VIDEO ANALYSIS. Florence and the Machine – "Dog Days are Over" (2008).

Florence and The Machine - "Dog Days are Over"(2008)



Producer-
Director - This video by Florence was not made by a production company. It was produced by herself, using friends and family as characters involved. The whole video was filmed in a wood near where she lived and filmed by her father. From this as an audience we are able to see a raw side to the video which is not often seen in high end music videos.

Notes from the video:

• Small amount of concept elements, which feature small amounts of narrative. with the main focus performance by the artist.
• An abstract piece which links to the work of the artist, as a performer.
• Naturalistic setting - filmed on location - forest.
• Mixture of High Quality and Handheld camera shots - post-production.
• Music starts when first see artist.
• The video Focus around her actions and movement.
• Colour Palate - A mixture of diff rent vibrant colours, which hep to contrast with the naturalistic forest setting.
• Link between music and visuals. (other characters hitting sticks and different objects, which is helping to create the main beat of the piece).
• Link to the artist. showing her as much as possible, using direct address to the audience/camera (which comes mainly later on in the video.)
• The use of straight cuts between action, cut on beat. This has been done to enable the best possible result.


• Link between lyrics and visuals. - we see Florence running away from the rest of the company. Lyrics - "run fast for your mother, run fast for your father". Another example of this is when we see all of the company hiding and revealing themselves from behind trees. lyrics - "hid around corners".


• All of the Movement speeds up with the pace of the music. - Link to the music.
• The use of Different angles and jumps cuts to help create a faster pace, linking to the music.
• Voyeurism of the female body. Instead of the traditional representation from Goodwin's Six. we are able to how all the company are chasing the female character (being Florence). All of the characters are also seen as being male.
• The sue of slow-mo. Which links to the music, this is done to add effect to what i going on, and complements what is happening in the narrative.
• The use of blurred vision on the slow-mo. This links to the music and lyrics.
• We see a contrast in music, slow to fast. This is shown by having a unclear image, which turns into all of the characters dancing around with a lot of energy which is reflecting that of what is going on in the music.
• As the number goes on there is a change in lighting creating a darker atmosphere, mixture of time.
• This is when we are able to see how there is more of a focus on the artist. mainly using direct address to the audience.
• The piece ends with the Artist (Florence) leaving into the forest darkness, as the music dies out as she gets further away.

This was the original video created for the song and was uploaded onto YouTube on November 6th, 2008. in 2010 the Sun's official website featured the new video for the song "Dog Days are Over" this was done mainly for the re-release of the single later on in the year. This video was directed by Georgie Greville and Geremy Jasper and edited by Paul Snyder. This video completely contrasts that of what the original video was base on. in August 2010 the video was nominated for 4 MTV Video Music Awards, or the video of the year, Best rock video, Best art Director and Best Cinematography, and ended up winning Best art Director at the awards.

New 2010 video.

I personal prefer the original video to the new release, this is because i feel that it relates more and has a stronger link to what the song is about, which then helps to bring across the artist, which help to portray the raw side to her music and performance.