Oren Lavie - Her morning elegance

Band/Artist: Oren Lavie

Record Label: A quarter past wonderfull

Music Genre: Acoustic/alternative/indie

Video director: Oren Lavie

Notes:

Camera: Long shot, Birds eye view ( aerial ), close ups to establish mood/detail

limited variation of shot types

Sound: music track, no diegetic sound, only audio from the track

Editing: slow smooth paced, shot lengths very long,

long shot lengths allow narrative to unfold

Mise en scene : Bedroom props, bed, clothes, pillows used for clouds, socks for fish etc

all bedroom items, white connoting purity/innocence

Narrative: A dream, surreal settings, a journey through a dream, through enviroments

Genre: Alternative, soft rock, pop

This is Oren Lavie's music video for their song her morning elegance. This animated video unlike many animated videos using flash or maya animations has used stop frame.

Apart from some close ups at the beginning ( see 0:08) and one at the end, the majority of camera angles used in the video are long shots from a birds eye view overhead the main characters bed with one shot lasting almost the whole video. These shots give the audience a view of the characters actions throughout whilst see 'seems' to travel and the background environment changes. This sense that the character stays centralized although she moves and appears to travel creates the main focus for the viewer and creates a sense of continuity throughout the animation. This style of minimal shots and shot types gives this video its own unique feel although it is seen in similar animated music videos for example the JCB song by Nizlopi and Radiohead's acoustic version of creep. This has no ambient or added sound at all, just the music track, which seems to be a very similar occurring factor and convention in music videos. The sound, as in all music videos I have analyzed so far, runs parallel to the editing with slow paced visuals to match the smooth calming music, especially in this case. The editing is used well to match the sound throughout where the pace changes and the director has successfully matched the audio to the video so that it is smooth and flowing. This seems to be a crucial convention throughout all forms of music videos as it links what is seen visually to the audio creating continuity, flow and a sense of professionalism often linking the narrative and creating an appropriate mood to the context of the video. Editing in this video is fairly consistent and paced similar to the narrative. As this is a stop-frame animation the video is made by taking hundreds of photos one after another and moving the subject slightly after each one, then when played together at a high frame rate it appears moving. By using this technique the director has alot more control over the editing and certain tasks become alot easier. Mise en scene is used in this piece alot through props to create a certain atmosphere. Household items, especially items found in the bedroom are used to create the settings in this video. Socks are used to create fish (2:34), Pillows to create clouds (0:59) and shirts to create birds (2:10) . This use of bedroom items to create the enviroment further reinforces the atmosphere of the piece and continues to express the fact this is a surreal dream and she is still in her room. The mise en scene has been used in conjunction with the narrative of the song to create a visual narrative that matches so for example at (1:13) when the lyrics say "She looks at the rain as it pours", the visuals then show her looking out a window with the lighting further reinforcing that it is stormy. The good factors of this form of animation are that because they are pictures you can really get a sense of realism from the animation..

The genre of this music is alternative/pop and the slow paced visuals and naive but sweet narrative mirror the feel of the music. This kind of narrative is something the director has used very effectively in here creating a video that will resonate with audience when they watch it.