Analysis of a music video

Mariah Carey // Almost Home

Conventions
The song Almost Home is from a film soundtrack for Oz: The Great and Powerful, this is because it features clips of the film within the music video. The lyrics from the song have a narrative that matches to the main character of the film, which is that he is lost and he is finding his way home, this represents the "almost home" aspect. The setting of the film and the music video are quite the opposite, as in the film there's a lot of different scenery and settings throughout the clip and in the music video, it all takes place in one room, so they have made the conventions of this very opposite. However, in some aspect, the scenes link, as they have used black and white for the starting scenes of the film, and the music video for Mariah Carey's parts are black and white. Mariah may also be on about how she is 'almost home' as a symbol of her "return" to her old voice and music that viewers know, whilst this is being linked to the films physical activity of almost home.The scenes look like they link with Mariah Carey looking up at the side with her hand reaching out like she's reaching for something, and it then cuts to a scene of James Franco flying away in the hot air balloon, almost like she was reaching out for him.

Throughout the whole video, there is constant moving around, in Mariah Carey's scenes the background is still but she is always moving, whilst in the film, all scenes are very fast and dramatic showing the contrast of fast and slow movement. The lighting in the film is also changing a lot which adds to the movement looking as though it is quicker. When the movement in the film quickly increases, everything becomes faster, the songs tempo and singing gets higher and louder, and the overall scenes get quicker and more dramatic. This is done through quick cuts and fast camera movements which shows this. Mariah Carey is lip-syncing on her own throughout the whole video, like she's telling a story from her own perspective and experience of her "almost home" although she is also singing from the main character in the film's perspective. By singing on her own and being completely alone in the clips, she seems as if she is directly singing to the audience and the character, this is direct address.

Representation
Mariah Carey is singing alone in this video, meaning she is the main focus and the lead singer. Carey is wearing a long, black sophisticated dress, to add to the elegant and classy look to the film. With the film filmed in the olden days, this represents the era she is in, when women were looked at as sophisticated items. All the scenes are the beginning are in black and white which also adds to this. They use black and white on Mariah's parts, and at the beginning when the main character is at 'home', which could add to the aspect of where she is singing about. With all the women in the film dressed smartly, in long gowns, also looking very sophisticated, this links Mariah in with the films setting and props.

Audience
The target audience of this video is teenagers and older, this is because the people who are most likely to watch the film are teenagers, and adults are more likely to listen to Mariah Carey's music. Mariah Carey may be seen as a typical women, who takes pride in how she looks, and carry that elegant look. The target audience would probably like other artists like Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera, both of these artists are older, but fit many different audience types. They would probably watch programmes like The Brit Awards and read celebrity gossip magazines. The video for this will most likely be accessed through YouTube by its audience.

Institution
The single Almost Home was released on February 19th, 2013. It was released by Island Def Jam, which is Mariah Carey's record label. The film Oz the Great and Powerful was made by Walt Disney Pictures. The purpose for this music video was to advertise the film the the audience, by showing various clips of the film, with the song adding to the powerful aspect to it, making the audience wanting to see more. This was also done to advertise and encourage people to buy the soundtrack.