Friday, 17 December 2010
Costume Designs & Ideas
White floaty dress/ contour styled. Angel/ princess themed.
Highly embellished around breast.
Swans/ Birds delicate lake surroundings; love themed.
Sepia colourings to illustrate age and date. Colouring portrays the past.
Influenced by the Notebook.
Black lace/ netting vale during funeral scene. Connote death.
Flowers; Lilly's
Wreath
White floaty dress/ contour styled. Angel/ princess themed.
Highly embellished around breast.
Swans/ Birds delicate lake surroundings; love themed.
Sepia colourings to illustrate age and date. Colouring portrays the past.
Influenced by the Notebook.
Black lace/ netting vale during funeral scene. Connote death.
Flowers; Lilly's
Wreath
Lady Gaga has inspirited a new generation within pop material, her courageous fashion and vulgar lyrics have made her one of the most popular pop entertainers within society, and for this reason I have chosen to analyse her “The Fame” album. The Fame was released August 19th 2008 by Interscope records, February 16th 2010 and won best international album on the Brit awards 2010. Although the conventions of pop are substantially different to the within an RnB nature, I feel the qualities of glamorous connotations collide, both pop and RnB connate a sexy and glamorous lifestyle. Gaga definitely abides by the rich and famous lifestyle, the mise en scene of oversized sunglasses illustrate a direct reference to popularity as well as references the name of the album “Fame”.
The strong mise en scene of fashion iconic glasses illustrate an independent ideology, which conveys continuity through lyrics and imagery, the photography also has visuals from the lyrics through vulgar sex references.
Gaga is known as an iconic fashion exhibitionist, and conveys narcissistic conventions throughout the imagery of her artwork; the sunglasses embedded with diamonds and her platinum blonde hair connate a high maintenance stereotype
sunglasses fashion accessory, and her fashion is unique and individual
Pop music aided genre, 80s electro pop and synthpop, dance music
Stereotype of sunglasses being “cool”, people wear them as fashion accessories, connotations of rock starts i.e. Elton John again a repeat indication to fame orientated celebrity lifestyles
Sunglasses covered in diamonds “diamonds are a girl’s best friend” conveys expense, wealth and richness
Blonde hair and sunglasses, diamonds, high maintenance stereotype, narcissistic conventions
Rich and famous lifestyle
Conventions of having the name of the artist and album within the front cover
“LADY GAGA” capital letters, illustrating a loud and tall personality, stands out against the black background, as does Gaga, capitalises dominance
The fame: almost has hand written qualities, references to an autograph, illustrating establishment
Silver writing, modern, ornate riche, glamorous, precious
Striking platinum blonde hair, personality, “Blonde have more fun” stereotype
Cut across, straight hair cut, choppy personality, wild?
Extreme close of artist; connects to the audience, creates establishment
Large sunglasses illustrating popularity a direct reference to Fame, glasses and album title convey continuity of “Fame”
Sunglasses covered in diamonds “diamonds are a girl’s best friend” conveys expense, wealth and richness
Blonde hair and sunglasses, diamonds, high maintenance stereotype, narcissistic conventions
Glasses challenge the convention of close up photography; as the image creates indications of emotionless
Narcissistic, fame has gone to her head? Cold persona
Sunglasses hide indications to emotion; create mysterious content for an audience, black background has continuity connotations of mystery
Stereotype of sunglasses being “cool”, people wear them as fashion accessories, connotations of rock starts i.e. Elton John again a repeat indication to fame orientated celebrity lifestyles
Black background, emphasises on emotionless features, illustrates authority and power
Shadowing reaching across GAGAS face
Pink lipstick, dominance contrasts with femininity, challenges the convention of men being more dominant
Gaga is known as a fashion icon, sunglasses fashion accessory, and her fashion is unique and individual
Pop music aided genre, 80s electro pop and synthpop, dance music
Metaphorical that anybody can feel famous
Limited lighting, lighting is manipulated to enhance lady Gagas face
Gagas mouth is open; conveying sexual displays of affection, seduction, sexually
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Extreme close up of Rihanna, establishing a connection with the audience, alignment of facial structure connotes sex
Continuity of red hair and red lips: sex and lustrous connotations, connotes danger
Mouth slightly open, reinstating sexual imagery, sex connotation
Eyes closed, challenging the convention of having a close up, slightly cuts the connection between the audiences
Eye closed could illustrate sexual pleasures, restricting her form pleasure?
Strong continuity with the lyrics and visuals of the photography, sex and danger
Representation of sex appeal
Stands alone in the photography, illustrating dominance, independence and strength
Challenging the convention of not having Rihannas name on the album cover, illustrating how established she is, and her popularity within the music industry
LOUD: capital letters reinforcing “LOUD” capital letters, illustrating a loud and tall personality, capitalises dominance
Tattoo: rebellious character, tattoos are a fashion statement
Curly hair: fashionable, passionate about appearance, narcissistic qualities, curly hair often connotes professional woman, shows she is groomed, “hair is full of secrets” mysterious qualities which shows continuity for her eyes being shut
Full eyelashes, sex appeal, flirty
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Relapse is the sixth album released by Eminem and his producer Dr Dre, released 15th May 2009.
Addiction to sleeping pills and suffered from exhaustion
The end of drug rehabilitation
Rapping into a fictional relapse
Return of the old Eminem
Relapsed back into drugs after a friend was shot and killed
Relapsed back to his wife, 11 weeks after divorcing
Prescription drug abuse
Hospitalised for an overdose within methadone
He recovered from his addiction
Justifies personal true life, past experiences
Black background: death, authority and power
Mosaic of prescription pills conveyed in red: red to illustrate, death, blood? Danger, anger, stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing
Collage created from prescription pills, parody like material, mimicking him self
Close up head shot of Eminem, emotionless
Sticker represents a prescription drug label,” prescribed by Dr Dre” indication to blame, Dr Dre is his producer, illustrating the pressure he was put under perhaps
Displaying personal issues within his art
CD artwork itself portrays bottle lid like qualities, again illustrating a reference to prescription pills
Challenges the convention of having the artist name within the cover, illustrates establishment and popularity
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Narrative Theory
The narrative is the structure of the story, the Diegesis is the fictional time and place implied by the narrative for example the world In which the narrative takes place. The verisimilitude is the quality in which something portrays to be real or true, the verisimilitude shows the high depth of reality. For the narrative to engage with an audience it must have the diagetic effect, having the rules on continuity temporal and special coherence. There is eight narrative types in which every narrative story can be fitted within.
Walter Fisher developed narrative theory, that all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling; the theory however clashed with already existing beliefs. The beliefs of the nature of human beings, the ways in which they act and their communication skills. Fisher sees two universal paradigms, the rational world paradigm and the narrative paradigm. The national paradigm theory claims that people are storytellers, characters interpret stories through the terms of “good reasons”. Good reasons are past events within their own life’s, history, culture and the characters involved. The national paradigm also states that narrative rationality is determined by the fetidly of our stories that the world is a set of differential stories in which we chose and change to re create. The rational world paradigm theory claims that people make decisions due to or based upon arguments, and that essentially they are rational. The communication within the situation determines the course of the argument, and that initially the world is a set of logical puzzles that can be solved through rational analysis.
The structure of the classic narrative system; according to Pam Cook the classic narrative system should have linearity of cause and effect(…) An overall trajectory of enigma resolution(…) A high degree of narrative closure(…) A fictional world in which contains verisimilitude governed by spatial and temporal coherence.
Tzvetan Todorov highlights the classic Hollywood narrative system within stages.
Stage One; A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is satisfied, calm and normal. Stage Two; This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which creates a state of disequilibrium. Stage Three; Recognition that a disruption has taken place.
Stage Four; It is only possible to re-create equilibrium through action directed against the disruption. Stage Five; Restoration of a new state of equilibrium. The consequences of the reaction is to change the world of the narrative and/or the characters so that the final state of equilibrium in not the same as the initial state.
As well as Walter Fisher, Tim O Sullivan et al argues that all media texts tell and represent some kind of story through careful mediation however juxtaposing Fishers theory, O Sullivan et al believes that the stories tell characters about themselves however the stories are not personal to the character they obtain no personal preference or past relation but the story conveys a culture or a set of cultures. The theory sets out to show the experience when we read a story and to understand the particular set of constructions or conventions involved within the creation. The importance is within how the constructions are brought together.
Bordwell and Thompson- theories
“Shared recognition of people/ situation”
Stereotype- enhance realism/ verisimilitude
Feminism
Post modernism
Collective identity
What is narrative?
Feminism within a ballad? Alexandra burke; Hallelujah
Objectification of woman within media relations; videos; magazines
“Men act and woman appear” juxtaposition of stereotype and feminism
The narrative is the structure of the story, the Diegesis is the fictional time and place implied by the narrative for example the world In which the narrative takes place. The verisimilitude is the quality in which something portrays to be real or true, the verisimilitude shows the high depth of reality. For the narrative to engage with an audience it must have the diagetic effect, having the rules on continuity temporal and special coherence. There is eight narrative types in which every narrative story can be fitted within.
Walter Fisher developed narrative theory, that all meaningful communication is a form of storytelling; the theory however clashed with already existing beliefs. The beliefs of the nature of human beings, the ways in which they act and their communication skills. Fisher sees two universal paradigms, the rational world paradigm and the narrative paradigm. The national paradigm theory claims that people are storytellers, characters interpret stories through the terms of “good reasons”. Good reasons are past events within their own life’s, history, culture and the characters involved. The national paradigm also states that narrative rationality is determined by the fetidly of our stories that the world is a set of differential stories in which we chose and change to re create. The rational world paradigm theory claims that people make decisions due to or based upon arguments, and that essentially they are rational. The communication within the situation determines the course of the argument, and that initially the world is a set of logical puzzles that can be solved through rational analysis.
The structure of the classic narrative system; according to Pam Cook the classic narrative system should have linearity of cause and effect(…) An overall trajectory of enigma resolution(…) A high degree of narrative closure(…) A fictional world in which contains verisimilitude governed by spatial and temporal coherence.
Tzvetan Todorov highlights the classic Hollywood narrative system within stages.
Stage One; A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is satisfied, calm and normal. Stage Two; This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which creates a state of disequilibrium. Stage Three; Recognition that a disruption has taken place.
Stage Four; It is only possible to re-create equilibrium through action directed against the disruption. Stage Five; Restoration of a new state of equilibrium. The consequences of the reaction is to change the world of the narrative and/or the characters so that the final state of equilibrium in not the same as the initial state.
As well as Walter Fisher, Tim O Sullivan et al argues that all media texts tell and represent some kind of story through careful mediation however juxtaposing Fishers theory, O Sullivan et al believes that the stories tell characters about themselves however the stories are not personal to the character they obtain no personal preference or past relation but the story conveys a culture or a set of cultures. The theory sets out to show the experience when we read a story and to understand the particular set of constructions or conventions involved within the creation. The importance is within how the constructions are brought together.
Bordwell and Thompson- theories
“Shared recognition of people/ situation”
Stereotype- enhance realism/ verisimilitude
Feminism
Post modernism
Collective identity
What is narrative?
Feminism within a ballad? Alexandra burke; Hallelujah
Objectification of woman within media relations; videos; magazines
“Men act and woman appear” juxtaposition of stereotype and feminism
Monday, 1 November 2010
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Codes and Conventions: of a Music Video: Before creating and planning my own music video I must familiarise myself with the specific codes and conventions of Music videos therefore I will have the understanding of whether to follow the conventions or to physically challenge them. The conventions are what the audience expect to see from the music video where as the codes of music video are the signs that create specific meaning, the mise en scene for example, a man removing his wedding ring to signify that a relationship is over. There are three main types of music videos, performance, narrative and conceptual. A performance video concentrates on footage of the artist or bands themselves the video features the artist performing either live or to the camera. This can be portrayed within a casual environment for example Jojos, Leave right now released February 24th 2004, Jojo is singing directly to the camera within a college environment, the students/actors within the college disregard the performance allowing it to within a casual environment. For the majority of the video the artists lip syncs and mime the words of the song, creating a relationship with the audience. Conventionally extreme close ups and close ups begin any performance themed music video. Due to limited funds and not having the capital to invest to make a highly successful music video, a performance video may be my safest option as statistically productions with little income and general start up videos are performance clips. The capital to create this type of production is fairly limited. However unfortunately the artist would have to be established otherwise interest within the video will become saturated. A narrative based video conventionally tells a story and creates visuals between the lyrics and narrative, therefore visualisations are created for example lyrics expand on the narrative, for example within Eminems ft Rihanna “Love the way you lie” lyrics “swore you would never hit her” and he goes to hit her, the lyrics has created visuals for the narrative. Narrative music videos depend on imagery to create the story for the audience to be able to follow it, producers usually include established actors to act within the music videos however sometimes the artist themselves are within the narrative. Another type of music video is a conceptual video. A concept is based around one single idea and is usually unique and obscure, sometimes even surreal. Cameo is the last type of music video; the artists do not perform but are featured within the narrative of the video. Videos sometimes even feature both narrative and performance clips, again this is featured within Eminem and Rihanna, Love the way you lie.
Editing to the beat of the music and within the rhythm of the song is exceptionally important, footage is recorded around the elements and beat of the music therefore the editing must counterpart with the beat, for example a pop formulated music video would have shorter shots which are edited at a fast pace, following the stereotypical conventions. A slow song however, for example a ballad would have longer shots with slow paced minimal editing. Editing is usually formulated around the natural pause elements of an artist’s voice, for example Avril Lavigne’s, When you’re gone “when you walk away) pause element (I count the steps that you take), the pause element within the breath of the artist or before they reach their next verse in conventionally when the editing would take place. The cuts and transitions within music videos are also exceptionally important due to the effect they inhibit to an audience. The editing suite I intend to use is non linear editing software; this allows me to edit any part of the video within any time period being extremely advantageous. The most common transition used is a cut, which is a fast change/cut from one piece of footage to the next, I believe that conventionally cuts should be used within fast paced editing beats and they are quick and rather snappy, which would add affect and work efficiently with the beat. Therefore if I was to create a ballad a cut wouldn’t stereotypically fit the conventions, I could challenge them however I feel the effect wouldn’t be as affective as a fade or dissolve transition which conventionally are used within ballads and slower tempo music. Editing suits convey many video transactions and effects however I want to keep the effects to a minimal, as strong, fast and upbeat editing would completely challenge the conventions of a ballad, which within some aspects could be positive however I do not think that it would look effective, therefore I will follow the conventions.
Conventionally different types of Cinematography is used within the creation of a music video, each shot establishes something different and allows the audience to connect with what the narrative or theme of the video is trying to interplay with the audience. Cinematography is an extremely important factor when closely studying music videos they contain a large range of differential stylistics of shots each conveying substantial qualities. Close ups and extreme close ups tightly frame a person or an object they are used to illustrate the raw emotion within a narrative, as it conveys the detail within a frame. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character. Medium close ups are also used to create an effect, they allow the audience to see the upper body of the artist illustrating their body language, for example a medium close up of a girl showing flesh could illustrate a sensitive nature, someone fragile and naive. Establishing shots establish the content for a scene, so for example they indicate a specific location in which the entity of the video will be shot; an establishing shot conveys the relationship between its figures and its objects. Long shots or wide angled shots allow the audience to see the fuller picture of the music video; this allows an audience to feel more apart of the music video and to make an emotional attachment. High angled shots within a music video illustrate dominance where as low angled cinematography establishes a weak persona. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character, which again is a convention to support a strong narrative as well as to show establishment between the artist and audience. Conventionally following a close up becomes a medium close up or a medium shot, this portrays part of subject and establishes its body language. Body language is an important factor when portraying any character especially within a music video as it shows the character to an audience and makes an audience feel like they are there and know the artist. This again establishes the artist with the audience and a medium shot becomes an effective feature within narrative and performance clips. Again following the conventions of a music video stereotypically a long shot will follow. A long shot establishes the mise en scene of the video and allows an audience to see the bigger picture; it allows the surroundings and location to add proximity to the narrative, performance or conceptual clip. A wide range of cinematography is featured within music videos and each works and corresponds to its advantages, establishing shots, high angled and low angled shots, shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shots are also typical conventions used within a music video. As well as mise en scene, editing and cinematography, sound is used within the language of music videos.
Sound is another substantial convention used within a music video, the two main types of sound are diagetic and non diagetic, I learnt this within my first year of Media studies through studying TV Drama, the conventions within TV Drama are rather similar to the ones used within a music video, as each distinguished features adds creativity ir establishment, each feature means something and has purposely been created to add affect. Diagetic sound within a music video is the actual song itself. Conventionally the artist may mime the lyrics, this isn’t essential however miming does establish the artist. Within my creation of the music video I hope use lip sync as I feel it establishes a professional approach as well as the use of lip sync contrasted with the use of narrative. Non diagetic sound may also be used within a music video, conventionally within narrative. Stereotypically and conventionally non diagetic sound is used within the first sequence of a music video, not always but sometimes the narrative is built before the music itself starts. For example within Akon’s “Sorry, blame it all on me” video non diagetic sound is used within the multistranded narrative within the first 60 seconds. This builds a strong narrative already and easier for an audience to understand. Sometimes the music within the video can be broken, and non diagetic sound breaks in, conventionally it is dialogue which is used to build the narrative however sound can also be used, for example the screeching of a car to highlight the effect of a car crash. Diagetic and non diagetic sound is extremely important whist creating a music video, as each adds to the effect of the narrative.
Mise en scene is the most important convention featured within a music video. The main features of Mise en scene are the costume, colouring, lighting and the props. The mise en scene is everything located behind the camera, the stylistics for example. The mise en scene depends highly on the genre of the music video, for example if my genre was a ballad and the narrative featured death stylistics, a prop to be used would be the flowers lilies, as they convey funeral connotations. However a pop video is bright and colourful and connotes happiness, therefore bright colours and background and animations can be used. Props are an extremely important feature and are essential through creating a strong music video. : Language is the appearance of the linguistic terminology; it considers all aspects featured with the actual media texts for example the moving image. It includes the necessities of creating media texts. The main language used within music videos is the cinematography, the mise en scene, editing and sound qualities. The mise en scene (placing within stage) within a video establishes the genre and mood. It is an expression to describe the design aspects within theatre or film/ music production, generally described as the visual theme within narrative. The Mise en scene is everything which appears before the camera and its arrangement, this therefore evidences that every aspect before the camera is used for a reason, to portray a mood, genre or simply signify something, for example Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of you” music video, the narrative illustrates a couple repeatedly arguing, the mise en scene of a suitcase indicates a character leaving. Each singular piece of mise en scene has carefully been chosen to convey a simplistic narrative to an audience, resulting in complex and differential mise en scene. I believe that mise en scene in one of the main characteristics in portraying narrative within a music video, it concludes of the lighting used, costume and make up abilities, each conveying strong characteristics for the narrative. Within my finalised music video I hope to portray the characteristics of death, to create a powerful and emotional narrative. My narrative isn’t completely finalised however I do have a brief initial idea. Rather like PS. I love you; I hope to convey a person within the relationship being diesis, I hope to do this by creating memories within a black and white colour property and use the repeat of the flower lilies, as lilies represent death and flowers which are stereotypically taken to a funeral. An arrangement of light and dark colouring will be used; dark for when the character is at her weakest and light qualities when she is reminiscing on her and her partner’s life together.
Conventions of a Ballad: For my A2 Media Production I have chosen to analyse the “Ballad” music genre; I hope to directly and critically evaluate the genres cliché codes and conventions and in addition re in act them during my final production, however juxtapose the stereotypical ballad to direct to a mainstream audience. However once critically analysing the genre conventions I will have a clearer view of whether I can change the conventions without directly changing the genre. The typically music video consists of the following; editing to the beat of the music, as well as cinematography as well as a strong and unique narrative, which tells a direct narrative throughout. A balled is a poem of a sentimental nature and generally reflects folk tales, the simple stanzas and poem like qualities generally are repetitive; I noticed a strong tradition of repeat pattern when analysing the lyrics “Hallelujah”. Hallelujah is repeatedly sung over and over again to engage the audience; the repetitiveness creates a direct mode of address to the audience in lyric terms as well as direct mode of attention. The stereotypical ballad usually consists of a cliché love narrative; the equilibrium being a general disruption (heartbreak) and the resolution as the lyrics reach climax and becomes powerful.
The importance of codes and conventions within a Ballad distinguish in which audience it is aimed to, generally ballads are represented to a mainstream target audience, the emotional lyrics and powerful opera themed genre being stereotypical does generally relate to woman. After analysing few ballad lyrics and their videos, I have noticed some distinct similarities; the dramatic stressed cliché love story, the break up and finding inner strength. Furthermore the emotional cinematography of extreme close ups; close ups illustrating motion, the high angled shots portraying vulnerability and weakness within the narrative and finally low angled cinematography having the strength and ability to overcome fear. The mise-en-scene within a ballad highlights the strong difference within music genres; soft lighting or in fact dark lighting is used to enhance the emotion within the lyrics. Within the music video “Hallelujah” both soft and dark lighting is used, the darkness generally juxtaposed with cinematography. The darkness highlights vulnerability and the narrative being at a dark point, for example being stereotypically heartbroken. A change in lighting occurs when the narrative reaches its highlighted strong point, when weakness is overcome or in a ballad narrative, stereotypically a character gaining strength and regaining happiness. Colour is kept to a minimum and consists of mostly natural colours, pale nudes and delicate whites. The neutral colour scheme enhances the inner beauty of the lyrics and the artist narrative, I wish to include this convention within my final production piece, the artist within the narrative will wear a long white flowing dress, in which I will design and make myself. My idea was encouraged my studying Alexandra McQueen within Textiles, I hope to reproduce a fairy tale gown (encouraged by the fiction story of the princess living at the bottom of Alexandra’s garden), with angel like qualities. The simplistic colour scheme will illustrate natural beauty, which shall be evidenced soft lighting and weak editing. These conventions illustrate the cliché melodramatic Ballad. Within my final production piece I hope to include a strong narrative, I will be using the cliché somebody hurting (disruption) and then regaining strength narrative (resolution), however my chosen narrative includes nothing on love, which in my opinion is a slight twist to all music genres, and especially ballads.
Through highlighting the conventions within other music videos I have found except mise-en-scene; the main difference is the editing. There is an extreme limited variation within editing, the soft focus is simplistic and jump cuts are rarely used. The editing is focused due to the beat of the music, ballads concentrate mainly on the “romantic” instruments, pianos, violins etc therefore fast editing Is limited. The stereotypical pace should be slow, however this may juxtapose within my piece especially during the dramatic climax. Varied shots are used within cinematography, extreme close ups and close ups however stand out to be the most popular; the closer shots illustrate emotion within a character and intimacy, and allow an audience to create a strong relationship with the artist. The soft lyrics portray high levelled cinematography illustrating vulnerability where as the strong ballad (opera melodramatic themed) contrasts low cinematography, this conveys the character gaining confidence and showing dominance.
Another code and convention which stood out amongst all genres of music and their videos is the direct reference to the lyrics, for example within Hallelujah the lyrics “please the Lord” illustrates religious connotations, and within the video candles are demonstrated. The light from the candle co notates religious references, for example hope, or a light burning out. A light burning out may convey darkness, upset, and even in extreme circumstances a life ending. Personally I hope to change the stereotypically ballad and use conventions from other genres, to relate to a more direct mainstream audience, for example dismemberment is used with pop or R “n” B genres of music, however I hope to juxtapose with typical dismemberment and instead of focusing on a females “sexy” features, for example her legs.. I hope to focus on her eyes to illustrate raw emotion, or her smile, so it will connote voyeurism but within a different focus. Secondly I will include non diagetic sound within the video to hopefully highlight a disaster; an argument or something tragic happening. My main focus is to deteriorate away from the cliché ballad of a dramatised love scene.
Editing to the beat of the music and within the rhythm of the song is exceptionally important, footage is recorded around the elements and beat of the music therefore the editing must counterpart with the beat, for example a pop formulated music video would have shorter shots which are edited at a fast pace, following the stereotypical conventions. A slow song however, for example a ballad would have longer shots with slow paced minimal editing. Editing is usually formulated around the natural pause elements of an artist’s voice, for example Avril Lavigne’s, When you’re gone “when you walk away) pause element (I count the steps that you take), the pause element within the breath of the artist or before they reach their next verse in conventionally when the editing would take place. The cuts and transitions within music videos are also exceptionally important due to the effect they inhibit to an audience. The editing suite I intend to use is non linear editing software; this allows me to edit any part of the video within any time period being extremely advantageous. The most common transition used is a cut, which is a fast change/cut from one piece of footage to the next, I believe that conventionally cuts should be used within fast paced editing beats and they are quick and rather snappy, which would add affect and work efficiently with the beat. Therefore if I was to create a ballad a cut wouldn’t stereotypically fit the conventions, I could challenge them however I feel the effect wouldn’t be as affective as a fade or dissolve transition which conventionally are used within ballads and slower tempo music. Editing suits convey many video transactions and effects however I want to keep the effects to a minimal, as strong, fast and upbeat editing would completely challenge the conventions of a ballad, which within some aspects could be positive however I do not think that it would look effective, therefore I will follow the conventions.
Conventionally different types of Cinematography is used within the creation of a music video, each shot establishes something different and allows the audience to connect with what the narrative or theme of the video is trying to interplay with the audience. Cinematography is an extremely important factor when closely studying music videos they contain a large range of differential stylistics of shots each conveying substantial qualities. Close ups and extreme close ups tightly frame a person or an object they are used to illustrate the raw emotion within a narrative, as it conveys the detail within a frame. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character. Medium close ups are also used to create an effect, they allow the audience to see the upper body of the artist illustrating their body language, for example a medium close up of a girl showing flesh could illustrate a sensitive nature, someone fragile and naive. Establishing shots establish the content for a scene, so for example they indicate a specific location in which the entity of the video will be shot; an establishing shot conveys the relationship between its figures and its objects. Long shots or wide angled shots allow the audience to see the fuller picture of the music video; this allows an audience to feel more apart of the music video and to make an emotional attachment. High angled shots within a music video illustrate dominance where as low angled cinematography establishes a weak persona. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character, which again is a convention to support a strong narrative as well as to show establishment between the artist and audience. Conventionally following a close up becomes a medium close up or a medium shot, this portrays part of subject and establishes its body language. Body language is an important factor when portraying any character especially within a music video as it shows the character to an audience and makes an audience feel like they are there and know the artist. This again establishes the artist with the audience and a medium shot becomes an effective feature within narrative and performance clips. Again following the conventions of a music video stereotypically a long shot will follow. A long shot establishes the mise en scene of the video and allows an audience to see the bigger picture; it allows the surroundings and location to add proximity to the narrative, performance or conceptual clip. A wide range of cinematography is featured within music videos and each works and corresponds to its advantages, establishing shots, high angled and low angled shots, shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shots are also typical conventions used within a music video. As well as mise en scene, editing and cinematography, sound is used within the language of music videos.
Sound is another substantial convention used within a music video, the two main types of sound are diagetic and non diagetic, I learnt this within my first year of Media studies through studying TV Drama, the conventions within TV Drama are rather similar to the ones used within a music video, as each distinguished features adds creativity ir establishment, each feature means something and has purposely been created to add affect. Diagetic sound within a music video is the actual song itself. Conventionally the artist may mime the lyrics, this isn’t essential however miming does establish the artist. Within my creation of the music video I hope use lip sync as I feel it establishes a professional approach as well as the use of lip sync contrasted with the use of narrative. Non diagetic sound may also be used within a music video, conventionally within narrative. Stereotypically and conventionally non diagetic sound is used within the first sequence of a music video, not always but sometimes the narrative is built before the music itself starts. For example within Akon’s “Sorry, blame it all on me” video non diagetic sound is used within the multistranded narrative within the first 60 seconds. This builds a strong narrative already and easier for an audience to understand. Sometimes the music within the video can be broken, and non diagetic sound breaks in, conventionally it is dialogue which is used to build the narrative however sound can also be used, for example the screeching of a car to highlight the effect of a car crash. Diagetic and non diagetic sound is extremely important whist creating a music video, as each adds to the effect of the narrative.
Mise en scene is the most important convention featured within a music video. The main features of Mise en scene are the costume, colouring, lighting and the props. The mise en scene is everything located behind the camera, the stylistics for example. The mise en scene depends highly on the genre of the music video, for example if my genre was a ballad and the narrative featured death stylistics, a prop to be used would be the flowers lilies, as they convey funeral connotations. However a pop video is bright and colourful and connotes happiness, therefore bright colours and background and animations can be used. Props are an extremely important feature and are essential through creating a strong music video. : Language is the appearance of the linguistic terminology; it considers all aspects featured with the actual media texts for example the moving image. It includes the necessities of creating media texts. The main language used within music videos is the cinematography, the mise en scene, editing and sound qualities. The mise en scene (placing within stage) within a video establishes the genre and mood. It is an expression to describe the design aspects within theatre or film/ music production, generally described as the visual theme within narrative. The Mise en scene is everything which appears before the camera and its arrangement, this therefore evidences that every aspect before the camera is used for a reason, to portray a mood, genre or simply signify something, for example Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of you” music video, the narrative illustrates a couple repeatedly arguing, the mise en scene of a suitcase indicates a character leaving. Each singular piece of mise en scene has carefully been chosen to convey a simplistic narrative to an audience, resulting in complex and differential mise en scene. I believe that mise en scene in one of the main characteristics in portraying narrative within a music video, it concludes of the lighting used, costume and make up abilities, each conveying strong characteristics for the narrative. Within my finalised music video I hope to portray the characteristics of death, to create a powerful and emotional narrative. My narrative isn’t completely finalised however I do have a brief initial idea. Rather like PS. I love you; I hope to convey a person within the relationship being diesis, I hope to do this by creating memories within a black and white colour property and use the repeat of the flower lilies, as lilies represent death and flowers which are stereotypically taken to a funeral. An arrangement of light and dark colouring will be used; dark for when the character is at her weakest and light qualities when she is reminiscing on her and her partner’s life together.
Conventions of a Ballad: For my A2 Media Production I have chosen to analyse the “Ballad” music genre; I hope to directly and critically evaluate the genres cliché codes and conventions and in addition re in act them during my final production, however juxtapose the stereotypical ballad to direct to a mainstream audience. However once critically analysing the genre conventions I will have a clearer view of whether I can change the conventions without directly changing the genre. The typically music video consists of the following; editing to the beat of the music, as well as cinematography as well as a strong and unique narrative, which tells a direct narrative throughout. A balled is a poem of a sentimental nature and generally reflects folk tales, the simple stanzas and poem like qualities generally are repetitive; I noticed a strong tradition of repeat pattern when analysing the lyrics “Hallelujah”. Hallelujah is repeatedly sung over and over again to engage the audience; the repetitiveness creates a direct mode of address to the audience in lyric terms as well as direct mode of attention. The stereotypical ballad usually consists of a cliché love narrative; the equilibrium being a general disruption (heartbreak) and the resolution as the lyrics reach climax and becomes powerful.
The importance of codes and conventions within a Ballad distinguish in which audience it is aimed to, generally ballads are represented to a mainstream target audience, the emotional lyrics and powerful opera themed genre being stereotypical does generally relate to woman. After analysing few ballad lyrics and their videos, I have noticed some distinct similarities; the dramatic stressed cliché love story, the break up and finding inner strength. Furthermore the emotional cinematography of extreme close ups; close ups illustrating motion, the high angled shots portraying vulnerability and weakness within the narrative and finally low angled cinematography having the strength and ability to overcome fear. The mise-en-scene within a ballad highlights the strong difference within music genres; soft lighting or in fact dark lighting is used to enhance the emotion within the lyrics. Within the music video “Hallelujah” both soft and dark lighting is used, the darkness generally juxtaposed with cinematography. The darkness highlights vulnerability and the narrative being at a dark point, for example being stereotypically heartbroken. A change in lighting occurs when the narrative reaches its highlighted strong point, when weakness is overcome or in a ballad narrative, stereotypically a character gaining strength and regaining happiness. Colour is kept to a minimum and consists of mostly natural colours, pale nudes and delicate whites. The neutral colour scheme enhances the inner beauty of the lyrics and the artist narrative, I wish to include this convention within my final production piece, the artist within the narrative will wear a long white flowing dress, in which I will design and make myself. My idea was encouraged my studying Alexandra McQueen within Textiles, I hope to reproduce a fairy tale gown (encouraged by the fiction story of the princess living at the bottom of Alexandra’s garden), with angel like qualities. The simplistic colour scheme will illustrate natural beauty, which shall be evidenced soft lighting and weak editing. These conventions illustrate the cliché melodramatic Ballad. Within my final production piece I hope to include a strong narrative, I will be using the cliché somebody hurting (disruption) and then regaining strength narrative (resolution), however my chosen narrative includes nothing on love, which in my opinion is a slight twist to all music genres, and especially ballads.
Through highlighting the conventions within other music videos I have found except mise-en-scene; the main difference is the editing. There is an extreme limited variation within editing, the soft focus is simplistic and jump cuts are rarely used. The editing is focused due to the beat of the music, ballads concentrate mainly on the “romantic” instruments, pianos, violins etc therefore fast editing Is limited. The stereotypical pace should be slow, however this may juxtapose within my piece especially during the dramatic climax. Varied shots are used within cinematography, extreme close ups and close ups however stand out to be the most popular; the closer shots illustrate emotion within a character and intimacy, and allow an audience to create a strong relationship with the artist. The soft lyrics portray high levelled cinematography illustrating vulnerability where as the strong ballad (opera melodramatic themed) contrasts low cinematography, this conveys the character gaining confidence and showing dominance.
Another code and convention which stood out amongst all genres of music and their videos is the direct reference to the lyrics, for example within Hallelujah the lyrics “please the Lord” illustrates religious connotations, and within the video candles are demonstrated. The light from the candle co notates religious references, for example hope, or a light burning out. A light burning out may convey darkness, upset, and even in extreme circumstances a life ending. Personally I hope to change the stereotypically ballad and use conventions from other genres, to relate to a more direct mainstream audience, for example dismemberment is used with pop or R “n” B genres of music, however I hope to juxtapose with typical dismemberment and instead of focusing on a females “sexy” features, for example her legs.. I hope to focus on her eyes to illustrate raw emotion, or her smile, so it will connote voyeurism but within a different focus. Secondly I will include non diagetic sound within the video to hopefully highlight a disaster; an argument or something tragic happening. My main focus is to deteriorate away from the cliché ballad of a dramatised love scene.
Before creating my video I must analyse a series of videos and research them efficiently to be able to construct a successful video of my own, I have chosen to analyse Katy Perry: analyse “Thinking of you” due to the beauty within the lyrics as well as the delicate nature within the footage/ music video. I am particularly interested within the music video as the narrative of portraying a death is something in which I wish to achieve, however this has proven difficult due to not having the accessibility to specialist equipment. For example at first I wanted to illustrate the death, and show the audience. I wished to show the actress dancing and falling to the floor, and as she fell, imagery/ video footage of the actor would be illustrated within a tragedy, for example a car crash. Although I believe this to be effective and to connect with the heart of the audience having limited time and equipment unfortunately lead me to change the narrative slightly within the video. I have chosen to analyse “Thinking of you” to connect with the typical conventions of illustrating a death without creating stereotypical footage. The narrative and lyrics illustrate she is having an affair “when I’m with him, I am thinking of you” or indeed caught within a love triangle. A repeat of religious references are portrayed, and unfortunately Katy’s true “Love” passes away within action, therefore Katy is left portraying the narrative to the audience. Thinking of you is written and sang by Katy Perry, released January 12 2009 by the label Capitol, and is a collaboration of pop and soft rock genres. I believe that the ideology behind the video was obviously to promote Katy Perry but also to represent the narrative. The ideology relates to old traditional times, representing a 50s musical era, this is presented through the sepia toned footage and repeat referencing to biblical environments and mise en scene. “The music video is presented as a flashback montage with a young woman (played by Perry) whose lover is killed in France during the Second World War”
Whilst analysing the narrative for “Thinking of you” I have come to the conclusion that on narrative term it relates highly to Kate Domaille, her theory is that every narrative can be fitted within one of the eight narrative types, each of the following narrative types have a source and a story in which others are based; Achilles, Greek hero or Trojan War; the fatal flaw in which leads to the fatal destruction of the previously flawless. The Candide, the hero who cannot be put down, James Bond for example. Thirdly the Cinderella; the fairytale story which came true for example Pretty woman; having nothing, and finding that one person who means and has everything. The Circe is the innocent and the victim, the chase. The Faust is selling your soul to the devil, where in first act may bring you riches and happiness however within the end your soul initially belongs to him. The Orpheus which is the loss of something personal or in fact a tragic loss, this narrative was foreseen in the film Law abiding citizen, where the father loses his child and wife. The Romeo and Juliet the typical cliché love story featured in most narrative equilibriums. Lastly the Tristan and Iseult; the love triangle where in narrative a cheating scandal may occur or simply two people fall in love however one is already occupied within a relationship. “Thinking of you” initially can relate within two of the eight narrative theories; The Orpheus and the Tristan and Iseult. The Orpheus concludes where Katy loses her true love, her something personal and tragic was drastically taken away from her within a battle at war, close up cinematography of his photograph’s are portrayed as well as a letter documenting his death, close up cinematography is used regularly within the video, close ups of Katy crying whilst applying her lipstick shows an in depth raw emotion as well as implying the bleeding mascara cliché. However the narrative conveys mostly their life’s together, and not the tragic loss, therefore I feel the narrative relates most strongly to the Tristan and Iseult theory, due to the fact of the narrative insinuating Katy was cheating on her former boyfriend with the man she lost “When I’m with him I am thinking of you”, the narrative illustrates her past memories within their relationship and how happy she is, however with her former boyfriend a weakened confidence level is portrayed through to Katy not looking directly within the camera as well as looking away, conveying the illustration that she is ashamed of herself or guilty.
The mise en scene within the narrative of the video portrays strong religious beliefs and biblical references, these however relate to Katy’s upbringing as a child as her family where extremely religious whilst growing up, in argument the narrative conveys a hidden respect for her family and religion due to her knowingly stating the right from wrong “I was disgusted with myself”. One of the main focal points of religion within the video is the repeat illustration of a crucifix, a principle symbol for Christians and the redemption of man kind. A crucifix also demonstrates a belief in faith, the narrative within the story portrays Katy losing something so close and valuable within her life, that to keep her strong she must believe and have faith. Faith is a beautiful quality repeated within many of her lyrics, the song “Firework” for example “After a hurricane comes a rainbow” illustrating that after something terrible, something beautiful must follow evidencing the religious qualities within her lyrics. I believe the lyrics “Apple hanging from a tree” is influenced through Adam and Eve, another biblical reference. Eve takes the apple from the Garden of Eden due to the seduction of the serpent, the serpent within the narrative being the man she lost, her second lover, the temptation. Adam and Eve due to temptation lost everything, where as similarly Katy has lost everything in a sense that she loses her love within the narrative as he is killed in action and secondly she loses her husband, this is portrayed as he removes his wedding ring. After attending a Katy Perry concert she explained to the audience that the lyrics “Thinking of you” conveys choice, and illustrates a love triangle.
The Mise en scene repeatedly illustrates a differential time frame from when it was released; therefore the biblical references and sepia colouring have purposely been portrayed to illustrate the difference in time, which also conveys the difference within people’s moral and ethnical values, mainly within religion. The narrative portrays a woman having an affair on her husband, within religious and the old fashioned time period adultery was scowled upon deeply, especially within religious families. Woman who had been caught having an affair or accused of cheating within an older time period would be stoned, an audience would repeatedly torture and threw stones at their victim until they died, however ethnical values have changed. “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone” the quotation taken from within the bible references the change of adultery. Jesus wouldn’t allow the woman to be stoned as the men who had caught her where within sin themselves, therefore they were hypocrites. The repeat of close up cinematography of Katy looking within the camera conveys her raw emotion and evidences that she feels guilty. Within the cinematography Katy feels so ashamed she cannot even look at her husband, she is portrayed facing away, slightly after the audience see him removing his wedding ring emphasising that their relationship is over. Again divorce or the end of a relationship is something that was slightly scorned upon within religious families. The constant repeat of biblical references emphasizes the sentimental nature and her graceful persona. Sepia colouring is repeated throughout Katy’s double life love scene, with again references to time, however may also convey a thought or feeling, for example when is she within her “loves” company the colouring is brighter therefore she is portrayed as happier whereas where she is within her husbands company the colouring within the video is darker and sepia. Close up cinematography of Katy stood behind a window pane is conveyed illustrating a prison related environment conveying entrapment. Again the close up portrays Katy’s raw emotion, that she is trapped within her double life and the love triangle. A black and white photograph is removed from within a bible, again connoting religious references and beliefs. The photograph references an indication to time, the representation to their time and age.
Within the first few seconds of Thinking of you, a repeat of diagetic sound is illustrated, a clock ticking conveying an indication of time, or portraying that she is waiting for her “Love” to come back to her. Immediately the vintage inspired clock conveys to the audience the differential time scale. The mise en scene within the narrative is the strongest relation and evidence to time. An opulent perfume bottle again vintage inspired illustrates old fashion connotations, and indicates a reference to a glamorous lifestyle or indeed that she is groomed. I believe that the perfume bottle is an indication to her second life, as she applies her perfume she looks back, as if she is ashamed indicating that she is applying perfume for her “love” her second man. The marital home within the narrative is conveyed within a sequence of sepia lighting, and religious connotations. The repeat of the crucifix and bible indications portrays the home to be a stereotypical religious lifestyle, rather than an actual home and happy marriage. In every sequence where Katy is portrayed as a wife and seen with her husband she is always within their house, and never outside portraying a sense of entrapment, constantly she is within the house, stood behind a window pain, or sat behind a desk, each of these features connate entrapment and prison like connotations. However in juxtaposition when she is within her ”Loves” company the lighting is bright, and stereotypically the sunshine is shining illustrating happiness, these scenes in which include her second lover are the first scenes that she smiles within the video. The scenes are portrayed outside emphasising on their freedom within the relationship whereas in contrast with her husband the lighting is dark portraying unhappiness. Her husband is illustrated in reading glasses, a shirt and tie, conveying a professional man with strict values. Another difference within the mise en scene within both relationships are the costumes. Bland shoes and smart decreased dresses are worn when she is within the company of her husband, portraying a traditional sentiment. Nude nail varnish and a nude dress are used within the first scene illustrating a delicate and graceful nature as well as portraying purity and innocence which contrasts slightly with the adultery based narrative. The bland use of costume for mise en scene emphasises on a rather boring and traditional lifestyle however within the company of her second lover, she wears summery clothes and the clothes are shorter, illustrating a sexy persona emphasising that when she is with him, she can be who ever she wishes to be, she can be herself. I believe that the narrative has been influenced through personal past experiences, the religious traditional family narrative is the lie, the life she has been living to please people, for example to please her parents. The narrative within the second relationship is the life she wishes to lead, however feels guilty, I believe that the narrative is a short sequence of personal past experiences of what she feels she must do and what she wants to do.
The mise en scene is the language of the moving image, it portrays everything which is shown before the camera, and illustrates that each distinct quality gives a unique meaning to the narrative. Thinking of you is based solely on the narrative, however shows indications of performance clips but within the narrative. Therefore conventionally performers create a narrative and have them outside of it performing, where as within Thinking of you Katy has collaborated both narrative and performance, this beautifully challenges the conventions of narrative and performance clips, and although I believe it does work, I wish to create a music video where the lyrics create the narrative, therefore I would have an actress singing, and then a different actress conveying the narrative, rather like Eminems and Rihannas, Love the way you lie music video. Another aspect of the video I feel which challenges the conventions are shots being slightly titled towards a strange angle, take the screen shot above for example, Katy is slightly positioned towards the left of the video illustrating the bland room. The simplistic room conveys bland walls evidencing a basic and prison like environment, portraying that the marital home is dark, boring and prison like. The room is presented within darkness, the only light is reflected from within the mirror. The window which is situated behind the mirror is the only light source which is presented, again emphasising that outside of the marital home and outside of the window is light and happiness. The reflection within the mirror of Katy conveys happiness; she is smiling whilst holding the bible and the black and white photograph of her loved one. I believe that the reflection portrays Katy reflecting back on happiness, and when she was with her “Love”. The video portrays flashback montages of Katy with her husband and with her “love”. However again the conventions of the music video are challenged, flash backs are usually portrayed within a black and white sequence or a sepia colouring, however the flash backs use brighter imagery indicating her happiness and how strong their love was. Recent footage of her and her husband is portrayed within dark and bland colouristic; completely challenging the conventions however works perfectly, as it illustrates raw emotion and direct feeling. I believe that the narrative and use of challenged conventions interact with the audience. The audience feed of the emotion and relate to it, especially those who can connect to the reality of the narrative. The mise en scene conveys Katy’s dressing gown slightly slipping, and showing reference to skin, the imagery slightly shows the straps of her bra, indicating a sexual reference and portraying equilibrium. The back is foreseen to be an extremely sexy feature, this small indication illustrates a differential side to Katy, that she is lustrous and sexy. The lustrous side is limited when she is within her husbands company, hence the dressing gown. However when she is within her “loves” company the clothes are all which is limited. Repeatedly imagery within the video shows a direct indication of time, the crucifix hanging from the mirror, the Vintage inspired dressing table and the vintage inspired circular boxes. Pearls are illustrated on her dressing table and shown throughout the music video; they evidence the indication of time, and represent vintage inspired qualities. However theory suggests that each pearl is made from a pure tear drop, and are regularly associated with heartache. I feel that the pearls portray her raw emotion; her former lover has died in action. The pearls evidence her heartbreak.
Above is a screen shot I have subtracted from” Thinking of you”. I feel that this evidences perfectly the contrast within footage from when she is within both of the men’s company. As I have already mentioned when she is within her husbands company, the colours used are dark, almost black and white and sepia toned, challenging the conventions of footage which isn’t an actual flashback. However this image is a flashback, it shows Katy and her “love” before he was killed. The bright colouring and summer time clothes challenge the stereotype of typical flashbacks. Within the image we see glimpses of light shimmering through the trees. The light just breaking through illustrates the essence of freedom and relief, the light manipulates the use of an extended metaphor and illustrates happiness attempting to break through, just like the light from the sunshine. I believe this to be one of the strongest qualities throughout the video, as it conveys her happiness and connects with the audience. Summer like qualities are portrayed throughout the sequence of footage, she is presented in smaller and skimpier outfits. The small red dress conveys sexual qualities as the colour red presents the audience with a lustrous stereotype. A repeat of flesh is on show, again using equilibrium to attract the audience. He is presented within a yellow polo shirt; stereotypically yellow conveys indications of the sunshine and represents happiness. This presents to the audience how happy the couple are again this is evidenced through Katy laughing, laughing so hard that her head is tilted back onto him, also portraying that she trust him, as he is holding her full body weight. Together they are portrayed riding a bike, representing freedom however in juxtaposition this could show an indication of running away from something? For example running away from her husband, the lies, her double life? The last piece of mise en scene I find creates strong narrative are the trees within the background, they illustrate the beauty of nature and natural qualities? Again I believe this is an extended metaphor and conveys to the audience that them two being together is natural.
The cinematography represented within music videos shows great understanding of narrative, each shot is distinctively used in purpose to create an effect. Extreme close ups and close ups are using repeatedly within the video to create the effect of raw emotion. The lyrics themselves are very emotional however the continuity of emotion between lyrics and footage also show great emotion. When creating my final outcome of a music video I hope to use close ups of lip sync as the artist sings, I believe that this will create a strong focal point of emotion. A distinct range of still cinematography and hand held cinematography is repeatedly used throughout the narrative, alongside slow paced editing evidencing the emotion within Thinking of you.
I have chosen to analyse Love the way you lie, released June 8th 2010, by recording artists Rihanna and Eminem, the collaboration of artists is successful as both have personal connections to the issue of domestic violence at hand. Rihanna herself was a victim of domestic violence by her former ex boyfriend Chris Brown, and Eminem had a violent and abusive relationship with his ex wife Kim. The personal issues which both have with the connections of the lyrics and brutality of the video allow the audience to develop an understanding of the narrative. The music video was released by labels Shady records, Aftermath and Interscope and the genre is contemporary RnB with slight indications to hip hop genre. Love the way you lie illustrates collaboration between performance and narrative, a strong convention formalised within music videos. The narrative repeatedly changes from the narrative footage of the couple arguing and then back to the performance of the actual artists themselves. The performance isn’t entirely broken up from the narrative itself, this is evidenced from the establishing shot of the house. Rihanna and Eminem perform outside of the house, which is the main location for the narrative of Megan Fox and Dominic Monagham. The lyrics and visualisations of narrative strongly attack the matter at hand; it substantially tackles domestic violence and abuse however not formally correctly. Unfortunately the narrative fails to illustrate direct verisimilitude; it doesn’t convey the correct conventions of domestic violence, advantageously it does portray that physiological hold within violent relationships however the video itself glamorises and sexualises domestic violence, illustrating that inflicting pain is pleasure. Having an actress as beautiful as Megan Fox to convey such a serious matter only demoralises the subject at hand, the repeat interplay of sexual violence and passion completely demoralises domestic violence. It subtracts the seriousness from the matter, and conveys how individuals feed of another’s rage. However something I feel must be applauded within the narrative itself, is the extended metaphorical use of both in the relationship are within the wrong. The directors have challenged that typical stereotype that it is men who are the main causes of domestic violence when in fact, both in the relationship are wrong, and that both parties convey stylistics of domestic violence. In fact the first scene of domestic violence is portrayed by the woman (Megan Fox) again completely challenging that stereotype. The narrative itself glamorises love hate relationships evidenced by the brutality of the lyrics “I like the way it hurts”, why would anybody like the way it hurts? Why would somebody like to be lied to? It completely disrespects the matter and again demoralises it. Within the narrative we foresee the couple repeatedly breaking up, showing diverse domestic violence and then making up illustrating sexual pleasures, portraying that couples in domestic violence consistently brake up and make up, break up and make up again. What example does this set for teenagers or people within abusive relationships? It shows that running back to another person who beats, or hits or shouts, is ok, people on the television are doing it? Celebrities are doing it; I feel it sets a poor example and was brutally surprised by the narrative of the video. Especially as Rihanna did leave her ex boyfriend, and did break free from the abusive relationship. No where within the narrative does the couple brake up officially, they threaten to, but never do, again emphasising on that physiological hold within violent relationships “I love you too much to walk away now”. The vicious lyrics have substantially affected the music video itself, a strong convention is having the lyrics and visuals interplaying one another, Love the way you lie does this beautifully, the harsh brutality and the vicious lyrics are illustrated within the visualisation of the footage.
Another factor I find highly demoralising is how Rihanna is portrayed to the audience. She is portrayed wearing small leather biker shorts and a tight leather jacket, illustrating a sexy persona. The subject at hand is supposed to be based around domestic violence not sex. I believe that the repeat of the leather within the outfit illustrates sexual conventions of S&M and bondage like qualities, emphasising on woman being portrayed as sex symbols, again glamorising abusive relationships. The mise en scene of Rihannas costume is disrespectful, especially for a woman who has suffered through an ordeal of abusive behaviour. Rihanna is conveyed as an extremely glamorous woman, she is wearing lip gloss emphasising on the shape and plumpness of her lips, the close up is illustrated to show raw emotion however Rihanna repeatedly sneers towards the camera, challenging the conventions of emotion. The repeat of red within mise en scene illustrates a range of qualities, her red hair and matching nails conveys glamorous representations of woman. To me the red immediately conveys a direct indication to sex and lust, and as I have already mentioned glamorising abusive relationships and behaviour. However in juxtaposition the red could be a significant sign of danger, as the following clips convey brutal domestic violence. A burning house is portrayed behind Rihanna was she is performing; the flames are slightly out of focus allowing Rihanna to stand tall and be the ideal focus within the performance. I believe that the burning house signifies the tearing down and breaking of a relationship. The burning house also creates a visualisation for the lyrics “tie her to the bed and set this house on fire” and “and watch me burn, but that’s alright because I like the way it hurts”. Rihanna is only present for the chorus itself conveying her importance, Eminem however is the dominant party portraying male dominance. Still cinematography and slow editing is present throughout Rihannas chorus.
Eminems lyrics attempt to justify the behaviour of domestic and abusive violence again referencing that physiological hold, which is present within abusive relationships. The lyrics manipulate what is formally present within a relationship, making a parody of the loving somebody too much, to physically have the strength to leave them motive. Eminems lyrics create a strong verisimilitude as they are strong and powerful, and do heavily relate to the subject at hand “Now I know we said things, did things, that we didn't mean, and we fall back into the same patterns, same routine”. Eminem also uses a play on words within his lyrics rapping about the window pane but metaphorically meaning pain. He is dressed within a tank vest stereotypically something “wife beaters” wear, the mise en scene of his costume connects with the visualisation of the lyrics and emphasises on the stereotype of men being the actual cause of domestic violence. The visuals and lyrics connect with one another and strengthen each of the characteristics. His lyrics convey a strength of truth which I feel connects to a specific audience as they respect his lyrics and the honestly. I feel that the actual song itself connects to any age genre that have been involved or know somebody involved within a violent relationship, I feel that the song relates to a mass audience of male and females aged 18 to 25. Eminems rapping solos consists of speeded pan movements and fast paced editing emphasising on the seriousness of the song and the consistency and speed of the lyrics and upbeat tempo. The cinematography switches regularly from extreme close ups, close ups and extreme wide shots, this enables the audience to see the mise en scene located behind Eminem. Unlike Rihannas solo chorus the background of Eminems mise en scene is within focus, emphasising on the need for the background of corn fields and faded skies. I believe that naturalistic mise en scene has been used to create a sense of freedom and truth, the large space inhibits freedom like qualities. Where as in contrast the faded almost grey skies inhibit that its getting dark and almost over therefore must go home and face the abuse. The footage of Eminem is still therefore not hand held, which I feel challenges the conventions of an upbeat and fast based tempo. The editing used is extremely fast as is the violence within the relationship.
Within the narrative of the video the audience repeatedly watch the relationship break down within several occasions and build itself up with the intensity of sexual pleasures, both within the relationship are viewed as the antagonist and protagonist as we watch each feed of insecurities and each others rage, illustrating the greatest metaphor within, that both parties within the relationship are in the wrong, challenging that stereotype of the male being the antagonist. The performance of the video of Eminem and Rihanna is filmed mostly still imagery on a tripod however when the narrative is filmed and the couple are together the shots are mostly hand held, illustrating the confusion within the relationship. Hand held shots are purposely used to create effect, to establish to the audience the verisimilitude and to make the audience feel that they are actually there themselves to create an emotional relationship between the visuals, lyrics and audience. The hand held cinematography illustrates the tension within their relationship and its shaky status. Dominic is portrayed within a wife beater tank vest; the vest conveys his tattoos to the audience which stereotypically conveys a rebellious character, this is reinstated as he steals alcohol whilst shopping. His bald head and unshaven face conveys a rough and rugged character which could be seen as a sexual advantage as the term “rough and rugged” is usually associated with a sexy bad boy image, which illustrates a strong sex appeal. Megan is a beautiful young actress and is extremely popular within the media text of film; within Love the way you lie she is portrayed as Dominic’s girlfriend, and within an abusive relationship. Chained bracelets are wrapped around her wrists illustrating that she is within chains and cannot break free from the relationship, she is chained to the relationship. Her hair juxtaposes from her typical image of being extremely groomed and beautiful, her hair is rugged and messed up, illustrating that she and her partner have been within a fight, the messy hair could also be a metaphor of their messed up relationship together. Within most narrative scenes the couple are portrayed within the house, the first scene of the couple together are lied within their bed suggesting that they live together. Each scene however of them two together is illustrated within darkness, emphasising on entrapment, and prison like qualities. The imagery of the music video portrays that the only relative of light is from the window pane, conveying that within the house and within their relationship is utter darkness, outside of the house and of the relationship is brightness and freedom.
Origins of the Music Video:
A music video is a 3-5 minute piece of edited recorded footage, usually illustrating a short film, or an amount of recorded photography which accompanies a piece of music, generally used for advertising purposes, for example advertising the actual song itself and publicising the artist. Music videos have varied purposes and can be created within a numerous of techniques, in my opinion music videos rely highly on “narcissistic” as within the “glamorous” world of music one must be obsessed with themselves to achieve a professional musical lifestyle. An artist must exceed confidence therefore be narcissistic. Narcissistic is a post modern feature again another quality I believe music videos are highly dependant on, post modernism itself cannot be defined as one feature however numerous. Eclecticism I believe is the strongest post modern feature a music video must rely on, a wide range of influences, contributions and techniques. Also music videos rely on an Active audience “The assertion that meaning and experience can only be created by the individual, and cannot be made objective by an author or narrator: an assumption of an intelligent and active audience”: Intertextuality “an authors borrowing and transformation of a prior text” and Bricolage “a technique where works are constructed from various materials available”. Animation footage can be included within a music video as well as flash formatted files, simple drawing animations: rotoscoping. Live footage of the artist singing within a concert and a video may also include a short narrative illustrating or promotion a film. Some music videos include a mixture, and use Bricolage as it has been constructed from various materials in which are available and accusable for an artist/ producer to use. A typical convention of a music video is to have the footage linking with the analysis of the lyrics for example using candles to represent religious connotations if biblical references are within the lyrics. However the codes and conventions of music videos are sometimes challenged, and a certain narrative or picture doesn’t show a direct consistency with the lyrics. Music videos are the medium intended to appear directly to youth subcultures through reinforcing generic elements of music genres, again emphasising on the intent and dependency within post modern features.
Through to the advance within digitisation, music and how it is and has been portrayed has changed during the decades. Music videos soured with popularity due to the BBC’s Top of the Pops, the establishment and popularity of Top of the Pops allowed music videos to come into prominence within the late 70s and early 80s, MTV based their format around the medium which allowed the music video to engage with an audience and in theory to be born and invented. It wasn’t until the late 70s and early 80s that video recordings advanced within popularity, before that however broadcasters would record TV programmes on 2 inch video tapes. Technologies have also advanced due to the impact of miniaturisation, vinyl records miniaturising through to CDS and Ipods etc. The increase of technology has allowed music videos to be watched within an Ipod format; therefore music videos are more accessible which allows a higher demand for them to be created. The impact and change within technology has advantaged many music label records, Sony for example, Sony uses proliferation whilst mass producing their CDS as they are produced faster, as well as cheaper. Sony takes advantage of recent technologies and releases their singles digitally through the use of Itunes and YouTube. Watching videos on YouTube or social networking sites allow them to create a strong fan base and to interact with an active audience. After digital production, the CDS are advertised and then distributed. Institutions advertise particular songs through the use of synergy, for example music being placed within a different format and onto a soundtrack video game to target a specific audience, i.e. a rock themed genre. An example of how Sony has used Synergy is shown within the film Hitch, where the music production has been placed over film production, to advertise one another (vertical integration) The film advertises the song; therefore if an audience likes the film they are likely to buy the song as well as advertising the artist and actor Will Smith. The same was done with the completion of the Madonna music video promoting “Die another day”. The video is a direct inter textual reference, the video portrays Madonna within the James Bond role that of a spy. The imagery conveys interrogation and torturing, emphasising on the protagonist and antagonist within the roles.
The Beatles were the creators of the first music video, or in fact the one which can be credited for as it was in fact used as a promotional tool, to advertise and promote The Beatles. The Beatles achieved wide world fame within the music industry by 1965. Their popularity had ridden to an extreme and through to that popularity they didn’t have the time to appear on television programmes and shows throughout the world in which institutions wanted them to. Due to the high demand of audience and customers, The Beatles made a series of short promotional films designed specifically for television producers and broadcasters throughout the world. The Beatles found appearing on live TV and doing performances reparative and general, they felt it interfered with their creativity and freedom in which they had within studio recordings. The promotional films were iconoclastic humour and they were in fact a sense of fun however they do appear within more sophisticated forms in “Firm Help”. Within 1966, 19-20 May they filmed further promotional films for “Rain” and “Paperback Writer”, the videos were assembled in both black and white and coloured edits. This alone was a transformation within the development of music video however European channels were still within the very early elements of colour, therefore seeing something that had never been created before and being within colour was revolutionary within the specific time period. Britain’s first colour broadcast came with BBC2s transmission of the 1967 Wimbledon tournament. As it did then and as it does now, the music industry strives of competition, The Beatles filmed various differential promotional videos, each being different for competitors therefore rivals could emphasise on having so called exclusives with The Beatles. “Strawberry fields forever” within 1967 marked an evolutionary breakthrough within the industry of short films and music video production. January 1967, The Beatles recorded a single promotional film for each of the songs, for the first time, both of the music videos were created without any pretence of performing the song, therefore the feel of the songs storyboard and narrative illustrated the action. As I said earlier the work within the videos improved and establishes a sophisticated approach unlike the early music videos, however saying that music videos were entirely new within the market, therefore codes and conventions were non existent. The cinematography was “impressively artistic” and again this began a revolutionary start for music videos. “Penny lane” was one of their more sophisticated music videos, directed by Peter Foldmann, a Swedish friend of Klaus Voormann. “The magical mystery tour” was the closest to a feature length music video, unfortunately it was deeply criticized by critics, and was unfairly viewed by many as a “self indulgent mess” (Stated above: Music videos depend heavily on post modern features Narcissistic” which brought a halt to The Beatles TV industry career. The music is vintage Beatles and seen as a prototype music video. Overall they produced simplistic; sophisticated and individual music videos, and were the beginning of the music video industry.
The History of Music Videos: Due to lack of technologies within the 1890s music videos were extremely different to how they are now, now differential ranges of editing and mise en scene techniques are available to transform footage and make them surreal and post modern. Now artists depend on post modern features and creative futuristic technique. Within 1894 “The little lost child” published by Edwards B, Marks and Joe Stern, was one of the first so called “music videos”. A series of projected still images on a screen were used of live performances as well as simultaneous images, apparently this was to become a popular form of entertainment known as the illustrated song, the so called first step to music video. I believe that even to this day and stage, the projected images and the features from “The little lost child” are used within music videos. Performers use live video footage to create verisimilitude, I believe that this has been adapted from the early ages of music videos. In 1926 was the arrival of the “Talkies” this was when many musical short films were produced. Vitaphone shorts featured many bands, vocalists and dancers which was produced by the institution Warner brothers. Spooney Melodies within 1930 were the first true music video series. “Shorts” was six minutes in duration and featured stylistics as art deco, style animations and a range of backgrounds combined with film or the performer singing. Animation artist Max Fleischer created and introduced sing-along short cartoons called “Screen Songs”, this allowed audiences to sing along to popular songs by “Following the bouncy ball”, again this stylistic has been adapted and used within recent music videos and films, take the musical Mamma Mia released June 30th 2008 and directed by Phyllida Lloyd. The success of Mamma Mia was so strong that they released a cinema sing along version. Early 1930s cartoons featured popular musicians performing their hit songs on-camera in live-action segments during the cartoons. The early animated films by Walt Disney, such as the Silly Symphonies shorts and especially Fantasia, which featured several interpretations of classical pieces, were built around music. The Warner Brothers cartoons, even today billed as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, were initially fashioned around specific songs from upcoming Warner Brother’s films. Warner Brothers also produced the cartoon "Three Pigs in a Polka", set to Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dances. Live action musical shorts, featuring such popular performers as Cab Calloway, were also distributed to theatres. Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a two-reel short film called St. Louis Blues (1929) featuring a dramatized performance of the hit song. Numerous other musicians appeared in short musical subjects during this period. Later, in the mid-1940s, musician Louis Jordan made short films for his songs, some of which were spliced together into a feature film Lookout Sister. These films were, according to music historian Donald Clarke, the "ancestors" of music video. Another early form of music video was one-song films called "promotional clips" made in the 1940s for the Panorama visual jukebox. These were short films of musical selections, usually just a band on a movie-set bandstand, made for playing. Thousands of "soundies" were made, mostly of jazz musicians, but also of torch singers, comedians, and dancers. Before the soundie, even dramatic movies typically had a musical interval, but the soundie put the music in the forefront; virtually all known jazz performers appeared in soundie shorts. The Panoram jukebox with eight three-minute soundies was popular in taverns and night spots, but the fad faded during World War II.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
For my A2 advanced portfolio in Media I have decided to create a music video alongside two supporting ancillary texts. The ancillary texts can be two of the three, a website home page, a digi pack CD case or a poster. Momentarily my decision is to concentrate on the music video itself, and then decide on the ancillary texts, I am sure I wish to produce a digi pack, however I am unsure whether to create a poster or website home page. However I am sure I will become clear after analysing the codes and conventions of each text. I will be using the skills in which I inhibited throughout AS Media Studies, and use LIIAR to analyse media texts. “A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options”
Language: Language is the appearance of the linguistic terminology; it considers all aspects featured with the actual media texts for example the moving image. It includes the necessities of creating media texts. The main language used within music videos is the cinematography, the mise en scene, editing and sound qualities. The mise en scene (placing within stage) within a video establishes the genre and mood. It is an expression to describe the design aspects within theatre or film/ music production, generally described as the visual theme within narrative. The Mise en scene is everything which appears before the camera and its arrangement, this therefore evidences that every aspect before the camera is used for a reason, to portray a mood, genre or simply signify something, for example Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of you” music video, the narrative illustrates a couple repeatedly arguing, the mise en scene of a suitcase indicates a character leaving. Each singular piece of mise en scene has carefully been chosen to convey a simplistic narrative to an audience, resulting in complex and differential mise en scene. I believe that mise en scene in one of the main characteristics in portraying narrative within a music video, it concludes of the lighting used, costume and make up abilities, each conveying strong characteristics for the narrative. Within my finalised music video I hope to portray the characteristics of death, to create a powerful and emotional narrative. My narrative isn’t completely finalised however I do have a brief initial idea. Rather like PS. I love you; I hope to convey a person within the relationship being diesis, I hope to do this by creating memories within a black and white colour property and use the repeat of the flower lilies, as lilies represent death and flowers which are stereotypically taken to a funeral. An arrangement of light and dark colouring will be used; dark for when the character is at her weakest and light qualities when she is reminiscing on her and her partner’s life together.
The editing is another substantial quality within mise en scene; conventionally the editing should fit within the beat of the music, therefore longer shots and slower editing should be used for example with a ballad or slow themed piece of music, and upbeat dance tempo should inhibit the qualities of fast based editing. As I hope to create a music video to accompany a ballad the editing techniques I use should be slow, and fit within the pause elements of the video. Every piece of music has natural pause elements; these are where the artist takes a breath, for example to sing the next verse of the song, or where the artist is paused and it is the musical elements and the melody that is portrayed to the audience. It is these sequences where I should focus on editing the footage. Editing suits convey many video transactions and effects however I want to keep the effects to a minimal, as strong, fast and upbeat editing would completely challenge the conventions of a ballad, which within some aspects could be positive however I do not think that it would look effective, therefore I will follow the conventions.
Cinematography is an extremely important factor when closely studying music videos they contain a large range of differential stylistics of shots each conveying substantial qualities. Close ups and extreme close ups tightly frame a person or an object they are used to illustrate the raw emotion within a narrative, as it conveys the detail within a frame. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character. Medium close ups are also used to create an effect, they allow the audience to see the upper body of the artist illustrating their body language, for example a medium close up of a girl showing flesh could illustrate a sensitive nature, someone fragile and naive. Establishing shots establish the content for a scene, so for example they indicate a specific location in which the entity of the video will be shot; an establishing shot conveys the relationship between its figures and its objects. Long shots or wide angled shots allow the audience to see the fuller picture of the music video; this allows an audience to feel more apart of the music video and to make an emotional attachment. High angled shots within a music video illustrate dominance where as low angled cinematography establishes a weak persona. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character, which again is a convention to support a strong narrative as well as to show establishment between the artist and audience. Conventionally following a close up becomes a medium close up or a medium shot, this portrays part of subject and establishes its body language. Body language is an important factor when portraying any character especially within a music video as it shows the character to an audience and makes an audience feel like they are there and know the artist. This again establishes the artist with the audience and a medium shot becomes an effective feature within narrative and performance clips. Again following the conventions of a music video stereotypically a long shot will follow. A long shot establishes the mise en scene of the video and allows an audience to see the bigger picture; it allows the surroundings and location to add proximity to the narrative, performance or conceptual clip. A wide range of cinematography is featured within music videos and each works and corresponds to its advantages, establishing shots, high angled and low angled shots, shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shots are also typical conventions used within a music video. As well as mise en scene, editing and cinematography, sound is used within the language of music videos.
Diagetic and non diagetic are the two main features within sound. Diagetic sound within a music video is the actual song itself. Conventionally the artist may mime the lyrics, this isn’t essential however miming does establish the artist. Within my creation of the music video I hope use lip sync as I feel it establishes a professional approach as well as the use of lip sync contrasted with the use of narrative. Non diagetic sound may also be used within a music video, conventionally within narrative. Stereotypically and conventionally non diagetic sound is used within the first sequence of a music video, not always but sometimes the narrative is built before the music itself starts. For example within Akon’s “Sorry, blame it all on me” video non diagetic sound is used within the multistranded narrative within the first 60 seconds. This builds a strong narrative already and easier for an audience to understand. Sometimes the music within the video can be broken, and non diagetic sound breaks in, conventionally it is dialogue which is used to build the narrative however sound can also be used, for example the screeching of a car to highlight the effect of a car crash. Diagetic and non diagetic sound is extremely important whist creating a music video, as each adds to the effect of the narrative.
Institution: An institution is an organisation which owns particular advertising and promotional rights; it owns all producing rights and allows the music video to be advertised efficiently therefore can be promoted. The institution focuses on making the profits from the music video, an example would be Sony music entertainment. An institution strongly focuses on advertising; they do this by promoting a song and the music video through differential standards. Sony Music Entertainment Inc, Sony was Sony BMG; a joint company 50/50 between and Sony and Bertelsmann music group, however on August 5th Sony bought BMG’s 50% stake for 1.2 billion in order to have full control and was renamed Sony music entertainment Inc. Sony music entertainment is the second largest global recorded company of the Big Four (EMI, Warner music group, Universal and Sony) and is 100% owned by the Sony Corporation of America. In 2010 ¾ major record labels scored highly within the best selling album artist Universal 6/10; EMI 3/10 and Sony 1/10. A global record group founded March 3rd 2004. Sony is a multinational conglomerate which is expanding all the time due to the advantage of being able to buy independent record labels, for example Epic. Sony owns Epic records, Columbia records and RCA which is an example of horizontal integration. Epic records is a subsidiary and owns SYCO records which is a London based entertainment record, the company rarely looks for new artists they are usually founded through TV talent shows, for example the Xfactor. The Xfactor is a globalised talent show which has expanded due to its popularity and targets a mainstream audience which encourages two way communications. For many years it has achieved number 1 within the charts; however Christmas 2009 due to a Facebook group and the impact of technology Rage against the machine were number one rather than winner of Xfactor Joe McEelderry. The impact and change within technology has advantaged Sony records, Sony uses proliferation whilst mass producing their CDS as they are produced faster, as well as cheaper. Sony takes advantage of recent technologies and releases their singles digitally through the use of Itunes and YouTube. Watching videos on YouTube or social networking sites allow them to create a strong fan base, after digital production, the CDS are advertised and then distributed. Institutions advertise particular songs through the use of synergy, for example music being placed within a different format and onto a soundtrack video game to target a specific audience, i.e. a rock themed genre. An example of how Sony has used Synergy is shown within the film Hitch, where the music production has been placed over film production, to advertise one another (vertical integration) The film advertises the song; therefore if an audience likes the film they are likely to buy the song as well as advertising the artist and actor Will Smith. Artists and singles are often advertised through the use of a personal website, artists within Sony for example each have their own website where direct information about the particular artist is obtained. Alexandra Burke’s (Epic; Subsidiary of Sony) website has information on tour dates, as well as how to purchase merchandise. The institution is an extremely strong factor within the production and creating of the video, they are in charge of the capital invested within a video, the cameras, cast, equipment, locations, and mise en scene and further more.
Ideology: The Ideology is the actual purpose of the music video and its aim, for example the idea behind the creation of the video. Conventionally the ideology within a music video is to establish and promote the artist and the song itself and more than anything to entertain. Institutions take this ideology into consideration and use language terminology to create a strong music video which involves all aspects of LIIAR. Audience is an extremely strong factor to be considered and the ideology represents the values and morals of the target audience as the audience’s ideas reflect the institutions ideas. “In sociological terms, ideology is a body of ideas or set of beliefs that underpins a process or institution and leads to social relations”.
Audience: The audience are the consumers of the music video, therefore what I intend to create must be suitable for the audience I intend to target. I intend to market towards a mass audience instead of a niche, as I feel this will work more to my advantage. I have chosen to work towards a producing a music video for a ballad, as I feel I will be able to follow the conventions of a ballad rather then something stereotypical like an R and B pop type of genre. I intend to make something different, something emotional which will draw in numerous ranges of audience, as I feel everything within their life’s go through losing someone, whether it by through death or a simple break up. Stereotypically a ballad attracts a female relative audience, however I want to challenge the stereotype and have my music video attracting a mass audience of both female and male genres aged 18+. Fortunately I am not limited to an audience; where as say a pop genre’s video would be limited to teenage early twenty years. The availability of what I create can be wider, and can access a large and stable audience. I feel that the audience I wish to aspire to is adults aged eighteen to adults within their thirty’s, maybe even forties. I feel that that majority of the audience will be females, and will inhibit a limitation of males due to the ballad genre of the song. I wish to create a music video to inhibit emotion; I hope to create a video for “Hallelujah” sang by Alexandra Burke or “Fields of Gold” sand by Eva Cassidy although my knowledge upon the codes and conventions of ballads momentarily is weak.
Representation: The representation is having the ability to represent society to the audience through the product therefore through my music video. The representation of the audience’s morals and values can be represented through the creation of the music video I intend to create. I intend to create a ballad; therefore what society stereotypically expects within a ballad should be followed, i.e. through the codes and conventions.The genre of my music video is a ballad; the characters within the video will be represented as lovers. I hope to have a female and a male playing within the couple, however the male partner has died, and what the audience sees within the video is a repeat of their memories and flash backs. However conventionally flashbacks are foreseen within black and white or sepia toned footage, I hope to challenge this convention, as I feel the narrative and strength of the lyrics should overcome the convention of flashbacks and memories. It is important that I look through other ballad music videos and study the codes and conventions of ballads. The editing will continuously be slow and I will use a range of close up cinematography to convey raw emotion as well as high angled shots to illustrate weakness and insecurity, as well as vulnerability.
Language: Language is the appearance of the linguistic terminology; it considers all aspects featured with the actual media texts for example the moving image. It includes the necessities of creating media texts. The main language used within music videos is the cinematography, the mise en scene, editing and sound qualities. The mise en scene (placing within stage) within a video establishes the genre and mood. It is an expression to describe the design aspects within theatre or film/ music production, generally described as the visual theme within narrative. The Mise en scene is everything which appears before the camera and its arrangement, this therefore evidences that every aspect before the camera is used for a reason, to portray a mood, genre or simply signify something, for example Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of you” music video, the narrative illustrates a couple repeatedly arguing, the mise en scene of a suitcase indicates a character leaving. Each singular piece of mise en scene has carefully been chosen to convey a simplistic narrative to an audience, resulting in complex and differential mise en scene. I believe that mise en scene in one of the main characteristics in portraying narrative within a music video, it concludes of the lighting used, costume and make up abilities, each conveying strong characteristics for the narrative. Within my finalised music video I hope to portray the characteristics of death, to create a powerful and emotional narrative. My narrative isn’t completely finalised however I do have a brief initial idea. Rather like PS. I love you; I hope to convey a person within the relationship being diesis, I hope to do this by creating memories within a black and white colour property and use the repeat of the flower lilies, as lilies represent death and flowers which are stereotypically taken to a funeral. An arrangement of light and dark colouring will be used; dark for when the character is at her weakest and light qualities when she is reminiscing on her and her partner’s life together.
The editing is another substantial quality within mise en scene; conventionally the editing should fit within the beat of the music, therefore longer shots and slower editing should be used for example with a ballad or slow themed piece of music, and upbeat dance tempo should inhibit the qualities of fast based editing. As I hope to create a music video to accompany a ballad the editing techniques I use should be slow, and fit within the pause elements of the video. Every piece of music has natural pause elements; these are where the artist takes a breath, for example to sing the next verse of the song, or where the artist is paused and it is the musical elements and the melody that is portrayed to the audience. It is these sequences where I should focus on editing the footage. Editing suits convey many video transactions and effects however I want to keep the effects to a minimal, as strong, fast and upbeat editing would completely challenge the conventions of a ballad, which within some aspects could be positive however I do not think that it would look effective, therefore I will follow the conventions.
Cinematography is an extremely important factor when closely studying music videos they contain a large range of differential stylistics of shots each conveying substantial qualities. Close ups and extreme close ups tightly frame a person or an object they are used to illustrate the raw emotion within a narrative, as it conveys the detail within a frame. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character. Medium close ups are also used to create an effect, they allow the audience to see the upper body of the artist illustrating their body language, for example a medium close up of a girl showing flesh could illustrate a sensitive nature, someone fragile and naive. Establishing shots establish the content for a scene, so for example they indicate a specific location in which the entity of the video will be shot; an establishing shot conveys the relationship between its figures and its objects. Long shots or wide angled shots allow the audience to see the fuller picture of the music video; this allows an audience to feel more apart of the music video and to make an emotional attachment. High angled shots within a music video illustrate dominance where as low angled cinematography establishes a weak persona. A close up establishes the artist to an audience as it distinguishes a main character, which again is a convention to support a strong narrative as well as to show establishment between the artist and audience. Conventionally following a close up becomes a medium close up or a medium shot, this portrays part of subject and establishes its body language. Body language is an important factor when portraying any character especially within a music video as it shows the character to an audience and makes an audience feel like they are there and know the artist. This again establishes the artist with the audience and a medium shot becomes an effective feature within narrative and performance clips. Again following the conventions of a music video stereotypically a long shot will follow. A long shot establishes the mise en scene of the video and allows an audience to see the bigger picture; it allows the surroundings and location to add proximity to the narrative, performance or conceptual clip. A wide range of cinematography is featured within music videos and each works and corresponds to its advantages, establishing shots, high angled and low angled shots, shot reverse shot and over the shoulder shots are also typical conventions used within a music video. As well as mise en scene, editing and cinematography, sound is used within the language of music videos.
Diagetic and non diagetic are the two main features within sound. Diagetic sound within a music video is the actual song itself. Conventionally the artist may mime the lyrics, this isn’t essential however miming does establish the artist. Within my creation of the music video I hope use lip sync as I feel it establishes a professional approach as well as the use of lip sync contrasted with the use of narrative. Non diagetic sound may also be used within a music video, conventionally within narrative. Stereotypically and conventionally non diagetic sound is used within the first sequence of a music video, not always but sometimes the narrative is built before the music itself starts. For example within Akon’s “Sorry, blame it all on me” video non diagetic sound is used within the multistranded narrative within the first 60 seconds. This builds a strong narrative already and easier for an audience to understand. Sometimes the music within the video can be broken, and non diagetic sound breaks in, conventionally it is dialogue which is used to build the narrative however sound can also be used, for example the screeching of a car to highlight the effect of a car crash. Diagetic and non diagetic sound is extremely important whist creating a music video, as each adds to the effect of the narrative.
Institution: An institution is an organisation which owns particular advertising and promotional rights; it owns all producing rights and allows the music video to be advertised efficiently therefore can be promoted. The institution focuses on making the profits from the music video, an example would be Sony music entertainment. An institution strongly focuses on advertising; they do this by promoting a song and the music video through differential standards. Sony Music Entertainment Inc, Sony was Sony BMG; a joint company 50/50 between and Sony and Bertelsmann music group, however on August 5th Sony bought BMG’s 50% stake for 1.2 billion in order to have full control and was renamed Sony music entertainment Inc. Sony music entertainment is the second largest global recorded company of the Big Four (EMI, Warner music group, Universal and Sony) and is 100% owned by the Sony Corporation of America. In 2010 ¾ major record labels scored highly within the best selling album artist Universal 6/10; EMI 3/10 and Sony 1/10. A global record group founded March 3rd 2004. Sony is a multinational conglomerate which is expanding all the time due to the advantage of being able to buy independent record labels, for example Epic. Sony owns Epic records, Columbia records and RCA which is an example of horizontal integration. Epic records is a subsidiary and owns SYCO records which is a London based entertainment record, the company rarely looks for new artists they are usually founded through TV talent shows, for example the Xfactor. The Xfactor is a globalised talent show which has expanded due to its popularity and targets a mainstream audience which encourages two way communications. For many years it has achieved number 1 within the charts; however Christmas 2009 due to a Facebook group and the impact of technology Rage against the machine were number one rather than winner of Xfactor Joe McEelderry. The impact and change within technology has advantaged Sony records, Sony uses proliferation whilst mass producing their CDS as they are produced faster, as well as cheaper. Sony takes advantage of recent technologies and releases their singles digitally through the use of Itunes and YouTube. Watching videos on YouTube or social networking sites allow them to create a strong fan base, after digital production, the CDS are advertised and then distributed. Institutions advertise particular songs through the use of synergy, for example music being placed within a different format and onto a soundtrack video game to target a specific audience, i.e. a rock themed genre. An example of how Sony has used Synergy is shown within the film Hitch, where the music production has been placed over film production, to advertise one another (vertical integration) The film advertises the song; therefore if an audience likes the film they are likely to buy the song as well as advertising the artist and actor Will Smith. Artists and singles are often advertised through the use of a personal website, artists within Sony for example each have their own website where direct information about the particular artist is obtained. Alexandra Burke’s (Epic; Subsidiary of Sony) website has information on tour dates, as well as how to purchase merchandise. The institution is an extremely strong factor within the production and creating of the video, they are in charge of the capital invested within a video, the cameras, cast, equipment, locations, and mise en scene and further more.
Ideology: The Ideology is the actual purpose of the music video and its aim, for example the idea behind the creation of the video. Conventionally the ideology within a music video is to establish and promote the artist and the song itself and more than anything to entertain. Institutions take this ideology into consideration and use language terminology to create a strong music video which involves all aspects of LIIAR. Audience is an extremely strong factor to be considered and the ideology represents the values and morals of the target audience as the audience’s ideas reflect the institutions ideas. “In sociological terms, ideology is a body of ideas or set of beliefs that underpins a process or institution and leads to social relations”.
Audience: The audience are the consumers of the music video, therefore what I intend to create must be suitable for the audience I intend to target. I intend to market towards a mass audience instead of a niche, as I feel this will work more to my advantage. I have chosen to work towards a producing a music video for a ballad, as I feel I will be able to follow the conventions of a ballad rather then something stereotypical like an R and B pop type of genre. I intend to make something different, something emotional which will draw in numerous ranges of audience, as I feel everything within their life’s go through losing someone, whether it by through death or a simple break up. Stereotypically a ballad attracts a female relative audience, however I want to challenge the stereotype and have my music video attracting a mass audience of both female and male genres aged 18+. Fortunately I am not limited to an audience; where as say a pop genre’s video would be limited to teenage early twenty years. The availability of what I create can be wider, and can access a large and stable audience. I feel that the audience I wish to aspire to is adults aged eighteen to adults within their thirty’s, maybe even forties. I feel that that majority of the audience will be females, and will inhibit a limitation of males due to the ballad genre of the song. I wish to create a music video to inhibit emotion; I hope to create a video for “Hallelujah” sang by Alexandra Burke or “Fields of Gold” sand by Eva Cassidy although my knowledge upon the codes and conventions of ballads momentarily is weak.
Representation: The representation is having the ability to represent society to the audience through the product therefore through my music video. The representation of the audience’s morals and values can be represented through the creation of the music video I intend to create. I intend to create a ballad; therefore what society stereotypically expects within a ballad should be followed, i.e. through the codes and conventions.The genre of my music video is a ballad; the characters within the video will be represented as lovers. I hope to have a female and a male playing within the couple, however the male partner has died, and what the audience sees within the video is a repeat of their memories and flash backs. However conventionally flashbacks are foreseen within black and white or sepia toned footage, I hope to challenge this convention, as I feel the narrative and strength of the lyrics should overcome the convention of flashbacks and memories. It is important that I look through other ballad music videos and study the codes and conventions of ballads. The editing will continuously be slow and I will use a range of close up cinematography to convey raw emotion as well as high angled shots to illustrate weakness and insecurity, as well as vulnerability.
Friday, 10 September 2010
For my A2 advanced portfolio in Media I have decided to create a music video alongside two supporting ancillary texts. The ancillary texts can be two of the three, a website home page, a digi pack CD case or a poster. Momentarily my decision is to concentrate on the music video itself, and then decide on the ancillary texts, I am sure I wish to produce a digi pack, however I am unsure whether to create a poster or website home page. However I am sure I will become clear after analysing the codes and conventions of each text. I will be using the skills in which I inhibited throughout AS Media Studies, and use LIIAR to analyse media texts. “A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options”
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