Heather Wragg

A Fine Frenzy – Almost Lover http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_S_TbD1XFM&ob=av2e

Throughout this analysis I will be discussing camerawork and editing. Almost Lover was

released as a single in 2007 but failed to reach above the top 15 in Europe. However, it was

great success in Slovenia reaching number 1 in the unofficial airplay-only charts as they

don’t sell singles. I will be analysing the second of the two videos that were created for this

song. This video shows us the lead singer, Alison Sudol, playing piano and singing about her so

called ‘almost lover’ and showing flashbacks of them together which is typical of a love song.

At the beginning of the video we see the artist stood in a doorway with the sun brightly beaming

past her in the background and then a jump cut is used to then show an extreme close up of her face

also with the sun glowing behind her. This close up is used to show the emotion on the artist’s face.

There is then an aerial, close-up shot of her hands playing on a dirty piano.

Around 25 seconds in there is a cross cut from the artist singing to the use of a hand-held camera

showing a close up of a bird flying and follows it into the distance. The hand-held camera shots are

only the flashbacks showing the artist and a boy enjoying one another’s company by the beach etc.

We know these are handheld shots because the artist looks beyond the camera as if she is looking at

someone else and the camera work is very jagged and the shots are not very neatly done. These

cross cuts begin to be continuous throughout the whole video and keeping jumping back to each of

the locations and this is used to show us the story she is singing.

There is a big contrast between the emotions shown to us by the use of close ups in the two

different scenes. When she is singing to the camera or playing the piano behind the windows and

doors with dirty glass, her facial expressions are very plain and miserable. When she is behind the

glass, this emphasises the fact she feels alone. However, in the flashbacks she is always smiling and

genuinely looks like she’s enjoying herself in the company of this male.

Heather Wragg

In one of the flashback scenes, the artist has her back to the camera and the lyrics ‘and my back is

turned on you’ are sung which link together.

Zooms in are used when focusing on the artist in the scenes with the male and she starts to smile.

Using the zoom helps to contrast the next scene after it cross cuts back to the artist singing again

with a sad expression on her face. Zooms out are also used often straight after they have just

zoomed in to show the whole of her face again.

A low angled shot is used in one of the flashback scenes with her smiling and a clear sky with the sun

setting in the background and a bird flying overhead. The fact she is smiling shows us that she is

happy and the weather helps us to understand this, too, as good weather generally is associated

with good moods.

Near the end of the video at a louder, more powerful part of the music, the artist is singing to the

camera and the camera slowly zooms outwards into a mid shot of her. This shot emphasises the fact

that she is alone.

At the end of the video the shot of the artist running in the flashback is blurred all the way out until

we cannot see her anymore. The effect of this is that it’s as if it’s not real anymore – it’s not there –

it’s like a dream that has just ended.

Heather Wragg

The music genre of this video is piano pop/alternative rock. It is not the type of pop music you would

find in the UK charts, though, such as Lady Gaga. It is much less upbeat and more instrumental

rather than effects etc. This type of genre would be listened to be teenagers who like easy-going,

calm music. This song in particular is a love song and is both performance and narrative based as we

can see from the video that the artist is both singing and acting out what the song is about.

This type of video that uses flashbacks is very common when talking about love. Popular artists such

as Beyoncé (Halo) and Katy Perry (The One That Got Away) use these in their videos are have been

a great success. Katy Perry’s video is very much like this video using many jump cuts to flick back

from the artist singing to the flashbacks of them and a partner/lover.

This video is very performance and narrative based as she is singing and playing along to the music

and also contains flashbacks to help tell us the story of what she is singing. There are also conceptual

aspects to it.