animal parts. This makes him seem powerful, as it makes him centre of attention, however also shows off the humour of the video, as it isn't realistic. The importance of Macklemore's character is also portrayed in the video, as he generally appears front and centre of the shots. This blocking shows he is the leader and sets the trends. This allows the viewer to diverge (uses and gratifications theory) from reality, as they will want to follow these trends. This is also shown at 1:38, when girls surround themselves around Macklemore, showing his popularity. At 1:57, motorbikes are used to tow a cart, in replacement of horses. This shows the love for bikes which is portrayed in the song, adding to the humourous tone. It also shows why they love bikes so much, as they are seen to be powerful and valiant like horses. The use of a wide diverse variety of characters throughout the video adds to their audience appeal, as it isn't discriminative, further showing their popularity. The old fashioned typography used at the end makes the video seem like that of an old gang movie, which would have used similar font style and colouring.

 

The opening scene of the video uses and establishing wide shot, of Macklemore laying on  a moped. This is effective, as it straight away shows the theme of the video, and highlights the important features (the artist and mopeds). During the dance scene at 0:22, a wide shot is used to show all of the characters around Macklemore. This is a conventional scene in pop music videos (like Bruno Mars in Uptown Funk), showing it is an effective way to portray the artist. At 1:24, another wide shot is used (showing how effective this camera shot is) to show Macklemore's importance. He is shown to have the best bike, as everyone is lined up either side of him, creating a runway-like track. As well as wide shots, many long shots are also used to enhance the extravagance of characters, props and settings. This presents Macklemore as ordinary and extraordinary (Richard Dyer) as he's dressed normallly, surrounded by hundreds or normal people, however is able to create a video of such extravagance. At 2:48, a close up two-person shot is used to show the intense rivalry between the gangs, as their leaders face-off. This is contrasted however with the acts that preceed and follow, as Macklemore dances on a man's shoulders. This shows the element of jokes and humour in the video. The amount of people involved in the video is shown with panning at 4:12. The use of a pan shows the length of street covered by people who are all following Macklemore's lead. This highlights his importance, and shows the popularity of the song and artist. A fast zoom in at 4:52, shows the destination of the bus ("DOWNTOWN"). This reiterates the title of the song, and also matches with the lyrics to show off the song. It also shows the location as a popular place to be, as people are travelling towards it. 

 

The use of an intro and outro scene helps to set the scene for the song, as it shows the start and end to the narrative. This is conventionally seen in many music videos, which suggests to us that it would be a good and effective technique to use in our main production. At 0:29, shot reverse shot is used to convey a conversation in the lyrics. This is effective, as it helps to explain what is happening during this part of the song. This technique was also used in the video for Magic's Rude, showing it could be an effective technique if the lyrics allow it. Throughout the video, there is a varying pace of editing. The longer scenes are used to portray the storyline, which links to the particular images being shown. This is effective, as it conveys the narrative of the song. The shorter scenes are useful to highlight the extravagance and humour of the song and video, and also to match the tempo of the song. This is conventional for pop music videos, as seen in many of the others that I have analysed. At 2:13, slow motion is used to create a more movie-like scene and add intensity. By making it look like a scene from a movie, the humour is emphasised, as it's an unrealistic scene, using motorbikes as horses. Furthermore, if it were real, the event taking place wouldn't be quite as intense as shown. This draws the viewers' attention, and makes the scene as funny as the rest.

 

As seen in many of the pop music videos that I have analysed, the sound often reflects the scenes being shown. At 4:34, we are shown a large amount of people all in the street for the same reason. This unity is emphasised by the fact that it reflects the number of voices heard singing that part of the song. This encourages the viewer to join in (creating a personal relationship - uses and gratifications theory) as well as showing the popularity of the artists and song. In contrast to this, at the end of the song, during the outro scene, there is silence. This allows for the focus to be entirely on what is happening, and the old-fashioned typography at the end.