Media Theory

Hey,


So to help further my understanding of certain aspects of media and music, I researched into the big theorists that have changed the way we consume media and music, over the past few years.


Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze


Film represents women as passive objects of male desire.  Audiences are forced to view women from the point of view of a heterosexual male even if they are indeed; heterosexual women or homosexual men.


Bell hooks - The colour codes


Lighter skinned women are considered more desirable and fit better into the western ideology of beauty.  Black women are objectified and sexualised in hip-hop reflecting the colonialist view of black women (sexually disposable). Commoditised blackness, a mediated view of black culture that is considered the norm.


Stuart Hall - The media and therefore audiences often blur race and class.


Often associating particular races with a particular class. Audience reception theory; audiences read/understand a particular text according to their cultural upbringing. Western (white dominated) cultures. Continue to misinterpret ethnic minorities in the media due to underlying racist tendencies. Ethnic minorities are often represented as ‘the other’.


Tricia Rose


Hip Hop gives black female rappers a voice introducing female empowerment. Hip hop gave audiences an insight into the lives of young black urban Americans and gave them a voice.


Robert Moog


Although no one really knows who built the first fretted guitar, or who truly designed the first real keyboard, we do know who created the first pitch-proper, commercially available synthesizer. Robert Moog is widely recognized as the father of the synthesizer keyboard, and his instrument revolutionized the sound of pop and classical music from the day it hit the streets in 1966. Unfortunately, Moog wasn't the greatest businessperson — or perhaps he was just very, very generous with his ideas — and the only synthesizer-related patent he ever filed was for something called a low-pass filter.


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I've also checked out what exactly a music video is, which is how I found this explanation: Music videos use a wide range of styles of contemporary video making techniques, including animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as abstract film. Some music videos blend different styles, such as animation, music, and live action. Combining these styles and techniques has become more popular because of the variation it resent to the audience. Many music videos interpret images and scenes from the song's lyrics, while others take a more thematic approach. Other music videos may be without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the song's live performance.


Music videos have also become a place where product placement is evident in almost every mainstream video. They are always parent and it usually takes place because the artist is sponsoring a product or brand. An example of product placement is the Beats Pill being featured in numerous hip hop videos. The strong emphasis on product placement is something that has evolved because of the global scale music videos can reach because of websites such as YouTube.

History of Music Videos

Hey!


So whilst researching some info for the history of music videos, I came across this image from myspace which details perfectly what I'm looking for!

1 Minute Music Video - Done!

Hello!
So, after a lot of editing, it's finally done! Enjoy!

One Minute Music Video: Status #3

Hey!

So we've just booked our equipment for Saturday the 16th - we're just taking a DSLR, a focus lens, a tripod and a gorilla pod. Our plan instead of a storyboard is to think of the shots we can use and implement them wherever we feel they'll work within the 1 minute video.

 

We're aware that next week we'll have a lot of editing to do, but we feel we can do it with the knowledge and experience we have with our previous work.

One Minute Music Video: Status #2

Hey!

So today we looked through our practice clip and we've concluded how we'll implement. After talking with Mr Welch we decided that making a storyboard wouldn't be in our best interest as there's just too many shots to put down to paper so what we will do, is just list out the shots that we hope to include. Of course on the day they're subject to change as we'll have new ideas on-set.

We've also found a good place to shoot, my grandparents are pastors of a church which has a big stage and instruments. I'm 99% sure they'll let Alex and myself use the space for one day of filming. We're also trying to find a trumpet to borrow, hopefully from Expressive Arts. Things are coming together.

Until next time.

Editing Practice

Hello again!

So we've been busy bees coming up ideas for our 1 minute music video; we want to be able to have a music video where I am in the same scene several times playing the instruments. Basically cloning myself. At first we had no idea how to do it, only that we knew it could be done.

After checking out some YouTube videos and some messing around with premier pro, we found out how to do it! It's not difficult, just requires a lot of filming. Considering our music video will be 1 minute in length and will have loads of different shots, it will definitely take awhile. But we're confident it can be done!

Below is a screenshot from our practice segment; we cloned Alex and made him talk to himself, we got a real laugh out of it and it worked perfectly! We're looking forward to implementing it into our 1 minute video and hopefully, it will look awesome. 

30 Second 'Happy' Music Video

Hello again,

So I'll get straight into it: We finished our 30-second segment and it's not uploaded onto YouTube. Enjoy:

One Minute Music Video: Status

Hello,

It's me...I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to mee... Ok, I'll stop. Anyway, we've finally decided, Alex and I, what song we'd like to do for our one minute piece: We've chosen Come Fly With Me. The Michael Buble version. We've done this as we prefer the modern edge that Michael brings with his voice rather than Frank Sinatra.

We've flung back and forth some ideas about what we can do, not putting anything on a storyboard just yet. Something we like is the start out in black and white, then fade into bright, blocky, modern colours. I shall be on a stage(which we have a location for) by myself singing. Something we thought we'd try is having the camera remain in the exact same position, and just record me playing different instruments. Then when we put it all together when editing, we can apply the ghost effect and overlap the recordings - in theory, it'll look like I'm playing all the instruments in the same scene aswell as singing. Fingers crossed it works; we're going to try it out on a short 5-second clip beforehand to make sure it works.

We like the idea of an older song with a modern twist on it. We looked through older songs that didn't have music videos like Come Fly With Me and Mr Sandman and others. (Technically Come Fly With Me does have a music video but it's not very well known nor is it the most well-known version of the song).

I still have some more posts to make so I'll be back posting shortly. Alex isn't sure if he wants to do his final project alone or not, so he's taking this period of time to see whether or not he'd prefer to be alone or with me, essentially.

Music Video Analysis: 'I'm Blue'

Hey,


As another exercise to help expand our knowledge about the types of music videos, we were tasked with analysing a music video that was created before we were born. My choice of music video is 'I'm Blue' by Eiffel 65:








There are four areas which I'll briefly analyse to get an idea of how this music video looks.


Camera:

• The majority of the music video is actually special effects captured using a green screen, however the shots used when focussing on the band focus around mid shots in order to highlight there are that they are located in as it's an unusual setting (space).
• Some shots when action is involved are varied to try and emphasise the action sequence. For example within the video one of the band members is seen punching blue aliens, but to stop the sequence becoming boring the camera turns around 360 degrees. Metaphorically it could replicate the chaos of the situation and how peculiar everything is.  
• Several establishing shots are used throughout the video as the setting is constantly changing: at first the band are in a ship, then we see blue aliens in a ship in space. Then we see a space station and then inside a tunnel presumably on the space station.

Editing:

• Like mentioned previously, the scene where the shot is captured is constantly changing, therefore the editing is quite fast paced with a lot of cross-cutting being used.
• The editing also cleverly uses the lyrics to its advantage as often the lyrics are replicated or linked with what is being shown. For instance when the chorus 'I'm blue' is heard, the scene switches the blue aliens singing this.

Mise-en-scene:

• Again, like I said before, the lyrics are often closely resembled to what is being shown. The lyrics themselves are unorthodox which is why a lot of the visuals are as well. This includes all the CGI.
• The space stations, the ships, the alien armour - they all help visualise the lyrics to what the band and the music video director, thought they represent. So when watching the video, you'll be able to make numerous links to the lyrics.
• The fact that these graphics are almost 90% of the video, it's quite impressive considering the year the video was made. Which is 1999 - it shows that the band took a risk when releasing the song with this video as not many other bands had even included small segments of CGI; never mind practically the entire video.

Sound:

• The lyrics themselves are often visualised and linked with what can be seen. The producers created a world where we see blue aliens, space ships and space stations to symbolise the lyrics in a more real way.
• The sound links with the editing as previously stated, as the scene will change according to what verse is being sung. For example when the song explains 'I live in a blue house with a blue window', the scene cuts to a (space) house that it quite blue with windows that are also, you guessed it, blue. The seemingly seamless synchronisation the editing and the sound have, reflects how well made the video is.  
• The lyrics itself aren't bountiful. There are only a few verses and the iconic chorus. This also shows how confident the band was in their ability to make a good music video as now, music fans often enjoy music for the video or remember a song, for its video.

Application of Goodwin's Features:


   1. In terms of genres characteristics, it's quite difficult to analyse; this song branched out into a new genre so to speak in terms of video - the graphic effects and CGI had only just started to make it's way into film, never mind music videos. So like mentioned previously, the producers took a leap of faith with this video as it was in its own category.
  
   2. There is certainly a relationship between the lyrics and visuals like mentioned previously; the images represent the 'I'm blue' line as there are blue aliens everywhere. The blue house and blue windows are al included within the visuals.


   3. The music itself is also linked with the visuals as they reflect the tone of the sound; which is upbeat and quite lively.


   4. In terms of motif, the artist have substantiated their style as something quite crazy, effects heavy. The record label may have had a influence in the video, however the close-ups of the band are quite limited.


   5. In this video, there are no women. There is however a stage where the artist performs and certain shots that reflect a voyeuristic view.


   6. As the music video was made before I was born, I am not too sure about any intersexual references that may have been made to other pieces of music if films. However the space-theme may link to other space films that were made around the time of the music's release.