After our class looking at Dawn Shadforths worked I perused some of her other videos, and I became intrigued by her work with Florence and the Machine, which led down a steady path of internet perusing through most of her music videos. It was interesting to see all the variations on her style, because she has quite a gangly awkward way of moving, and different directors handled that in different ways.

For example, Shadforth seemed to embrace it in ‘The Drumming Song’, and used a lot of footage of Florence dancing and moving in choreographed ways, both within a group and by herself. The awkwardness was incorporated into the style of the choreography and mimicked by the dancers as a feature of the artist, which can work as some artists become famous despite or even because of their unique ways of moving. Taylor Swift has often been remarked upon, saying that she is an unnatural dancer and awkward live, she embraced and even made fun of that in ‘Shake It Off’, which became a huge hit.

Speaking of shaking, a music video of Florences that seemed to shy away from her unique physicality, or at least place less emphasis on it than Shadforth did in ‘The Drumming Song’, was ‘Shake It Off’. The song starts with Florence sitting, walking down a staircase or in extreme closeup, nothing that highlights her unique and slightly awkward way of moving. Later when she starts to move, its normally in closeup, or cut quickly.

It made me think about how to deal with a client in a music video who presents awkwardly on camera. We had some moments while filming where the singers looked quite awkward due to nerves and inexperience, and sometimes thats all it is and if you keep filming and they loosen up you can get some great footage, but if they’re just naturally awkward on camera whats the best way to deal with it? Try and hide it in editing or lean into it like Shadforth did? Personally I found ‘The Drumming Song’ more engaging, and while the movements were a bit more awkward, because it was choreographed that way it became intriguing instead of unsettling, and Florence looked like she was having much more fun, which in turn makes me enjoy watching it more.