Textual Analysis - Ellie Goulding The Writer

Ellie Goulding - The Writer
I chose to deconstruct this existing texts by Ellie Goulding as I think this song has a very similar tone to the one I am using for my music video. Ellie is a very unique artist and her videos always seem to match with the theme of her song. Megan, the artist who's song we are using for our music video, has a very similar style to Ellie Goulding so this is the main reason why I have chosen to analyse one of her videos.



Directed by: Chris Cottam

At the very beginning of the song, the camera fades into a close-up of the singers eye and slowly zooms out so we can see her whole face, all the while Ellie is lip syncing and looking directly into the camera which helps the audience to feel like they are there with her.
The background switches between a blank background and a field setting throughout the first verse and chorus. These are simple backgrounds which co-incide with the songs simple tone, I like the thought of creating something similar to this for my music video.
The next shots cut between a high angle, long shot and a panning shot of Ellie walking through the field. These are very good shots because they give this particular video the first actual movement we see and this creates interest, making the audience want to keep watching the video. At the end of the chorus the video keeps cutting between a mid-shot of her in the field and a close-up of her singing into the camera in front of a plain white background. After the chorus, at the beginning of the second verse, we see an over head, birds eye view of Ellie walking up a spiral staircase and then a cut to her holding onto some railings in the lighthouse we saw earlier in the video, where she begins to lip sync into the camera. We see a close-up of her face and then a cut to an over head shot where we see her laying at the bottom of the staircase, and then a shot of her at the top of the lighthouse lip syncing but not looking into the camera. The second chorus cuts between all the shots we've seen throughout the video and then as she begins to sing the chorus again, there is another close-up shot of her laying in the grass, looking into the camera and lip-syncing.
I like how the video begins in the daylight and gradually ends with a long shot of Ellie looking out to the sunset, with the lighthouse in view.
In an ideological standpoint this music video represents just females. It shows one character throughout and she is presented as a free spirit, as if she can do whatever she likes, however and whenever. It displays a narrow range of lifestyles and behaviors as the theme of the video is very niche. The video is simple and makes us believe her life is quiet and simplistic. Her behavior is the same throughout due to the indie genre, she is calm and collected with a clear mind. This video is so simple that there are no major value judgements about what is 'normal' and what deviates from that norm.

Overall, this video definitely matches the meaning of the song and has all the conventions needed to have a successful music video. I will be creating a video similar to this one for my project.