Amateur Vs Professional. - Abi Shaw

I decided to look at two videos within the dance pop genre, this kept me focused on our chosen genre, and i was able to research more, not only by looking at what a music video of dance pop, was like, but i specifically looked at an amateur video, and a professional video to the same song. I chose 'Katy Perry's' video - Teenage Dream'.

 I watched the professional version first, this allowed me to see and get a feel for what the music video included, and what was different to any other genre, and making it come under the dance pop genre. I could see that with this particular video a narrative was told mainly through the lyrics, but related to the visuals making it a narrative based video. The narrative is linear as it tells a story from start to end. Whilst watching the Amateur version a narrative is also shown which is similar as it's also linear but it is clear which one is the professional version and which one is the amateur's, although they both tell a narrative and share the same song, you can see that the professional one is of better quality due to the high quality camera, and a wider budget. For example in the professional one a car is used, and you can see the choice of location is much more exotic, and is clearly not filmed in England. Whereas the amateur's version uses a much more simpler location of a house and film in Paris, you can still see the amateur version is also of high quality as they were able to reflect the exotic location, by using well known landscape - the Ifel Tower, this allows the audience to recognise straight away were the music video is filmed. The use of this location in the amateur version also keeps the video fun and creative which is definitely what the professional version has displayed, through the use of the beach and the number of people involved. Whereas the amateur's version doesn't use as many people.

Other aspects within both video's that have been useful to see, is were the Professional version uses, lighting very well, to show the different time of day, which is what you'd expect to see, in the amateur version there is no change of lighting according to the day, and the whole video is filmed in the day time. This could be partly due to the amount of time, the professional version can use, and the limited time the As student might have had to film in. Time is very important in filming any production, and if shots are needed to be re filmed the lighting is something that could be noticed clearly, especially with natural light as you can never count on the same light another day.

The lighting comes under the Mis en Scene which is also very important and featured in every music video for a purpose. In the professional video, the use of hair and make-up and costume is chosen specifically to suit the narrative, and fits well. With the amateur version you can see that costume has been chosen wisely i.e the pyjamas, for the house scene, and normal clothes for being outside, and they have interpreted the costume to match the location, and also to stay similar to the original professional version, as they have noticed this is something purposely chosen.

Both versions have used a male as a part of the main subject and main character, to match the lyrics. You can see with the Th professional version that the choice of people used is much more wider, and can pick someone that is well suited for the position, masculine, and tall and a typical stereotype role to play the boyfriend that the narrative needs to display the song. With the amateur version obviously demonstrating a similar story, the male role is not particularism big and masculine, and this is something that is easily noticeable and makes the amateur version so amateur, and you can tell it's not professional as an audience we expect to see a greater, you could say a male that most teenage girls would relate to, as it's something you stereotypically relate to within a song. However the amateur version has followed the typical boyfriend scenario, allowing the video to be targeted at the right audience, of teenager girls. Which follows the Dance Pop genre.

Overall it is clearly noticeable which one is the professional and which one is the amateur version, and this being so obvious allows the audience to recognise the difference between two high quality video's but why they are so different and what makes this so  noticeable. In which case, it allows me when producing my own music video to focus on what elements make a video look professional. This has been very helpful, to notice the differences from a professional video and an amateur version as i will be able to work on elements that will not be so easy and professional due to time, and money, and limited location but also enable to see what elements can be strongly achieved and even allow the video to stay modern and within the dance pop genre, specifically costume, hair and make-up. Another specific element i picked up on was the lighting, which also gives me an idea of how important the time of day and the continuity of the video is to make it look professional and be successful to most importantly the target audience of the video in my case - Teenage females.