Editing Update 3

Editing Update 3

With our third editing session, we noticed that one of our guitar performance scenes didn't look right. In order to fix this, we had to re-record a few scenes and then put them into our video in order to make the video look right. In the screenshot above, this is the scene that we re-recorded. We feel that this made our video better, as it made the guitar playing look more realistic. This shot is used at the start of the video, and also we put the song title, and name of the band in the bottom left corner. We repeated this in one of the last shots of the video.

Filming Status/Digipak Planning

After our successful filming trip to London last Wednesday, we believe that we have all the shots necessary that we need to finish our music video. All we have to do now is to edit all of the shots together in order to make our video as good as it can be. We also started thinking about the production of our digipak, and thought about using some of the pictures that we took in London. We feel that we could some of these pictures in our digipak as it would make for a good location, and it could be used to find our target audience of late teens/young adults. Some of the pictures that we took were designed to portray our group as being serious, but also being jokey at the same time. We took some shots of where we was being pretty silly, and some of where we was being very serious while looking at the camera.

Audience Research

Audience Research

Before we make our music video, we will need to do some audience research. We will have to find out information about our audience before we make music video because we will be able to know what they like and what kind of music videos will appeal to them. It is important that we do this well so we know what features people will like so we can put them in our video to appeal to our audience. By doing this, we will be able to appeal to our target audience, and also try to be able to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. We have to make sure that when we conduct our audience research, that we ask suitable questions and ask the right kinds of questions which makes sure that we get the suitable information that we need in order for our audience research to be useful and for us to use it well. Examples of these questions include:

• Do you watch music videos?
• What kind of music do you listen to?
• What is your age?
• How do you listen to music?
• What makes a great music video?

There are many types of ways of which we can conduct audience research. Some of the ways of which we can do audience research are:

• Surveys
• Questionnaires
• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Vox Pops

Vox Pops 

A vox pop is a type of audience research. Usually, there are personally filmed interviews which are conducted in public places.

This is the audience research that we have done as a group. We have done this so we can find out information about our potential audience, and what kind of people that they are. We will use the information that we will receive from people who complete this questionnaire in order to be able to target the correct audiences. 

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Sexism in Pop Videos

Sexism and Laura Mulvey

In the music industry, there are a lot of issues to do with sexism, especially with women. A lot of the sexism issues are based on how men are presented and how women are presented. The women are treated a lot differently to the men. With regards to this, Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory is very important with dealing with issues of  sexism as much of her theory covers the way that women are treated in media texts. One of the more important points with her theory is the male gaze. This means that the media texts are made out to be designed for the viewing of males, and not the viewing of females. This is why in media texts, women are designed to be "objects of erotic desire" as this is what would appeal more to the majority of men, and therefore they would want to see that more. Even when women consume media texts, they have to watch it from a male point of view as they are forced to watch the exposure of women. Laura Mulvey says that women have 2 roles within a narrative: To be an erotic object for characters within the text or To be an erotic object for the audience consuming the text. Women are simply seen as sexual objects and are relegated from their human status. They are objectified as just an object used by men to be enjoyed. Women are also presented to be weak, and needs saving by a male character, and are irrelevant without the main character. The female characters are known as passive as they are under control by the males are present subject to the male gaze. In most texts, women slow the narrative down and are unable to add meaning to the plot. They have no agency. Most texts live in a world of Patriarchal Society in which men are in control.




The song "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus is a song and video which has caused issues to do with sexism in video. A lot of the video is spent with her being sexual, and naked. She is seen to be naked while swinging on a wrecking ball, and she is seen to be licking a sledgehammer in a very seductive manner. This pop video was able to cause controversy because of what she is doing, and the messages that it would send to young kids. I think that Miley Cyrus made this video because she wanted to show that she is her own person, and that she isn't controlled by anyone but herself. She wants to show that she is an independent woman, and she's not the young girl anymore. She wants to get rid of her Hannah Montana young girl image, and wants to be known as her own woman who is able to make her own decisions. I think this video is quite unique in the way that I think that she is exploiting, and is being exploited at the same time. I think she is exploiting the music industry because she is doing something unique and being controversial about it, thus creating interest in her, and therefore giving her more chance of achieving revenue. On the other hand, I think she is being exploited, as she is using her body to appeal to the audience, and making herself look like an object of erotic desire. She is exposing herself in order to appeal to a wider audience, by having less clothes on her. The mise-en-scene is used a lot in this video, especially with the costumes and props. With the props, she is seen to be performing sexual acts on them, and with the costumes, she's mostly naked which completely exposes her. There is an amplified relation of visuals to music video, as she is constantly shown to be sitting on the wrecking ball.





Another example of a video which creates sexism issues within the music industry is the song "Hard Out Here" by Lily Allen. Laura Mulveys theory can definitely be applied to this music video as most of this video is with lots of women being half naked dancing in sexual ways, and making themselves to be sexual objects, and objects of erotic desire. Lily Allen once said that she wanted have a more feminist society, but this video makes her seem like a bit of a hypocrite as she is using ideas that she doesn't agree with in order to be popular with audiences. Lily Allen is sexualising women by having them in their video and by making themselves to be objects. This is not a feminist video, and completely does the opposite as it is inviting the male gaze to be active. This video makes women look like objects and doesn't achieve her purpose of living in a more feminist society. The mise-en-scene is most effective here, as the costumes are very limited and there isn't much of it, which allows for the women to be able to expose themselves and make them be objects. The lyrics of the song kind of match the song because she says she doesn't want to be in the kitchen, and she wants to be in the studio, which is where she spends the majority of her time.





This video is also controversial when it comes to dealing with sexism issues because of the way that women are treated in this video. The main character is shown to be very dominant over the women and so much so that they are in his control. They are doing what he wants them to do which shows that he is dominant over them. Also, the women in the video are wearing very little clothing (if any at all) which he is fully clothed which again is able to show his dominance. This women are wearing this little clothing and are therefore responsible for being the objects of erotic desire for the male gaze, which is agreeing with Laura Mulveys theory. There are different versions of this video because one of them is very extreme, and has the women being 100% naked, and other versions which are not quite as extreme. I believe that different versions of this video were made, because i believe that the version which shows all of the girls being naked was the original version, but then they realised that it wouldn't be suitable for all audiences at all times so they should make a version of which would be watered down. In terms of Goodwin, the girls in the video have a dance routine which is a characteristic of his theories.

Photostop Album Cover Exercise

Todays lessons involved a basic exercise using Photoshop of where I had to create my own album cover. I did this by using random generators in order to get my artist name, the title of the album and the picture that the album cover would actually be. The artist name that was randomly generated for me was "Chengdu Meishi". I had to choose a font which I think would work well with the picture that I was given. In order to do this, I used the website www.dafont.com in order to find myself a font which I felt to be suitable. I screen shotted this process as seen above. 

When I had found myself a font, I saved it onto the hard drive and then imported it into Photoshop. I then inserted my text of "Chengdu Meishi" onto the picture and then also used the same font and inserted the album name of "Therefore Wash Them Often" below the band name. I chose to use colours that would work well together, and I feel that it worked well. 

After putting my text on top of the picture, this was the final result. This was what my album cover came out to be. I feel that this exercise has been useful for me, as I have learnt the basic skills of Photoshop and it will help me when creating my own digipak. 

Editing Update 2

Editing Update 2

After filming the park scenes, we decided to have our second session of editing. We was able to film scenes which we can use for the montage parts of our song, and also the bits which we are going to use for the storyline. There's one particular piece of editing that we done, of which we as a group was very proud of. There's a part of the song of where there are 32 beats, and we was able to put in 32 different edits. We was very proud of this, and we was able to successfully edit each clip to the beat, and we feel that it drastically improves our video. It also shows our editing skills of being able to edit to the beat well. These 32 clips are useful as well, as they detail the montage scenes that we were aiming to use in this video.

Filming Planning

For our next set of shots, we have planned to go into Central London. We decided to film there because we feel it would our video to be more professional, and would give us a different variety of locations.

We are going to go filming on Wednesday 10th December. We have all planned to meet at Dagenham East station for about midday. We will need to film as much as possible as quickly as possible. This is because it will get dark very quickly, so we will need to make the most of the daylight that we have. We will also need to make sure that we wear suitable clothing, as we will be walking around a lot, and it will most likely be very cold.

 We will travel to Tower Hill from Dagenham East using the District Line. It all depends on how busy the area is, which will depend on the types of shots that we will use. If the area is busy, we won't feel like it would be the best time to film shots. We will then get the train to Embankment of where we will walk round London Eye and Tower Of London. This will make for a good variety of shots which should make our video more professional looking.

Case Studies on Alex Southam

His Career

While working for Agile Films in 2012, Alex Southam was described as being "an exciting new talent working in a dizzying variety of styles across live action and animation". He was able to teach himself and has shown signs of being inventive and very creative and have caught the eye of many, with a series of diverse promos, for companies such as "Walkman" and people such as "Lianne La Havas".

His Style

In his early career, Alex wanted to do all of his work himself. He wanted to be his own "One Man Band" as he did all of the tasks himself. He used to setup and film all of the camera work himself. He also organised the lighting in the way that he liked it, and then he also edited all of the footage that he had captured himself. He wanted to make sure that the videos that he creates were all of his own work and that he could take full credit for the creation of his videos. Now, that he is much more well known, he employs a director of photography in order to help him with his camera and lighting work.
Alex Southam liked to use his own kind of style when making his new music videos. He liked to come up with new things that no one had ever used before and he liked using new techniques and giving the artist freedom when deciding how the music video should be. He never really liked the idea of using commercials as he feels that it restricted the artists in a way that doesn't allow for them to have as much freedom. Instead of using YouTube to show off his videos, he instead uses the website "Vimeo" as he feels that it has higher status than YouTube and is becoming increasingly popular in the music industry.


His Works




His first big video was the song "Tessellate" by alt-J. He had a budget of £10,000 for this video and was able to film all of the scenes that he needed in just one day. He had a very large cast in this video and was able to use special effects in this video. There isn't really a storyline to this video as it consists of a lot of people just standing about doing nothing. This suggests a disjuncture with regards to the music and visuals. With regards to Goodwin's theory, there are a lot of close ups of the cast, and even the animals in the video have close ups. This would be a demand of the record label. With regards to Laura Mulvey's theory, it could be argued that woman are the objects of male erotic desire as most of the women in this video are wearing tight clothing, or clothing that shows off their body.





Another one of his more famous videos is the song "Lost & Not Found" by Chase & Status. This video had a budget of £50,000 and was set in Los Angeles, California. It was filmed using a Steadicam, and was initially filmed at 36 frames per second instead of the normal 24, and then was ultimately slowed down in the editing process. Also, there are only three shots in the whole video, which shows that hardly any editing went into the making of this video. Alex Southam done this as he tried to go back to using an early 1990's VHS video look, and could be considered as trying to bring an old technique back, and using it as being new. With regards to Goodwin's theory, there are quite a few closeups of the cast in the video. There is no mention of Laura Mulvey's theory as women are not the objects of erotic desire.

Case Studies on Emil Nava

His Career

Emil Nava started off his career working for many different film production companies as being a runner. A runner is usually someone who does the odd jobs of filming media, such as tidying up area spaces before filming. One of the production companies that he worked for was Blink Productions. He worked as a runner in this production company, and he was eventually graduated to Assistant Director of the music video shoot. He then signed to the Academy production company which is widely recognised as one of the biggest music video production companies. He now mainly worse for the company Pulse. He was also a freelance worker for OB Management of where he is much more involved in the process of making music videos, rather then just being the runner.


His Works




Emil Nava's 1st music video that he made was the song "Our House Is Dadless" by Kid British. He had a relatively small budget of only £20,000 and he had it filmed and edited and finished in 4 days. He decided to make a relatively small music video which didn't have much of a budget and didn't really have any high production values. He just used a local street in Manchester and filmed it using local people who lived in the area. There was also 10 days of pre-production of where everything was planned and set in stone. This music video shows Emil Nava's skill of being able to work under very strict and tight time scales which proves his determination to work well in a short amount of time.




One of his more famous videos that he has made is the song "Picking Up The Pieces" by Paloma Faith. This was made under the Sony Client. This was very different from his first music video, as he had a budget of £80,000 which was 4x more the budget he had for his first video. With this bigger budget, he was able to make a video with a lot more high production values. More noticeably, the picture quality is much better in the new video. Also, the location is at a very posh house/palace place and the whole setup is designed to make the video just look very posh, and this is achieved by all of the high production values.




Another one of his more famous works is the song: "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" by Ed Sheeran. This was made under the Atlantic client. This song had a much lower budget then "Picking Up The Pieces" but a little bit higher budget then "Our House is Dadless". The budget for this music video was £35,000 and this budget allowed for a bit of high production values. This was a high quality music video which was made in black and white and featured a performer doing the song and dancing a long to it.




Another one of his more famous works is the song "Do It Like A Dude" by Jessie J. This was made under under the Island client. This song had a budget of just £25,000. This is easily visible as the location for this music video looks to be like some kind of abandoned flat, or some kind of drug house. This is because the location as a whole just looks very dirty, and we can see members of the cast are smoking drugs. There are not very high production values, as nothing looks very fancy, except for the orange coat that Jessie J is wearing. It's more of a realistic video and would reflect real locations that societies live in, and doing activities that some people actually have to do.


His Advice and Tips

During some of the interviews that he has done over the years, Emil has given some of the top tips that he uses that makes his videos successful. One of his tips is simply that the music video idea must match with the nature of the song. He wants the music videos to promote the artist visually. He also speaks about how recent advances in technology have really helped his cause. He says that without his Blackberry phone, he wouldn't of been able to connect with some of the people all over the world like he has done (especially in America). He gives credit to technology by saying that it has made communicating with others, much easier. He also says the cliche of working hard eventually pays off if you keep at it and there will be days in the future of where you will never have to work again. A few more of his tips include: Use Extreme Close Ups to show people's emotion where possible, and also do not make a whole video of just medium and long shots.

Audience Research Survey

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Editing Update 1

Editing Update 1

After filming our band performance scenes, we needed to upload the footage that we had recorded onto Adobe Premier Pro. As you can see from the screenshot above, we have started the editing process of our video. We was able to download the song that we had used, and put it into our project and lock it in place. Also, we was able to begin putting our music video together, by putting our band performance scenes and editing them together with the lip syncing so they look professional. However, we still need to film more scenes, such as the park scenes so that we can edit our music video more, so a storyline can be added.

Music Video Animatic

This is the animatic for our music video. We drew on paper rough pictures of the scenes that we expect to film in our real video, and then was able to edit them together in a way that we want our music video to look like. We feel that this will be a good guide to use for when we go filming our real music video.

Storyboard

 This is the storyboard that we have created for our music video. The purpose of the storyboard is to draw the shots that we aim to shoot when we begin to film our music video. When we go out filming, we will take our storyboards with us so that we know what shots to film.

Case Studies on Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves was a director who was very interested in media while he was at university. He made several short films where he was there. He was able to work with the video production company "Factory Films and he was able to create an award winning short film, and the company was interested in his works. He began his music career by shooting 3 music videos where are relatively low budget videos of around £5000 each. Jamie made music videos as a living and was at the point where he needed his videos to do well, in order to just live and be able to survive. His whole livelihood depended on his videos being successful. He was able to be successful, as the treatments for his two best known videos were sent to production companies and each one was successful, such was his talent. One of his many talents was that he made his music videos in such a way that made them look like mini films because of the storylines that were involved in them. One example of this is the song "Just" by Radiohead.

One of the really popular videos he made was the song "Just" by Radiohead. He was able to direct, and film this video in just 3 days. He had a larger budget then he is used to and he had a budget of £100,000. This video is like a mini film, as the storyline is about Radiohead performing in a flat somewhere, and on the pavement in front of the block of flats, there is a man who is laying there for no apparent reason. The storyline for this music video is that random people are approaching this man on the floor and are asking him what is wrong, and why he is laying there. His responses to this are that he wants to be alone, and that he doesn't want to tell the people of why he is laying there. Using Roland Barthes theory of enigma codes, the problem in this music video is that everyone wants to know why this man is lying there. This enigma code keeps the audience interested, and eager to see what happens next. This music video is an example of an open text as there are many different meanings that could be taken from this song. Going back to Goodwin's theory, the music lyrics have nothing to do with the storyline in the video, which could confuse some audiences. Jamie Thraves is able to use many different techniques in this video. For example, there is good use of cinematography, in which there are many close ups of the man laying on the street. The closeups are able to detail the emotion of this man, and really emphasises what he is feeling, which is good use of techniques by him. Also, I think the editing matches the music, as when the music is slow, the individual shots are quite a few seconds each, and when the music speeds up, the editing is done a lot faster.





Another one of the popular, well known videos that Jamie Thraves made was the song "The Scientist" by Coldplay. This video is similar to "Just" in the way that this music video is also like a mini film because of the storyline that is used in it. However, it is a much different storyline to the "Just" video. The music video starts off with a man just lying there and it starts to reverse in time. The audience begins to see what he has been doing, and why he ended up in the state that he is in. We eventually find out that he had been driving a car, and they had some kind of car accident and that the girl in the car has unfortunately died. We then learn that he has been walking away from her, wanting to be by himself because of how sorrow he feels about the death of the girl. Also, dealing with Goodwin's theory, the music lyrics somewhat agrees with the video visuals. An example of this is when the lyric sung is "Oh let's go back to the start". As the video is rewinding, or going back to the start, the lyrics is agreeing with the visuals. As the song is pretty slow, the editing is very slow and each clip lasts quite a few seconds before a change in shot. Also, a lot of medium and long shots are used in order to show the environment of which he is going through, and it shows what he has been going through.





Another example of a music video that Jamie Thraves made was the song "I will follow you into the dark" by Death Cab For A Cutie. This video is also another kind of mini film. This song is about a boy who wakes up in his bed, and he starts playing this guitar and starts singing the song. Then he notices this massive hole in his bedroom. The lyrics are about him being a strict catholic and talking about heaven and hell. He eventually rolls out of bed and falls into the dark hole. This symbolises that he is falling into hell as he is a strict catholic, and then we see him trying to get back up into his room, but he falls back down the hole. He decides to accept his fate that he going to hell, and decides to follow someone down the hole and follow them down into hell. There is a definite story in this music video as it details the struggles of a catholic person if they commit sins and the consequences of this. Using Goodwin's theory, there is an amplification in this music video, as we often see him sleeping in the bed, in a way that suggest he is trying to forget about his troubles and just get on with his normal life. Also, the lyrics agree with the visuals as the title is "I'll follow you into the dark" and that is precisely what happens at the end of the music video. There are lots of close ups which show the emotion of the singer, and also lots of long shots which show his room, and shows how big the hole is getting and what he is going through.


Conclusion

In conclusion, I have learned that Jamie Thraves has a very unique style when it comes to making music videos. He likes telling stories in his videos and making them out to be like mini films. Also, in his music videos, he likes using strange occurrences that you wouldn't really see everyday. The props and storylines that he uses are not things you see in everyday videos, and could be seen as something out of the ordinary. Examples of this, is the dark hole used in "I will follow you into the dark", the use of rewinding in "The Scientist" and the mystery story in "Just". Lastly, Thraves gave tips on how he wanted to make music videos. He said: When making music videos, use the lyrics sometimes, but don't always be too literal. Another one of his tips were, use the emotion of the lyrics when making the video.

Katy Perry - How Pop Videos Appeal To Target Audience and Her Private Life

Katy Perry - How Pop Videos Appeal To Target Audience and Her Private Life


Katy Perry's target would mainly be young girls from the ages of 14-17, and she also makes videos for specific meanings. She wants to portray herself as being the older sister/friend of which younger girls can look up to and help to therefore solve their problems. In her videos, she also wants to reflect some of the problems that girls of that age are likely to have, often finding a solution for those problems in which the girls can use themselves. The last meaning that she uses is that she aspires to be some kind of role model for girls, and to make herself look appealing in a way that is not threatening. 




As part of my analysis, I am going to looking at 5 examples of Katy Perry's music videos and will be using Andrew Goodwin's theory and will be applying his theory to these videos, to show what the particular videos are trying to demonstrate to the audience. 


Katy Perry - Hot and Cold (2008)




In this video, there are lots of close ups used on Katy Perry's face which is one of the major points in Andrew Goodwin's theory. In this video, she addresses one of the major problems that girls that age might face in the future which they would dread. In the video, Katy is at the altar about to marry a man, when he decides that he doesn't want to marry her anymore and he runs off. She is seen to be devastated, but then she runs off and chases him. She shows this in the music video of a way of using comedy elements to show a serious concern for girls of that age. She wants to empower girls and make them think that they all don't need men in order to be able to live their lives properly. Throughout the video, after the wedding breakup she is shown to be in control of him and he is not as superior as her. This is trying to imply that women can be in control and don't always have to be dominated by men. Near the end of the video, there's a scene that shows him lying down on his back on the floor, with Katy stood in front of him with a zebra next to her. She is shown to be in control of him and the situation in general, thus proving that women don't always need men. This is the message she is trying to get across to her young female audience.

Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl (2008) 

In this video, lots of close up shots are used which is one of the major points in Goodwin's theory. She is able to appeal to her young target audience of girls aged 14-17, because the lyrics and visuals of the music video reflect an issue that girls in today's society have on a regular occasion. Firstly, she uses colour such as pink and red in order to appeal to girls that age, as they are popular amongst them. She sings that she kissed a girl, but then she also mentions that she has a boyfriend. This shows that she is unsure of her sexuality and whether she is gay or straight. She is unsure of her sexual orientation and she says that she kissed a girl in order to see if it was right for her, and whether that was actually her or not. This reflects the sexual insecurity that she has, and girls in her target audience are able to agree with her on her decisions. She's trying to empower girls of that age not to be scared of your sexuality and do whatever feels natural to you, without worrying about the opinions of others.

Katy Perry - Firework (2010)

In regards to Goodwin's theory, this video uses two major points of his theory. There are lots of close ups of Katy Perry in this video, which are used to convey emotion and it shows that Katy is really trying to connect with her audience. Also, when the close ups are being used, Katy is always looking directly at the camera which gives off the notion of looking. This pop video is able to appeal to target audiences as she is being older sister and helping younger people get over their fears. She is showcasing some problems that young people often find themselves having. For example, there's a boy who's suffering from his parents arguing, and he's getting stressed because of it. She is able to empower him, and when the fireworks go off, he goes and splits his parents up so they are not arguing anymore. Another example, is when there is a girl who is at the pool. She decides not to go in the pool, because of her weigh fear and being judged, as it is common knowledge that in today's society, girls are worried about their weight. Again, Katy is able to empower her and make her proud of being herself and who she is. 

Katy Perry - Wide Awake (2012)

A few of Goodwin's points in his theory are used in this video. Like most of Katy Perry's videos, there are lots of close ups used which show the emotion of Katy Perry throughout the video. Another one of Goodwin's points is the notion of repetition throughout the videos. For example, there's a scene in this music video where there's a firework which comes out of her body which is reminiscent of the music video "Firework". There are also quite a few important lines in this song which reflect her private life and her relationship with Russell Brand. One of the lyrics in the song is "Yeah, I was in the dark". This reflects on her time with Russell Brand and how it wasn't the best time in her life. Another of the lyrics in the song is "Yeah, I am born again". This means that she is trying to tell her audience that she has learnt from her mistakes from her marriage to Russell Brand and she wants forgiveness from her fans. This video almost symbolizes an apology from her to her fans, and she is trying to reconnect with her now older audience. She's trying to also tell her audience that she's a free woman again, after the scene where she punches the man (presumed to be Russell Brand) and says that she needs no man in her life. 

Katy Perry - Roar (2013) 

One of Goodwin's points in his theory is used immediately in this video, as it is making intertextual reference to older films with the way that the older style of title is set out. There are also lots of closeups which is another point in Goodwin's theory. In the video, the man gets ate by a lion leaving her all to herself. Also, in the lyrics, Katy sings "You had me down, but I got up", referring that she had a mistake in her private life with her marriage to Russell Brand, and that she was in the media because of their controversial marriage. She's telling her target audience that she acknowledges that she has made a mistake and she's learnt from it, and simply wants forgiveness from her fans who are now that much older. She also refers to "Already Brushing off That Dust" referring to she's done with Russell and thinks of him as dead weight of which she doesn't need him anymore. She also sings that she's going to "Roar" simply reminding her target audience that she is back and better then ever. In the second half of the video, she changes costume (mise-en-scene) into something that is quite low cu and she is suggesting that she is dressing this way because she's a free woman again, and she does what she wants. She's not dressing this way for a man as there isn't a man in sight, and she wants to be known again as a role model for the younger generation. She's giving out a positive message that she doesn't need men anymore.

In conclusion, Katy Perry has made lots of music videos which have different meanings and have different ways of reflecting her private life.

Star Theory - Richard Dyer

Star Theory - Richard Dyer

Promotion

Richard Dyer has beliefs that music artists were given an image when they were singing their songs. The image that they were given was not one that they have naturally made for themselves, but one that has been artificially designed for them by people behind the scenes. He believed that these artists were manufactured in way of which would appeal to specific target audiences, in a way of making money. Record Labels would therefore have lots of artists signed to them, and would artificially manufacture them in a way that would appeal to a variety of different audiences. There would be artists that would appeal to mainstream audiences, and "niche" audiences.  Dyer believes that images such as: Advertisements, Films, Magazines and Music are designed specifically in a way which creates a specific image for that artist. For example, the kind of music that the artist sings, and the lyrics of the song would give the artist an image depending on what the lyrics were. He also believed that audiences preferred artists who made their own natural image, and were being true to themselves rather than being given an image by people behind the scenes. He also believed that if an artist promoted themselves as being "real", then that can be one of their major selling points. 

Culture

Richard Dyer also believed that artists also created trends of which their audiences followed while they were consuming their music. Artists become trendsetters and their fans often copy their clothing styles and hair styles that their favourite artist. This was evident when The Beatles first come on the scene as most of their fans often copied their hairstyles. Audiences often shared religious beliefs with their favourite artists. Also, due to the rapid increase in the use of internet and social media, audiences have more access to their favourite artists personal life.

Celebrities also support hegemony. Hegemony is when one social group is dominant over the others.  However, they like to presented as real human beings, but just more special or glorified then regular audiences. One of the theories based around hegemony which is quite popular is Cultural Hegemony. Gramsci is most famous for this theory, and this theory states how states use cultural institutions to maintain power in capitalist societies.

Representation

The music industry is able to create and promote different artists who specialise in different genres as they are able to appeal to different target audiences. For example, if a particular artist was singing pop music, the music industry would give that artist the representation of being a pop star and they would actually be able to look like a pop star and be able to appeal to the audience that is interested in pop music. An example of this is Britney Spears.

Deconstruction Britney Spears

When Britney Spears come on the scene, it was very unusual as the music industry was dominated by male artists, and there wasn't many popular and influential female artists in the music industry. Her identity was placed within a male dominated industry and it was thought that it would be really hard for her to break out and become a big star. However, she was able to do this, because of the rarity of females in the music industry. Because of the lack of females, Britney became so popular with the teen girl audience because she was seen as some kind of role model for them, and was dressed by the music industry in a way that appeals to this audience. She was also able to raise femininity issues in her music videos of which teen girls were able to relate with.  In her early days, she was able to appeal to the really young female group, (10-15-ish) by her music videos and image. She was given a really girly image, almost Barbie like. She had a lot of young female traits in her videos such as bedroom shots, dolls, pink things, going out with friends etc. She also has the iconic look of the pigtails. She also appealed to this audience by performing basic, easy to learn dance moves that her audience could copy in order to be apart of her "gang".  Below is the video of which displays her pigtails look and the way she appeals to female audiences. In regards to Laura Mulvey's theory, she is seen to be the object of erotic desire and she wears a crop top, and some kind of sports bra which is able to show off her body to the audience. It is an exploitative video.

The video "From the Bottom of my Broken Heart" is a good example of Britney being able to raise issues to do with femininity because she sings about having a broken heart, and this could be a problem that teenage girls could be facing at that kind of age.




The video "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman" can be seen as both an exploitative and an empowering kind of video. It could be seen as empowering because she's singing about how she's not a girl anymore, and she's ready to grow up and be mature. Also, the strong lyrics and strong vocals also reflect this statement. On the other hand, with her clothing that she is wearing, this video could also been seen as exploitative because of her revealing her body. With Britney showing off her body, this could be seen as exploiting her to her male audience which would agree with Laura Mulvey's theory.





In this video, Britney acknowledges that she has been wearing skimpy clothing in her videos, and the whole storyline of this music video is about how news reporters want to interview her about her choice of clothing and how it could be seen as controversial. However, this music video is strange in the way that the title of the song is called "Overprotected" as the media wants her to wear clothes so that she doesn't expose her body, but in the music video, she is seen to be still wearing skimpy clothing and is still able to wear tight clothing and be able to show off her body. She doesn't want to be told what to wear by the media, so she still chooses to wear the clothing that she wants which is an empowering message to women.




The last video I am going to be discussing is the song "Hold it Against Me". The music video is very strange in the way it seems like Britney is fed up of all of the images that she has been given in all of her previous videos and just wants to be known for her own personality instead of being given images by the music industry. This is because in the video, she is standing in some kind of room, with loads of computer screens around her. On these computer screens, are images of Britney when she done all of her previous music videos and all of the images that she has been given in this time. During the video, she gets lots of paint and decides to shoot it at the screens indicating that she's fed up of these images that she has been given, and just wants to be known for her own personality.

Shot List

Shot List
Scene	Shot Number	Description
Close up of lead singer Very high angle (establishing shot) Dolly shot  Lying down shot Under the cymbal shot Shot from behind drummer Normal high angle shot  Spinning around shot Shot from headstock of guitar Shot from headstock of bass guitar Sparkler scene Skatepark shots Ending shot	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13	13A very close shot to Alex's face so that you can see al of the emphasis on the first few sentences.   A very high angle shot of the performance seen that will be running in whole takes.  A whole take of the band playing whilst someone is constantly moving the camera about on a mobile dolly. Making for very cinematic like shots.  A shot of Alex (Lead singer) lying on the floor whilst singing a few lines of the song, single takes.  A shot from underneath one of the drum cymbals, this is very close up so that you can see everything that is going on during the performance scene and it works very well with the music.  A shot filmed with the camera shot from behind the drummer, this is so that the drummer is the main focus for a selection of the song.  A regular high angle shot that will be running the entire way through the take.  A shot of Alex holding the camera on a monopod and spinning around with it (Part of our montage of fun shot list) A shot that resembles that of a GoPro shot, fits in with the alternative feel of the song very well.  A shot that is exactly the same as the previous shot but on the bass player instead of the guitar player.  An outside shot of everyone having fun with sparklers (part of fun montage)  A few shots of us just having fun in a skatepark with a few friends and a mix of the music videos narrative also.  Two main narrative characters sitting on a bench together, girl leans on him before the fade out to the credits.

Costumes and Props

Shooting Schedule

Treatment

Treatment

Group Roles: Cinematography: Alanta Tarling Mise-en-scene: Alex Malerich Sound: Carl Palmer Editing: Freddie Taylor

Title: Friends With Benefits

Synopsis: The main theme for this video is going to be, a general good time with friends. The video is going to show us as friends having fun in our time together doing all these extravagant and exciting things as we run around look energetic and happy together. We will show performance scenes of us as the band playing the song that we will cut back to every few scenes for a few seconds at a time to make sure there is a good amount of performance scenes within the music video. As for the other scenes we will be using these to express us doing these many fun activities that we plan to take art in, with frequent cuts in-between them. As well as this there will also be a separate story running whilst these fun scenes are going on. This story is that the lead singer of the band wants more out of this relationship that she has with a boy in the video but he isn't interested, this will play out throughout the entirety of the video whilst the other performance, and fun energetic scenes are going on. This will be shown by every scene that the two of them are in she will be trying very hard to get his attention.

Key Genre Conventions: The song is quite a fast rock/alternative/punk song with quite an up tempo chorus, this leaves a lot of room for us to play out our narrative idea of fun activities whilst still allowing us to have an energetic performance scene that is constantly cut back to. The song also has a build up at the beginning of the song which is very conventional of this type of fast paced alternative rock genre as well as the raspy female vocals throughout the song also being a convention of this.

Risk Assessment

Location Sheet

Location Visit Sheet Programme Title: Friends With Benefits Writer: Alex and Alanta Producer: Carl Director: Freddie Date: 12th November 2014

Rough Sketch/Explanation of location and key points to note For our music video, we will be using the band room in Robert Clack School as the room is mostly white which we feel will look best in our video. Also, there are lots of instruments in that room, which we can use in the performance scenes in our video. Access to location via: Robert Clack School Name and number of location contact: Robert Clack School - 020 8270 4222

Health and Safety Issues to note: ●      When carrying the instruments, we must make sure that we don’t drop them or damage them. We also have to make sure that we don’t suffer any injuries when carrying them and taking care of them.

Potential Filming Problems: ●      As we will be filming inside school, during school times, one of our problems may be that we get interrupted by students or staff ●      As we plan to have a lot of extras in our video, one of our problems may be finding a time when everyone is available at the same time to be able to film our video.

Additional Notes:  (map of area/weather forecast etc.) When deciding the day that we are going to film, it is important that we check that the band room is not being used on the particular day by anyone. If it is being used, it is likely that we won’t be able to use it.