6. Past Video Research
MITSKI'S PREVIOUS VIDEOS
WASHING MACHINE HEART:
In Mitski’s Washing Machine Heart video, many elements are very appealing to Mitski’s time-specific target audience: a modern and minimalist set, a black and white recolour, and the use of body language.
The minimalist set is reflecting the modernism of the time, the time being 2018 when Mitski released her Be the Cowboy album and Washing Machine Heart being a track included on said album. In the video, an element of the modernistic set contains a plant on a hexagonal cemented three-dimensional statue and another statue with Mitski herself leaning on it. Cement has become more popular over the decades, specifically to use as flooring as it inspires a rustic-type look into a home. However, an aspect that could argue against the point of a minimalistic set could be the introduction of ancient human statues. In modern-day society, these statues can be considered a modern element of a household, but they are not common and would maybe only be seen in, aside from museums and other venues, in middle or upper-class homes used as decor. The use of statues may be symbolic of the fact Mitski is looking up to them as honorary and respectable, which is possibly to reflect her views on the male-dominated society as the statues used are male figures. At the very beginning of the video, Mitski can be seen standing with an exaggerated gait and is holding her arm up high and poised as if somebody is painting a portrait of her, or maybe creating a sculpture of her. This introduces the idea of mirroring and possibly the psychology behind a mirroring stance. If you are engaging in a conversation with someone, and you mirror the way they are sitting or perhaps the way their arms are folded, it is said that this technique aids the facilitation of empathy and create rapport between individuals. This could be argued as reflective of Mitski’s lyrics as she has written “why not me” and “I know who you pretend I am” which is repeated throughout various points in the song, which suggests why she is possibly mirroring someone's actions to get them to feel a certain way towards her and have that rapport she has been longing for.
In Mitski’s Washing Machine Heart video, there is a black and white recolour. This theme could have been used for a variety of reasons, one of them being the fact that it is visually appealing to the audience. This colour seems to have been used purposefully as it matches along with the costumes and the general gist of the video. The costume Mitski is wearing includes a long, classy, black dress matched with some pearls. However, her dress changes at different points of the video, which may not be picked up by the audience as her costumes are very similar: a long, formal, black dress yet no pearls. Her costume changes to a new extent when the idea of ‘magic’ is introduced. Mitski is seen petting a bird of prey on a stand beside her and then a match is struck by an unknown hand. The dress she is wearing in this visual is one with puffed sleeves with a beaded pattern on them, yet the dress is still black and long. This shows the viewer that the recoloured filter over the video was intentional, which is open to interpretation why she has made that directive choice. Mitski’s costumes throughout the video appeal to the male gaze, considering the fitting dress and the formal and classy visual portrayed. Her makeup is also appealing to the male gaze as it is minimal yet pretty and ‘too much makeup’ is ‘unattractive’ in the stereotypical male view. These choices again reflect her lyrics as she is wanting someone to choose her, again “why not me”, and she is trying to fit the male gaze so that someone will want her, but it will be for the wrong reason.
In Mitski’s Nobody video, many elements are very appealing to Mitski’s target audience: the use of a ranging colour palette set, an abstract narrative playing with the idea of art, and the experimentation with interesting visuals.
The varied colour palette used for the set of Mitski’s Nobody video is consistent throughout the video and exhibited in multiple different aspects of the set. In the video, an initial clear example of the detailed use of colour is when editing has been used to show Mitski sitting, in an apparent diner or cafe, across from herself. One side of Mitski is wearing a deep royal blue, the other is wearing a sort of Jaffa orange colour. These colours are completely opposite from each other on the colour spectrum and the colour wheel. This creates the sense of a lack of understanding within the audience which is perhaps the message being conveyed by the artist, that she doesn’t understand or know who she is and she is sometimes on opposite sides from herself, therefore a potential distance from her own emotions. Mitski also experiments with colour in the Nobody video through humour. Early on in the video, the viewer sees a shot of Mitski waking up in bed, in bed sheets of a deep shade of blue, with an orange on the pillow next to her. This is exploring one-night-stand humour and reinforces the colour contrast. After this shot, the beds begin to be pulled apart, and it looks as if the bed with the orange on it is running away from Mitski, again creating that sense of distance within the character and implying that a one-night-stand is unlike her. This could also be reflecting the lyrics, as a one-night-stand usually entails a ‘no-strings-attached’ sort of relationship, but Mitski sings “my god, I’m so lonely” and “I just want somebody near me” implying that she is looking for that ‘soulmate connection’ and not just to have somebody for the night, which has no feelings or emotions. She wants “one good movie kiss”, showing that she wants a kiss from somebody and for it to be meaningful and that feeling to be reciprocated.
Later on, in Mitski’s Nobody music video, she experiments heavily with an abstract narrative and the idea of art and how it can be represented in many different ways. In the video, the audience sees Mitski receive a painting of herself. However, though this seems like a thoughtful grand gesture, (again, as you see in the movies) her face and facial features are not present in the painting. This further supports the idea that she is “nobody” and she has no qualities which make her stand out in society. This idea is first introduced when she receives a letter in the mail, in a pink envelope, with a man on the cover of the card with his face appearing scratched off. She opens the card to find the main printed message in the card to also be scratched off, and the card only has one handwritten word: “love,” which has no name following it. This leaves Mitski in a confused state and leads her on to receiving the painting which she is dissatisfied with, despite the fact it is a large painting and is communicated and as a grand and affectionate gesture, considering the word “love” and the fact that it is a present to Mitski. The audience is soon introduced to the cardboard cutouts of people in white, almost tennis uniform appearing costumes. These are significant to the video and the theme, as they have scratched out faces too. However, the audience soon has a visual of a television, and on it, there are people in the same or similar costumes to the people printed on the cardboard cutouts. The people’s faces on the television are cut out of the frame, but they are not static and stationary, replicating the cardboard cutouts. This raises the idea of how television and media can communicate false representations and how people are portrayed differently and perhaps falsely in the media and realistically they could be “nobody”.
Nobody explores themes and ideas through the use of interesting and speculative visuals. In this music video, there is a repeated visual of an arm sticking out through the wall reaching for Mitski. These arms go on to destroy and rip apart the ‘face’ area of Mitski’s painting that she received, revealing a person through the wall on the other side. This creates questions within Mitski, maybe this is the soulmate she has been searching for? This also creates the question of is this the light at the end of the tunnel for Mitski and is she finally going to be ‘somebody’. However, the concept of needing somebody else to be noteworthy or to have happiness, in general, suggests that Mitski has had faulty relationships in the past and hasn't been dealt a good hand in terms of love. Later, Mitski is seen with a pop-art-Esque diary, filled with many other smaller diaries. The final book she takes out from within these diaries has written words inside, stating the word “nobody” written in a septet. The words are too difficult for Mitski to make out by eye so she raises a magnifying glass and absorbs the words written on the page, cementing her views towards herself as a “nobody”. Mitski is soon viewed through a large magnifying glass in front of the camera lens, which perhaps suggests how society will constantly have varying and different viewpoints and perspectives of people, especially through the media. The video finishes with the camera moving backwards away from Mitski, revealing the set and showing the back of a cardboard cutout, the setup light and a typical film set chair. The thin-set walls are also visible, again revealing the rest of the set and the building they are filming in; the colour and shade in the building behind the wall heavily contrast with the bright yellow paint applied. This further implements the idea conveyed throughout of how people the media controls what citizens see and interact with, and how perspectives of people aren’t supposed to be implemented into people’s minds before they receive real information and are knowledgeable about them.
THE ONLY HEARTBREAKER:
Mitski’s The Only Heartbreaker video explores many uses and features of editing and the use of special effects. In the very beginning of the video, there is a low camera angle shot, showing Mitski walking through a set made up of a forest and wildlife packed environment, and as she steps on the mossy green ground, her footsteps turn the moss into igneous rock. Everything she is touching dies and turns to ashes and all of the nature deteriorates This is foreshadowing the ending of the video when there is a large explosion and editing is used to show a planet exploding, which could possibly imply her emotions and feeling like her world is ending or falling apart. This is reflective of the lyrics as she sings “so I’ll be the loser in this game” exploring the idea that there is no hope for her, and that she has to accept her hamartia. Later on, the camera experiments with a visual of Mitski with a very juxtaposing blue colour in the sky, which could imply that she is reaching for the light as the song is about reaching for that reciprocated care and striving relationship and for the other person to be as invested as she is in their relationship: “I’ll be the water main that’s burst and flooding” and “I’ll be the only heartbreaker”. The reasoning for why the use of editing in this video is so significant is the fact that it correlates cleverly well with the track and produces a good storyline. It also assists the audience in understanding the societal impact this song plays, in the fact that celebrities do not live in a perfect world and it’s is not always as simple as it may look through the media and what they will communicate themselves.
Mitski further explores editing and the use of effects through various points in the music video, alongside camera shots, all of which convey certain emotions and communicate ideas and messages through to the audience. Mitski is seen reaching up to the sky, whilst the camera takes a high angle zoom shot as if she is bringing the camera down to her with her hands. This reintroduces the idea of the supernatural and presents Mitski to have some sort of supernatural capabilities. However, the fact that Mitski is being shown to destroy wildlife and nature paints her as the antagonist or the villain of her own story. This image heavily contrasts with the lyrics as she is trying and making a visible effort in her relationship not to be painted as the villain but if that is what it takes to receive the love she is aiming for, then in her eyes, that is what she'll have to do, and she will have to be the “only heartbreaker”. Mitski’s face is later viewed on-screen with her face slightly transparent on one side of the screen and her running away from the camera with a cloud of dust following behind her on the opposite side of the screen. This is until Mitski disintegrates into ashes, leaving her to reach for the light in the next scene. Later, the audience sees Mitski return as an angel, post-explosion. Lighting and effects have been used cleverly to present her with a heavenly golden glow around her body, further implementing the idea of an angelic figure. Mitski’s costume consists of a flowy white robe or sheet type of material, which is again sharing with the audience that they are attempting to make her look like an angel.
In Mitski’s The Only Heartbreaker video, she also experiments with the concept of dance and incorporates meaningful body language and purposeful gestures to fulfil her message to her audience. Mitski uses a sort of contemporary style of dance, however, her body is shaky when she realised that all of the trees, leaves and other nature is dying around her, which enforces the idea within the audience that she is out of control of her body, and her lyrics are well suited for this idea: “if you would just make one mistake, what a relief that would be”. This is Mitski stating that when she makes a mistake, everything crumbles and it feels like her entire relationship is on the line, but if they make a mistake and she tries to confront that to protect herself and their relationship, she will immediately be shut down and will have the blame forced upon her. Mitski is evoking the idea of gaslighting and manipulation and how that can have a severe impact on a person, especially from someone they love. Mitski uses facial expressions to show how distraught she is and, again, the fact she is completely out of control of what is happening to her surroundings. Mitski’s costume is a tight fitted red midi dress with a half turtleneck and flowy sleeves. The colour red has several connotations attached to it, however, Mitski’s is most likely representing the fire that she creates and spreads. Later on, in the final scene of the video when Mitski has turned into an angel, she faints. This could potentially be argued as the result of her exhaustion and perhaps the mental strain she has taken due to her being the cause of everything destroyed within the video. However, external from the video and within the song and its lyrics, the faint could perhaps represent the mental exhaustion from being in a completely draining relationship where she is the ‘cause of all problems’, when realistically, relationships are a two-way street and someone giving maximal effort into the other person when that person does the bare minimum, would be completely debilitating.
1. Washing Machine Heart
I liked Mitski's Washing Machine Heart video because of how Mitski relayed the storyline in the video. All of the images in the video matched very well with the song and the use of statues and the value they hold was intriguing and drew attention to the real message of the song.
2. Nobody
I liked Mitski's Nobody video because of the very abstract narrative throughout the video, specifically the use of large props and what they signify. This video raised many questions, yet the point of the video still managed to be communicated to the audience clearly.
3. The Only Heartbreaker
I liked Mitski's The Only Heartbreaker video because of the way it juxtaposed many of her other videos. Mitski's videos are usually all very different to one another as I have found out through this research, yet The Only Heartbreaker brings out themes and ideas of the supernatural, therefore creating a variable for her audience.
Comments
Post a Comment