Textual Analysis (2) LIIAR

Alex Goot - Wake Up Call (2014)

This music video follows a narrative with some performance elements that are part of the story. It focuses on two main characters, a male lead, who is the performer and a girl who is his love interest. The video follows a Romeo & Juliet narrative as in the end the guy gets the girl.

 

Cinematography:

 

Mise-en-Scene:

 

Language: The lyrics of the song relate to the target audience, young people and teenagers. The theme of the song is love which is a relatable theme to many people as we all understand it. Even though he has a smaller fan base compared to stars signed to major labels the lyrics of the song will be specifically relatable to his audience. The lyrics suggest that he can't go on with his life unless he gets the girl, this suggests to the audience that unless they are in a romantic relationship their life isn't important.

 

Institution: Not signed to a label, Alex has independently released two studio albums, this was made possible through the help of his fans and a kickstarter campaign. His success on YouTube and other social media has increased his popularity, being an independent artist meant his success was down to word of mouth and self-promotion. Alex is now a big name on the YouTube scene. The lead female character in the video is Elle Fowler, also big on YouTube. Casting her in the video meant that his regular audience was familiar with the characters.

 

Ideology: The ideology of this video is that love at first sight can happen and works out. Love is something that every person can relate to, whether they have had good or bad experiences. Therefore this video may give people hope that they will find true love, or people will relate because they are in a similar situation. The main characters have a brief meeting and share a kiss near the beginning of the video but the characters don't meet again until the end and the lyrics suggest that until he sees the girl again he won't be happy. This suggests that his whole life revolves around a girl.

 

Audience: The target audience for this video would be fans of Alex Goot and young people. The theme of love is desirable for many people and therefore many people will enjoy the video. Teenagers often have their favourite artist and the performance elements in the video allow the viewer to see the artist not in the character role, but being a performer instead. The view count and 'thumbs up' count on YouTube enables the viewer to see statistics about the video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Representation: The video represents the artist as a normal guy, he is by himself at a motel, his dress suggests he is normal, there isn't any over the top costume. Even though he is presented to be the average guy at the end of the video he uses his musical talents to get the girl.The performance element allows the artist to be represented as a serious performer, he is playing the instruments and lip syncing.

Lesson Write Up - 23rd Oct

Can apply any theory to any text

• generic reading (based on genre)
• narrative
• feminist
• representational
• stereotypes

Genre is easy to understand

Strengths of Genre Theory:

• media experts use it to study media texts, the media industry uses it to develop and market texts and audiences use t to decide what they want to consume

Genre Development & Transformation:

• over the years genres develop and change as the wider society that produce them also changes, a process that is known as generic transformation
• Christian Metz (1974) argued that genres go through a typical cycle of changes
• experimental
• classic
• parody
• deconstruction

Music videos medium is intended to appeal directly to youth subcultures, reinforcing generic elements of musical genres
Called pop-promos used for promotion of the band or artist
Music video's are post modern texts, main purpose is to promote a stars persona (Dyer 1975)
Don't have to be literal representations of lyrics

Post modernism:
- usually refers to industrialisation but now links to digital technology
- label/name given to a historical era within society and culture
- no definition, but can define things that have post-modern features
-label of the era we are living in now

In terms of genre, there are narrative and performance and some combine both
Intertextual referencing

• others include themes which may fit around lyrics of song or society
• conventions stay the same but style changes between the genres
• music videos are known for being experimental and controversial

Theme = what the song is about, the underlying ideology or idea

David Bordwell (1989)
-anything can happen in any genre

• Horror - basically modern fairy tales
• Fear of the Unknown - monster is the 'monstrous other' anything that is scary is foreign and different
• Sex = Death - sex is immoral and must be punished, werewolf movies, metaphors for puberty
• Breakdown of Society -  post-apocalyptic movies are about our fear of the breakdown of society, the collapse of civilisation
• Duality of man/personal journey - conflict between civilised side and his savage primal instincts
• Segregation & alienation -  two opposing cultures or beings going through a struggle to survive

Some music videos have themes for a more youthful audience such as -

• teen angst
• rebellion (conformity vs non-conformity)
• romance
• sex
• nostalgia (innocence of youth)
• nihilism (belief there is no future)
• coming of age rituals
• tribalism (popularity vs unpopularity)
• bullying
• juvenile delinquency
• currency of 'cool'
• hedonism (living for pleasure)
• friendship

Other themes in music videos -

• war
• crime
• poverty
• capitalism
• racism

Genres are not fixed - they constantly change and evolve over time
David Buckingham (1993) argues that genre is not simply given by the culture constant process of change
Jacques Derida 'the law of the law of genre is precisely a principle of contamination, a law of impurity'

Textual Analysis (1)

Spice Girls - Wannabe (1996)

Cinematography: The video is one continuous tracking shot that follows the group around a hotel. However as the camera moves different framing is used. For example, a long shot at the beginning of the video allows the viewer to see all the members of the group together in a section of the narrative which does not have the music playing. A long shot is also used later in the video to showcase a dance sequence/performance element. Long shots also help the viewer to understand the surroundings as they can see more of where the video is taking place. Close-up shots are also used when individual members in the band have thier own part in the song, the close-up shots show the audience who is singing the part. Throughout the video mid-shots are used when following the girls round. Mid -shots allow the audience to see the performers costume and their face, this shot is conventional of the pop genre. There is no variation of angles of shots in the video, I think this is because it is one shot, if the camera was moving up and down all the time it could have been disorientating for the viewer.

Editing: No editing as the video is one continuous shot, apart from the use of slow-motion at the beginning.
Mise-en-Scene: Shot at St Pancras Grand Hotel in London, the location contrasts greatly to the girls themselves and what they are doing. In the video the girls run around the upmarket and classy hotel and cause havoc. I think this was to show the 'don't care' attitude of them it creates an element of humour in the video that is relatable to audiences. The extras in the video are all wearing quite eccentric clothing, this over the top costume links to the conventions of the genre as pop videos are often exciting and different. The girls in the band are all wearing very different outfits, often in music videos band members wear similar clothing to show uniformity and togetherness but the different outfits the members are wearing show individuality. Pop videos conventionally are bright and use strong vibrant colours to reflect the song. Some members of the band are wearing brightly coloured clothing, whereas others are very plain, however I think the costumes of the members are meant to reflect thier personality traits, e.g Sporty Spice in a crop top an track suit bottoms. The girls are wearing short skirts and are showing off thier bodies, which is also a convention of a pop video.

Sound: The video has both a soundtrack (the song itself) and ambient sound which is part of the narrative. At the beginning of the video the girls are outside of the hotel when a car arrives, you can hear the car moving and the girls themselves talking, as they move inside two members throw some paper around, you can also hear the paper shuffling when it hits the ground. After this, the only sound in the video is the song. The lyrics of the song are primarily about how women should value friendships over relationships with men. Laura Mulvey's theory about how women are viewed in the media may say that this song is sending a positive message. Even though her theory focuses on how media texts; emphasise the curves of the female body, refer to women as objects, display women as how men think they should be seen, make female viewers view the content through the eyes of a man, and how women are often sexualised and seen as objects the lyrics of this song are empowering to women and therefore you would think that the media text supports this. However the girls in the band are all wearing short outfits that emphasise their bodies and they are shown in a way that would please men.

Lesson Write Up - 21st Oct

Hypodermic Needle Theory

• The media injects the audience with information
• Audience is passive therefore takes the information at face value

• One of the very first theories about the media
• Therefore could be outdated and irrelevant
• Now web 2.0 gives us a chance to voice our own opinions

Source & Impact -

• This theory is weak because there is no-one in between the message and the opinion
• At the time this theory was relevant

It was developed in the 1920's/30's

It's a linear communication theory

 

Hypodermic needle theory - implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 40's/50's were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change.

Several factors contributed to this 'strong effects' theory of communication including; the fast rise and popularisation of radio and TV

The emergence of persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda.

 

We believe the media to be true, but sometimes we don't believe it because now we have a lot more ways of researching what we hear.

• The theory suggests that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformity by 'shooting' or 'injecting' them with appropriate messages designed to trigger a desired response.
• This theory (a needle) suggests a powerful and direct flow of information from the sender to the receiver
• It says that the media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience is powerless to resist the impact of the message
• People seen as passive, seen as having media 'shot' at them.

A Famous Case:

 

In the 1930's a radio broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' was performed like a real news broadcast to heighten the effect of the story, people listening thought it was real and assumed Mars had come to invade the Earth.

This demonstrates a passive audience and now an audience believes what they hear in the news and how this can quickly lead to misinterpretation.

 

Cons of the Theory:

• very out of date and invalid
• not all people consume media in the same way
• not everyone watches the news or consumes it in the same way
• audiences are not simply passive, more up to date theories have proved this

 

Lesson Write Up - 16th Oct

Genre Theory

 

 

 

• identify generic conventions of a song
• everything has some element of genre
• could modify generic conventions to fit the style of narrative

• typical mise-en-scene - iconography, props, lighting, set-design
• typical types of narrative - plot, historical setting
• generic types - male/female roles, archetypal

Archetype - the original, that every stereotype is based upon

• typical personnel - actors/directors may be known for doing a certain genre
• identify formal and generic conventions
• comedy and animation are not genres they are styles

Genre exists not only in the text but in society too, so audiences can understand it.

Genre allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume.

 

Pleasures of Genre For Audiences:

• Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences 'a set of pleasures'

1. Emotional Pleasures - generate a strong audience response
2. Visceral Pleasures -  gut responses, defined how the stylistic construction produces a physical effect on its audience
3. Intellectual Pleasures -  certain film genres offer the pleasure of trying to unravel the mystery. Pleasure of deciphering plot and forecasting the end, or being surprised by the unexpected.

Strengths of Genre Theory -

• everybody uses and understands it
• potential for the same concept to be understood by producers/audiences etc.



Lesson Write Up - 14th October

Audience Theory

• intended message:
• to show that smoke can have the same effect on children as if being suffocated
• encouraging people to not smoke around children
• maybe children would find it confusing as they may not understand the dangers of smoke so they might not understand why the children are distressed in the advert
• enables non-smokers to demonize the smokers
• gives a negative label
• people can understand why the advert is shown like it is

 

• intended message:
• the perfume will make you feel dominant and more powerful
• if you wear the perfume you will be idolised
• feminists may think this is not a good representation of women - Laura Mulvey - however could be empowering - Richard Dyer - star theory - seen as how the audience wants them to be seen

Reception Theory - Stuart Hall

 

3 ways an audience can view a text -

1. media texts are encoded by the producer meaning whoever produces the text fills the product with values and messages
2. text is then decoded by spectators
3. Different spectators with decode the text in different ways and not always in the way intended.

 

Dominant -

• audience view the text in the way the producer intended
• agree with ideology and message behind the text

Negotiated -

• compromise between dominant and oppositional, accepts what the text is saying but has their own understanding of the text
• don't agree or disagree, but can see the point being made

Oppositional -

• audience rejects the preferred reading, creates their own reading
• reject the meaning fully they do not agree with the message being created

How May An Audience Have A Dominant Understanding:

• clear messages
• audience is same age so relates to the product
• from the same culture
• easy to understand narrative, can relate to narrative in some way
• relevant to society
• audience are choosing to consume the product so must have a reason to like it in the first place

How May An Audience Have A Negotiated Understanding:

• audience might not have had the same life experiences
• may not understand the narrative in relation so therefore cannot relate in the intended way
• age may vary the reading and understanding
• do not understand all of the messages making it unclear what the dominant meaning is supposed to be

How May An Audience Have A Oppositional Understanding:

• product might have controversial themes
• disagree with the messages in the video
• dislike the genre
• no understanding/cannot relate to the narrative structure
• not reflective of society
• different cultures have different understandings

 

Conventions of Genre

Lesson Write Up - 9th October

Andrew Goodwin (1992)

• Argues that in music videos, 'narrative relations are highly complex' and meaning can be created from the individual audio-viwers musical personal musical taste to sophistaicated interetextuality that used multidiscursive phenomena of Western culture
• Many are dominated by advertising references, film pastiche and reinforce the post-modern re-use tradition

The history of mankind, in art, in words etc is all in one place at our fingertips - the internet.
The worlds society is there for us to learn, we can choose what we want to learn.
Everybody responds to music videos differently, depending on thier won knowledge

Intertextuality is when a media text references other media texts within it.

Sven Carlsson (1999)

• Performance (singing, dancing, lip-syncing)
• Narrative
• Art clip (abstract)

Commercial Exhibitionist - not about musical talent anymore, all about making money. For example the TV show 'The X Factor' even if the auditionees can't sing that well if they have a sob story and are moderatly good looking they will probably get through.

Performers in music videos exhibit themselves to promote themselves as an artist rather than the song to make money.

Genre Theory

Genre = type/category

 

Chandler (2001)

• Argues that the word 'genre' comes from the French (originally Latin) word for 'kind' or 'class'. Used in media theory to refer to a distinctive tyoe of 'text'
• Each genre has different iconography and conventions

In media we divide texts into types based on common elements.

 

Barry Keith Grant (1995)

• Texts are divided into specific categories and this allows the audience to identify with characters
• Genres have sub-genres, identifiable by recognisable characteristics

Steve Neale (1995)

• Genres are not systems, they are processes of systemisation - ie they are dynamic and evolve over time
• Not fixed in presentation or narrative
• The era/time is reflected in how genre is presented

Nosferatu (1922)

• directed by F.W.Murnau
• first vampire on screen

Interview With The Vampire (1994)

• more sophisticated
• vampire bcomes protagonist

Ideology of society and culture
To be successful genress have to change to please the audience, otherwise everything would be the same and repetitive.


Developed Narrative Structure

Main Character - young girl (12/13), abused by parents

Storyline (in progress)

• girl is crying in her bedroom looking at pictures from her childhood when she was happy, we then see a comparison to drawings she has done of herself and her parents now, her interpretation of what is happening to her.
• realisation of the situation she is in occurs.
• she finds/steals the landline/mobile phone and looks in yellow page or some type of leaflet to find a helpline number, (e.g childline)
• becomes scared of what might happen, dogs ears the page and leaves the phone
• she leaves the house to think about what to do, she goes for a walk - some possible locations include fields and the park.
• At the park she sees a happy family, she is sad that her family does not have this dynamic.
• When she gets home she runs to her room, she finds the book, opens the page and rings the line.
• When the song ends I would have diegetic sound of the young girl saying 'hello'? to the person on the line.

History of Music Videos

History of Music Videos Timeline

Conventions of Form

Lesson Write Up - 7th October

Audience Theory

Bulmer & Katz

Uses & Gratification Theory

• We are an active audience, we consume the media that we want to
• We control the media by choosing

e.g - TV cancellations; TV shows we choose not to watch for one reason or another don't get rating and viewing numbers, therefore channels will not put more money into making more of it because people aren't watching so it will get cancelled and no longer produced.

• We are inconrol of what we want to watch
• Our own life experiences change our understanding of media texts

Aims:

• To understand the theory
• Understand 'what people do with the media'

The Theory -

The 'Uses and Gratification' model represented a change in thinking as reasearchers began to describe the effects of the meida from the point of view of audiences

The model looks at the motives of the people who use the media, asking why we watch the TV programmes that we do, why we bother to read the newspapers, why we find ourselves compelled to keep up to date with our favourite soap, or consume films.

The theory makes the audience active as they choose what they want to consume, they are not forced into consumption, e.g you only watch the films you want to, as you are in control of your choices.

The theory argued audiecne needs have social and psychological needs which generate certain expectations about the mass media and what they are exposed to.

The audience is the active participant it allows them to make choices in relation to what they consume making ones elf in control of what they consume. This does assume an active audience making motivated choices making the audience in control of their own consumerism.

The 4 Needs -

The underlying idea about the model is that people are motivated by desire to fulfill or gratify ceratin needs. Rather than asking how media uses us, the model asks how we use the media.
The model is broken down into 4 needs -

1. surveillance
2. personal identity
3. personal relationships
4. diversion

1. People feel better having the feeling that they know what is going on in the world around them. (we feel the news is a reliable source, and it makes us feel secure) The surveillance model is about awareness, mass media make sus more aware of the world.
2. This explains how being a subject of the media allows us to conform to the identity and positioning of ourselves within society. The use of media for forming personal identity, pop stars are often role models, they inspire yound children, therefore there is an outcry when they do something wrong as it is influencing young people. Songs like Christine Aguilara - You Are Beautiful and Megan Trainor - All About That Bass allow us to connect with such identities and help us fit in society.
3. Broken into - 'Realtionships with the Media' (A) & 'Using the Media Within Relationships' (B)
(A) We form a relationship with the media. People often use the TV as a companion, we watch TV on our own and in groups, in silence. It can be an intimate experience as we feel close to the characters we watch. For example, in Soaps, if a long serving cast member's character is killed off we feel sad. (B) the media is often used as a springboard to form and build upon relationships with real people. Having a favourite TV programme in common can be a conversation starter. Some studies suggest that some familes sit around the TV as a stimulus for conversation (e.g Gogglebox)
4. This describes whats commonly termed as escapism - we watch TV to forget about our own lives and think about something else. We watch music videos to take our mind off our everyday lives and are used as a distraction from our own problems. We want to see that other people experience the same things we do.

Treatment

Treatment

I think my chosen song can be interpreted in different ways by different people based on their own experiences. Therefore the narrative ideas I have thought of are fairly different.

• An abusive relationship between parent and child
• The break of a relationship
• The betrayal of friends

For my first idea I would shoot my video from the perspective of the child so it would link to the lyrics more. In the first verse I would have visual imagery that reflected the lyrics I would start with the child crying and then an extreme close up of the parent’s eye to reflect the lyrics and emphasise the emotion. Throughout this narrative I would focus on the child getting away from the negative environment and seeking help. For the first verse, bridge and chorus I would show the child at home and set the scene of how the child is being abused and neglected. Then throughout the song I would follow the child through the stages of leaving and getting help. To incorporate a performance element I will have lip syncing from the person playing the child and also a dance sequence which I will incorporate into the narrative.

Lesson Write Up - 2nd October

Barthes (1977)

• narrative works with 5 different codes
• the enigma code works to keep up setting problems or puzzles for the audience.

Tilley (1991)

• signified that gun belt shot in a western film signifies a shoot out.

Enigma Codes: codes that signifies a narrative action

Visual codes act as narrative cues -
e.g - boy meets girl narrative - the girl putting on make-up suggests she is making an effort to impress him

Claude Levi-Strauss (1958)

• ideas about narrative amount to the fact that he belived all stories poerated to clear binary opposites, e.g good and evil

Michael Shore (1984) - music videos as audio visual poetry

• music videos are -
• recycled styles
• surface without substance
• simulated experience
• information overload
• image & style scavengers

Weezer - Buddy Holly (1994)

• director - Spike Jonze
• based on Happy Days, a 1970's sit-com based in the 1950's
• the music video was filmed in the 90's, like a 70's show, but set in the 50's
• editing is familer to TV
• set in Arnolds ( an iconic location from the show)
• costume = 1950's prep
• mixing footage from orginal TV show with footage they filmed in the 1990's.
• Mary Tyler Moore - sitcom actress
• Buddy Holly - late 50's singer/songwriter
• boy and girl narrative - using media figures to tell the audience the story
• positioned by producers to make the ausdience see it how they want us to
• through costumes & mise-en-scene a reality is created within the media text
• format of sitcom 'to be continued'
• recreated the style of footage

Michael Shores thoery of recycled styles can be applied to this video because it used the idea of Happy Days.

Oasis - The Importance of Being Idle

• looks like the opening of a 50's/60's film
• in black and white
• compared to -

Saturday Night & Sunday Morning

• part of 'British Social Realism' films
• realistic in portrayal of the working class
• inside of a working factory
• in black and white
• binary opposites of a push bike and a motorbike
• terraced house street

Michael Shores therory of recycled styles can be applied to the Oasis video as they have used the idea of a social realism film.

Michael Shores Ideas Explained:

Surface Without Substance - the look of something is more important than what it means
Recycled Styles - styles from the past are being re-used (e.g Madonna in Vogue as Marilyn Monroe)
Information Overload - we can access history and culture at our fingertips (the internet)
Simulated Experience - Re-created something (e.g Weezer - Buddy Holly)
Ambivalence - we don't really care what artists are referncing in their videos as long as it looks good that is all we find important
Decadence - we want everything now - instant gratification
Instant Gratification - if we want to watch a music video we can go to YouTube and have access to thousands to watch instantly

Lesson Write Up - 1st October

Bordwell & Thompson: (1997)

Offer two distinctions between story and plot which relate to the diegetic world of the narrative that the audience are positioned to accept and that which the audience actually see. They based this on Russian film theory:

Fabula: (story) is all the events in the narrative we see and infer. Defined as chronological events that are implied

Syuzhet: (plot) everything that is visible

Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory enigma resolution = narrative moves forward to solve the problem

Equilibrium with diegesis – usually has conflict to create interest between protagonist and antagonaist.

Arctic Monkeys - Leave Before the Lights Come On

Narrative -

• Haven't met
• Meet
• He's married (quest)
• Rejection
• Goes back (resolution)
   

Todorov (1997)

Stage 1: point of stable equilibrium, everything is calm and normal

Stage 2: disrupted by some kind of force which creates a state of disequilibrium

Stage 3: recognition disruption has taken place

Stage 4: only possible to re-create equilibrium through action directed against disruption

Stage 5: restoration of new state of equilibrium. Consequences of the reaction to change the world of the narrative. New equilibrium is not the same as the initial state.