editing to the beat

This exercise allowed us to get to know how to edit videos to the beat of the music.

Audience reception

audiences all have different ways of receiving and responding to texts. the variety of effects generate a number of different responses. It is seen in a way that characterises and groups the audience interpretation.

Encoding Decoding Theory

• Stuart Hall, 1973
• The producers encode meanings/ideology into texts which the audiences then decode. 
• Audiences are known to be active when it comes to their interpretations and can either reject or accept the message the producer is trying to spread across.

Texts are able to be decoded through the use of body language  to understand emotions or relationships. they have multiple different meanings which are all able to be decoded in various ways. The message that is sent across will be interpreted in many different ways by different people. 

Preferred reading- Audiences will agree and accept what the producers are encoding

negotiated reading- Audiences will usually only partly agree with the encoded message

oppositional reading- Audiences will reject/disagree or decode the text in a different way

Example; 

Preferred reading ;

This is intended to encourage the feeling 

of hunger or craving for fast food. Audiences will 

get this feeling when passing by a McDonalds 

chain and want to go in and buy food. 

Negotiated reading; 

Audiences will usually go to 

McDonalds and enjoy having a Big Mac. Those

who are health conscious may tend

to respond with annoyance or anger, but they 

understand having it once a month isn't going to be damaging.   

Oppositional reading; 

"He is purple- the gay pride colour

and his antenna is shaped like a triangle which

is the gay pride symbol" 

"Tinky Winky also carries a magic pink bag"

"Modelling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children"

Grime 

a huge majority of audiences believe grime is about encouraging gangs, drugs and gun violence towards young people, this is more likely to be the oppositional readers. negotiated readers and preferred readers are more likely to listen to the music and realise that grime artists are not encouraging bad behaviour and instead they are telling people about their upbringing around gangs etc.  

This genre of music can benefit from being decoded as many people believe its used to promote negative things but if it were to be decoded properly people would find that they are rapping about drugs and violence but they are talking about how it affected them growing up. If anything grime has been used to send a message to young people about being streetwise and not trusting someone if your heart is telling you not to.

A model of the Media

The Media Practice Model is a media effects construction used within the main areas of mass communication. This model was developed by Jeanne R. Steele and Jane D. Brown in 1995, and it takes a practice perspective which means that it focuses on everyday activities and routines of media consumption.

Text: This is what media product is going to be produced by a company. It's the very beginning of the process where ideas are written down and they come up with what the product is going to be about. For example, if a film company wanted to bring out a film, they would need to start of mind mapping ideas, designing characters and so on. 

Audience: This is when the company thinks about how they are going to get the audience to watch/listen or visit their product. They thing about what they're going to do to get the audience interested, how are they going to do this, why they are doing in they way they have decided, where will they be doing this and what the outcome will be.

Financial transaction: This means that whatever media product has been brought out, the consumers will always have to pay for it for example if it was a film they would pay at the cinema, if it was a video game people will be purchasing it from GAME, HMV or on their consoles to play it. 

Produce, distribute, exhibit and market: media institutions such as Netflix, Sky, ITV and the Big 6 are the ones who produce the product, market the product and get it out to places it needs to be. They also receive money for their product and if it is a success, they will receive high figures that can be used towards their next product. 

Alex Southam

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was known as one of the best music artists of all time, he was known for his artistic videos, amazing dancing and perfect singing.

“Rock with You”  1979

After being in the The 'Jackson5' Michael went on to being solo and released his first song called 'Rock With You.' This video is very sophisticated and uses he has focused on costuming and lighting for this music video. In terms of the theory of Andrew Goodwin, Jackson's video includes numerous close ups of his face that can develop a motifs which can recur across his work.

"Billie Jean" 1982
After 'Rock with You', people began to want to hear more from him which led to 'Billie Jean' being released. First interesting Pop Video that tells a story and does more than just Lip Syncing and everyone loved the song and especially the music video. In terms of Goodwins theory, this video makes an intertextual reference to a film as the set up of the music video looks as if it was a film set and the whole story of the music video is exactly like a film it contained buildups, excitement and suspense.





"Beat it" 1983
After 'Billie Jean' everyone was amazed by Michael Jackson and wanted to hear more from him as he was making his way to the top of the podium and music charts. He then released 'Beat it' which is different from his past music videos and this one showcases his dance moves. In this music video there is a relationship between the visuals and lyrics which is known as as illustrate, this is when Music videos can use a set of images to illustrate the meaning of lyrics & genre, this is the most common.



"Thriller 1983"
This was Michaels biggest song,  he music video is considered the most famous music video of all time, at least by the Library of Congress, which added it to its National Film Registry in 2009, the first music video in their registry. he long version of "Thriller" runs nearly 14 minutes, but had remarkable longevity, easily racking up over 100 million views when it showed up on YouTube. MTV usually ran the short version, which ran a little under five minutes but still contained about a minute of non-song content in a storyline that omits most of the movie the couple is watching at the beginning. In this video there is an intertextual reference to films, at the start of the video they are watching a film and during the music video the film at the start is brought to life almost.

“Bad” 1987

Following “Thriller” he was the biggest pop star in the world. His videos made the news. The video of “Bad” was a major event. Shown for the first time on BBC. Many people were so excited and wanted to see his new image and new dance moves. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.

"The Way You Make Me Feel"  1987

Laura Mulvey’s theory relates to classical Hollywood cinema. However, we can apply some of her ideas to our work on the pop video.

The male gaze =

women viewed as the objects of male erotic desire – in film and audience

men active / women passive.

Women do not   have agency – they do not move the plot forward.

The audience is forced to identify with male gaze.

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals which i believe is amplifying, the video does relate to the lyrics but not 100%.c

“Black or White” 1991 ($4,000,000 – Today $6,925,000).

• The pop video was very expensive and inventive.
• Used to try and resurrect his career (allegations of being ‘strange’)
• Problems with his image – white skin.
• Serious message.

the video is linked with the video which is known as illustration.

Scream  1995 Cost $7,000,000 (Today $10,834,000)

Jackson began to lose his streak of great videos and therefore led to him making a video with his sister Janet Jackson who was getting bigger at the time. this video has an intertextual reference to a film of some sort for example a sci-fi film.

Case Study 2; Emil Nava

Emil Began as a runner for film production companies in his early stages. He then went on to Work for Blink Productions and now he is working in freelances for OB Management.

After working as a runner he then graduated to Assistant Director where he would manage the video shoots. He signed to Academy who are the biggest music video production company and then worked for Between the Eyes and now works mainly for Pulse.

• Emil’s first budget was for the band Kid British and the track Our House
• Budget - £20,000
• Location – Manchester
• Cast – local people
• 1 day for filming
• 2/3 days for editing
• 10 days pre-production

Emil then went on to become a music video director and was interviewed by different companies where he would give advice on being a music video director. He then went on to direct Jessie J's music video 'Wild' and Rita Ora 'Shine ya Light'

• At his busiest Emil has made 24 music videos in one year
• When he began shooting videos for independent labels the budget would be as low as £5,000 to £10,000
• His most expensive video to date has been for Jessie J and the budget was £160,000
• Has now begun to make adverts, which generally have a far higher budget and production values but which allow for less creative freedom.

• Ed Sheeran 'Lego House'
• Client Atlantic - Director Emil Nava

Emil’s Top Tip

• Use Extreme Close Up on faces wherever possible
• Do not shoot whole of video in medium shot/long shot
• Example – Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares to U

Godley & Crème - Cry

• OB Management work as agents for music video directors. They describe themselves as, “ three straight up dudes who work out of Denmark Street London”.
• Their aim is to:
• Nurture talent
• Work with production companies
• Work with record labels
• Match the right director to the right artists

Case study 1: Jamie Thraves

• The name of the director I am studying is Jamie Thraves.
• He started off making short films at University
• Used award-winning short film as a ‘calling card’ to get a ‘foot in the door’ with the video production company Factory Films
• Began by shooting three very low budget music videos that cost about £5,000 each.

Thraves submitted two treatments for two of the best music videos ever.

• Radiohead- just
• the budget for the video was £100,000 
• shot in 3 days

• Coldplay- The Scientist
• £200,000 budget
• Shot in two days

Jamie used his experience in making music videos in order to get into the film industry and so far he has shot 3 features;

• The Low Down 
• The Cry of the Owl 
• Treacle Jr

Jamie's top tips were;

• Use the lyrics but try not to be too literal
• Most importantly, go with the emotion of the lyrics

Jamie Thraves also directed Katy B 'Broken Record'

The video is about her coming out of a relationship and him still playing on her mind and her not being able to get over him. 

and Tom Odell 'Another Love'  which is a video about a relationship between two lovers, the song exposes the individuals turmoil by showing their affection for one and other when being held down by lingering feelings of sadness from a previous relationship they had.

sexism in music videos

• In 2013 “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke and “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus provoked controversy.
• Lily Allen’s “Hard out Here” video parodied black music videos that reduce black women’s bodies to lurid props.

The theory suggests that the male gaze denies women human identity, relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance. The theory suggests woman can more often than not only watch a film from a secondary perspective and only view themselves from a mans perspective

Mulvey states that the role of a female character in a narrative has two functions

1. As an erotic object for the characters within the narrative to view
2. As an erotic object for the spectators within the cinema to view

The characters that look at others are seen as the active role (male)

The characters that are to be looked at are passive (female) They are under control of the males gaze and only exist for visual pleasure.

Females often slow the narrative down, they act as inspiration for men to act.

Males on the other hand, push the narrative forwards and make things happen and are seen as active.

Female Objectification

Objectification is related to the gaze

The persons gazed at are objectified, treated as an object whose sole value is to be enjoyed or possessed by the voyeur

Objectified characters are devalued and their humanity removed.

A Patriarchal society means that the Men dictate all of the rules as they are seen as the dominate gender. Mulvey argued we live in a patriarchal society in which men set the majority of the rules and construct and represent the ideal visions, roles and male dominance over woman. The worry that the industry have is a passive audience will be influenced by this representation of reality and copy it and it will actually become reality if it hasn’t all ready.

The image seen here is how mulvey

 described how men see woman

Miley Cyrus 'Wrecking ball'

After Mileys contract with Disney ended she went on to make her own music, the change from being Hannah Montana shocked her fans as her music videos and lyrics had shown she isn't the same girl anymore. Miley had done this to tell people that she has grown up and isn't Hannah Montana anymore, she has found who she is and won't change. Sinead O’Connor warned Miley, “Not to let them prostitute you!” I believe Miley is being herself and letting herself go after so many years of being Hannah Montana who was sweet and innocent.

Lilly Allen 'Hard out here'



Lilly Allen's Music video in my opinion is a feminist video, although the video may not look like it the lyrics show that it is and the video is a mock of those woman that are objectified. The video does not defeat the idea of feminism, it instead shows what woman have to go through to be recognised and liked by others.

Robin Thicke 'Blurred Lines'



When Robin Thicke realised His single 'Blurred Lines' 20 Universities in the states banned this video because they did not agree with the lyrics nor the non explicit version of the video and did not want their students seeing this. The lyrics are said to be controversial and after having looking at the lyrics I got the idea that he was singing about trying to have his way with a woman by bringing her secret bad side out which some people found offensive. There are two versions of the video, one the girls are more covered up which is the one above but the other version the woman are topless. There are two versions because it would be inappropriate to be showing younger people an explicit video that would be played on music channels. In the video the woman are very revealing and pouncing around like they don't know any better which will indicate to some people that all woman are silly and have no respect for themselves.

styles of music videos

There are a wide range of styles of music videos that we have learned about to help us build our knowledge and also give us ideas for our own music video.

Narrative 

This is when the music video tells a story to its audience and it has a meaning. for my example I have chosen 'Shine' by Years & Years, in this video the song uses light as a metaphor to pertain to the "overwhelming and unstable feeling of falling in love. In the video they are placed in a house in the woods (inspiration from E.T, Poltergeist etc) and there was no light, during the song sparks come from plug sockets and lights start to flicker, there is then a strong wind that blows the group members all about the house and by the end a big beam of light is shone on Olly. 


Animation 

Ive chosen 'Move your feet' by Junior Senior. The whole video is a pixelated style animation, its a very colourful random video with lots going on which is why I chose it.




pastiche 

A pastiche is a video that is set in a certain time period. This could be a certain era or year etc.

My example of a Pastiche is "Hey Ya! - Outcast". This video is set in the 1950s

Parody 

A parody is a video that mocks and mimics a certain feature. This could be a person or costume or even an act. A parody is where this feature is made fun of.
I have chosen "Walks like Rihanna by The Wanted". This music video is used to make fun of other boy bands and there costumes, dances and settings. They mock numerous big boy bands including take that, Backstreet boys and NSYNC. 




Performance based 

For performance based I chose 'Smells like Teen spirit' by Nirvana. A performance based is a video where the artist is seen performing the song, so they will be singing and playing an instrument.



Intertextual

Intertextual is similar to a parody but instead of being used to make fun off or mock; its used to show appreciation. This means in these types of videos features may be copied to show respect.
 I have chose "Love Story - Taylor Swift". This is a intertextual video as many features make reference to Romeo and Juliet and this video provides a modern theme to the love story. 


Concert live 

This is where the music video is made from live concert footage, I have chosen Catfish and the Bottlemen with their song 'Outside' which was performed live at Castlefield Bowl and the footage has been used for their music video.




Cinematic

This type of video is where the video seems like a movie, it has actors and props that all come together to provide a deeper meaning. I have chosen Lady Gaga ft Beyonce 'Telephone' as it was the only song I could think of. This video is like a short film as there is acting and dancing. 





Abstract

abstract is where the video seems a bit weird and has mostly has no connection to the lyrics of the song. I have chosen 'Emperors New Clothes' by Panic! At The Disco, the video is very scary and devilish like whereas the song is about an Emperor, I really like the costume and the effects of this video as its weird but also creative.  

Richard Dyer Star theory

Dyers star theory is that major icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions in order to increase financial gains. He states that these celebrities are constructed to portray real human beings who also experience emotions. Celebrities are manufactured for one reason which is to make money from the public or people that look up to them for example buying their records, going to their concerts and buying their merchandise.

Dyers theory was split into 3 sections;

• Audiences and institutions
• constitutions 
• Hegemony 

1. Audiences and institutions 

Celebrities are mostly made for the money that they make, by increasing their branding the institutions are able to see the benefits like increasing sales on all platforms that they are part of. The institution will then mould their star so that they can fit in with a certain target audience for example Lady Gaga was made to target those who struggle with low confidence and also people within the LGBT community as she encourages them to be themselves and not to care what anyone says. 

2. constitutions  

Constitutions more of less relate to the audiences and institutions. 

3. Hegemony 

Another word for Hegemony is culture. the idea of this is to get the audience to be able to relate to the celebrity because they may have a special feature that audiences want to share with the star. Some fans become so influenced by their favourite celebrity that they end up behaving like them and dressing similar. In ways this is okay but it can also be very negative as some celebrities are heavy drinkers or drug abusers. Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and promote a certain ideology to their audiences. when the audience become interested in these values it adds star quality to the celebrities. For example Kanye West decides to bring out a new trend (which didn't actually work) and everyone begins to wear his designs and try to look like the models. Celebrities benefit from social media for example twitter and their feed, they also create names for their large group of fans for example Selena Gomez calls her fans Selenanators and Lady Gaga calls her fans Little Monsters. This makes their fans feel a part of something that is big and exclusive. 

digipack and magazine ad conventions

A digipack is a CD holder that contains 6 panels. Within these panels there is always;

• tracklist
• album cover
• barcode
• record company name
• website (usually written on the spine of the digipack) 

Digipack style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipack is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets. along with Digipacks there are magazine ads, magazine ads include the following; 

• picture of album cover or artist(s) 
• release date of album or 'OUT NOW'
• ratings from other companies e.g. NME, Kerrang. 
• website
• barcode
• where its available (HMV, ITunes)
  
  

Magazine ads are used to reach a large number of consumers through the use of print media, this is because some people may not use the internet as much and may prefer to stick to music magazines so this is why music ads are put in magazines.

I looked at the digipaks of artists similar to Catfish and narrowed it down to 4 who i thought looked the closest to what Catfish's digipak would look like;

• The Neighbourhood 
• Circawaves 
• 1975
• Arctic Monkeys 

All of the artists apart from Circawaves have the same style digipak, they all come in black and white with the band name and has either their logo or pictures of the band members. Circawaves on the other hand have a more brighter digipak and there seems to be a lot more going on it it as there are numerous pictures and has the sky with clouds and people running on the clouds. 

Due to there being a lot more digipaks that are black and white, I might do the same but also include elements from the Circawaves digipak because I want to be able to show my photoshop skills and photography skills. 

comparing Lady Gaga to Adele

Lady Gaga and Adele are both two very different artists. Lady Gaga is known to be very different from everyone else, she dresses very dramatically and different, she likes to send out the message to her fans that it is okay to be different and they should embrace it. On the other hand, Adele is an artist that is a lot more calm and less dramatic, she is known for being someone who is constantly having her heart broken by men which are what her songs show.

 Lady Gaga




Lady Gagas unique selling point is her sense of style and how her style encourages everyone to be unique and be themselves. she has worn insane garments including a dress made entirely out of raw meat and a garment made from spikes.  Gaga portrays herself as a highly individualistic pioneer of self-expression who leads and nurtures a large army of aspiring followers. We’re marketers; let’s call them ‘customers’. Lady Gaga likes her fans to have their own voice and be able to say what they want and look how they want which is what makes her brand so big as it gives those who have never had the confidence to speak to actually be able to speak. Gagas brand as a whole is about being yourself, this is something that so many people struggle with so having an iconic person like Lady Gaga tell everyone to be unique and be them will give them that confidence to be unique and not be care about what anyone else says. 

Adele





Adeles unique selling point is that her songs are about break ups and being hurt which is what many woman can relate to and that is why she is so popular, not to mention her amazing voice! Adele has merchandise,  she does numerous interviews where she talks about her life and she also does meet and greets which all of her fans love because they get to meet her and see how kind she is. Adeles brand is about heartbreaks and finding the determination to not let it effect you too much, many woman look up to Adele for this as its something they have all been through. I see adele as being an older sister to her fans and telling them that everything will be okay.

album art cover

our task was to do an indie band, girl band and individual artist photo shoot, this one is the indie band cover. indie band photos have all the band members in the picture, they are all leaned back and chilled looking and don't tend to look at the camera and instead look away. Here i done a black and white version as well as a color version.