Andrew Goodwin's Analytical Framework

Andrew Goodwin is a theorist which has identified 5 key aspects of how to analyse a music video, he has therefore came up with a theoretical framework - I will be following this framework to briefly analyse the music video Venus - by Bananarama. 

Venus - Bananarama

SYNAESTHESIA, SEEING THE SOUND; 

Synaesthesia - seeing the sound is quite self explanatory - it is all about how the visuals emerge from the sound. For example if you could see the musician play the instruments, this would be seeing the sound. 

• The visual responds to the audio throughout the video, as you can see in the screen shot on the right, the 3 women in the band are singing along to the song. In other parts of the music video, they are also dancing in time to the music, and with the rhythm of the music. 
• Another way the visual responds to the audio is by what's actually happening in the visual, the lyrics to the song are 'I'm your Venus, I'm your fire, Your desire.' Below you can see that fire is all around the women that are singing, as well as another clip of a women looking like a devil coming out of coffin, and this also corresponds to the lyrics.

• The structure of the song is also reflected in the visuals because on the chorus of the song it goes back to the 3 women singing (which could also reflect the star image) and throughout the verses there are various different scenes, which the video keeps returning to in particular parts of the song. 

NARRATIVE AND PERFORMANCE;

Narrative & performance is the storyline of what is happening, and what kind of story line that is, for example one aspect of the storyline could be the band doing a sound-check. The performance is when the artist is performing the song. 

• I'd say the music video is an amplifying video, as the visual adds extra meaning to the sound, and it tells a clear story throughout, (which can been seen to the above left) about how there are some vampires, as well as a women and a man dancing, and various other clips, all relating to how women are more in control of men, and how they can dominate them... however it also has a large percentage of the artists performing the song (which are shown in the pictures above) which shows of the star image.
• During the chorus of the video the 3 girls are performing, and whildt doing this they are looking and dancing directly at the camera, which makes the audience feel as though they are singing directly to them, this creates an authentic theme as they are being quite unique with the simplicity, however they are also adding many effects around it, by using fire etc. 

THE STAR IMAGE 

This is when the music video is aimed at the artist specifically; so the artist is the front man and the person who is in the video the most - who the story is about. This is also known as selling the brand image. 

• The video is selling the star image because they are singing into the camera, and this shows a broader narrative of the star persona as it makes the audience feel as though the Artist is actually part of the video and the song relates to them - which inevitably will make the audience connect with the artist, and the song. There are also close up's of the women singing and this again relates to the Star Image, and selling the 'brand' image. A screen shot of this is shown here - 

RELATION OF VISUALS TO SONG

This is quite self explanatory - it is about how the visuals relate to the song.  

• A few examples of this is shown by the pictures, corresponding with the lyrics (I spoke briefly about this in the Narrative - performance section) 

"Goddess on the mountain top"      

 As you can see by all these pictures, they relate to the lyrics quite directly, as the lyrics say something, and the visuals show it. 

-There is only 3 examples here however this theme goes on throughout the music video. 

"The summit of beauty and love

And Venus was her name"

"I'm your Venus, I'm your fire

At your desire"

TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF MUSIC VIDEO 

This is about what is actually happening - the technical parts (pan etc) It's about what camera moves are used, the different shot types, zoom, lighting.. etc.. It also links to the effects that are in the music video such as smoke, blur, and so on. 

• In this video, when the 3 women are singing in to the camera - which is about 50% of the music video, the camera is at a medium three shot, so you can see all of the women in the shot. The camera is on a stand and then stays still, and the women walk towards the camera - this makes it look slightly hand-held but it's not. 
• There are also other shot types, for example a long shot which is shown below. In this particular shot it zooms into the image.
• There are smoky effects throughout to make quite an unusual look, and also to adapt a sense of 'super hero's' etc
• The lighting is quite dark in certain places when referring to Venus, as the shots are of somebody coming back from the dead.
• The video also pan's in various places to show a wider image of the women singing and dancing.