1. Battery Life
When filming our original concept of a break up we called our actors to come and perform at my house, we had filmed 3 quarters of what we intended to do until suddenly the camera died. We were without a charger and had to immediately schedule when we could re-do the film, and none of us had the same days available, meaning the we had to use what we got or get rid of what we got.
2. Permissions
Me and Fraser arrived in Vauxhall to film in an sub-urban abandoned yard, little did we know that it was privately owned by a media company. We asked for permission to film but they were unable to give us access there and then which left us to chose somewhere else to film.
Friday 30 March 2012
Thursday 29 March 2012
Introduction to self and picture
Hi there bloggers! My name is Adam and welcome to my media blog. Im currently working on my music video for my a2 media, so take a look around and learn more about my works.
Audience response to music video
Unanimous Person #1
Editing - 8/9 out of 10
Sound - 8/9 out of 10
Camerawork - 8 out of 10
Synchronization of sound - 10 out of 10
Did it seem like a real MV? - 9 out of 10
Would you watch it all? - 9 out of 10
What was especially good about the music video?
The edits were to the beat, and at some point very fast and nice. The synchronization was perfect. The MV did make sense but the Truman Show cut-aways didn't have to be there, but I understood why they were used. It seemed like a genuine British rap video, it didn't need to be a Hollywood hip-hop style because it would've just been contradictory to the song and very unoriginal.
Would you watch it again?
Yes I would because every verse had a new location or mise-en-scene and it freshened up the video every time. The performances are also entertaining and appealing.
Did you notice any serious issues?
No, everything was perfectly edited.
Editing - 8/9 out of 10
Sound - 8/9 out of 10
Camerawork - 8 out of 10
Synchronization of sound - 10 out of 10
Did it seem like a real MV? - 9 out of 10
Would you watch it all? - 9 out of 10
What was especially good about the music video?
The edits were to the beat, and at some point very fast and nice. The synchronization was perfect. The MV did make sense but the Truman Show cut-aways didn't have to be there, but I understood why they were used. It seemed like a genuine British rap video, it didn't need to be a Hollywood hip-hop style because it would've just been contradictory to the song and very unoriginal.
Would you watch it again?
Yes I would because every verse had a new location or mise-en-scene and it freshened up the video every time. The performances are also entertaining and appealing.
Did you notice any serious issues?
No, everything was perfectly edited.
Reason for choice of Artist
Our chosen artist Professor Green has a very instinctive high-pitched London accent of a White Male. So upon casting, our star had to be white, English, and be convincing as a rapper, which is why I took the role. Therefore by understanding the importance of Grain of Voice we had to make sure our performer looked as if it was his song, in fact in our feedback one person did ask "is this your song" as she believed the voice matched my face. In our video, their is also a different singer for the chorus, and this was Fraser and the same process applied to him.
Digipack
Digipack
Research
Formats of Digipacks -
Lil Wayne - Carter III
Inside the cover are all photos of him rather than patterned or textual photos that are associated with his star image such as Rihannas digipack where she uses flowers for her inside sleeves
Planning
Photoshoot for digipack -
Final Digipack 4 peice -
Research
Formats of Digipacks -
- 4 pack including 1 front, 1 back, 2 inside sleeves
- 6 pack including 1 front, 1 back, 4 inside sleeves(typically lyric sheets)
- Book style paperboard or card stock outer binding
- Plastic tray inside capable of holding a CD or DVD
- Lightweight and Eco-friendly
- Race
- Appreciation for Rap Music
- Certain Fashion Style
- Association to graffiti, skating or other urban activities
- Being in a gang
Lil Wayne - Carter III
Inside the cover are all photos of him rather than patterned or textual photos that are associated with his star image such as Rihannas digipack where she uses flowers for her inside sleeves
Photoshoot for digipack -
Final Digipack 4 peice -
 | |
Front  |
 |
| Back |
Goodwin's theory
Andrew Goodwin wrote in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1992) -
1.Music videos demonstrate genre charcteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for a boy/girl band).
2.There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting.)
3.There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting.)
4.The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)
5.There is frequently reference to notion of looking(screens with screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6.There is often intertextual reference (to films,TV, programmes, other music videos etc.)
1.Music videos demonstrate genre charcteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for a boy/girl band).
2.There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting.)
3.There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting.)
4.The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)
5.There is frequently reference to notion of looking(screens with screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
6.There is often intertextual reference (to films,TV, programmes, other music videos etc.)
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our chosen song was by a White-British Rapper named Professor Green, his videos have never all had something in common, and some of them have challenged generic conventions of his music genre, so choosing him as an artist inspired us to be as creative and individual as possible with our video as he has already made a benchmark for freedom of expression in his videos. The typical hip-hop video uses specific iconography such as girls, cars, jewellery and gangsters usually because it illustrates the lyrics. But Artists like Eminem, NAS and Jay-Z changed the face of hip-hop by making rap songs about personal stories and tragedies, where the music never changed but the content did, meaning that the visuals would have to introduce a different style, removing the generic conventions. Our song 'Today I Cried' is a rap song, but the lyrics are a personal, self-evaluation of his life, so this questions does this song belong to the genre of hip-hop anymore, and if the visuals don't use hip-hop codes and conventions then how can it be Hip-hop? This relates to Steve Neale (Film Theorist) who believes that film producers have to always re-invent their genre-specific products as the genre evolves. And how does the genre evolve? by the audience getting bored of the old conventions and wanting change, and this cycle never ends. This theory relates to music, as the audience will never expect the same old or they will move on to whats new and breaking the boundaries of originality. Some may believe our media product uses and develops forms and conventions of real rap videos because they expect to see Rap videos to include more narrative, individuality and not the old conventions due to the overwhelming popularity of rap artist who 15 years ago would not be the archetype of a rapper. For example Plan B is a very famous Rapper with plenty of UK Number Ones and he wears a suit in his video which some people wouldn't typically think a rapper would dress like, but due to his success it has clearly been accepted in the masses to an extent where the audience may expect rappers to wear suits. Conclusively, our iconography such as the urban courtyard location and our artist style and performance characteristic blended with the old form of hip-hop by having a street location, and developed the new form of real rap media products by filming in a solemn location such as Vauxhall Embankment. These decisions where influenced by the melancholy meaning in the lyrics and the smooth feeling to the melody in the rap song.
Our media product used forms and conventions of rap videos/rap music The grain of voice is a theory by Roland Barthes that Music Artist can be recognised by their sound of their voice, the way that the sing and the ad-lib's they use. One example, that fans of our genre will know is Rick Ross because his style is so individual and bold that you immediately know its him at the beginning of a record when you hear a deep voice say "huh". Our chosen artist Professor Green has a very instinctive high-pitched London accent of a White Male. So upon casting, our star had to be white, English, and be convincing as a rapper, which is why I took the role. Therefore by understanding the importance of Grain of Voice we had to make sure our performer looked as if it was his song, in fact in our feedback one person did ask "is this your song" as she believed the voice matched my face. In our video, their is also a different singer for the chorus, and this was Fraser and the same process applied to him. Having both a male rapper and male singer is very rare so it's hard to say if the song/combination challenged the form of hip-hop songs, with the debate, if it has a pop chorus, and other pop elements, is it still hip-hop? however, recently we found that rappers collaborating with female artist has been a huge success with Eminem & Rihanna plus Professor Green & Emili Sande. The only one with both male that we know was Tinie Tempah & Eric Turner; which was a huge influence on our Video. The performance characteristics in 'Noxious' were deliberately Representative of Tinie Tempah, plus the style in our photos and interviews was influenced by him, therefore we used previous forms of real media products to develop our own.
The role of intertextuality was apparent in our music video which we had seen done before in rap videos. I had seen 'Ghetts - Red Pill' and in this video they use cut-aways from the movie 'The Matrix' and although their short, they illustrate the lyrics "most of the worlds plugged into the matrix". This inspired us to use a movie for cut-aways and creating intertextuality. Steve Neale(Film theorist) says that it can be used as a mark of respect like in 'Ghetts's' case or for mockery which fellow Rapper does quite a lot in his lyrics and videos. So we developed this form and chose to edit cut-aways of the movie 'The Truman Show' into our product. We believed the themes in the movie and the themes in the song related strongly enough to make a coalition, and the response from our audience was mixed. Even so, we were proud to challenge the conventions of our genre, by using a Hollywood family film, as we strongly believed that it could illustrate our music in the visuals(Goodwin).
Our chosen song was by a White-British Rapper named Professor Green, his videos have never all had something in common, and some of them have challenged generic conventions of his music genre, so choosing him as an artist inspired us to be as creative and individual as possible with our video as he has already made a benchmark for freedom of expression in his videos. The typical hip-hop video uses specific iconography such as girls, cars, jewellery and gangsters usually because it illustrates the lyrics. But Artists like Eminem, NAS and Jay-Z changed the face of hip-hop by making rap songs about personal stories and tragedies, where the music never changed but the content did, meaning that the visuals would have to introduce a different style, removing the generic conventions. Our song 'Today I Cried' is a rap song, but the lyrics are a personal, self-evaluation of his life, so this questions does this song belong to the genre of hip-hop anymore, and if the visuals don't use hip-hop codes and conventions then how can it be Hip-hop? This relates to Steve Neale (Film Theorist) who believes that film producers have to always re-invent their genre-specific products as the genre evolves. And how does the genre evolve? by the audience getting bored of the old conventions and wanting change, and this cycle never ends. This theory relates to music, as the audience will never expect the same old or they will move on to whats new and breaking the boundaries of originality. Some may believe our media product uses and develops forms and conventions of real rap videos because they expect to see Rap videos to include more narrative, individuality and not the old conventions due to the overwhelming popularity of rap artist who 15 years ago would not be the archetype of a rapper. For example Plan B is a very famous Rapper with plenty of UK Number Ones and he wears a suit in his video which some people wouldn't typically think a rapper would dress like, but due to his success it has clearly been accepted in the masses to an extent where the audience may expect rappers to wear suits. Conclusively, our iconography such as the urban courtyard location and our artist style and performance characteristic blended with the old form of hip-hop by having a street location, and developed the new form of real rap media products by filming in a solemn location such as Vauxhall Embankment. These decisions where influenced by the melancholy meaning in the lyrics and the smooth feeling to the melody in the rap song.
Our media product used forms and conventions of rap videos/rap music The grain of voice is a theory by Roland Barthes that Music Artist can be recognised by their sound of their voice, the way that the sing and the ad-lib's they use. One example, that fans of our genre will know is Rick Ross because his style is so individual and bold that you immediately know its him at the beginning of a record when you hear a deep voice say "huh". Our chosen artist Professor Green has a very instinctive high-pitched London accent of a White Male. So upon casting, our star had to be white, English, and be convincing as a rapper, which is why I took the role. Therefore by understanding the importance of Grain of Voice we had to make sure our performer looked as if it was his song, in fact in our feedback one person did ask "is this your song" as she believed the voice matched my face. In our video, their is also a different singer for the chorus, and this was Fraser and the same process applied to him. Having both a male rapper and male singer is very rare so it's hard to say if the song/combination challenged the form of hip-hop songs, with the debate, if it has a pop chorus, and other pop elements, is it still hip-hop? however, recently we found that rappers collaborating with female artist has been a huge success with Eminem & Rihanna plus Professor Green & Emili Sande. The only one with both male that we know was Tinie Tempah & Eric Turner; which was a huge influence on our Video. The performance characteristics in 'Noxious' were deliberately Representative of Tinie Tempah, plus the style in our photos and interviews was influenced by him, therefore we used previous forms of real media products to develop our own.
The role of intertextuality was apparent in our music video which we had seen done before in rap videos. I had seen 'Ghetts - Red Pill' and in this video they use cut-aways from the movie 'The Matrix' and although their short, they illustrate the lyrics "most of the worlds plugged into the matrix". This inspired us to use a movie for cut-aways and creating intertextuality. Steve Neale(Film theorist) says that it can be used as a mark of respect like in 'Ghetts's' case or for mockery which fellow Rapper does quite a lot in his lyrics and videos. So we developed this form and chose to edit cut-aways of the movie 'The Truman Show' into our product. We believed the themes in the movie and the themes in the song related strongly enough to make a coalition, and the response from our audience was mixed. Even so, we were proud to challenge the conventions of our genre, by using a Hollywood family film, as we strongly believed that it could illustrate our music in the visuals(Goodwin).
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We maintained star image across both our product and ancillary texts. Our Website was predominantly black with white writing. Our Digipack is in black and white where Noxious is wearing a black and white striped top. The brand logo is black graphic writing on a white canvas. And our music video was in outdoor locations on grey days, and indoors in a corner of a room with a dark shadow. All of these products have one theme running throughout which is the darkness and dullness in colour. All of our ancillary texts collaborated with the colour and mood of our video, so that the whole package can represent our artist correctly and according to lyrics. The lyrics are miserable and angry and their isn't much joy in the song which is titled 'Today I Cried'. Therefore the effect of the whole package for the audience will conform their expectations, that the digipack will have the same narcotic effect as it does when watching the single 'Today I Cried'. Another theme in our star image is that our artist Noxious is clearly from London and hangs around in urban areas. The locations such as the courtyard in Vauxhall suggested a typical grittiness and rawness to the rapper, which is typical of many of artist such as K-Koke and Benny Banks who base their Image around London's roughest estates. The iconography of London Eye and Big Ben in the background of our other shots in the video also inform the audience that the artist is based in London which supports why he sounds like a Londoner. And even in the digipack the brick wall background corresponds to the star image across the music video and other ancillary texts as it represents a toughness and urban vibe.
We maintained star image across both our product and ancillary texts. Our Website was predominantly black with white writing. Our Digipack is in black and white where Noxious is wearing a black and white striped top. The brand logo is black graphic writing on a white canvas. And our music video was in outdoor locations on grey days, and indoors in a corner of a room with a dark shadow. All of these products have one theme running throughout which is the darkness and dullness in colour. All of our ancillary texts collaborated with the colour and mood of our video, so that the whole package can represent our artist correctly and according to lyrics. The lyrics are miserable and angry and their isn't much joy in the song which is titled 'Today I Cried'. Therefore the effect of the whole package for the audience will conform their expectations, that the digipack will have the same narcotic effect as it does when watching the single 'Today I Cried'. Another theme in our star image is that our artist Noxious is clearly from London and hangs around in urban areas. The locations such as the courtyard in Vauxhall suggested a typical grittiness and rawness to the rapper, which is typical of many of artist such as K-Koke and Benny Banks who base their Image around London's roughest estates. The iconography of London Eye and Big Ben in the background of our other shots in the video also inform the audience that the artist is based in London which supports why he sounds like a Londoner. And even in the digipack the brick wall background corresponds to the star image across the music video and other ancillary texts as it represents a toughness and urban vibe.
Evaluation Question 3 - SoundCloud
Click the link below to hear my answer to this question on SoundCloud
Evaluation Question 3 Adam Crompton
Evaluation Question 3 Adam Crompton
Wednesday 28 March 2012
Tuesday 27 March 2012
Investigation into how band/artist markets itself - Tinie Tempah
Tinie Tempah has made a name for himself across the globe over the last year due to his musical success but he has been heavily involved in some extra projects to help market himself and his brand.
Example 1. Lucozade Campaign
Tinie Tempah was chosen to be 1 of 7 stars to be the face of a limited edition Lucozade bottle. Along with the deal, his single "simply unstoppable" was used in their album campaign where Tinie and his band perform the song whilst advertising the drink.
Example 2. Disturbing London x MHI collaboration
Tinie Tempah began designing t-shirts for his independent label 'Disturbing London' to be sold at tours and on his website. As his Name got bigger, his taste in fashion grabbed the attention of sponsors like Ray-Ban, To-orist and D&G, and he revealed in an interview these brands had approached him for a clothing label collaboration with Disturbing London Clothing. Then in late 2011, 'MHI' a.k.a 'Maharishi' were first to snap him up and now Tinie Tempah's small independent clothing label is working alongside MHI to publish a expensive street style fashion boutique.
Example 1. Lucozade Campaign
Tinie Tempah was chosen to be 1 of 7 stars to be the face of a limited edition Lucozade bottle. Along with the deal, his single "simply unstoppable" was used in their album campaign where Tinie and his band perform the song whilst advertising the drink.
Example 2. Disturbing London x MHI collaboration
Tinie Tempah began designing t-shirts for his independent label 'Disturbing London' to be sold at tours and on his website. As his Name got bigger, his taste in fashion grabbed the attention of sponsors like Ray-Ban, To-orist and D&G, and he revealed in an interview these brands had approached him for a clothing label collaboration with Disturbing London Clothing. Then in late 2011, 'MHI' a.k.a 'Maharishi' were first to snap him up and now Tinie Tempah's small independent clothing label is working alongside MHI to publish a expensive street style fashion boutique.
Monday 26 March 2012
Casting discussion/choices
Main Artist - Adam Crompton is the main Artist after himself and the other half of the group Fraser Wilson collectively decided to pick me as the performer, prior to hearing our selected song. The song belongs to the genre of Rap and Adam felt comfortable with representing the artist in the video.
Intertextuality
Intertextuality references in music videos are commonly used in music videos to create a familiarity with the video to the audience, using references to other media texts, and my example is 'Maroon 5 - Moves like Jagger'. Intertextuality is also one of Andrew Goodwin's theories of music video(more info on blog). It can be used a sign of respect, or in the opposite way, as a sign of mockery. In fact Eminem the US Rapper has often mocked other artist in his videos as his lyrics regularly attack fellow celebrities for humour purposes. In this video, the video uses archive footage of Mick Jagger at the beginning and throughout. The narrative suggests some sort of talent show where they impersonate the moves of Mick Jagger, hence the visuals illustrate the lyrics(Goodwin).
Virgin Records and Professor Green
Stephen Paul Manderson (born on 27 November 1983), better known by his stage name Professor Green, is an English rapper. He was signed to The Beats, a record label run by Mike Skinner and Ted Mayhem, until 12 February 2008, when the label terminated. He rose to success upon winning the inaugural JumpOff MySpace £50,000 battle rap tournament in July 2008. Following this in 2009, Professor Green worked with Lily Allen on her 2009 concert tour.
In 2006 he released his first mixtape, Lecture #1. After his first record label, The Beats, went under he produced on his own an EP called The Green EP. After he toured with Lily Allen he was signed to Virgin Records and released "I Need You Tonight", based around INXS's "Need You Tonight" through the label. He also joined up with Lily Allen in "Just Be Good To Green" which is based around The SOS Band's "Just Be Good to Me".
Green released his debut album, Alive Till I'm Dead, on 19 July 2010, which features guest vocals from Lily Allen, Emeli Sandé, Fink, Labrinth and Example, as well as The Streets, who used to own The Beats.
Sunday 25 March 2012
Analysis of previous student work
I've decided to analyse this A2 music video from a previous student from Coombe as I don't know who made it so I wont automatically have a bias and not criticise the video, however, my good friend Alex plays the lead singer. So I've decided to analyse according to the criteria my AS Prelim Music Video was analysed by; Camera, Editing, Performance & Narrative and Location & Mise-en-scene.
Camera:
- The camera pans several times on the people in the narrative and the instruments in the band. The effect of the pan grabbed my attention and clearly they were trying to show some significance into what they panning into such as the writing on the hand-made signs.
- There are plenty of close-ups on the artist and the band. These are typical codes and conventions of pop videos.
- In the performance shots they have experimented with lots of camera shots and angles. This worked well because I didn't become bored with the same shot returning after the narrative clips. It gave me a variety of positions where I can watch the lead singer perform from and ultimately heightened the connection between the audience and performer.
- The lip-sync seemed out of sync throughout. On some words it seemed fine, but maybe the style of how the artist performed his lyrics and his lip movement didn't match the sound and pace of the track. Either way, it is a major problem that damaged the video and could have been easily sorted out during the making of the video.
- They used gray scale in the narrative to detach the performance from the narrative. The colour grey also highlighted the mood of the song and suggested a dull and sad search for the one he needs, which I believe was the meaning of the lyrics.
- The performance was comfortable and convincing. A rock/indie artist would typically have long hair and wear dark coloured clothing. The performance would typically be quite cool and not very energetic unlike other genres such as pop which usually have dance routines and parties. The artists performance is very typical of the genre and the group chose their cast well.
- However, the artist didn't maintain enough eye contact to the camera and often looked away after a few seconds which shows a lack of confidence. Effectively, this threw away the connection and heart felt message he is singing to his audience, and the lyrics and song suddenly became someone else and didn't belong to him.
- In the narrative I understand that there were themes of love, love within the mass public, and people looking for love. Although they did blend well with the song, I would've like to see the main artist in his search for love in the narrative. It would of illustrated the song more clearly and also would've been more entertaining for the audience, as they are only interested in the artist life and not someone else otherwise they wouldn't watch the video. The main purpose of a video is to illustrate the meaning of the song a create a relevant concept to it via. visuals.
- I gathered from the performance that it was set in a gig. It was very authentic with the banner with the name of the band, and the use of all instruments you would expect a rock band to play. The black canvas background was a good idea as it didn't cause any distractions to the artist and it created a simplistic, no-gimmick look to the band. The stage in whole was very authentic and well made. What the band wore were also typical and not contradictory of the male rock band stereotype.
Link to Group Blog
www.fwacmedia.blogspot.com
Here is the link to my group blog with Fraser Wilson for our Music Video task. On the blog you can find the making of the video, making of the artist and some research into the artist and genre.
Here is the link to my group blog with Fraser Wilson for our Music Video task. On the blog you can find the making of the video, making of the artist and some research into the artist and genre.
Monday 5 March 2012
Artist website analysis: Tinie Tempah
www.tinietempah.com
I have chosen to analyse Tinie Tempah's website as I am very familiar to the artist and the website as it is a great place to find exclusive news straight from 'the horses mouth' for example, twitter feeds and press.
This is what you see staright away when you enter the website. The first things that stand out are the large photos of the artist Tinie Tempah. Immediatly you become familiar with the webpage and it doesnt seem so alien, as Tinie Tempah uses photos to gage attention away from the text in order to entertain the audience, similarly to how magazines are equally shared by photos and text.
The menu offers a huge variety of options to cick on, as shown above. The words used are very simple, casual and clear to what that page offers. For example, fans of Tinie Tempah will know that he has his own brand of clothing called 'DISTURBING LONDON' which can be sold through the store or on another website. When you click on the store page, the colour theme changes and the page opens in a new tab. As the page discourses from the webpage, it leaves you with 2 tabs, therefore you have never left the home page, and it becomes easier for you to navigate elsewhere, for example on to the 'blog' page. The more pages you open, the more tabs, and the more the website takes over your web browser, the longer you stay on a website, the greater the appeal to return to it.
I have chosen to analyse Tinie Tempah's website as I am very familiar to the artist and the website as it is a great place to find exclusive news straight from 'the horses mouth' for example, twitter feeds and press.
This is what you see staright away when you enter the website. The first things that stand out are the large photos of the artist Tinie Tempah. Immediatly you become familiar with the webpage and it doesnt seem so alien, as Tinie Tempah uses photos to gage attention away from the text in order to entertain the audience, similarly to how magazines are equally shared by photos and text.
The menu offers a huge variety of options to cick on, as shown above. The words used are very simple, casual and clear to what that page offers. For example, fans of Tinie Tempah will know that he has his own brand of clothing called 'DISTURBING LONDON' which can be sold through the store or on another website. When you click on the store page, the colour theme changes and the page opens in a new tab. As the page discourses from the webpage, it leaves you with 2 tabs, therefore you have never left the home page, and it becomes easier for you to navigate elsewhere, for example on to the 'blog' page. The more pages you open, the more tabs, and the more the website takes over your web browser, the longer you stay on a website, the greater the appeal to return to it.
Voyeurism
Voyeurism - The gaining of sexual pleasure though visuals in video/film. Goodwin says that the female body is shown with fragmented shots, emphasizing a sexualized treatment of the star used to flatter the male star ego, for example: artist like 50 cent and Snoop Dogg who use a lot of females in their videos to boost their image.
This video is once again another brilliant and convincing performance from Beyonce, an artist who represents female power in her songs, making her a global star. Watch out for her performance between 1:18-1.22. This short sequence of shots are just an incredible bit of voyeurism. Close up of her face, positioning the audience on top of her, connoting a sexual position. Then Beyonce waves her finger and refuses you, next shot, she's got her back to you as she looks in the mirror. The visuals are saying "you can look, but you can't touch", this is teasing the audience, and pleasuring them, creating 'Voyeurism'.
Goodwins theory applied to music video
Andrew Goodwin's theory
His theories of music video are as followed:
- Relationship between the lyrics and visuals
- Relationship between the music and visuals
- Iconography
- Close ups of artist
- Voyeurism
- Intertextual references
Andrew Goodwin is a key practitioner in music video/media. His analysis of music videos was revealed in his writing in 'Dancing in the distraction factory' '92. I will now analyse a music video in the style of Goodwin, and have chosen 'Big Sean ft. Kanye West - Marvin Gaye & Chardonnay'.
What is the relationship between the lyrics and visuals? (illustrate, contradict or amplify)
Illustrate: In this music video i believe the visuals predominantly illustrate the lyrics. The song contains alot of sexual innuendos aswell as partying/drinking. However the visuals are more tv-friendly and illustrate a softer but similar picture to what the lyrics are saying. As a substitute for bedroom scenes, and soft pornography, there are several girls dancing seductively in revealing attire. And the replacement for alcohol consumption and partying is the two artist rapping together, having fun in yet again, a more tv-friendly way.
Star Image
Characteristic feature #1 - Boss / Business Man
Example - 'Skepta - BOSS'
How it is demonstrated or developed - Skeptas attire is very high class fashion/ office wear which is not something you expect to see worn by Skepta. But as the song is titled 'BOSS' and the lyrics illustrate their money motivations and business frame of mind through music and drugs, the suit is amplifying and developing another characteristic to his star image.
Characteristic feature #2 - Gangster / Gang banger
Example - 'Skepta - Look Out'
How it is demonstrated or developed - In this music video Skepta shows another side to him, as the song is about being a "gangster / gang banger". He is seen here surrounded by males on an estate in London where they are casually drinking and smoking. This characteristic of Skepta over time has faded away the more he came into the public eye. Since he signed to AATW/Universal he has made radio and TV-friendly music songs and videos where his star image is more about partying and having fun.
Characteristic feature #3 - Party boy
Example - 'Skepta - Bad Boy'
Example - 'Skepta - BOSS'
How it is demonstrated or developed - Skeptas attire is very high class fashion/ office wear which is not something you expect to see worn by Skepta. But as the song is titled 'BOSS' and the lyrics illustrate their money motivations and business frame of mind through music and drugs, the suit is amplifying and developing another characteristic to his star image.
Characteristic feature #2 - Gangster / Gang banger
Example - 'Skepta - Look Out'
Characteristic feature #3 - Party boy
Example - 'Skepta - Bad Boy'
How it is demonstrated or developed - This 'party/pop' theme/image is developed through an abundance of songs that Skepta release post 2010 such as 'Amnesia' 'Sunglasses at night' and 'Bad Boy'. This was a positive move in order to expand his fan base whilst at the same time experimenting with a new style of music, and ultimately creating the star image we know him for at the present.
Favourite Music Video Director
Colin Tilley (born June 27, 1988 in Berkeley, California) is an award winning music video director for Riveting Entertainment who has written and directed music videos for artists including Chris Brown, Justin Bieber, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, Beyonce and UK artist Chipmunk. In fact he directed all of Chris Browns singles off his award winning album 'Fame' including videos such as 'Next to you' 'Champion' 'Yeah 3x' and many more.
His videos are very cinematic with the inclusions of special effects are lots of attention to details to the set, actors and make-up. Most of his videos have some sort of dance routine with the artist and/or a group of boys or a group of girls, all depending on the type of song. For example, in Jason Derulo's video below, you would expect a dance, whereas a song like 'John' by 'Lil Wayne' you wouldn't expect the same, as it would be contradictory, something Colin Tilley doesn't create in his videos.
A2 Preliminary Task
This was my Preliminary task to create an extract of a music video of our choice. I was in a group with Shazma, Faisal and Isma. As this was my first taste of creating a music video I learnt many things such as; The importance of timing a lip-sync, preparation and planning is key to perfection (THE THREE P's) and 'trial and error' in filiming and directing the scene.
Album Cover Analysis
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