Music video analysis 1, Natalia Kills - wonderland

Narrative – The narrative to  the wonderland video is a reflection of the preffered meaning of the song and lyrics. the song itself is very anti-society and is about how Society has the fairytile life of getting married, settling down and having kids. although this may not be apparent in the video itself natalias actions and the place around her are very symbolic and have deep meaning. at the very beggining Natalia is shown being dragged along by riot police with her hands held together by special handcuffs, she is struggling to break free which is symbolic of fighting against a higher power that bounds you. she is then dragged into a large mansion/church and sat down at the head of a table with other people sat around in rabbit masks (sticking the theme of wonderland, tea party, rabbits etc) the Tea party with the drug cupcakes are symbolic of a higher power controlling powerless people as the women in rabbit masks have their eyes covered and take their drugs ''blindly'' to symbolize that the true world is hidden from their view. Natalia refuses to take her drugs and then stands up on thetable kicking away the drugs from the higher power to which to police respond by beating everyone violently and bounding them and taking natalia away for Execution. The Story is very symbolic of higher powers and society and rebellion, the girl is different and a threat to society and refused to blindly follow so they removed and silenced the problem. Not every resolution is a happy ending in narratives as is obvious in this video. the unhappy ending is sticking to the theme of a twisted dark fairytale, becuase fairytales are just lies where everything just magically gets better. such a bitter ending is very antisocial and is trying to depict that not everything in life is as easy as it is in ''wonderland''

Camera Shots – there are many different camera shots in the wonderland video and are mostly conventional to goodwins theory of music videos. Because natalia is a single artist there are loads of closeups of natalias facewhen she is singing and showing different emotions, such as resentment and sadness. there are also lots of closeups of the ''blind rabbits'' aswell to further push along the point that natalia is different and sticks out to the conformity of the tea party. There are at times extreme closeups of just a pair of lips belonging to an unknown character showing them taking pills and then chewing a Smiley face chewing gum and blowing a bubble before popping it. (symbolising the death of happiness in a bleak world) there is an extreme long shot aswell while natalia is being dragged out the church/mansion to further show the Setting and to quickly show the execution block allowing the audience a quick glance at the impending fate for natalia. There are a few cuts to scenes of natalia crying blood and with blood on her face with closeup shots before cutting to a close up of the executioner to further explain natalias fate. There are generally lots of closeups and emotions shown in the video, there are often Closeups of the riot police officers faces protected by the clear masks showing cold and emotionless expressions to symbolize that they do not care and then a few closeups of them barking orders when natalia begins to rebel. There are quite a few close ups of natalias heels, something evidently present in quite a few of her music videos, this could be possibly to iconize natalia with unique heels and to help her have a style relatable to her instantly.

Mise-en-scene There are tons of different things specifically placed in the mise en scene to portray different things. The colour red is very consistent throughout the video as it is often associated to blood, Love, Sacrifice and Execution, and all themes run through the song and video. the church/mansion is meant to immitate a castle in a fairytale to give the music video a creepy sort of feeing as though a twist on a sugar sweet fairytale and is also a dark themed building often associated with marriage and love. There are many semi-subliminal shots in the video of just a red or black background with red or black text over them with prases very anti-society and anti-love saying things such as love is pain or we are all alone, These give the video an even creepier more depressing feel. most of the symbolism in the video is very illuminati based, the phrase love is pain is a very classic illuminati saying that is said to confuse mind control victims into associating love and happiness with feelings of pain and anguish to Dissociate from happy feelings. The use a real heart on a platter is a very blatent yet dark metaphor on love and how society twists and prods love and ''breaks'' hearts, this is shown in the way that the heart is stabbed with both knife and fork angrily. the story of  Wonderland and the white rabbit are also very classic illuminati techniques aswell as the drug cupcakes because they say that taking the drugs is like following the rabbit down the rabbit hole into a world of magic and wonder as an escape from the real world because life is just so terrible. The plastic dolls also in the cupcakes are used to show that after taking the drugs you become the higher powers plaything, a mere toy that they can do with whatever they please and also that society is very plastic and superficial with a painted on smile. the dark themes and symbolism in the video give the video an extremely dark and at times scary feeling. The Riot police Watching the Tea party from above is symbolic and alluding to a higher power watching from above down onto the lower powers to make sure that they stay in line. The use of the multiple hands held over natalias eyes are aswell symbolic of a hidden power Blocking your real view of the world, allowing you to believe everything they tell you because you cannot see for yourself. how can anyone make an informed opinion when you are only ever told one side of a story? The main themes of the video are deffinately power and control and in my personal opinion i believe that the illuminati symbolism has been intentionally placed to further push views of the video meaning more popularity. Because fans of the music will obviously watch the video so to Further broaden your audience you can add a bit of symbolism to Bring in the conpsiracy theorists and use their paranoia For profit and gain. A rather low tactic but such is business nonetheless.

Target Audience –Fans (teenagers and young adults i would say about 14-20+) and conspiracy theorists. Although dark with lots of deep meaning and symbolic reference many people watching the video would hardly notice and just feel that it is Darker and unusual, almost a fashion statement, such as wearing darker clothes or darker colours, listening to darker more unusual music and watching their videos can often be a niche for those who wish to be different than what society percieves as ''normal''. Anti-society and uniqueness and rebellion are themes natalia kills uses to connect with a younger fanbase who feel as though society has let them down.

Editing – The editing is fast and abrupt to throw as much at you at possible as fast as possible. This could possible be so that there are things you could miss and you would have to watch the video several times to see and undertsand everything meaning more views. but most of natalia kills' videos have fast editing and lots of cuts between different scenes back and forth through meaning most of them could be considered as non-linear narratives as they break away constantly from the main point they are trying to convey but often aid in the develepment of plot or meaning. the extreme amount of cuts to the semi-subliminal text and imagery also helps to create pace and even though a lot of the video seems to be in slow motion there is still a sense of speed because of the many different things flashing up on screen. Im guessing this is because of space issues but at certain points in the video there are a few editing mistakes, when the riot police are upstairs you can tell that the image has just been mirrored because of the eay the chandelier moves into itself, it is practically invisible to the naked eye and i myself have only just noticed it after watching the video about thirty times but after noticing this little error it really kills the emphasis on making editing invisible, especially when there are other scenes shot upstairs you can really tell that they are just mirrored. Quite a few of the scenes towards the end of the video have a grainy and blurred texture to them to make them feel as though they are from another age which could possibly be a link to the fairytale theme as all fairytales where set far behind modern times. the speed of the editing can often be distracting and can seem a bit overwhelming as it is a lot to take in so suddenly and can leave you feeling a bit confused which brings me back to an earlier point where you would watch the video a few times over for clarity. There is often nothing in shot for too long before cutting to something else.

Music Video style – The music video style used is a hybrid of Narrative and Concept based. The Cross between both helps to tell a story that sticks with the lyrics but in a very conceptual way playing with the themes of the song in the video in a clever way to Draw out the meaning of a song but in a way that people can form their own opinions and perceptions as to what it could possibly mean. The use of this technique is often a great way for a video to cause controversy and discussion amongst fans and other people meaning it has a great social impact and can gain infamy or fame due to the controversy and confusion surrounding it. A very clever and well thought out technique. Although the video itself is not so popular i believe this is because to be shown on television it would have to be censored so much there would be almost no point in watching it. such blatent censoring in the ''clean'' edition of the video though could be used as a technique to show mystery and lead the people who see it to think about what it could be that they dont want you to see on Tv and why it is so terrible to be seen. Although the cleaner version of the video has more views, this is often the case with videos or films that have a directors cut, more often than not it is the real fans of the musician who see the directors cut because this would not be advertised or talked about as much. sort of a hidden gem.