Case Studies 2

Charlotte OC – If My House Were Burning

Written and Produced by Charlotte OC

Channel: CharlotteOCVEVO

Published on 1st Aug 2014

Lyrics:

Walking in silence

I'm rushing to take my time

I'm willing to lose my mind to have it all

But it must be nice to think that you're always right

And give out this good advice

Well, I've heard enough

But here's my soul, come on and get it

Wrapped in gold, I know you want it

It's not mine anymore

But you'd, oh, walk away from me if my house was burning

And you won't even look back and smile

And I see all the games you play to keep your world turning

Oh, if my house was burning, burning, burning

Take one sip and dream up this counterfeit

I wish I could stick to it, then I'd have it all

Here's my soul, come on and get it

Wrapped in gold, I know you want it

It's not mine anymore

But you'd, oh, walk away from me if my house was burning

And you won't even look back and smile

And I see all the games you play to keep your world turning

Oh, if my house was burning, burning, burning

If my house was burning, would you run away?

If my house was burning, would you run or stay?

If my house was burning, would you run away?

If my house was burning?

And you won't even look back and smile

And I see all the games you play to keep your world turning

Oh, if my house was burning, burning, burning

If my house was burning, burning

Interpretation/Analysis of Lyrics:

First of all the song start of “Walking in silence… I'm willing to lose my mind to have it all” this

detonates how she is walking in ‘silence’ which give off a serious and intense atmosphere, and she’s in shock by her lover action in which she question herself whether if her lover still love her or not and she’s willing to ‘lose her mind’ so her lover can answer her question in whether if he still in love with her.

“But here's my soul… Wrapped in gold, I know you want it. It's not mine anymore” This suggest that she willing to give him anything and she willing to give her ‘soul’ that’s being ‘wrapped in gold’ which is a metaphor to suggest that her soul is precious and it’s like being wrapped in gold, and gold connotes extravagance in which it is indicating how she gave him everything precious of hers. ‘I know you want it’ also suggest that she didn’t know he was a greedy man, and the way it sound was really patronising, moreover ‘It’s not mine anymore’ suggesting that her every precious bit she gave to him is not her anymore, as he did not treasure and value her thoroughly.

 “But you'd, oh, walk away from me if my house was burning and you won't even look back and smile” this suggest how he ‘walk away’ from her and if the ‘house was burning’ he would have abandon her and left her behind in which this metaphorically means that he does not care for her anymore, and when he abandon her he didn’t even ‘look back’.

“If my house was burning, would you run or stay?” this is questioning her lover whether if her lover still cares and value her, as she is questioning him if the ‘house was burning’ whether he would ‘run or stay’ which indicate whether if he would abandon her or stay with her, as he is a greedy man only cares about himself even though the woman gave every precious bit of her but in the end he would have ‘run’ away and abandon her by leaving her behind and this would make her suffer a lot. Since ‘burning’ could be used as a connotation of how she is suffocating and is in pain a lot.

Synopsis:

From observing the lyrics it looks like the singer lover abandoned her, and he does not care or value her anymore, which made her suffer the pain of not being loved and value anymore. From the music video there were a scene of scorpion and metaphorically scorpion represent deaths, this could suggest that when her lover abandon her she felt like she was dying because she was being betrayed which left her suffocate the pain she’ll be unable to get rid of.  There were a scene where there was a male character running, and this could reflect to the lyrics “Would you run away” in which it is suggesting that he would have ‘run away’ instead of stay and rescue her. 

Conceptual, narrative or performance:

This music video used both conceptual and narrative. The narrative parts tells the story through the lyrics and reflects the lyrics upon the music video itself by having the male character running which reflect the lyrics ‘If my house was burning, would you run away?’ and this shows that he is running away and abandoning her. The conceptual side is using different colours of lighting which looks really effective and unique as it created a dynamic arts concept and each light had the singer shadows behind which create a light and dark imagery. Most of the lights are in warm colours especially orange to reflect the lyrics of ‘burning’ since ‘burning’ resemble fire.

Lip-Syncing:

There was a lot of lip-syncing being showed in the music video, and most of the scenes contain the singer lip-syncing in different variety of shots in which it allow the audience to interact and engage with the audience as the lyrics may be relatable to the audiences.

Mise-en-scene:

The singer wore a long white t-shirt dress with white platform high heels, and the colour white could represent purity and innocence it could also represent how her character were vulnerable. The platform high heels could represent the feminine, and also in the media most female music video tends to be quite provocative as it could be another selling point. In one scene there was a male running and this could be the main male character of the song, and the mise-en-scene were him wearing all black to portray the light and dark imagery by showing how the male character is the antagonist while the singer is the protagonist.

Camera:

There were variety of different camera shots, movements and angle used in this music video, especially there were a lot of close-up shots used in the music video because there were a lot of lip-syncing and whenever there’s lip-syncing there’s always a close-up shot so it allow the artist to engage or communicate with the audiences. There were some medium long-shot to show the location and the mise-en-scene. For the camera movements it was mainly static especially during the lip-syncing part, however there were quite a lot of handheld movement especially on a scene where there was a male character running in which it was quite effective because it looks really realistic.

Editing:

There was a lot of editing especially special effects in this music video, as there was several of scene having a house burning and scorpion to reflect the lyrics. The cutting rate of this music video in the beginning was quite slow because the tempo of the music were slow, after all towards the chorus the tempo became a bit faster therefore the cutting rate increased in order to match the tempo. However, towards near the end of the music video the cutting rate became slower and there were several of slow motion effects in order to match the tempo and the cutting rate.

Target Audience:

The target audience are range between 18-25 year olds the reason being is because the lyrics is about abandoning relationship and these usually occur in mature age, and the audience who been through these situation can feel relatable to the lyrics. The main target audience would mainly be niche audience as Charlotte OC is not a mainstream artist; therefore those conceptual art that were used in the music video would suit the audience taste, since those conceptual art are more trendy within more younger audiences.

Ideas:
By looking and analysing "If my house were burning" by Charlotte OC it gave me some ideas on what I can use for my music video, for example:

• Pace the cutting rate to match the tempo of the song, for instance if the tempo is fast then the cutting rate will increase in order to match the tempo to give a intense atmosphere. 
• Have some scene using a object that could use as a metaphor for the lyrics