Pinterest Board for "PMG - Gym Anthem"

We had created a Pinterest Board for our chosen song, and it shows pictures of things that would be associated with our target audience, such as clothing, artists they listen to and shops they would shop in.
Click the hyperlink to view our Pinterest Board;

http://www.pinterest.com/satveerd/gym-anthem/

Pre-Production Music Video Pitch/Focus Group/Evaluation

I had created this powerpoint about my chosen song Da Poe - Girl For You, It has my brief ideas, my tweet sent to the artist, link to the song, a little bit about the artist although I couldn't find much, target audience and possible locations.

My Pitch:

My Focus Group - Feedback on the Pitch

I think the main weakness of my pitch was that It was very broad and wasn't explained in detail, I think that instead of mentioning the Rihanna and Drake video, I should have played it, turned the volume down and talked over the video, to show exactly what my ideas are. I think that on my powerpoint I could have added more text as this would allow me to speak in greater detail. I have thought of different ideas after I have given this pitch, I have thought deeper into the lyrics and have thought that I could have a narrative of the main character cheating on his girlfriend, and this would divert the music video into a more serious video, like the "N-Dubz - Playing With Fire" music video, where it has each member of the crew cheating on their partners in different locations and eventually they all get caught. 

I think that the focus group was successful as it had given me a idea of the characteristics/artist brand, as i had gained the following feedback and ideas;
(00:58 - 01:16) I had also said that the relationship status would have an effect on the "energy" of the shot, so If the relationship is going well, the shot will be calm and peaceful and when the relationship changes and gets rougher the shots will get more busy and have more people in the shot so that It is harder to place these two people together, connoting that the couple are drifting apart to the audience.
(06:10) I would like my artist to have the characteristics of Eminem who isn't afraid to make a fool out of himself in music videos, as this builds the impressions that he doesn't care what anyone else thinks, and we had also established the look of my artist would be similar to Dappy in that he would wear snapbacks backwards. To conclude the main characteristics would be an unique character, who sets their own trends and represents where their from in this instance urban working class.

Since this pitch I have thought about my idea into greater depths, such as moving away from making the music video cheesey towards a more serious meaning, that maybe some of the female members of the audience could appeal to.

Lyrics Analysis

Target Audience:
Age: 16-21
Gender: Typically Males
Interests: Relationships, Rap music
Location: South-East London (England)

How I would make this a music video:
I think that when producing my music video I think that the song would fit a performance/narrative style, as the lyrics tell a story about a guy and his commitment to his girlfriend, and how he wants to spend the rest of his life with her.

My vision is to have my artist performing in a studio, on a black screen, singing into a recording microphone, in the streets and sitting on a wall, but this will be small areas that will be cut to, the main body of the music video, I see the visuals interpreting the lyrics, having a couple sitting in the park, and flashbacks to where he met the girl. Although, the song could also be about cheating looking deeper into the lyrics these could be some excuses that he is saying to another girl. Using the alternative narrative could be added as a surprise at the end of the music video as it is not something we could be expecting and then this would add rewatchability to the composition. 

Throughout the song there is a "clap" sound, Whenever I hear this I imagine a cut to the next scene so the tempo of the song is reasonably quick, the "clap" sound isn't consistent in some parts of the song, but this means that some scenes could be longer also following my brainstorm of the alternative narrative each time the song has the "clap" sound it could crosscut to a different scene where he is with different girls. Towards the end of the song before the chorus repeats itself 6 times there is a relatively large break of approximately 15 seconds where we hear dead silence and this could be where he is caught as this breaks the tension that was built throughout the music video.

At the moment the I have a lot of different ideas about the style and content of this music video, the ideas above are a brief vision of mine, but I think the music video will be going in that direction.

Blog Reflection Three

This week we had looked at genre and representation theories and applied them to real music videos, we did this so that we could get an idea of what we could put into our own music videos, and how we could add greater meaning and depth to the composition. 

Firstly, we looked at genre theories and the following theorists;

- David Bordwell

- Steve Neale

They had thought of the following theories; Neale - "Genre as a system of orientations, expectations and conventions" He had said that this had circulated between Industry  and Text as a subject.

For example; When we think of rap videos we think of a few different conventions, such as wealth- artist wears a lot of jewelry and expensive, trendy clothing. Although some videos could go against this convention, such as Biggie Smalls - "Sky's The Limit" music video all of the rappers are wearing smart suits, and are in a mansion so this would go against the usual conventions, as they look more posh and upper class.

Bordwell - "Any theme may appear in any genre" - some music videos would include themes that apply to a more youthful audience, some of the themes could be; Rebellion, Romance, Sex and bullying. Having this genre theory could help my own production as this gives us more flexibility to what we could include, therefore we can convey different/more messages through our music video.

We had then looked at Representation theories, and looked at the following theorists and their theories;

- Stuart Hall: Encode/Decode

Stuart Hall had said that the media has evolved and how we read it had changed, the old view within the media had only one reading and meant only one thing, now the audience must investigate the media as it is open to interpretation. He had said that media could be read in three different ways;

Dominant Reading: The reader fully shares the texts code, accepts and reproduces the texts reading. 

Negotiated Reading: The reader partially agrees with the code of the text and broadly accepts the preferred reading, but the reader sometimes resists and modifies it in a way that reflects their own opinion.

Oppositional Reading: The reader doesn't agree with any of the texts codes and totally resists them.

- Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze

Mulvey had argued that the "central active" characters in movies were male, and that the male audience, and the male audience look toward females as passive.

She had said that the practise of camera lighting on the bodies of females was strong evidence that females are being viewed as sex objects for the gratification of men. For example; James Bond, he is the main hero and it has become apart of his brand to be accompanied by/mission to save an attractive female. Identifying women as weaker in society, some movies that go against this theory are movies such as Lara Croft; Tomb Raider, and Kill Bill, where the female takes the lead and beats all of the men.

- Andrew Goodwin: Voyeurism

He had stated that voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially towards females but in terms of systems of looking; using screens within screens, cameras and mirrors. He argues that a female performer will be objectified through a combination of camera work, displaying exaggerated female body parts, making the female become more sexualised. From a males perspective voyeurism is used to boost the males ego by surrounding themselves by "physically fit"  female dancers.

Looking at these theories has given me a greater idea about the thought/planning that goes into music videos, and how the media strengthens some out-dated stereotypes to get their media products viewed and know. 

Job Roles for Music Video Project

Genre Theories

Neale's theory of genre as a system.
The Biggie Smalls music video of "Sky's the limit" had met my expectations of a hip/hop/rap video as the mise-en-scene was not conventional for the genre as Biggie Smalls and his friends were dressed in suits, carrying a cane, this shows us that he has a lot of money. This music video is slightly subverted as he isn't dressed in baggy sweats and is not on the streets. He is dressed looking suave, in a big house with a swimming pool, with girls- showing success as he's achieved his goals.  

Representation and Difference.
In the music video "all the small things" is from the rock genre and has some generic conventions of a rock video, such as the live performance element - with the guitarist on stage, but some of the elements on the video weren't conventional as they were mocking other boy bands, such as using sunset locations, tickling each other with flowers on the beach, standing under a waterfall and wearing bright clothing, usually this is not how rock stars behave. They have used a parody to add some humor to the video.


Bordwell's Genre Themes.
Using Bordwell's theory will give me more flexibility in the production of the music video as it will allow me to divert the themes/styles of the music video into many different directions and convey different messages, and I could make my music video in a style that isn't conventional of a usual rap music video, for instance surrealism.

Representation Theories

To understand representation in the media today we looked at three theories; Stuart Hall's Preferred reading, Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze and Andrew Goodwin - Voyeurism. They had researched and created these theories about how audiences interpret certain representations. 

Stuart Hall - Preferred Reading Theory

Stuart Hall has looked into Old Views and New Views;

The old views were that information was resubmitted  there was only ONE fixed set of meanings, and that representations are understood after experiencing them. Now that the media is more complicated the views of representations are slightly different as now the audience investigate representations in greater detail, and can be interpreted in many different ways.

"The question of power can never be bracketed out of representation" - Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall had studied the way in which media text's are decoded; He had told us that it is decoded in three different ways;

Dominant Reading: The reader fully shares the text's code and accepts the preferred reading, the code seems "natural" and "transparent".

In the Miley Cyrus video, the dominant reading would be that she has just broken up from a relationship and she is broken, hurt and vulnerable. The destruction is represented by the wrecking ball, hammer and her vulnerability is shown through her nudity, the meaning of naked means "Without the usual covering or protection" - and in the Miley Cyrus video she is telling us that she has lost her protection through this breakup. A fan of Miley Cyrus would decode the text through a dominant reading as they would be loyal towards her, and feel her emotions of pain and vulnerability.

Negotiated Reading: The reader partly shares the text's code and broadly accepts the preferred reading, but resistis and modifies so that it reflects their own position, experiences and interests.

In the Miley Cyrus video the wrecking ball could symbolise her breaking her old image and breaking into this new wild character, and the destruction of the old good girl musician. When she is licking the hammer this could be a symbolic of sexual activities, again showing us that she has changed from this good girl to this wild, carefree "rock chick".

Oppositional Reading: The complete opposite of the dominant representation, the preferred reading is  understood but they do not accept the text's code and they reject this reading.

This is the reading that I personally believe for Miley Cyrus' music video, Wrecking Ball  I believe that is is a publicity stunt to get more publicity, as in media there is "no such thing as bad publicity", she was dressed in very revealing clothing at the VMA's, while dancing sexually with Robin Thicke, and in the Wrecking Ball video nudity had spread vast word of mouth promotion getting hundreds of million views on her new album/song.

Laura Mulvey - The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey Argued that males are the "central active characters" in media text's, and that women are seen as passive. For example; James Bond is the hero, always with an attractive female, usually wearing revealing clothing. She had also argued that the camera staying on the women's bodies was strong evidence that women are seen as sex objects for the gratification of men.




 




Andrew Goodwin - Voyeurism

 

Voyeurism is present in may different music videos for Males and Females, usually through systems of looking, for instance; screens within screens, cameras and mirrors. We had created a "frankenstein" image to demonstrate voyeurism as Goodwin argued that a female would be objectified through camerawork and editing, by highlighting certain areas of their body, creating a sexualised image for the star. For males this is different as they are made to look more powerful, by surrounding themselves with female dancers to boost their own persona. This theory can become more complex as when we see the male body on display and we may raise questions about how the female viewers are invited to respond, and also in some media texts the female role is sexual but the female is shown as powerful, this raises some intersting points for discussion, but coming away from the sexualised views, movies such as Kill Bill show the female lead (Uma Thurman) to be powerful as she defeats many men in combat.