Video Deconstruction Crystal Waters- Gypsy Woman

Gypsy Woman

Artist: Crystal Waters
 Song: Gypsy Woman
Album: Suprise
Year: 1991
Producer: The Basement Boys
Director: Unknown
Genre: House
Narrative/ Performance



Screen grabs of diferent points in the video.



"Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)" (also released as "Gypsy Woman (La da dee la da da)") is a house music song by American singer Crystal Waters. It was written by Neal Conway and Waters and is the first single from her 1991 debut album, Surprise. The song includes the chorus of "La da dee, la da da" and a much-sampled organ refrain that is similar to gospel music. - Wikipedia



1. Opening scene is in a studio, plain white background. The Crystal appears at long shot in left hand corner and then disappears. Extreme CU of Crystal camera pans across her face as she starts to lip-sync. CU of a hand wearing a gold glove, some red lipstick, an old fashion hair brish, cut to CU of a person wearing a mask holding a mirror and wearing gold glove. High angle of notes falling through shot. Words begin to swim across the screen - "la da dee la da da". CU of Crystal layered over words. As camera pans out you see the words are printed on a umberella.



2. Next scene is of dancers, camera pans along them and then back. Cut to a mid shot of the person in mask hiding behind lamp post. An orange swirls flashes across the screen and then back to dancers, the shot is over-exposed. Canted angle shot of Crystal which then pans across her face again. A mask appears highly exposed and then the camera pans across and back. Back to the umberella. The next few shots are very fast takes of the umberella, the 2 male dancera and crystal herself. The transition between each takes become gradually faded and they then are all in high exposure.



3. The next sequence of shots are of Crystal who has changed into a white suit and a white polkadot tie. Some high angle and mostly CU to mid shot. The words then flash up in the centre on the screen in different colours of blue, green and orange. The next new shot is of a house, the links in with the words that say 'shes homeless'. Pretty much all the the shots are shots wear the camera is on some sort of track or crane and is panning quickly and smoothly. There are also more shots of the dancers and the person who represent the 'gypsy woman' which as over-exposed. At the end of the video (3.35) the house is burning, i am not really sure what the prefered reading is maybe that woman has burnt ties with her family which is why she is homeless.



4. This video is definatly different from the current ones i have looked at already. The concept does seem very deep, their also isnt a lot of shot variety. A reason for this could be that althought Crystal Waters was quite a well known star she didnt make the money that the biggers stars do such as Beyonce therefore the budget for the video would be a lot smaller.

5. The way Crystal is dressed isnt provocative and she doesnt reveal much flesh. This is very different from the female music artist we see in the charts, Rhianna, Pixie Lott, The Saturdays, Lady Gaga all show a lot of their bodies. Rhianna especially she been in the news for being "too sexy". She was critisied when she performed at the brits for showing to wearing enough clothes.