Summer Homework

Analysis of Florence and the Machine- Drumming song
Florence’s video has a unique style and when she is performing in her music video for drumming song it is different and really shows the style of her performance really well. This specific music video is more of a visual song than narrative but has some narrative through it. It has a lot of fast moving shots to catch the audience’s attention and keeps you enticed into the song. Most of the video the song is performed by Florence herself and appears to be in every shot that is on screen as she is the main performer, but also she has some other girls on the screen that follow what she does like she is there role model. It is also narrative based in the idea that she has two personalities and she is showing them both within this song and singing about letting them out, the nun outfit and the black short body suit really show of the contrast in the personalities very well, the black of the body suit may also relate to the lyrics within the song where it talks about sinning and that she is showering her evil side to the world. Throughout the song there is only ever two costumes that she is wearing, and it all depends on the speed of the song, at the start of the song it is slow and calm and this is where she is wearing the nun costume, then when the speed of the song speeds up it adds more of the black dress in and when it slows back down goes back to the nun. This also shows the contrast in personalities, like the dark side of her prefers the fast moving extravagant parts and the nun is calm and collected.
On the drumming beats there is always movement within her, she either moves her hair or her body to the beat to relate to the title, Drumming song. This shows her originality within the video as not many other artists would have the uniqueness to pull it off like Florence does.

There is a great shot where she is lying on the ground and moving her body to the beat, this is to show that the drumming is in control of her and she cant stop it. I really like it as the lighting lies across the floor up to where she is, also by lying on the ground with her arms apart makes her look vulnerable, which gets completely contrasted later in the song.

Also I like the shot where they are holding her up as if to worship her, with this being a very Christian based song this shows that they think very highly of her and that with her dark personality she can now break free and be who she wants to be and the follow her in the same way. This is from a high angle and shows her expression on her face as being very powerful and dismissive to the people holding her up.

There is one more shot that really catches my attention and it is half way through the song, this is a close up of her as she starts to throw her hair, I think this shows her letting go of her hidden personality and letting everyone see what it is. This is a quick insert and goes on the beat but I really think it emphasises the darkness breaking out from within her.

I think the success of this video is very good. This was because I picked up on the story line at the start of the video, this is what I would like my video to do as it is the main part of a music video, also when I look at the performance in the video it is very striking and out there, it is inspiring for my future music video as I like the uniqueness of the performance.
I think that the target audience would be a large demographic from older teenagers through to 30s and 40s. I think this would be a very popular album and genre.

Florence and the machine CD cover analysis
The CD cover for Florence slates album ‘Lungs’ is very unique, it has a lot to do with the title and links every part of her cover to it. The front cover is very unique as the background is very striking, where as many other CD covers like to have the focus on the centre image, this although it is very eye catching can dfist5ract away from the purpose of the front cover. The main image of Florence with the lung on her body link to the title, this also show that Florence is not the typical codes and conventions follower she likes to be unique and go her own way in her music.
The back of the CD is a major contrast to the front, it has one main image clearly seen on a black background, and this also links to the title of the song with the image being of lungs. The back is very simplistic and I feel that is more eye catching than that of the front, also the front although it has a very bold background is very simplistic too. It only has the images and the name of the album and the artist, this makes it more successful as it is doesn’t try to over crowd the page.

Florence and the machine CD release advert analysis
For the advert for the CD release she keeps it simple by adding the same image that is on the CD cover, this can be helpful as when the demographic come to buy the CD they will know what they are looking for. Also she only adds the date of release and what comes included within the CD, I like this idea as it’s not overcrowded and messy, also by sticking to the same image as the CD she can use the same design as she did for the CD cover which is a good idea to link her work together instead of having completely different designs for each. I like this idea that she has created and when I come to create my digipak I may think about using the same line of creativity that Florence has done.