Ellie Goulding - 'Your Song'

The genre of Ellie Goulding’s music video ‘Your Song’ is indie/pop. The clothing of Ellie Goulding and her friends shown in the video represent this genre by their use of style. Her boots, jeans and hairstyle are connotations of the indie genre as this is what people who listen to this music would typically like to wear. The shots of the kitten and the birds help to portray a sense of life, and add joy to the music by creating the genre itself.

The mise en scene in the video helps to add to the genre, in particular the piano. This ensures that the musical aspect is kept important in the video. The locations contain mostly ambient, bright and sunny shots, which creates a realistic, peaceful setting. I think this lighting also adds a bit of innocence to the video, which could represent joy and freedom. The majority of the music video only includes Ellie Goulding herself as the main character. This helps to tell a sort of life story. There are other characters involved, however we do not get close up focused shots of their faces. This could suggest that they are not the main focus of attention but they are important people to Ellie herself, as we are brought into her own little journey of her life.

The camera shots in this music video include a lot of close ups/extreme close ups of Ellie’s face. This helps the audience to connect with her and see everything from her point of view. We also our put into her shoes as the there is a use of a tracking shot when she is running across the field. This shot could suggest a sense of freedom and peace, and therefore the video starts to become personal to Ellie Goulding herself. In some parts the camera looks as if it is being handheld which creates a shaky effect. This creates a sense of realism, because the camera follows Ellie which could put us in the position of one of her friends/relatives. It makes the audience feel as if they are in the video with her. The quick shots at the beginning and throughout the majority of the video create a fast moving pace which helps to keep the audience engaged at all times. The fast editing between these shots also fits to the music, therefore keeps the sound and visuals connected throughout the whole music video.

The narrative of this music video could be seen as ‘Ellie Goulding: behind the scenes’. It lets the audience in to part of her life that has simple been captured on camera and been added into a music video. There is a slight storyline in the video, as we see Ellie travelling on a train, then we see her in locations such as fields, woods and streets and buildings suggesting that she is visiting her friends, or perhaps places from her childhood. There are shots of her shoes towards the beginning and the end which creates a circular storyline, as it repeats a similar shot at the end. The video also includes some of Goodwin's theory. For example, the amount of close ups, and the performance aspect. It doesn't contain many shots of Ellie Goulding performance but we do see a few shots of the recording of her singing, which is a typical music video convention.

The target audience is aimed at youths between the ages 16-28. The fact that it is an Elton John cover suggests that the video is aimed at a younger audience compared to Elton John fans who are mostly a much older audience. The target audience would listen to other indie/pop music and are probably the type of people who are always up to date with new music. The clothes they wear will include similar clothing that is shown in the video such as skinny jeans, lots of accessories and colourful jumpers/t-shirts. This will help them to relate to the video. They will also be able to connect well to the music and the video because they will may have similar lifestyles.