MV Research: Applying Music Video Theory To Tom Walker 'Fly Away With Me'

Tom Walker is a Scottish singer-songwriter originating from Manchester and is signed with Relentless Records. He blends hip-hop-inspired beats, eclectic samples and traditional songwriting in his music. Tom taught himself how to play drums, guitar, piano and bass. Walker started his music career by studying songwriting in London's College of Contemporary Music and later started collaborating with his housemates. A track he made which was collaborated with Kojey Radical called ' Sun Goes Down' earned him an acclaim and airplay on Radio 1 and was later signed to Relentless. He also released his 'Blessings - EP' in April 2017. His target audience would mainly be 20s/30s as although his song genre is quite Indie I feel the topic of his song is aimed at a higher audience.

According to Railton's theory, this music video is classed as a Narrative Music Video. This shows that the music video is telling a story throughout the video.

Tom himself only has a few seconds of screen time as he is shown to be a part of the story instead of fully promoting himself within the video. On the other hand, this screen time helps him advertise himself within the video so the viewers can match a face to the voice which will then help him with promotion. A range of camera shots are used in the video however, the main shots used are long and close-up shots. These shots help show a clear narrative for the video and also give a wide view of the location and main focus. An example of this is when the homeless man is alone and wondering around looking for things to eat or to help him survive. The shots go from a long shot to a mid shot and then to a close-up showing the audience his emotion and the location he is stuck in. This gives the video a sense of sadness.

The use of editing within this music video relates to the theorists Keazor and Wubenna. The music video contains specific conventions that nearly every music video follow such as editing to the beat of the song and in one part of the video, synchronising the footage with the lyrics. Due to the music video telling a story the editing process would have been simple to put together as their footage would need to be shown in a certain order. Slow motion is also used within the video to exaggerate movements. For example, when they guy is riding the bike it is a moment of happiness for him therefore the footage is slowed down to make that shot a powerful scene. Unlike Kaplan's theory, this music videos footage does look more like a films footage than a music video however this is due to the steady smooth editing and the storyline of the music video.

Use of Mise-en-Scene in the music video is mainly about how the homeless guy gets about living on the streets. Objects such as dumped rubbish and his luggage are used to portray his life and what he has to live with on a daily basis. This creates a damp mood for the video viewers can see the distress of how the guy has to live and what he has to do to survive. His outfit consists of what a homeless person would have to keep warm which is a coat, trousers, a top and shoes. His hair and beard are also grown out. Later on in the video he discovers a superman-like outfit in a bin and decides to put this on. The footage shows happiness within the man when he is wearing it and he feels importance in the suit and it is something different to what he has always worn. Vernailles' theory of verbal and visual codes is shown in this video through class. We can see that this man is in a lower class due to him not being able to afford to live. 

Goodwin's theory of their being a relationship in the video between the lyrics and content is shown at times in the video such as when the guy discovers the superman costume and the lyrics state 'come to a place with me where we can be anyone we wanna be'. This shows that if the guy could change his life that he would become this superhero where he could help the world due to him knowing what its like to have a little bit of help in the world. Finally, following on from Carlsson's theory Tom is used within the music video but as a role instead of the him being the main spotlight. He is used as part of a kind gesture giving money to the homeless man and also then busking in the streets. Although these visuals of him were minor it still helps him sell his body image to help him gain success within his music career.