Mise-En-Scene Analysis

The main purpose of mise-en-scene is to portray what genre the music video is in a clear and concise way. I watched this music video without the sound playing and I could tell that this is a dance genre video. The main attributes that show this are the bright colours, Rihanna's colourful make up and hair, people physically dancing, the lit dance floor and the strobe lights as it gives a clubby feel.

This music video seems slightly out of date due to the 80's inspired fashion however, because Rihanna is a well known, cool and trendy artist she can pull it off. It attracted today's generation because either people have already seen videos similar to this and they are seeing it again in a modern way or this kind of video is something completley new and different to them.

The name of the song is called 'Who's That Chick' and the video shows that Rihanna is 'that chick'. She is seen in bright coloured and glamorous clothing out on the dance floor having fun with other people. Whereas David Guetta is seen in shots with darker colours on his DJ mixer working hard to produce what is happening on the other side, the side where Rihanna is. I think the video represents the idea of how artists can take the credit for songs even though they have been written by somebody else. David Guetta is representing how the song writer is left on the outer skirts and doesn't get noticed for their hard work. Whereas Rihanna is 'that girl' who gets all the glam and fun for being noticed by people. The shots that Rihanna is seen in has high key lighting whereas the shots that David Guetta is seen is has low key lighting. This shows that there is a definite split between the two people. High key lighting conveys happiness whereas low key lighting conveys sadness.

Typography has been used throughout the video so that some words in the lyrics pop up on screen. I think it looks really effective as it keeps your eyes keen on the screen and it makes you want to sing along with the song. The text appears sharp and quickly so it doesn't take too much attention away from what is happening in the shot behind.

From watching this video, and many other dance genre videos, I have learnt that using bright colours is a key convention for dance music videos. The outfit, hair and make up has worked for Rihanna as it all looks very bold and outstanding. However, we would like to portray our artist as a normal, typical, young girl therefore we will represent our artist differently to this.