Analysing Figure 8 by Ellie Goulding

Style	Tick Box
Romantic
Socially Conscious
Nihilist
Classical
Post-Modern
Parody
Film Tie-in
Performance
In-Concert

Explain your choice of Styles/s

I choose the romantic style for the song because it explains the one-sided love from the girl. The girl needs the boy a lot, chasing his love as if she's addicted, while the boy fools her into believing that he will be there forever but he breaks the promise and leaves her. It's like a never ending circle of love that goes on forever because the boy lets it happen.

I chased your love around a figure 8

I need you more than I can take

You promised forever and a day

And then you take it all away

What is the purpose?

The purpose of the music video is to promote Ellie Goulding the second single from her second studio album, Halcyon (2012). The video highlights on breaking up with an ex but still missing them. The video shows Ellie doing everything she can to be loved back, many times suffering from it as it drains her from being the proper person she could be, however she still is holding on to a love that is one-sided. The video is a perfect visual image from the lyrics.

Identify and explain the conventions used

Interpret the lyrics: In the opening scene, Ellie is seen lying in bed, with her face turned away, it then moves on to her walking but its upside down in black and white before it shows her legs facing the right way in colour, background music of her voice plays on. After 30 seconds into the song, it shows her face covered in a red veil as she stars singing, 

'Breathe your smoke into my lungs

In the back of the car with you I stare into the sun'

This could be about the time they were in the car together while the boy was smoking, the girl was breathing in the toxic fumes, but because she loves him, she turns a blind eye to his doings 'I stare into the sun'.

Later on in the song, Ellie goes on to explain that couples don't give up quickly and easily during a fight, holding on to every piece that is breaking,

'The lovers hold on to everything

And others hold on to anything'

In this video, Ellie plays the role of a girl who's absolute love for a person isn't returned back, despite all her efforts, and thinking that things will go better, the boy leaves her.

Implied meaning: Unrequited love

Links to other artists: None, although her lyrics for this song, has a similar message to Lana Del Rey's 'Without You' lyrics. I can also see the meaning of a bad relationship from Ellie's own and Lana's own.

Generic Conventions: This music video does reflect the electronic pop, dubstep genre of the song. Ellie wears basic colours like white, I also wasn't surprised that the video was set in a plain bedroom scattered with feathers in one scene or Ellie's hair was blond and pink, shaved a little at the sides, with her triangle tattoo showing, a ring on her finger and her nails painted a light pink in one scene, red in the other. These are the type of things that you would expect to see in her folk, indie pop songs. She's minimalistic but with an edge.

I haven't seen a music video or come across something that has similarities to this song.

   

Identify and explain the techniques used

Camera Shots/Movements:  The Close-Up shots are mainly in the scenes that Ellie not only sings but also when she is lying on her bed, this mainly happens so that the audience can she the sadness, loneliness and pain that she is feeling. The Mid length shots are use used in the moments where Ellie is moving around in her bed, moving on the chair, walking barefoot on the floor or when the boy is seen breathing out smoke, this shows the audience more of the story of the good and bad times of the relationship, this shot is good because it makes shows the movements of the characters in more detail.

Lighting: Lighting is a strong feature in the video. In the opening scene, even though it's in black and white, you can tell that the room that Ellie is in is bright, it brings an angelic theme to it, like someone who is in limbo, it reminds me of the film 'Lovely Bone's' limbo scenes. The next scene then changes to colour, showing her legs as she walks, even though the walls are grey, I think that the room was dark but they used some kind of lighting to create a shadow behind her legs. I believe that the whole thing was made to create the present state that Ellie is in. When the images where in black and white, it shows the past relationship between her and the boy.

The lighting then changes to red in another scene, however the room is still dark. In this sequence you feel as though Ellie is the corpse bride, dressed in red satin with a thin red veil that covers her face. There is a similar scene throughout the middle ad ending of the song, this time though the room is completely red. In the lyrics, she says that 'I'm buried in the snow', that is exactly what it looks like but with red for the blood.

Editing: 

There are a lot of editing techniques that happen in the video. In the beginning scene, it shows Ellie walking on the floor barefoot, but it's shown upside down with feathers going floating down, before it goes down to normal in colour, then in black and white again, this time, the feathers are in reverse, floating up instead of going down, it's as if their showing the past, present then past again. The next scene shows her in bed breathing into a rose, it's in black and white in the beginning then slowly changes to colour as she breathes life into the rose. This editing technique is quite clever because it feels like Ellie has just woken up from a long sleep, like sleeping beauty, and is coming back to the present.

In the next scene in the chorus, there is a overlapping of Ellie as she is spinning back and forth in a chair. They edited it to become like a slow motion piece. It looks like an unnatural force is pushing her to move that way, like she is possessed.  The scene then moves on to quick cuts as she says 'Place a kiss on my cheekbone, Then you vanish me', the scene shows six really quick images of her kissing a boy on the cheek, then of her face covered in a red veil, then of her on her bed (close up) then it moves to the kissing shot again however this time the boy she is trying to kiss, turns away from her (black and white).

Effects: A lot the overlapping of Ellie spinning on the chair, in slow motion. I've also noticed that there are scenes that look animated, like the part when she is scrunching red cloth at her hands but it looks like she isn't moving, I believe that they used something that provides strong wind to make it looks like she is moving. At the final scene, Ellie’s lit-up galaxy like body is shown levitating off the bed, as she lets go of the red cloth she is holding. 

Miming/Lip-sync: Yes, because there is a lot of actions throughout the video. Alone without her singing, you could still understand what the music was about. I was pleasantly surprised with the power and raw emotion that Ellie delivered not only in the lyrics but in her expressions. It made it feel more personal to the viewer like you’re the one experiencing the one side relationship.