VIDEO
The "Pretty Hurts" music video focuses on the concept of being "pretty" and explores the lengths girls in particular, go through in order to achieve beauty and be "perfect". There are elements of a narrative video as we see Beyonce play as a pageant contestant and the steps she takes before the pageant itself, however the video is mainly tackles the concept of what it means to be beautiful in today's society.
The video begins a busy room full of girls preparing for the pageant. There are quick shots of the girls doing some absurd things in order to look "perfect" for the stage. In this still, one girl is forcing herself into a dress that is clearly too small, most likely in order to feel more beautiful as a smaller size. In other shots, the girls are seen spraying hairspray onto their outfits, squeezing their non-existent love handles and rubbing petroleum jelly onto their teeth, to create the illusion of shine. The quick shots emphasizes the rush and desperation of the girls to look perfect and the hurried nature backstage.
2 and 3 shots are also used to show the hostile, catty nature of the girls to each other, before the curtains come up and the fake smiles are plastered on their faces, this reflects the real world where some girls can be fake and pretentious in private, but act sweet and nice when they know others are watching.
In this full body/ long shot, Beyonce is seen wearing a gold bikini with her sash across her her. Despite her beauty, her lean bikini body and her gown in the background, she is hanging her head down in sadness, suggesting that being beautiful means nothing if you are unhappy on the inside. The long shot, allows the audience to see the contrast between the large room and her possessions and her dejected body language.
There is a heavy use of closeups in the music video to focus on the things the girls are doing in the name of achieving beauty which may be overlooked, if they aren't clearly focused on. The actions include, the well known secret of eating cotton balls dipped in juice to trick the body into thinking it's full, constantly checking their weight, taking weight loss pills, or maybe pills for depression and the stress of ensuring a thin waistline is maintained.
The video ends in silence, with Beyonce exhaling after finally removing the makeup, crown and other material accessories, representing her exhaustion of the constant effort needed to maintain perfection and the sigh also shows her liberation from the constraints of tight dresses, elaborate makeup etc. The final shot shows her sash laying abandoned over a chair, implying Beyonce has decided to fling the idea of fake beauty away. The sash now reads "Pretty Hurts" which is the title of the song, this is the last shot and is almost used as a way to sum up the entire song and the strong message it carries.
DIGIPAK
Beyonce's self titled album, was released without any pre promotion - no single, music video or even rumours and leaks. It was released on Blu-Ray format and contains 14 songs and 17 videos. Due to there being no pre-promotion, singles from the album were released AFTER the album release, and many remain unreleased and only available to view on the purchased album. Any attempts to upload the unreleased videos on platforms such as YouTube are swiftly removed.
FRONT COVER
BACK COVER
ADVERTISEMENT
MORE
These are more examples of digipaks for the "Beyonce" album. It was also made in a vinyl format, this was aimed at her more devoted fans who would spend more on Beyonce memorabilia.It also includes images and lyrics. The second image shows the description above, that shows the "album cover" many believe is the front of the album is actually a sleeve in which the actual album slides out.
No comments:
Post a Comment