MVid EG2: Halsey - Ghost

POSSIBLE POINTS OF INFLUENCES FOR MY MUSIC VIDEO:
1. The coloured lighting, neon colours, pastel colours 
2. The slow motion effect on the characters moving. 
3. The costumes used in the video e.g. the blue bob wig, pink bob wig, red lipstick, choker, black eyeshadow, black eyeliner etc. 

Malia James (2015)
Act: Halsey
Track: Ghost
Genre: electropop 
Main Audience: Females (13-24)

There are 11 shots in the first 30 seconds. This estimates that each shot lasts 2.7 seconds.
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At the start of the video, there is a medium long shot/long shot of a city with high skyscrapers and lots of banners everywhere with Chinese writing on. This denotes the setting to be urban and a 'big city' perhaps in the country of China or Japan. However, the location hasn't been intentionally anchored, it has been left as polysemic with asian signifiers through chinese script. The issue here is globalisation - where is this city - this is a city anywhere - not western or eastern which is an aspect of representation and post modernism, a refusal to accept a certain reality - any place any reality. 

There is use of a diegetic title at the start of the video. This title is the track title. There is also another title which is the track title 'Ghost' translated in Chinese. 

Andrew Goodwin argued that there are 6 features of music videos, these can be seen in this video. These are: frequent close ups of artist, genre characteristics, relationship between lyrics and visuals, relationship between music and visuals, the notion of looking and intertextual references. First of all, there is frequent use of close ups of the artist, Halsey in this video. 

There are electropop genre characteristics in this video such as the use of bright neon, primary colours throughout (created through colour gel lighting and colour correction) and the iconic, flamboyant costumes seen which are a light blue wig, a light pink wig, a choker, bright red lipstick and heavy black eye make-up.



Laura Mulvey's male gaze' is somewhat exploited in this music video through the close ups and medium close up shots at the start of the video of Halsey and another girl's body. They are heavily glamourised through the use of high key lighting, sometimes with the use of colour gels and also colour correction. This is one of the key conventions of the electropop genre (colour correction, SFX, use of colour gels). I am influenced by this video to use colour gels for lighting in my music video on the lip syncing footage of the singer and on some of the narrative shots. 

In terms of the Uses and Gratifications theory (Dennis McQuail), 3 of the gratifications apply here. Personal identity, personal relationship and diversion. Females aged 15-24 are able to identify with the female main protagonist, Halsey, in this music video. The same gratifications will apply to my music video. 

There is a playful post modern deconstructionist pomo aspect to this video due to the fact that the two female main protagonists look very similar because of the wig 'bobs' they are wearing, one is wearing a short bob pink wig, the other is wearing a short bob light blue wig. The first scene is where this is most evident. The editing choice of this first scene tricks/challenges the viewer and gets them confused as to which female is Halsey (the singer/artist). At one point Halsey is on the right while kissing and touching the other girl and then at another point Halsey is on the left side instead. This confusion is also created through the shot choices - through, for example the side on close up two shots of the two female characters, it is very hard to distinguish which female protagonist/character is Halsey. 

Also, it is clearly denoted that the narrative and performance have been blurred. Halsey is blurring the narrative and performance. The same colour correction is used on the lip syncing footage of the singer and the narrative footage of Halsey with the other female character. However, in the narrative shots, Halsey has a short light blue bob but in the performance shots, has significantly longer light blue hair. Halsey's bob hair in the narrative shots matches the hair of the other female character in the video intentionally.

In terms of editing style, a slow motion effect has been used on all of the footage. This creates a flowing effect. 

Information on electropop genre music video conventions gathered:
1. Use of colour correction, colour gels in lighting to look colourful 
2. Flamboyant costumes - colourful, vibrant costumes