2. Introduction
Roman White has directed many music videos over
the last 10 years. He has worked with artists like
Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. In the music industry
he is quite the household name, having directed
over 96 videos. He has a few motifs which are
recognisable within his work, even with different
artists. He has won many awards for his work
including a CMT Music award, MTV Video Music
Award, an Academy of Country Music Award, and
numerous Emmys.
3. Common shots
I have been watching different music videos that have
directed by Roman White and I have discovered that he uses a
lot of wide angle shots. This makes the audience feel the
escape mentioned in the theory of Uses and Gratification and
the Utopian theory. I hope to be able to replicate this as it
really makes the video look good, and make the audience get
lost in the video as they are dreaming of the space.
Another key shot that he uses is close up shots. This maybe
because of the demands of the record label, mentioned in
Goodwin’s theory, but really conveys the emotion of the song,
especially in the song ‘Mine’ by Taylor Swift. I will be including
lots of facial shots in my video as it important when conveying
the emotion and make the video look more professional.
4. Effects
When watching some of his videos Roman tends to use
an out of focus shot, and then focuses the camera. This
gives the effect that the artist has a clear vision of their
identity and what they are doing. This is an important
factor and features in the Social Identity theory.
Also Roman creates a narrative storyline and most of
lyrics match the lyrics. This creates a relationship
between the lyrics and the visual, part of Goodwin’s
Theory. I, however, do not think that this would match
the songs that I have narrowed the choice down to. I will
still want to have a narrative storyline but don’t think this
kind of relationship would be as effective.
5. Genres
Roman has directed many genres of music, like
pop, country etc. however, I have noticed with
looking at his work, that he like the audience to
know genre they are watching. So he put subtle
hints into the music video. With Taylor Swifts
‘Mine’ video, he uses greenery and space to
show the fact that we are watching country
music.
