New Shoes
Released March 12th 2007
Media forms and conventions
This video follows a narrative based structure where the action is parallel to the lyrics for instance the first lyric is “woke up one Tuesday, I’m looking tired and feeling quite sick”, linear to this is the image of the artist waking up in the morning in bed at home looking tired and fed up. The purpose of using this structure is that it simply follows the story that is being told within the song, this makes the lyrics a lot more memorable to the viewer as when they see the video they visually see what they are hearing.
This is a visual example of how linear the narrative is:-
‘New shoes’ is a folk-pop/blue eyes soul song that tells a story of carefree living, and looking on the bright side of things. This links well to the genre as blues music originated from black slaves and the purpose of the blues was to give them some happiness during their lives of slavery, and the folk genre is used to tell stories to entertain.
Aspects of mise-en-scene such as location and props reflect characteristics of the folk genre. For instance, the video is set in two locations; the house and the street, these are both unglamorous, homely locations that are not used to promote wealth or voyeurism but to simply reflect the story being told within the song. This also reflects the genre in the sense that the video is used to tell the story and nothing else.
The majority of camera shots used in the video are medium close ups of Paolo Nutini, his head is almost always in the centre third of the screen, this connotes that he is the very centre of this song; it is based upon a single person and his view on things.
Also, throughout the video the colour tone is very warm, with a lot of greens and oranges and warm lighting; this reflects the warmth of the song, the story and the character.
There is simple straightforward editing where each shot cuts to the next on a beat, no shot lasts longer than 5 seconds; this maintains the upbeat pace of the song, there is only one fade during the lyric “I’m walking ‘til the break of dawn”, at this point the singer is walking down a street at night, a golden light fades in then disappears to reveal the busy kitchen. This gold fade is used for two reasons,
1. To symbolise the sun coming up as the ‘break of dawn’.
2. As it is nearing the end of the song and going into a multiple repeat of the chorus it signifies the beginning of a montage of different locations and actions but the video is no longer telling the story.
Some special effects are used in the video, the effects used are sparkles of light around the singers feet as he is dancing along the street, dots of light are also used to hover around his head as he says ‘where bright lights and angels meet’, therefore these lights are used to signify the ‘bright lights and angels’.
The video uses props and locations that are used in many music videos from artists of a similar or surrounding genres, for instance the acoustic guitar in this video is often seen in folk and alternative videos as it is a sound that heavily influences the genre. Other videos that include this are; James Morrison – Wonderful World, Nerina Pallot – Learning to Breathe and Newton Faulkner – Dream Catch Me.
Representation
The song is a folk song in which the artist sings about everyday occurrences and his outlook on these occurrences, his outlook is optimistic and upbeat and since the narrative is linear the video also promotes these aspects, therefore the place represented is a recognisable world to people of all ages as everybody has a home and everybody walks down the street… and everybody buys new shoes at some point! The world represented in the video therefore is a world everybody can associate with and as the video portrays an optimistic outlook on the everyday life the audience also feel that connection with their surroundings (for the duration of the song). This creates a strongly likeable appeal to the song as it makes the viewer feel warm, happy and inspired about their life as they watch the video.
Institutions
Paolo Nutini joined Atlantic Records in 2005 shortly after his 18th birthday. Atlantic Records is a large mainstream record company that works with artists such as Bjork, Led Zeppelin and Tracy Chapman. The company works with talents of all different ages and genres. The advantage of being part of such a large label means that Paolo Nutini has a lot of experience behind him in the sense that the company has been established long enough to know what makes a successful band/artist. Also as the label works with so many different genres they also know what works for his music and what doesn’t. Another advantage of being part of such a well-established label is the recognition; it is a lot easier for Paolo Nutini to gain recognition with a mainstream company than a small independent producer as they have the money and the acknowledgment to put him in the spotlight.
Technology
The internet has been the biggest breakthrough in technology in the past 20 years and as it is so easily accessible to such a broad audience it means it has a large impact on the music industry especially in reaching target audiences. For instance Youtube and Myspace have created a lot of recognition for Paolo Nutini as members upload videos of live performances where anybody with internet access can watch. Also, Myspace has become very music orientated within the past few years with almost every artist having their own page, this is a great place to target young adult and teenage audiences as Myspace is a social networking hub for people of this demographic. Paolo Nutini has had his own page since 02/11/2005 and since then has gained 185402 friends.
Aspects of mise-en-scene such as location and props reflect characteristics of the folk genre. For instance, the video is set in two locations; the house and the street, these are both unglamorous, homely locations that are not used to promote wealth or voyeurism but to simply reflect the story being told within the song. This also reflects the genre in the sense that the video is used to tell the story and nothing else.
The majority of camera shots used in the video are medium close ups of Paolo Nutini, his head is almost always in the centre third of the screen, this connotes that he is the very centre of this song; it is based upon a single person and his view on things.
Also, throughout the video the colour tone is very warm, with a lot of greens and oranges and warm lighting; this reflects the warmth of the song, the story and the character.
There is simple straightforward editing where each shot cuts to the next on a beat, no shot lasts longer than 5 seconds; this maintains the upbeat pace of the song, there is only one fade during the lyric “I’m walking ‘til the break of dawn”, at this point the singer is walking down a street at night, a golden light fades in then disappears to reveal the busy kitchen. This gold fade is used for two reasons,
1. To symbolise the sun coming up as the ‘break of dawn’.
2. As it is nearing the end of the song and going into a multiple repeat of the chorus it signifies the beginning of a montage of different locations and actions but the video is no longer telling the story.
Some special effects are used in the video, the effects used are sparkles of light around the singers feet as he is dancing along the street, dots of light are also used to hover around his head as he says ‘where bright lights and angels meet’, therefore these lights are used to signify the ‘bright lights and angels’.
The video uses props and locations that are used in many music videos from artists of a similar or surrounding genres, for instance the acoustic guitar in this video is often seen in folk and alternative videos as it is a sound that heavily influences the genre. Other videos that include this are; James Morrison – Wonderful World, Nerina Pallot – Learning to Breathe and Newton Faulkner – Dream Catch Me.
Representation
The song is a folk song in which the artist sings about everyday occurrences and his outlook on these occurrences, his outlook is optimistic and upbeat and since the narrative is linear the video also promotes these aspects, therefore the place represented is a recognisable world to people of all ages as everybody has a home and everybody walks down the street… and everybody buys new shoes at some point! The world represented in the video therefore is a world everybody can associate with and as the video portrays an optimistic outlook on the everyday life the audience also feel that connection with their surroundings (for the duration of the song). This creates a strongly likeable appeal to the song as it makes the viewer feel warm, happy and inspired about their life as they watch the video.
Institutions
Paolo Nutini joined Atlantic Records in 2005 shortly after his 18th birthday. Atlantic Records is a large mainstream record company that works with artists such as Bjork, Led Zeppelin and Tracy Chapman. The company works with talents of all different ages and genres. The advantage of being part of such a large label means that Paolo Nutini has a lot of experience behind him in the sense that the company has been established long enough to know what makes a successful band/artist. Also as the label works with so many different genres they also know what works for his music and what doesn’t. Another advantage of being part of such a well-established label is the recognition; it is a lot easier for Paolo Nutini to gain recognition with a mainstream company than a small independent producer as they have the money and the acknowledgment to put him in the spotlight.
Technology
The internet has been the biggest breakthrough in technology in the past 20 years and as it is so easily accessible to such a broad audience it means it has a large impact on the music industry especially in reaching target audiences. For instance Youtube and Myspace have created a lot of recognition for Paolo Nutini as members upload videos of live performances where anybody with internet access can watch. Also, Myspace has become very music orientated within the past few years with almost every artist having their own page, this is a great place to target young adult and teenage audiences as Myspace is a social networking hub for people of this demographic. Paolo Nutini has had his own page since 02/11/2005 and since then has gained 185402 friends.
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