Textual Analysis of Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie

The music video I am analysing is Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie. The video is directed by Oren Lavie, Yuval and Merav Nathan. The music belongs to the singer/songwriter genre and the music video displays characteristics of this genre. Such as that it follows a narrative throughout the video and is minimalist but in an effective way. The video uses the technique of stop motion, which makes it look quite simple even though this technique is quite complex. It follows a woman in her bed who doesn't actually move from it but illustrates she goes on a journey in her bed.




In some parts of the video, the lyrics match the visuals. For example, when the line 'And she fights for her life on the train' is playing, the woman in the video is 'on a train' in her bed. Another example of this is when the line 'A cello lying in its case' is played, a cello slides across above her head. The visuals that sometimes reflect the lyrics are effective as they help the audience to understand the narrative and get a better idea of what the song and the music video are displaying.





The visuals also reflect the music at some points in the video. For example, when a cello is played in the song on its own, a cello slides across the bed above the woman's head to indicate the few second solo of the cello. Furthermore, as soon as verse two starts, the singer appears on the first word of the verse as soon as it is said, it shows cutting to the song and also shows the words being lip-synced.




The visuals very much fit in with the music and show a form of musicality. Because the video uses the technique of stop motion, the cuts are not really on the beats as stop motion is lots of individual pictures, but it does work well with the music. However, there are certain areas in the video where the visuals do match the xylophone part towards the end of the video. Such as when the artist and the woman create a circle, they move round the bed to the tap of the xylophone.



The image this music video presents the artist as is that it is not so much about him as he doesn't feature in it as much as the woman does, she seems to be the main focus as the song is about this character. The fact that he does feature in it at all shows that he still wants to be known as the artist. It gives the image of the artist being more about the narrative and the song than about himself. The video is very clever and showcases his creativity as an artist and as a director, as he helped direct the music video.


Overall, this music video is done very well and shows originality and creativity which matches with the song itself. The idea of using stop motion works in its favour, and is something I would love to corporate into my music video. Although the visuals do not always match with the lyrics, the concept and execution of the shots and editing have come together perfectly to create a very effective and successful music video.