I decided to analyze the most popular music video of all time, Gangnam Style - Psy. Its postmodern elements will really give me inspiration for making my music video because of how successful it was. The first video on Youtube to reach 1 billion views and 2 billion views, this was the main highlight in 2012. The parodic elements and memorable visuals are what made it so popular along with the iconic dance. I have a rough idea of what my music video will be and it will use parody so analyzing this music video will give me a good understanding of what works best. This will also influence our music video because of it's success.
Mise en scene: The lighting in the music video is very high-key and bright lighting which compliments the light hearted and positive nature of the song. The locations vary from one place to another, never staying in one place for a long time, this compliments the randomness of the music video and appeals to a wide audience, specifically the internet. Randomness is one of the key aspects of this music video and was one of the main reasons why it was so successful. The internet is primarily made up of teenagers so the internet culture really likes randomness and 'memes' which Gangnam Style excels at. The clothing of the singer is a suit which varies from black to bright pink, this also shows how light-hearted, random and humourous the music video and the song is. Pink has connotations of feminism and humour, traits that embodies Psy and Korean culture. There is huge variety of clothing for the people in the background, with influences from all of Asian culture especially at the end. Most notably a Sailor Moon costume which is an intertextual reference.
Cinematography: There is a variety of medium shots, long shots, close-ups, high angles and tracking movements which all keeps the audience interested and even adds to the comedic element of the song. For example, there is a close-up, high angle of Psy's face near the end of the music video, the camera then zooms out, showing that he's actually sitting on the toilet. This is very clever camera work and deceives the audience into thinking that this music video might have a layer of Western traits but it quickly disappears when you see him on the toilet, reminding the audience that this is not a typical music video. Having alot of extreme close ups can also be seen as parodying action movies because they tend to have extreme camera work, this is further reinforced when Psy parodies the cliche' explosion whilst walking towards the camera' shot.
Editing: Fast paced, majority of shots only last several seconds before cutting to another shot. There isn't much of a narrative therefore it's mostly non-continuity editing. The editing almost always matches the beat of the song which coincides with Goodwin's Theory that the visuals should match the music. This is seen most notably when there are very quick cuts between two different locations before the editing slows down and an explosion goes off and then Psy walks to the camera. The chorus starts and the editing becomes fast-paced again.
Sound: A mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds because Psy is most likely not actually singing the song when filming the music video, however his mouth is in sync with the song which makes it look like he's singing it. Most of the music is a mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic because Psy can definitely hear the music, and the background characters show signs that they can too. The only time that we know for sure that they everyone hears the music is when the huge dance at the end likely had the music when they were filming it.