Class Task- Being Creative

we were given a sheet to help us the development of our creativity for the music videos. First we were given an website with was a random generator which I found fun and got you thinking but didn't really help me with developing ideas for my music video. Then we were being inspired where we looked at different music videos which were unique which I did find useful. We also looked at advice to help us use are imagination and be more creative. Finally we create a mood board of all our ideas for the music video.

Group Task- Thought Shower

Today we listened to each other music choices.  Individually we were given a piece of paper to draw and write down any ideas that came to mind when listening to the music. We came up with a lot of ideas some more useful than others. Here are some of the ideas that were collected for my song choice:

• street scene
• swings and dancing
• roof party
• balloons
• holding up lyrics
• zebra crossing
• guy in mirror
• Grease film references
• fish swimming in an aquarium
• a dog being the main singer
• police cars
• dancing down the street
• have bear heads on people
• having a band following the lead singer
• thriller dancing
• animation
• electronic circuits

I really like may of the idea such as the mirror and the zebra crossing I also think the bear head are quirky and interesting.

Andrew Goodwins Star Image

 
 Star image is a very important part of music videos. Artists want to be and look unique in order to stay current and for audiences to recognise and remember them. This star image develops overtime and  is a main factor when it comes to the production process of music videos. In their music videos artist will include many close ups  of themselves and also may develop motifs which recur across their work; a visual style that reflects their Star image/persona.

Here is an example of how Katy Perry's persona is known for her unique  clothing, being an over the top girly girl with a hint of a naughty side:

Genre and Auteur Theory

Genre Theory focuses on the generic similarities, tends to determine texts by historical/social/ political contexts and also how texts emerge as commercial products from an industry.

Auteur Theory follows the ideas of individual stylistic features, how texts are determined by artist's creativity and imagination and how texts emerge as part of an artists body of work.

Auteur theory is different in the way it focuses the audience attention towards what's the differences rather than the similarities between films. as Genre theory tends to look at how the film develops as part of a generic history.


I looked a Film Director named Michael Condry work and we can see from viewing many of his videos that they share a lot in common and there is an auteurist style- It seems that the 1960's has a big influence in his work and that is why he uses vintage cameras. The majority of his videos are disjunctive and he has a fascination with this idea of repeating images and what you can create within a frame(which is why the camera doesn't tend to move) He has a DIY sort of set, nothing really big or flashy; it's a breakaway from modern filming.  

Andrew Goodwin Theory Summary

Music Video and Redundancy/Entropy

Redundancy-'is that which is predictable or conventional in a message.. Redundancy is the result of high predictability' something that you expect or is the norm to appear or visuals.

 Entropy-  containing elements of  unpredictability.

Applying this to different genres:

Taylor Swift - 22 (pop)
 We would expect it to be predictable and follow the typical conventions of Pop. Looking at the video we seen that she's dancing around with other girls, at a party and seems happy and content with life, it has a lot of close ups revealing this. There's nothing that is entropic about this video.

Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube (Indie Rock)

You'd predict a live performance and within the viedo hints of rebellious behaviour. looking at the video we see this, so it would be seen as redundacny. However things that may have been entropic before such as this as you wouldnt expected to see something like this is now the norm of indie bands so you expect something different making it redundant.

OK Go- End Love  (Alternative rock/pop)

We'd except it to be something different maybe featuring a live performance as most rock bands do include that in there video. As it's a boy band could include some syncrosied dacing. However looking at the viedo it would say is entopic and something weird and quirky. but it does have elements of reundancy with the dancing etc.

Mulvey's Theory

Mulvey's theory (1975) talks about how women are portrayed in a males gaze. She talks about how the media produce from a perspective that is almost always male, and that the we the audience of  the media have trained to see ourselves through the 'male gaze'.

The male gaze is broken down into three elements:

• the gaze of the camera: the camera that looks at the female body
• the gaze of the actor:shots of males looking at women and then the shot of the female body being looked at
• the gaze of the audience: what the audience look at ( even female audience members were position with a male gaze)

Applying this to a few music videos:

 50 cent's Candy shop would favor Mulvey's Theory and females appear to be a passive objects. They are viewed by all three of the ways Mylvery explains, it's never from there point of view. However saying this you could view it as that the females aren't completely just expressed as an object and not in control because 50 cent is entering to their territory, and you could say that this is the norm for the females in that situation; 'comfort zone'. It could been seen both ways but this video does support the theory.

Country girl the female is the main subject of the video and only applies to the first and last element of Mulveys theory. the women in this video 'runs the show' and is in control of what shes doing and the people around here; for example when she hitting people with glasses and wrecking the bar, she tends to be more active rather just passive and represented as an object to men.

Turning the theory upside down in Lady Gaga Video Alejandro at first it seems like the role of females and males opposite; that it's from lady gaga point of view and the males are passive and the objects. However the males in this video aren't necessarily attractive to females there are aimed at other males focusing on the queer guys, and this is where Lady Gaga challenges the theory, however ironically it still for the 'male gaze'.

Taking this all into consideration we have to remember that Mulveys theory applied to the time around 1975 and that mass media has changed a lot from there we now have access to so much more such as videos and movies online, internet, more TV channels etc also socially times have changed from what it may have been in the past.

 

Brief Anaylsis of Indie music

Mr Brightside- The Killers

Linking it to Andrew Goodwins theory we can see that the lyrics and visual do not go together really it falls into the category of disjunctive. There is little synchronisation with the music and video; there is part where there is definite beats and the shots changes accordantly. It does follow some typical conventions of indie music, with a band and having a live performance featuring in the video.

Lily Allen- Alfie

It falls in both illustrative and disjunctive, it has elements where it links to the lyrics adding a meaning but also sometimes pats of the video isn't relative. The music and the video doesn't really fit together as it challenges it a bit as it tells a story. It doesn't really follow the typical conventions of indie pop, she has her own unique quirky style.

Andrew Goodwin : Relationship between music and visuals

 Looking at how Andrew Goodwin talk about how the music relates to the visuals the song Untouched  is a good example ;At the start of the video it opens with a few beats and then violins play sharp short notes; at this point in the music video it jumps from shots of a violins to snap shots of champagne glasses to a wider shot which seems like a party or social event- The music of the violins and shots of the instruments are in sync. 

after the opening it beings to add more music beats giving it more depth; when the bass guitars are added in reveals a close up of the band playing, focusing on the guitars.

The song is pretty fast paced and this matching with the editing as it has very short takes of different things, creating a sense of a busy atmosphere just like the song.

When the song has a slower pace at the chorus and later verses the takes are longer but then return to faster pace when the song picks up.

Summary of Conventionsof Music Genres.

You can normally recognize a genre of music straight away by firstly the type of music (referring to the sound), the general emotion and feeling that the artist evokes in their fans and listeners. But also how they apply the typical conventions of the genre they fall into to their overall image and sound make it immediately distinctive and you can instantly see what genre of music the artist is representing...

 The typical Conventions that make a genre is :
- instruments used
-sound/tempo/volume/style of singing
-context/themes of songs
-appearance of the artist

Let's apply this to a few different types of genres:


Pop- Generally applies to teenagers; a bland watered down version of rock n roll with more rhythmic and harmony and an emphasis on romantic love but still very upbeat and over the top. Artist tend to wear modern stylish clothing featured over the top dramatic bright clothing. They normally express a vibe of being happy and content with life and this has an influence on their audience. The sound of the music is normally studio produced.

  



Rock-originating  in the 1950s; a blend of country and western with black rhythm and blues;rock is a generic term for the range of styles that evolved out of rock n roll. The song normally featured a heavy solo in the middle section, and the lyrics tend to be based around sex, love and drugs. They tend to wear leather and black clothing; something that isn't mainstream. The sound is normally created by the band itself featuring drums,bass etc.

Andrew Goodwin : Analysis of Inide Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin breaks down the process of creating a music video for music and tells us to look out for the five key points which are:

• Though Beats- viewing the sound
• Narrative and Performance
• The Star image
• Relation of Visual to the song
• Technical parts of the music video

Taking into consideration of Goodwin's theory I'm going to explore the conventions of the music genre 'Indie' and break down the music video and music discover the typical conventions.

Short tester Animation

Here is a short video clip we made in a group to try out an animation.  we faced some problems such as setting the equipment up and attaching the camera to the tripod, also the camera wouldn't focus so we had to change the framing on some pictures which broke the continuity of the video so  to over come this problem we started again from a different angle.



If I were to do it again I would make a smaller framing around the subject as there was a lot of dead space. We didn't realise how many frames it actually took per second and so therefore our video was extremely short so for future reference I have and idea of how many photos to take.




I really like the idea of doing and animation for the music video I think it could work quite well creating a quirky video.

Andrew Goodwin :Relationship between lyrics and visuals

 One of Andrew Goodwin's features of a music video:
"There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. the lyrics are represented with images."

he break it down into the three following categories:

Illustrative:  the action in the video and the lyrics have a linked - the literal meaning
Amplifying: the idea of new meaning/images/actions that do not conflict with the lyrics but that add/reinforce layers of meaning.
Disjunctive: the video and the lyrics have nothing in common-there is no direct relationship.

Here are some examples:

Foundations- Kate Nash

This video falls into the category of both amplifying and disjunctive.
It has shows aspects of amplifying when the lyrics say 'You said I must eat so many lemons cause I am so bitter.' and she literal eats lemons when it's really referring to a metopher which add meaning 
and layers to the lyrics. But it mainly features disjunctive visuals where is doesn't really link with the lyrics but it still tells the story and compliments the lyrics and song.

Paramore- Still into you
                                                   




This video would fall in to the group of disjunctive like the majority 
 of music videos. It doesn't really link with the lyrics as the song is about
a reletionship and how it's still alive after such a long time, yet there is no
sign of this anywhere in the video. The video tends to feature fun, bright, colours and dancing which isn't anything to do with the music video
however it still complaints the song and works really well.