Florence and the Machine – You’ve got the love video analysis
The video is a performance of the song with no representation of the lyrics or narrative. It is set in a large hall or stage with a large crescent shape moon covered in silver glitter that Florence is mainly singing and dancing on. The moon is very reminiscent to that of Dita Von Teese’s and other burlesque acts. The moon is also a symbol of the aging goddess. The video also has strong visual aspects of the “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” act from Moulin Rouge. Towards the end of the video, at 2:08 onwards Florence is being raised up in the moon and suspended above an audience of unusual and quirky characters, which are also extremely similar to Moulin rouge.
The moon has also recently been used by Black Eyed Peas in their performance of "Halfway" on ITV show X-factor on the 8th November 2009. This is now an apparent popular theme.
The video starts with a close up of florence's silhouette created using backlighting, slowly zooming out, the lighting drawing attention to her flyaway hair/hair colour resembling halo qualities. The lighting changes to highlight her face as she she looks into the camera. She then looks up to a light in a godly manner raising an arm, then lowering it as well as her head in sync to a fade to black. Singing the lyrics throughout.
She reappears in a scene change, standing and dancing in the glitter moon in a medium shot, which quickly changes to a well lit close up, using a straight cut, then again to a medium shot, using numerous spot lights from behind to accentate her movement and soft lighting on her face so we can still see the artist, making her look attractive as it accentuates her make up, which is in silver shimmering tones on the eyes with thick black lashes and peach/nude lips.
The video continues to show shots of Florence denmonstrating simple but effective dance moves, some of which are in slow motion to make them even more dramatic, from different angles and slowly panning across, and close ups when singing the words.
At 00.53 in the hall starts to fill with dry ice/smoke as she dances then at 1.01 it starts to cut away using straight cuts to florence in an ambiguous white room without the moon or spotlights.
Florence has also had an outfit change, now also wearing a floaty white dress. This scene starts with a medium shot of Florence singing and doing floaty arm movement
In this video Florence is wearing a one piece silver/white leotard adorned with silver jewels and embellished shoulders with beaded tassles, reflecting the moon and tying in with the overall colour scheme. Her stylist has twinned this with four inch silver heels, fastening with numerous straps to the ankle. Every aspect of her attire is in season in couture fashion, high fashion and high street and can be seen from Alexander McQueens runway to Topshop and Vice Magazine, also on many other celebrities. This makes Florence and the video extremely visually appealing to the modern and fashionable youth of today.
