Sade- "By your side" (2000) : Music video analysis

Helen Folasade Adu CBE (born January 16, 1959), known professionally as Sade Adu or simply Sade is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. She creates soul and smooth jazz music and I feel like her music videos fit the genre conventions well. 

 Directed by Sophie Muller, an English music video director,who has created videos for Blake Shelton, Ellie Goulding, Selena Gomez, Cheryl, Beyoncé, Dido, Coldplay, Maroon 5, No Doubt, Gwen Stefani, Sade, Shakira, Kylie Minogue, Sugababes, Shakespears Sister, Weezer, Garbage, The Killers, Radiohead, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Annie Lennox, Björk, Leona Lewis, Eurythmics, Pink, Sarah McLachlan, Birdy and Blur.

Videos from this genre and era tended to lean more towards performance style videos with beautiful settings and vibrant colours, Sade's video is no exception. Here are some other music videos from this genre:

Sade's video is a bit more glamorized than both of these examples but this is just part of her iconography. Her videos always seem to look a bit surreal and fairy-tale esk (intertextuality,) which fits her soft voice and soothing music.

 Here are some more Sade videos with surreal settings and glamorous moods. 

Her videos tend to illustrate Andrew Goodwin's theories well, with all of them reflecting the feel of the songs as well as there being a very strong style and iconography. Furthermore there is an excessive use of artist close-ups (genre convention,) this could be a director choice or by demand of her label (Portrait/Epic records.) 

The whole video follows the artist's journey from a tree in the middle of nowhere to a bustling city (continuity.) It starts off with Sade at a tree against a (cgi) sunset when she picks a berry(which we see by a cutaway,) that has been edited to look enchanting.

Most of the way through the artist is performing her lyrics whilst still being engaged in the storyline and action going on around her. The director shows Sade's journey towards the city by a repeated cutaway shot which shows her perspective of the distant city getting closer and closer. (CGI city)

The next location, like most of the others, looks like it is an indirect or even direct use of intertextuality. The reason I think this is because it looks like a generic shot from a Disney film, this adds to the overall theme of the video and the artist's persona and outfit. The enchanted berry she collected earlier gets submerged in the magical pond then she hugs is whilst singing? 

Also in this music video we see a poor and freezing family who seem to be dancing outside of their surreal tree house, occupied by Sade's band,when the artist goes and dances with them. However the adults don't seem to notice her, then she leaves after collecting something else and walking through another enchanted forest, all adding to her typical style and goddess like iconography. Finally after getting closer and closer to the city and walking through various beautiful and vibrant scenes (shown via extreme-wide shots,)she arrives in the city where drivers ignore her dancing in the middle of the road. 

Also supporting voyeurism the ending shot has been shot through a car windscreen to show the perspective of someone driving past and seeing her performance. 

Composition and framing are used wisely by the director (Sophie Muller) to compliment the mood of the song.She uses lots of wide and extreme wide shots typically shot from eye-level or lower angles - this establishes location, creates a calming feeling, allows for personal connections and makes her seem powerful (especially as she is alone.) There is a very prevalent use of compositions where leading lines are used alongside a central composition to direct the viewer's eye straight to the subject (Sade,) and help outline her journey and destination. Close-ups and extreme close-up shots are used to show smaller details and focus the audience's attention on things that would other wise go unnoticed (music video convention.) There are rarely any angles where the camera is placed above the artist's eye-level as she is meant to feel powerful and not inferior. In terms of camera movement there is frequent use of stationary (tripod) shots - this emphasises the feeling of loneliness and also adds to the slow and calming pace.There is a slider/ gimbal shot where the camera remains on the same level however moves from left to right following Sade through the forest scene. This is subtle movement adds a bit of interest when the plot moves from one scene through another.