Thursday 15 September 2016

Genre Dance: Beat It - Michael Jackson (1982) Old Music Video Analysis


The music video starts off with a long shot of a small cafe with the camera displaying a dolly/tracking shot of the front of some men walking. The cinematographer then shows various angles and shots of members in a gang while the music starts to begin. It also showed a close up of a woman smoking a cigarette which emphases the characteristic of her and the people she is with. The camera then again follows three men but this time follows them from behind with a dolly. The camera cuts to a dark mid-shot showing the three men who are walking and there were also some side shots of these men too. The the video cuts to a shot with Michael Jackson the main artist and it pans around him showing that he is the artist singing in this song and it shows him to the audience. This supports Goodwins theory who claims that the record labels demands is to promote and show the artist in the video. There are various slight low angled shots looking up at the gang members, this represents their power. The music video then has various other shots of the gang members and it also has close up of Michael Jackson and some long shots of Michael Jackson which shows him dancing and singing to the song. Theres then various panning and dolly shots of these two gangs that have clashed and they are about the conflict with each other. When they conflict with each other it is shown with a high angle shot to emphasise the tension and the amount of people who are there. Michael Jackson then stops the argument between the two gangs and the camera is angled up which shows it is looking up at Michael Jackson, showing that his is now the bigger man as he stopped the argument. This links with the lyrics of the song, "No one wants to be defeated, Showin' how funky strong is your fight, It doesn't matter who's wrong or right".


The song also uses editing in the music video. The first shot cuts to another shot when the door slams to create a transition from scenes. Some other scene just have simple cuts betweens, other forms of transitions between scenes were close ups of clothes with zoomed out. The sound is also very well synchronised with the lip syncing that Michael Jackson did. Miss-en-scene was also heavily used in this music video. The characters had clothing that suit their characteristics as well. The use of lighting also emphasised the setting and the character as well as the mood of the music video. The gang members had very little lighting on their faces where as Michael Jackson had more lighting which again shows the record labels demands on promoting the artist.

I feel like this is a great music video, it has narrative, great shots and great miss-en-scenes for a music video from 1982.

No comments:

Post a Comment