My Manic and I

Analysis of Laura Marling – My Manic and I

The aim of a music video is to promote the song and the artist to their target audience and to generate a greater profit from the fans. It also enables the artist to actively interact with the audience.

In this video I feel that Laura Marling successfully promotes herself in the way she wishes to be seen, which is slightly off the mainstream and possibly a little bit eccentric. However, the lyrics of the song might have something to do with this as the song is about someone who is not fully with it. Since the song itself is a story, the video is a narrative animation with aspects of performance so the audience is aware of her presence. As the video progresses the animation seamlessly slips into ‘real life’ footage. This may be to suggest she is slipping into madness and her loss of sanity.

The style of footage seems to be similar to footage used on a super 8. This also ties into the use of the stage, creating a very distinctive style, maybe to suggest class. This style puts Laura Marling on a separate platform to most female artists in the music industry. The majority of female music artists promote themselves through promiscuous behavior on screen, which relates to the Male Gaze Theory. So to promote herself in a different light, she only shows herself in the performance state, which makes her appealing to the audience. Also, in this video, she is seen as almost ghost-like, due to her extremely pale skin and the lack of emotion in her face. Her unresponsive state in the video creates a sense of heartlessness adding to the meaning of the lyrics. Even though she refers to her manic side, she never seems to show it..

The use of the camera in this video is extremely interesting. There are two distinct types of camera work in this video: one for the animation and the other for the ‘real life’ footage. The animation uses various tracking shots and is more stable and is more typical of what you would see in a movie, rather than a music video which uses techniques such as panning, close ups and pulling outwards. This may be due to the animation telling the story of the lyrics. The style for the real life footage and performance is unsteady and more of a handheld feel, as the camera never seems to be held ridged. This might symbolise her uncertainty around reality, and her feeling stable in her insanity.

There are several links to other texts, most of which don’t fit reality, such as the cartoon that symbolises males. There are very clear links to Alice in Wonderland, through the clothes she is wearing (which are the iconic clothes for Alice) and the white rabbit statue seen through the mise-en-scene. Also, the chairs and room she is seen in are associated with the film "The Matrix", again an iconic film that is surreal.