James Blunt‘ Your Beautiful’

By Steph Aspden…

Narrative Music Video

James Blunts song ‘ your beautiful’ fits into the Amplification genre category . This is when the artists may use both performance and narrative, however, rather than simply illustrate the lyrics or sounds this director will ‘amplify’ both with creative interpretation , unusual ideas and surrealistic approaches . There is still a direct link to the song , whether it be the beat , sound or ‘ connotative ‘ link to part of the song lyrics or song title .

NARRATIVE VIDEO CODES

Narratives are rarely used for two complex reasons :

1. They need to market or advertise the band / artist and so the song must feature ‘repeatability’ in other words the narrative code must be ‘ loose’ or simply ‘suggestive’ rather than ‘realistic’ or ‘ detailed’. This is because music video audiences need to be able to watch videos repeatedly and a tight realist narrative would prove too boring after the first couple of viewings.

2. Music Synaesthesia only requires the musical or lyrical ‘ mood’ to latch onto to develop a narrative concept.

* Musical Synaesthesia – the two elements of the song which determine the visual subject matter or overall concept.

Mise-en-scene In the video we see James blunt only wearing a black coat with his hood up and no t- shirt underneath . This

is quite strange as we can see from the setting that it is very cold as it is snowing , and so the fact that he has no top on underneath gives the audience an idea that something is not right and he does not care about looking after his health . The plain black coat could also be a symbol of death as black is a very dull colour and it could be representing the darkness in his life and how much he does not enjoy and appreciate his life.

We can Cleary see the setting in this music video as it is in the middle of no where with just an icy cliff with the sea raging below . There is nothing around him and no one around so this could be representing the fact that he has nowhere else to go and no one to turn to in his life now that the love of his life has moved on and found someone else as we can understand when he displays this in his lyrics.

“I saw your face in a crowded place,And I don't know what to do'Cause I'll never be with you.”

There are also many props used in his narrative music video . We can see in the clip that near the end of the song he takes of his coat , sits down and then starts to take his shoes off , take everything out of his pocket including his phone , iPod , a guitar pick watch and takes off his ring from his hand . In front of him he displays all the things in his life that have been important to him . For example his iPod and guitar pick to represent how he loved music .

When I researched this to find out more , I came across a source that said it is a Japanese tradition to undress before committing suicide so this could be why he does it in the video .

Lighting – the lighting displayed in the video is natural daylight , as the video look like it has been set in mid – day and coming close to night fall .

Camera There is a high angle demonstrated when he has about to jump on the cliff, when he jumps off the camera moves to a high angle and we can see the back of him falling into the water.

I also noticed a Tracking shot . This happens near to the end when the camera seems 10 cm away from him and moves in on him . He then turns his body and runs to the edge of the cliff ready to jump off .it is as if the camera is almost chasing him making him fall off the edge .

There is also a Worms eye view in the video . This is when James looks up to the sky and all he sees is clouds and it is as if he is imagining himself up there soon and wonders what it is actually like .

Sound