Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance Analysis

The video begins with an ariel shot of the performer lying on the bed. The bed is used as the mise-en-scene throughout the whole video, thus orientating the viewer and constructing a sense of continuity and stability – relevant to stop motion videos in particular. Through stop motion, the light is seen to drift across the bed, implying a sense of beginning and renewal. The lighting used is chiaroscuro, and constructs a natural setting – as light is seen to be emitted from a single window.

The shot then changes and there is a close-up on the performer’s face lying in bed. This implies closeness and intimacy, a contrast from the first shot – thus making a balanced and rounded opening to the video. All in stop motion, the covers of the bed are pulled off the performer as she begins to walk on pillows down imaginary stairs. In this way, the director constructs a surrealistic dimension to the video, which is identified as a generic convention of stop motion music videos. In a reinforcement of the surreal and slightly random sense to the video, a violin enters from the left of the screen and plays on the performer’s head, enhanced through the resulting diegetic sound. Violins are obviously synonymous with music, therefore the director reminds and orientates the viewer, and the video’s genre of indie rock is accentuated.

A close-up is again used by the director, breaking away from the constant long shot/master shot. This gives the video variety and more realism than before, increasing its validity as a narrative. The theme of progression is conveyed by the director through the use of stop motion. The performer is shown to be walking and the mise-en-scene changes as she walks. In this way, the performer is given control over her surroundings and the methodology of the video is continuous. By using a controlling female performer, the director supports the neo-dominant ideology that the independent rock scene is becoming a more gender equal genre. The video is made slightly humorous later in the video, when the bed is turned into an urban park. This is surreal, as from the long shot, the viewer can see the laminate flooring with pieces of mise-en-scene laid on the floor, such as a hairdryer and books. These pieces of mise-en-scene are synonymous with the bedroom, and moreover offer the video a second meaning. This also breaks the dramatically labelled ‘fourth wall’ – a generic convention of stop motion music videos.

The main location of the bed is used to create a flat window which the performer stands and looks out from. This constructs a romantic image, which coincides with the music – which is of a slow and soft nature. The camera shot remains as a long shot, taken from a high angle. This continuity is particularly prominent in stop motion videos, as it is vital that continuity is kept to make the video authentic and in a more explicit sense: believable. The performer then crawls back into bed and the cover scrunches up around her body, all in a long shot. In this way, the director creates a rounded visual image and portrays the cycle of night and day. This creates a balanced narrative, in the way that the narrative is more flowing and not focused on a particular event.

This video has enabled us to become aware of how many shots are needed in order for our video to look fluent and more proffessional, so that our audience can easily understand what is happeneing in the video through the detailed movements we create in our animation. We need to focus on this aspect of the video in order for our video to be taken seriously and for the hours of work put into the video to show.