Production Diaries 1

This is the production diary of our first video.

Audition Process

Casting Cancellation and Cast Replacement

Contingency Plan

Crew Not Showing Up/Being Late
Because we are the crew, one member's role may alternate on the day if one member of the crew is unable to or simply doesn't show up.

Location Becoming Unavailable: Too Noisy/Too Crowded/Closed-Off
Because our location choices are quite generic and can be shot at various different locations, for instance, if we are unable to film at Clapham Junction Tube Station, we can film at another tube station or film at Clapham at a less busier time.

Camera Battery Running Out
We will always carry at least one spare and full battery pack on our person, so if one battery does finish, we always have one in reserve.

Lip Sync Practice

As a class we were asked in our groups to do lip syncing practice in preparation of our music video. We all had to do a lip sync of a verse from Carly Ray Jepsen's Call Me Maybe :s

Here's the verse from the video we used to lip sync:

Hope you enjoy!

The reason why we did a lip sync, because it was practice to help us with our music video - the performance element of the video (Brandon rapping) would be synchronous with the performer rapping and therefore gives the appearance of verisimilitude. Also, lip syncing the whole song gave us more coverage, in case we decided to divert from the structure of our storyboard and experiment or if there are errors that could not be used in the final video, it would ensure that we have enough coverage to protect our product.

Location Recce

Location Recce 1

Location Recce 2

Location Recce 3

Location Recce 4

Props List

Props List Template

Crew Requirements

Crew Requirements

Equipment List

Equipment List

Production Calendar

Costume List

A costume list of all primary and secondary characters

Costume List

Costume list

Costume List

Costume List

Treatment

He's Coming Home Treatment

Animatic

Storyboard

This is our final storyboard, we are extremely happy as we feel it goes through step-by-step in intricate detail the main shots we want to include in our video, bar the shot of A taking the acid tab. Upon reflection and advice, we have decided overt drug-use may glamourise drug abuse and such approbation does not reflect our standpoint on the issue, nor our schools. We feel it would be best for us to implicitly communicate A's potential drug use.

Production Schedule

Production Schedule - Alice in Wonderland

Casting Requirements

This is a poster for our casting requirements

Kanye West - Bound 2

Surprisingly, Kanye West has released a controversial music video, which received mixed reviews, mostly reviews panning the video. Once again, I believe this is an effective music video as a satirizing confederate White America culture, also I believe it marks an evolution in music videos, through the video itself solely being a social commentary which bare no correlation with the lyrics of the song, but the theme of the album which Kanye has re-iterated several times over in recent interviews. The video satires music video culture and may lead to its demise - what Mr. Coppard calls the death of the music video following the death of the album. The satire is shown through choice of location and editing, of vast national landscapes depicting the great, wild, untamed and daunting elements of America, however, in terms of narrative, there is a pointlessness to the sequence as it does not correlate with the rest of the video and only serves as a pretentious and aesthetically-pleasing visuals. This is also reinforced by the brief snapshot of the logo of Confederate America, the Confederate eagle.

Audience Profile

The document below is the composition of the habits, social interests, fashion style, etc of our primary target audience:

Audience Profile by KenyaGabrielle

Audience Questionnaire

Audience Research Questionnaire

As part of market research, it was appropriate to collect some field data to analyse current trends and habits of our primary and secondary target audiences 16-17 year olds and 18-19 year olds.

We opted to use a questionnaire as part of our quantitative research. It's a cheap and quick format for collecting data. Furthermore, online questionnaires are even operate even more efficiently as we eliminate unnecessary time of travelling and physically searching for a sufficient number of participants in our sample, where time could be spent more effectively on more challenging and time-consuming tasks.

 Additionally, we get a more representative sample of teenagers, as the internet provides potential respondents from across the globe, so we can analyse what trends recur on an international scale. This provides two advantages for us:

1. We learn how to market our artist and our music video to a generalised target audience across the globe.
2. How to tailor the promotion of our media product for individual countries.

Also, it focuses on producing objective and generalised data, therefore it can be compared and contrasted with other data samples.

We wanted to quantify which media platforms, such as laptops, TV,etc dominate music video consumption for our primary target audience. This allows to delegate how much promotion should be invested on each platform.

So, it therefore informs us on platforms would be most suitable for our media product.

Please take our survey:
Click here to take survey

Results:

  Infographics

Questionnaire Analysis

Lyric Analysis

lyric analysis

How To Make A Music Video Tutorial

Tutorial:



Ensuring to sync music with the visuals in post-production, we are advised to play the music on location which makes our job easier.

To gain sufficient coverage, he filmed a member of the band performing the entire song, whilst moving around to capture different angles to make it appear he had more set-ups than he actually did. I think this is an efficient way to film, as he doesn't need to use a lot of time setting up a shot, also allows him to capture spontaneous artistic glimpses which may not have been recorded had he stuck rigidly to his storyboard set-ups and reduces the length of shooting time without jeopardising the music video in the editing process due to a lack of coverage. We will be sure to incorporate this idea into our music video.

Ryan Connolly also strategically set up light reflectors as there wasn't enough light and the shadows of the extras in the side story would have had great detrimental impact on the video. Placing light reflectors carefully will be of great importance to our video, because we are using natural light for the most part and as it is winter it is quite dark and foggy, so we need something to combat both the shadows of the actors and natural elements that may hinder our music video. We may also use string lights and set a little gazebo to both create ambience and assist us technically with the lighting in not so blatant way.


Final Video:

Mood Board

Copy of Concept Mood Board

Genre Shopping List

Vox Pops

Vox Pops 

We conducted a vox pop as a visual, first-hand account of students aged 16-18 years old (our target demographic). It also enabled us to receive more in-depth answers, detailing not only what media media products they consume or how, but also why they consume their products in a certain platform. We were able to do this by providing open questions, making it easier to finely tailor our music videos to meet the desires of the audience.

We used random sampling to generate a representative sample of our target audience with an equal number of male and female participants. We used this to try and create a true unadulterated picture of what genre of music dominates not only sales, but also attracts the biggest following.

Results:

9 Key Frames - Alternative Music Video

9 Key Frames.docx

Inspiration Post - Animation

Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know?

In this music video, the director uses animation of sound-waves and manipulates the animation to build a relationship between both the music and visuals and the lyrics and visuals. For instance, from 0:00 to 0:29, the pulsations of the sound-waves are synchronous with the rhythm and tempo of the music. 

The director chooses to conforms to the idea of Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory.  In the first screenshot below it can be seen the wheel rolling through the females spread legs has sexual connotations. The  videos uses Confederate American iconography with the wheel signifying masculinity and power, whereas the female drawn in low cut shorts symbolises promiscuity and also wildness. 

The second screenshot has clear phallic undertones, it reduces females to sexual objects of men. However, I believe the director incorporates aspects of male gaze in an ironic sense, to subvert and challenge the typical genre conventions of music videos, more specifically American music videos. This idea is re-inforced later in the visual where the images become very graphic and the disjuncture of the visuals from the lyrics. 

Inspiration Post - Alternative Genre Music Video - Biting Elbows

I was inspired by the telling of the narrative through a P-O-V camera shot; how it makes the video become very surreal and the music video plays almost like a video game. I was considering incorporating to be the primary shot type for our music video, as aforementioned, creates a very surreal and unnerving experience for the audience: they are on equal platform with the protagonist and take on the subjective perspective, which would be very effective in detailing a hallucination.


Biting Elbows - 'Bad Motherfucker' Official Music Video from Ilya Naishuller on Vimeo.

Choosing A Music Track

I was asked to select three music track to present to other members of my group as options for songs to accompany our music video. 

Choosing a Music Track.docx

We finally chose a track that wasn't on our original list because we felt there was a better suited alternative-hip hop song, whose title fits into the Alice In Wonderland theme. The song we chose if He's Coming Home by Taurean Roye. It also has a performance element that fits into the narrative.

Kahlil Joseph - Until The Quiet Comes (Inspiration)

Flying Lotus - Until The Quiet Comes

I was listening to the Until The Quiet Comes album and I found myself re-watching this short film and I admired the resourcefulness of Kahlil Joseph to create a music video, short film rather, of a hybrid structure: narrative and performance, and how he used interpretive dance to bring in the element of performance as majority of the music is electronically produced and makes it exceedingly difficult to incorporate into a video. I feel that, as a group, we need to devise a way to bring in an element of performance as our song choice is likely going to be electronically made.

I also enjoyed the sound editing in slowing the tempo of See Thru To You at the beginning to give the video an ominous effect and the helped enrich the dramatic effect of the narrative. Also, the editing of three songs to keep the audience interested as a lot of the music in the album is ambient and also, it marked a transition in the narrative.

The slow motion of the dancing with the slow speed of the music complimented each other perfectly and the lifelessness of the background actors and the life of the 'dead' actor gave the video a hauntingly beautiful effect.

In Depth-Video Analysis Script

Kanye West – Touch The Sky Script.docx

Music Video Director Advice - Mr. Ayoolo

Today, we received a guest lecture from Mr. Ayoolo, detailing how he got into the business of music video directing.

Sir, encouraged to always make storyboards and treatments as this prepared planning while help when you try and shoot a certain angle, also if it fits into the storyline and message one is trying to create.

He also stated that we shoot at different locations and be innovative and find areas we can just go and shooting without prior planning permission. He also stated that location is key in constructing a media text. location is just as important as props, costume and other elements of mies-en-scene.

It is also better to shoot out of sequence and take the opportunity as quickly as possible as there are other mitigating variables that can affect filming, i.e. weather and the public.

Mr. Ayoolo stressed that efficiency and creativity are key in the success of music videos, not budgets.

This is Mr. Ayoolo's video:

Editing To The Beat

Today, we did a technical workshop in which we learned how to edit to the beat effectively and how to use the slug as an editing guide to cut shots in rhythm with the soundtrack. We manipulated and changed the pace of shots and employed both rhythmic cuts and irregular cuts.

It was incredibly helpful as it alleviated some of the stress of working out how long a shot or a sequence must be and the effect of chopping up a sequence to match with the music. Also, as the video was four times as longs as our music mix, it gave us more coverage and thus allowed to be more creative.

This is the original video in which we edited to our music mix:




This is the edited video I made:

BBC Industry Article - Charlotte Church

An interesting BBC article in which Charlotte Church confronts the sexist music industry, for reasons Laura Mulvey highlighted. It seems to be there is some type of revolution aginst the sexual exploitation of women, as Charlotte Church has been one of a few female artists who have expressed their outrage against the media depiction of women. (link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24528022)

Britney Spears has recently censored her latest music video as the revealing nature of Spears inspired fear that her children will see the video.

Jimmy Kimmel/Kanye West Saga

These series of clips show that celebrities have the power to take control over their image and that their image doesn't have to be manufactured by major record label producers via online and TV media. However, even though, they're presenting a 'real' image it is still manufactured by the artist in a way that they see fit.

The Kanye West interview with Zane Lowe which I blogged about earlier, created a lot of buzz on the internet and TV shows. It even sparked a parody of the interview by comedian Jimmy Kimmel on his Kimmel Tonight, performed by children.

(Zane Lowe blogpost link: http://lingardra2media.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/kanye-west-bbc-radio-1-zane-lowe.html)



This response on Kimmel's show caused an even bigger stir than the parody or the original interview. The spoof caused an online feud between the two and insults over social networking site Twitter.



Kanye then appears on an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live and both speak about Kanye has been misrepresented in the media and felt mocked by Kimmel and the two resolve the feud.

(Part 1)


(Part 2)

Inspiration Post for Music Video

Our music video has an Alice In Wonderland theme and so the group decided we would employ some intertextuality in our product. Our Alice, A. takes an hallucinogenic called 'M.H.', the initials of Mad Hatter and goes through a journey of a dark, gritty underworld, looking for the girl with a white rabbit tattoed on her shoulder as her guide home. Alice's character interchanges between Hero and Princess.

My group came up with the idea that we'll have a helper or donor character who is a drug dealer. The dealer gives A the drug but also offers her a piece of advice in case she gets lost or trapped; which is "follow the white rabbit".  Those words would become diegetic sound and echo at different parts of the music video.

My group were inspired by Tree of Life - Lacrimosa sequence and thought it would be put to effective use if we created a similar sequence when A. 'trips' under the hallucinogenic and falls into wonderland.

 

As a group we hoped that we could imitate the visuals of Kendrick Lamar's Swimming Pools when A. stumbles into a lucid wonderland.

Kendrick Lamar - Swimming Pools - Falling shot

I was inspired by the opening of Joel Schumacher's Falling Down  opening sequence. The use of diegetic sound creating a claustrophobic crescendo and fast cuts/ extreme close-ups of Michael Douglas' face and surroundings before he has a nervous breakdown was something we hope to incorporate in our video.

Mr. Coppard introduced me to Skrillex's First Of The Year (Equinox) video which inspired me as I liked the creative take on fairytales and the twist within the narrative. It also uses some of the techniques that were used in Falling Down, such as the use of diegetic sound. Also, the lighting is quite Fincher-esque and helps create dramatic tone.

Richard Dyer Essay

To what extent does a pop stars image influence their audience?

In terms of Richard Dyer’s Star Theory, the terms “pop star” and “pop performer” are interchangeable. The difference between pop stars and pop performers is that pop stars may simply be awarded fame for being pop stars, appearing on reality TV shows or amidst controversial news and the like, or have an identity or persona which is solely not restricted to their musicianship. Both pop stars and pop performers are/become media constructs who directly influence their audience via fashion choices, music, celebrity persona, controversy etc. An example of a pop performer transitioning into a pop star is Kanye West.

Source A

Kanye began his rapping career having a ‘real’ image of a somewhat nerdy, funny, intelligent political activist. At this stage in his career, Kanye is clearly a pop performer rather than a pop star. Kanye at first was viewed as an ambassador for the "African-American" community, his subversive and comedic lyrics reflected social attitudes towards materialism, institutionalised/racial injustice and drug abuse. The critical and commercial success of Kanye’s first two albums launched him into the media celebrity culture and was put up on a pedestal, with audiences quoting verbatim Kanye lines in everyday conversations shows Kanye’s influence on the political attitudes to long-term and prevalent issues. Kanye’s fashion choices reflected his celebrity persona at the time; Kanye is presented as wholesome and politically conscious, also clashes against the approved style choices of hip-hop culture. Pink wasn't considered to be acceptable at the time in hip-hop as the genre embraced a hyper-masculine and possibly homophobic views.

Source B

Kanye’s image changed from pop performer to pop star during his third album (Graduation). Kanye began to conform to the cosmopolitan look, a record label's decision to appeal to a generalised market and place rappers on the same platform associated with celebrity socialites, such as Ryan Reynolds (Source B). Kanye’s music became more commercial and broad, lacking the political punch he was famous for; also fans began to follow the fashion trend of sporting the glasses in Source C. However, Kanye's dress sense brought a level of sophistication to hip-hop, as it broke some stereotypes that hip-hop is a "ghetto", aggressive culture that only speaks to black people, but is rather an all-inclusive genre, regardless of race.

Source C

Source D

Another rap artist that has similar impact as Kanye would be Eminem. Eminem presented two images simultaneously: the irreverent and outlandish comedian and the aggressive, but powerful lyricist. The influence of Eminem's music video implementing satire changed perceptions that hip-hop needn't be aggressive and sombre, but can express humour and unity. The use of comedy paved way for artists such as Kanye to incorporate comedy or skits in their videos, also, the humour brought in a wider fan base, mainly increasing White fans as they now has a figure in which they felt they could relate too. His more macabre side of his persona, broke the glass ceiling for white rappers to become known in a Black/Latino dominated genre, as before Eminem there was no White rappers that was able to compete as the same level as the Blacks and Latinos. Eminem is now heralded as not only one of the greatest White rappers, but one of the greatest rappers of all time ever.

Source E

Andrew Goodwin - Theory

Andrew Goodwin

Narrative Analysis

Frank Ocean - Pyramids

We track Frank Ocean's hazy journey through a strip club called "Pyramids". The club becomes surreal as we move through the club in Frank's perspective, through P.O.V shot. Frank is delirious from the alcohol and is search of a stripper named Cleopatra. The video is plays in a non-linear sequence as we see cut-away shots from riding his motorbike in the vast open desert, where he stumbles across a musician (John Mayer) playing a guitar solo.

Michael Jackson - Bad

Michael Jackson plays an ex-gang member who goes off to boarding school. On his return to inner city New York on the winter break, he runs into his old gang. The narrative is an example of Todorov's equilibrium theory. The leader of the gang (Wesley Snipes) accuses Michael Jackson of losing his roots and becoming a priggish, snotty 'prep' student. The arising results in a duel between the two of who's 'bad' and who isn't. The music video also employs Levi-Strauss' binary oppositions: Michael wins the duel as the 'good', smart, law-abiding character whilst Wesley Snipes the immoral thug loses. However, the video breaks social stereotypes that nerds are usually meek and weak and at the mercy of the thugs and bullies, challenging Levi-Strauss' theory of media texts conforming to societal values. On the other hand, one could argue it does conform to Levi-Strauss' theory as the good and moral character prevails and being a law-abiding, intellectual person is considered to be virtuous, whilst those who live outside of the law are deemed vicious.

A-Level Student Video Evaluation

Euan Baker Music Video - Wykes Sixth Form College

In the mies-en-scene, Euan uses the setting of a forest to construct the vast, overwhelming aspect of nature that connects with the tinny, ambient sound of the song selection and the gaps of silence between the noise in the music and the eerie, hallucinogenic vocals connoted with woods and fairytales. A quest through the unknown and the surreal.

Euan starts off with enigma codes and rhythmic cuts of flashing images of a liquid poured in water, this may connote that he consumed some form of liquid and causes Euan's perspective to be surreal, also there is consistency in lighting and colours, because the video is shot monochromatically, succeeding from the black-and-white images.

Euan employs a voyueristic shot, we look at Euan wandering suspicious of something following him, but unable to locate or identify  the cause of his suspicions. Euan uses a blur which contrasts with the focus of shots previous and also connotes the observer is not human and also through the angle of the shot connotes the observer is a predator.

In this sequence, Euan used slow-motion to heighten the drama of the jump and submergion into the unknown. The effect of the slow-mo makes the audience think slower and absorb the image and understand the narrative of the video clearly.

Spike Jonze Auteur Theory Case Study

Missing parts from Spike Jonze interview: "Also I like to bring in an element of comedy; the actors usually perform the comic moments straight, so we laugh at the absurdity of the characters, such as in Being John Malkovich when John Cusack’s wife Cameron Diaz falls in love with Catherine Keener (Cusack’s colleague), who Cusack is also in love with.

All three of my feature films are fantasy: Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Where The Wild Things Are."

I also wanted to include my favourite Spike Jonze short film. A story of an awkward male robot (Andrew Garfield) who falls in love with an uninhibitited female robot (Sienna Guillory). It details the course of their romance and the sacrifices that come with love.

Kanye West BBC Radio 1 - Zane Lowe Interview

In part 1, Kanye West discusses the tyrannical control of radio, not allowing better, undiscovered artists air play because they don't conform to radio's ideal of what commercial music should be. He also states the importance of an artist's responsibility to change their own image to cause a change in how music is commercially perceived. Kanye speaks about his aspirations to overcome the barriers of an artist, to become more than a musician and create an artistic and social revolution that transcends the influence of Michael Jackson. Kanye also emphasises the need for experimentation of modern music and how genres like hip-hop need to evolve and not be constricted to the conventional "16 bars". Kanye finally argues that hip-hop has lost its anti-pop culture and has been filtered to become commercialised music.



Despite his contributions outside of music, Kanye still feels under-appreciated and doesn't understand that despite his achievements (Nike Yeezys) major companies want to restricting to certain items of clothing and branding such as t-shirts and how they want to control the producer and the product. Artists have become promotional tools and the artist use major companies as a means of increasing income. Kanye also speaks out of how media perpetuates classism and self-hate. Kanye also clears how media has demonised him and labelled him as megalomaniac but clarifies his intentions and motivations to create art to help people. Kanye talks about how his controversial tracks and his attack on major record labels stopped him achieving commercial success and wants to continue the ideas innovators like Steve Jobs left.

 

Kanye is just a symbol to help people overcome whatever creative and oppressive struggles one of his fans are going through - a medium of motivation. Kanye states the reason as to why people wanting to pigeon-hole him are superficial and also mentions and praises fashion designers also; they dedicate their lives to making civilization better and are unwilling to compromise their principles or quality of fabric, but are willing to sacrifice everything else but their principles. Kanye expounds that unless you were child of a celebrity or you break a certain number of glass ceilings, it is impossible for one to afford high-end clothing. He wants to bring equality and make fashion on a democratic platform in the same music is received democratically. He also mentions other artists, 2 Chainz and Drake and praises their work ethic, and for those in power to deny them to express themselves is near criminal.



Kanye wants to use his music and other resources to spark debates that are currently non-exist. There must be an egalitarian society or collection of people who are working together to push cultural, sonic and other artistic boundaries. Mainstream marketing has polluted the minds of the people and causes a food-chain type system - survival of the fittest. People are depraved as to what people should one, we have limited to no intellectual freedom. Kanye takes a more personal note and that celebrities should have control of their own image and be able to market their own image in a way they see fit and also about how he wants to change his lifestyle for the benefit of his daughter. Kanye talks about how Black People do not want to temporarily feel like kings through material products, but be kings through intellectual freedom and the ability to create.

The reason as to why I uploaded these music videos was due to the fact it clarified misconceptions about the music industry and Kanye himself. It brought back the real image that young, aspiring artists (not, just musicians, but in the general sense) like myself, identified with. Also the tension and division the video provoked over social networking sites, between those that still considered Kanye to be a megalomaniac and those who perceived Kanye to be emblematic for what it means to be an artist and a symbol of hope.

Producer Strategies

Producer Strategies

Music Video Timeline

Narrative Theories - Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov

(1 March 1939 - Present)

Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian Philosopher who established the equilibrium theory. Todorov stated most narratives start with an equilibrium, where life is normal and the protagonist is happy, then a disruption in the equilibrium occurs, usually caused by the primary antagonist. The protagonist recognises disruption and then attempts to repair disruption. The story often concludes with the protagonist being successful in repair, birthing a new equilibrium.

Equilibrium>Disruption>Recognition of disruption>Attempt to repair>New Equilibrium

Narrative Theories - Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey

(15 August 1941 - Present)
Laura Mulvey established the audience were placed into a masculine subject position and the role of women were objectified through the societal 'gaze'. Mulvey argues that films are constructed to reflect three societal concepts:

• How men (heterosexual) view women
• How women view themselves
• How women view other women.

Mulvey states the figure of a woman becomes the focus of the shot, the curvature of her hips, back etc.

Source A

Megan Fox is seen in source A wearing revealing clothes, denoting the curvature of her back and legs, which connotes sexual imagery in the audience. Also, Source A denotes her straddling a bike which serves as a phallic euphemism. Transformers series were primarily targeted at 12-year old heterosexual males and this poster is used as a ploy to reel the audience in. She is clearly objectified and acts as nothing but the medium for sexual fantasy.



The male response to Megan Fox and other celebrities causes young and impressionable females to reject the image of their body and wear provocative clothing and objectify themselves in hope of garnering similar amounts of attention as their media role models.

A celebrity famous for subjecting herself to a male object is Janet Jackson. She is known in her concerts for performing explicitly sexual dance moves and singing sexual lyrics, particularly in her Live In Hawaii performance of Would You Mind? (There is no way I'm posting this link, I value my A-Levels, but you're welcome to search on youtube)

I'll leave you with this: "To gaze it implies simply more than to look at - it signifies a psychological relationship of power, in which the gazer is superior to the object of the gaze" - Jonathan Schroeder 

Narrative Theories - Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes

(12 November 1915 - 26 March 1980)

Roland Barthes was a French theorist, linguist, philosopher, critic and semiotician. Barthes suggested that narrative works with five different codes that help the reader or audience comprehend the text.

Denotation and Connotation

(Signify)              (Signifier)

Action - A narrative device by which a resolution is produced through action e.g. a shoot out.

Enigma - Narrative devices which tease the audience by presented a puzzle or mystery to be solved. It serves to delay the story's ending pleasurably.

Symbolic - Symbolic codes are the connotations of the images or imagery presented e.g. an allegory or a theme motif.

Semic - The denotations of the image/imagery.

Cultural - A device which the audience recognise and associate with a particular culture.

Narrative Theories - Claude Levi-Strauss

Claude Levi-Strauss

(28 November 1908 - 30 October 2009)

Claude Levi-Strauss was a French structural anthropologist, meaning he researched into the structures of human life past and present, discovering structural patterns. 

 Levi-Strauss examined how stories unconsciously reflected the values, beliefs and myths of a culture.

These are usually expressed in the form of binary oppositions.

His research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts.

Western Binary Oppositions:

Christian versus Pagan

Domestic versus Savage

Weak versus Strong

Garden versus Wilderness

Inside Society versus Outside Society

Narrative Theories - Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp

(29 April 1895 - 22 August 1970)

Propp was a Soviet formalist and literary scholar, who focused on Russian fairytales and folklore.

Some characters had interchangeable roles, such as the dispatcher, false hero and the villain e.g. Lord Farquaad in Shrek (as shown below)

Music Video Infographic

Sources:
Best Animated Music Videos - http://www.radarmusic.com.au/news/news/top-20-best-animated-music-videos-.aspx

Facts and Figures - https://www.bpi.co.uk/assets/files/Music%20Video_2012%20Yearbook.pdf

http://pigeonsandplanes.com/2012/12/fascinating-music-industry-stats/s/users-have-streamed-1500-years-worth-of-music-with-spotify

 Music Videos | Create infographics

Music Video - Michael Jackson, Smooth Criminal

This music video falls under the category of hybrid; a compound of narrative and performance. This video is edited well, especially in the interlude where the frequent use of dissolves slows the tempo of the video and presents the illusion of the camera tracking the performers when in fact the camera is stationary.



The set production and costume accurately represents the 1920s jazz clubs, coinciding with the theme of the song. The music video has a clear narrative of one man (Michael Jackson) taking on a club of gangsters by himself in pursuit of a woman. It also includes a heart-warming side story/sub-plot with a group of children peering into the club. The video cleverly incorporates performance with the narrative without seeming unnecessary and acts as emotional code and in result has become iconic.

Purpose Of Music Videos

A brief summary of how and why major record labels distribute music videos from the 1980s to present day; the evolution of strategies used to help market their media product globally.

Codes and Conventions

Codes and Conventions

Music Video Structure

Narrative

Narrative music videos present a story which usually tie into popularised narrative theories, for example Todorov's equilibrium theory. The narrative usually helps to create a visual representation of the lyrics.

Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved

Performance

Performance videos are where the video includes some element of performance from the artist or band, typically in the form of singing/rapping or the playing of instruments.

Abstract

The visual text bears no relation to the lyrics of the song. They tend to be the most creative type of music video as they have the least amount of restrictions and is presented more as visual poetry rather than just a means of promotion.

Hybrid

Hybrids are the amalgamation of any of three types of music videos described above in one visual text. An hybrid will incorporate narrative and hybrid elements, narrative and performance, hybrid and performance or all three. 

Auteur Theory

Originating from the French word meaning 'author', New Wave Movement director Francois Truffaut stated that a film, or in this case music vidoe, should reflect the directors personal creative vision.

Film Theoretician Andre Bazin, explain Auteur Theory: "a way of choosing the personal factor in artistic creation as a standard of reference, and then progresses from one film to the next".

A case of a modern director to be considered an auteur could be Martin Scorsese.

• Known for use of slow-motion panning or tracking.
• Use of iconic pop-cultural music.
• Including an element of food or banquet.
• Use of long tracking shots.
• With mies-en-scene, the woman who plays Propp's princess or object of protagonist's love is usually dressed in white.
• Slow-motion flashbulbs.
• Frequent collaborators: Actors: Robert Deniro (8), Leonardo DiCaprio (5), Victor Argo (6), Harry Northup (6), Harvey Kietel (5), Joe Pesci (3). Editor: Thelma Schoonmaker. Cinematographer: Michael Balhaus. Writer: Paul Schrader.

Diamond Nine

We were asked to rank what the most important factors are for successful promotion of a music video, artist and it's product to an audience. 

A2 Portfolio Brief

The Advanced Portfolio 's chosen brief is: Music Video.

This will be managed in a similar way as the Foundation Portfolio through a blog which the moderator will then have access to.

Your blog for: individual (and group-based) research and ideas, reflections and evaluation, planning and production work.

ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES for the coursework:

1. Apply knowledge and understanding when analysing media products and processes and evaluating your own practical work, to show how meanings and responses are created (20 marks)
2. Demonstrate the ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills (60 marks)
3. Demonstrate the ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research (20 marks)

PROJECT BRIEF

The unit requires you to engage with contemporary media technologies, giving you the opportunity to develop in these technologies. It also enables you to develop the skills of presentation that are required for further study at higher levels and in the workplace.

Candidates will produce:
• a media portfolio, comprising a main and two ancillary texts
• a presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in electronic format

Brief:

A promotion package of the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with 2 of the following 3 options:

• a website homepage for the band
• a cover for its release on cd

Introduction to A2 Media

Hello, welcome to my A2 media blog. Here I will frequently update and post blogs documenting the coursework process from the research stage to the evaluation stage.