Question 1B

G325- critical perspectives in media question 1B

I am going to be talking and analysing my A2 work, which include a music video, magazine advert and digipack designs. I am going to be discussing how theoretical ideas function within and in relation to my work, focusing on genre, narrative, representation, audience and media language.

Music videos that belong to the genre of pop are usually extremely performance based, with the singer, or band lip syncing throughout the song, as well as performing via dancing or in a narrative story that reflects the meaning of the lyrics.

The overall tone and hue of the video will be very bright, with the artist wearing bright trendy mainstream clothing.

In pop music videos the main artists are almost always present in their music video in some shape of form. Pop music videos are usually fun and light hearted to appeal to a younger audience.

I believe that my music video follows all the typical conventions of a pop genre video, as I think its bright and cheerful, and the tone of the video matches the tone of the song. My performer also wears clothes that are considered in fashion, and she is also the only person in the video as I wanted the main focus to be on her as I believed the message in the lyrics was highlighting she is looking out for herself from now on.

The concept of the gaze is one that deals with how audience views the people presented.

Mulveys main theory is called 'the male gaze', this was to show that the female actresses in the 50s and 60s were to be looked at (to-be-looked-at-ness).

She suggests there are 2 modes of the male gaze of these era, 'voyeuristic', for example seeing women as 'whores' and 'fetishistic' seeing women as Madonnas.

The theory is to show that women were there to be seen and to entice men into the film.

For feminist it can be thought of in three ways:

• How men look at women
• How women look at themselves
• How women look at other women

I believe my music video can be analysied in terms of 'the male gaze', as in clips you can see, the camera focuses on my performers facial features, like lips and eyes which are often associated connoting sexual movements. I also believe the way my performer dances around and is positioned also uses examples of voyeurism.

This theory can also be applied to my printwork, as my digipak front cover is a close up of the artists face, with bright red lips, I think this also reflects 'the male gaze'.

Semiotic Analysis of my music video

I believe my music video has generic forms and conventions of a music video for a pop genre video.

As Stuart Hall (1980) suggests the audience have been positioned to get a preferred reading of how they want the audience to understand the video, this reading can depend on a person’s social background and beliefs.

Mise-en-scene has been used to create the locations and theme of the song- all my shots were at night, as the song is called 'Its All About Tonight' and it gives the party, fun theme to it.

The outfits I have chosen for each shot represent the singer, she wears a long black dress which is short at the front, which is fashionable at the current time so the target audience can look up to her and also see her as a 'icon'. Other outfits include a baggy cream jumper and shorts with long socks, this is when the performer is in a bedroom lounging on a bed, this connotes her youth and innocence, and also shows her as a normal, teenager.

Camerawork is used in the music video to create a variety of effects. At the start of my music video I used a series of close up's which shows my performer and the audience will know who she is. I also used a close up of the performer walking in shoes, it links to the song lyrics.

I have also used mid-shots in my video, this can show the performers body language and show off her outfits, which my target audience will be interested in.

Other shots I have used, include long shots and extreme long shots of the performers eyes and lips, this was to show the female in a certain way- like Laura Mulvey's theory of the 'male gaze',

I think the variety of shots I used showed how I thought about how it was going to look to audiences, and by changing between shots it is more interesting and changes with the beat and tone of the song.

Editing is used to help the audience understand the narrative. Throughout the video continuity editing is used to so the shots are linked together, however it uses non-continuity editing when it flashes to her smiling and laughing in different shots. Simple cuts are used to link the shots together. Insert shots are used regularly to show my performer singing the song in different shots and locations to keep my audience interested. Having insert shots of the singer throughout the music video is a general code and convention of a music video.

The only sounds used in the music video is the music and the words to the song, these will have been put on after the video was filmed.

The video has many codes and conventions of a music video and a typical 'girl power' song. It is stereotypical of this type of music video as it follows the girl singing the song in different locations, starting with her down a long road which shows she is out, meaning to signify the lyrics ' its all about tonight' as the start of her night, the shots then change to her in the bedroom, which is ment to be a flashback of her getting ready to go out/previous nights, theres a shot of the girl looking at her phone ringing and ignoring it- showing she is over the boy. I have then used greenscreen shots to make the video more interesting and fun. The video ends with the girl walking up a long road into the darkness, this signifes the end of the night, and the fact that this great night is over, but she can still continue to live for herself, not her ex.

Theory

Laura Mulvey

Andrew Goodwin

Theory- What is relevant to my work?

One theory that can be related to my work is Andrew Goodwin's theory. He states that there are many factors that make a music video, some of these being:

• A relationship between visuals either illustrating, amplyifying or contradicting lyrics.
• There is Likely to be voyeurism- espically with women.
• A demand on part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main performer.

All these 3 points can be related to my own music video, as my video illustates the lyrics through the visuals, it tells a story about a girl who has been hurt by a boyfriend, and the song is about her moving on and having fun without him for a night- and my performer is shown at nighttime laughing, smiling, not caring about her past.

There is also voyeurism used in my video, my performer is dressed in different outfits in each shot, and these are skirts, shorts, high heels which typcially associate women as being attractive to the opposite sex, I also think by my performer dressed in such ways, it will enable a more variety of audiences watching my music video.

I have also used many close up's of my performer, she is the only person in the video aswell as I believe the main focus is on her, the song is about her and not thinking about anyone else, so I wanted to get this across.

Audience

Representation

The representation of the outfits I have chosen for my performer to wear, signify the meaning of the song, she wears a long black dress which is see-through and short and the front, this is a formal/dressy outfit which connotes she is going out someone, she also wears gold heels, which again show she is going out, and the song lyrics state 'Its All About Tonight'.

Print work

Music Video

I can also talk about the representation of different signs and their meanings. For example, the indexical sign in my music video is the scene with the performer on the bed, looking back at her phone, then ignoring it. This shows that her ex-boyfriend is calling her, and she isn't picking it up as she is moving on, and forgetting about him.

The iconic signs in my video, appear at the beginning where the camera is focused on the performer walking. The gold heels she wears represent her going out and starting her night.

I also created digipack designs and a magazine advert advertising the album. I created these on Photoshop and found this quite fun to do as I could use my skills from AS.

Following my primary research, I designed the digipack covers according to what my audience wanted. The front of my digipack features a close up of the artist's face, I edited the photo so it looked more professional and also added in text like the name of the artist, name of album and a 'bonus' plug. I looked at similar products to help me with all the productions. I decided to keep my designs within the same theme, using fairylights in the background for each.

My magazine advert features a picture of my artist, this is a mid-shot of the performer, and it would be spread out as a double page spread in a magazine.

I believe my music video has the typical genre of 'pop' and the characterisitcs of settings for this genre, mine is set in several locations, like a young girls bedroom, a long road at night with fairylights behind.

Goodwin believes music videos should ignore common narrative, as it is important in the role of advertising- this applies to my video as I haven't followed a typical narrative plot, there are lip synching clips and other short clips showing the performer laughing and smiling at the camera.

My music video is aimed at young people, within the age group of 13-25, this is because the artist is a young girl and my performer is also young, so the audiences can relate to both the song and performer. It is mainly aimed at girls, but boys may also watch it due to 'voyeurism', where boys will watch the video due to scenes of my performer in certain clothes and shots.

When planning my music video, I made sure I carried out primary research to see what my target audience expected and wanted from a music video, I created a polling system on my blog where I got people from the age group to vote what they most agreed with, questions like "Do you expect to see a narrative music video?" and I also asked questions about my printwork asking "Do you expect to see the artist's face on the front of the CD?" which helped me a lot. I also found that most of my target audience would watch music videos on either YouTube or channels like MTV, so this is where I'd plan to show it.

I think I targeted my audience successfully, my target audience would be grabbed in by the different locations, my shots are constantly changing so it dosen't appear dull, the lighting which is at night- spotlights and fairylights give a certain theme, I also believe the performers make-up and costumes would appeal to the audience, some shots focus on the shoes she wears which would interest the audience.

Genre

I chose my music video to have the genre of 'pop'. I chose this because the music videos I have watched and used as inspiration, all followed conventions of a pop genre video, and I could create a video similar.

Narrative

The structure of my music video is mainly performance based, but the representation of my performer is showed throughout, a strong-single female, forgetting about the past and moving foward. I think this is shown through some of my shots, as there are occasionally ones of the performer smiling to the camera, having a good time- which matches with the tone and lyrics to the song.

My video also dosen't follow Todorov's narrative structure, it dosen't have a clear equilibrium, disruption, resolution and a new equilbrium again, as it is not so much a story, it starts with the artist singing to camera outside in a long road, signifying the 'start' of her new life without her ex boyfriend, and it ends with her walking away into the darkness. My performer represents people who have been hurt, and should be of inspiration to those to move on.

I can also describe the narrative using Levis Strauss' theory, although we don't see the boy in the video, we can assoicate him as being bad and we automatically take a dislike, whereas my performer is identifyed with the audience who can relate, she is seen as the 'hero' figure.

I think the narrative of my music video can also be described by Andrew Goodwin, as there is a relationship between visuals and the lyrics, as the audience can see the performer having fun and laughing, which the lyrics are connotating.

There are key lines that I chose to add visual meaning to, like for example the line 'So I don't hear the phone when you call' and this cuts to a shot of my performer looking at her phone and ignoring it, which emphasize the meaning of the lyrics.

Media Language

Semiotic analysis

Print work

The colours I have used throughout my productions have been dark, blacks, purples and reds. I think this is important to keep a consistent colour theme as otherwise it could look odd together and the audience may feel like they don’t fit. I’ve also made sure my print work were as similar to the colours I have used when shooting my music video. By ensuring this, I took photos from the first location shoot I did, so they fit together.

I have also used the same fonts on each of my designs, I made sure ‘Jordon’ the artists name was in the same font type, as this needs to be consistent to look professional. I created this font on Photoshop, I made sure each production had the same background to it which was a picture of the fairylights I had used when shooting my video,