music video, cd cover analysis - Whitney Houston (The Body Guard album)

Video analysis




Lyrics:
This song is from the film "The Bodyguard" in which Whitney Houston starred in. The lyrics from this song fit into the narrative of the film because they have to separate for the safety of both of them even though they are in love. Therefore, this music video is not only promoting the song, but it is also promoting the film as well, hence why there are many links between the music video and the film itself. The lyrics contribute towards the plot of the film, however, they could also link to anyone who is breaking up or knows that it is for the best. The lyrics also explain that although the separation is for the best, it doesn't mean that they won't still be in love. The lyrics could play a major part for this song becoming popular because the lyrics could be applied to almost anyone as most people will have gone through a tough breakup in their lives.

Tempo:
The song starts off quite slow, which shows it is a very emotional song, however the fact that the tempo is slow, means that there are several shots that are quite long. However when it gets into the middle of the song (1:40) the tempo gradually speeds up, and there are a variety of shot lengths as it cuts on the beat showing extracts of the film. There is also a certain beat which the shots cut, however it does not cut on every one of these beats, but there are mostly cuts on this beat.

Camera shots and edits:
The genre of this song is a soul ballad, and the genre of the music video seems to match that of the actual song. The first shot of the music video is an extreme close-up of Whitney Houston singing into a microphone, with quite a light background which looks like falling lights. She sings with her eyes closed, making her seem very emotional whilst singing. It then cuts to a very short shot of plane propellers, which then cuts to another extreme close up of Whitney Houston. However it is clear to see that this shot is from the film as it cuts to a shot of a male who waves her off. There are then many cut away shots of the plane propellers, and the wheels on the plane. Next there is another close up of W.H, but it is obvious that this time she is looking back quite sadly, after seeing the wheels moving it is clear to see that she is inside the plane moving. We can then see that the male is sighing, showing that neither of them want to be apart, but clearly there must be a reason for it. There is now a 12second shot of W.H sat on stage on her own lip syncing. The lighting is very dim and dark, making it seem a very depressing setting, making her seem very distressed about being apart and makes the audience know that she feels lonely without him. The camera then cuts to a close up, but starts to (extremely) slowly zoom in, she starts to lip sync, and closes her eyes making her seem extremely passionate about what she is singing about. The fact that she is sitting down also makes her seem lonely (although apparently she was sat because she was pregnant at the time). There is then a shot from behind her, but there is then a fade of some more shots from the film, especially shots of the male, but it is still clear to see that she is in a empty room as there are many empty seats. There are several of these shots, cutting between a shot of her and the empty room with her reminiscing, and a shot of her lip syncing from the front. This could represent her thinking back on old times when she was with him, especially as she smiles as though she is missing something, or someone. There is then one of my favourite shots in this video (1:29), as the reminiscing shot is of her and the male dancing, and this time when it cuts to a front shot of her, there is a couple dancing in front of her, wearing the same clothes as they were in her memory, however we are not able to see their heads, we are only able to see the centres of their bodies, and when they dance out of the shot her eyes follow them. This implies that the memory is 3D and she can in fact see it suggesting that it was such a special moment that it is so clear in her memory. She then starts lip syncing with her eyes closed again, in which there are memories of the male rescuing her (again this is a clip from the film). The link between her eyes being closed and the memory implies to the audience that she is going through her memories and imagining it. We can then see that in her memory she is wearing a black cape on stage with a black hood. This shot is also involved when she is singing the chorus, which is a very powerful and emotional part of the song, and in this shot she widens her arms, which shows extreme power and could connect to the tempo of the song at this point as the notes go on for several seconds showing they are large notes so she could be emphasizing this in this shot. There are then several shots which are taken from the film, where he is rescuing her from a crowd of fans. After this little montage there is another extreme close up of W.H whilst there is an instrumental happening, she looks very down and looks upset. There is then a light which shines across her face, in which she looks startled... there is then a cut to another clip from the film, in which she is holding a big sword, and the light shines on the male's face. This creates a connection between the two films as it makes it seem as though someone is holding the sword in front of her on the stage. During the memory there is no lyrics, therefore there is a "shift in emphasis" as Andrew Goodwin says, as the audience concentrate on the instrumental and the beat rather than the lyrics. However after this trip down memory lane W.H starts to lip sync again and she also smiles a little bit with her eyes closed yet again. There is also another shot of the empty room with the faded shot of the two dancing again. She starts to reminisce again, and eventually there is an extreme close up right into her face with her eyes closed and all that is visible is W.H's face... there is a 3 second pause and eventually she opens her eyes in one quick motion and starts to sing very powerfully. The camera zooms out again and the setting has now changed to a snowy wood area, with a long river next to her. There is then more synergy between the film and the song as there is another clip from the film where the male and W.H are in a cabin, surrounded by snow. There is then a slow motion clip of the male running through the woods and eventually we can see that he runs onto a pier and dives into the river. However there is a link between the tempo, lyrics and visual viewing as the speed of the male diving into the river may have been slowed down to go at the same pace as the long note of "You". She starts singing the note just as he dives off of the pier. There is then a shot which links in to the start of the music video, as W.H runs off of the plane and starts running towards what can only be presumed as the male. Then as the last notes start the male and W.H meet together and kiss passionately. There is then a slow montage of W.H in different settings that she's been in throughout the video, and of the male and lastly the two of them dancing together. The faded shots now completely fade out revealing a completely empty theatre room, and it cuts to the shot of W.H sat on stage on her own, with the lighting just as dull as the start. There is a slow zoom out and finally the shot fades into black to show the end of the video.

Album Covers

The first album cover that I found was the soundtrack of "The Bodyguard". When I first looked at the album cover I couldn't see much synergy between the two except the fact that there is a picture of the male repeated in the background, and a larger picture of W.H in the foreground. After closely analyzing the video I noticed that in one of the shots W.H is wearing a large black cape, and I could see that there is definitely synergy between the two as she is wearing the same clothing. She is also wearing the same make-up as in the extreme close-ups of her on stage. The main thing that catches the viewer's attention is the writing "THE BODYGUARD" because it is written much larger than the other writing, and it is also written on top of W.H's cape which is dark and makes it stand out more than anything else because there is a harsh contrast between the two colours. However, all of the other writing is written in the same font, but it is in different sized fonts depending on what importance, for example the main characters in the film were more important than the fact that it was the "original soundtrack album".

The second CD cover that I found was this one which is not dedicated to "The Bodyguard". However there is still a bit of synergy between the music video and this CD cover. For example, in some parts of the video she is wearing a white scarf around her head, this could create synergy as she is also wearing the scarf around her head. People would then associate the CD with the music video. There is also synergy between her facial expression, throughout much of the video she sings with her eyes closed, and from the facial expression shown on her face here she looks like she is mid-singing with her eyes closed. The background also makes her stand out as it is mainly quite light except for the right side of it. The fonts are the same font style as the other CD cover, however all of the writing is the same size, making none of it stand out particularly, and the fact that both of the writing is quite thin makes it harder to read.

Personally I think that the first CD case looks much better in terms of synergy. I also think that because the focus is on the writing on the first case it makes it much more effective and is more noticeable, whereas on the other one it looks quite bland. The first one also seems more positive and cheerful unlike the second one which seems completely negative. For example the facial expression on the face.