Music Video Research 8 - How Will I Know

Artist: Whitney Houston
Track: How Will I Know
Director: Brian Grant

Camera/Editing/Visual Style/Mise-en-scene
From the beginning the camera follows Whitney Houston most of the time throughout the music video. The camera shoots Close Ups of Whitney singing with bright lipstick and bright eyeshadows so the audience focuses on her face because her grey dress and head piece don't particularly stand out. The dancers in the video are dressed in black to create a contrast between their outfits and the vibrant colours of the splashes of paint on the walls. For the most part, the music video is kept at a normal pace apart from certain lyrics Houston sings where she is then in slow motion for a second or two. The camera will also often freeze on different dance moves the dancers make. An effective shot is when a dancer is dancing and when he stops he fades away whilst Whitney is still in the shot.  The dancers are mostly shot through high angles and long shots. Twice the camera is set in a birds eye view of the setting of the music video with the dancers walking around it sped up. In one visual the camera moves along doors and at each one the artist will enter through.  We also see a camera shot looking down on the artist whilst she spins along with the camera. In the final few shots we see Whitney looking up at a cameo of Aretha Franklin as if she looks up to her as an idol.

Narrative
The story of the track is how a woman is uncertain of whether a boy is interested in her or not and the music video comes across as if she's overwhelmed by love and her minds working overtime on what he thinks of her. It's only early days in terms of having a relationship therefore she's unsure about what he thinks about her but she thinks the world of him. The music video gives the audience the impression that she is in love with the idea of someone loving her back yet she doesn't want to get her hopes up.

Conventional/Unconventional
The music video was made in the 80's and from the visuals it is very typical of the type of videos produced at the time. The whole iconography of vibrant colours and tight frizzy hair with bows in them makes the music video very conventional.

What works?
The music video makes an audience feel good. The enthusiasm given by Whitney and the colours gives the audience a need to want to get up and dance.