P1: Media & Rep - Music Videos

9/1/18 L/O: TO RESEARCH TERMINOLOGY REQUIRED FOR ANALYSIS.

The music videos must be studied  in relation to media language and media representations,including a consideration of the social and culture contexts that influence and how media language is used to constrict representations.
Consideration should be made of media language elements specific to music videos such as camera shots, angles, lighting, settings, locations, costumes, props, makeup, editing and sound as appropriate.

Music video terms:

• Narrative (3 types) - A narrative based music video contains mostly footage that attempts to tell a story through moving image. Music videos that are narrative usually have a story line that is lined to the lyrical content, although this isn't always the case. These videos also tend to be popular with songs that are featured in films and parts of movies and scenes are usually cut into the music video.
• Performance - The video shows the artist/band/group performance throughout the song and sometimes can play throughout the whole video.
• Concept - This is the style of music video that is based around a concept of an idea. They tend to be fairly unique or utilise a particular editing or filming technique.

Camerawork:

• Shot types - extreme long shot, medium close up, long shot, close up, extreme close up, medium shot, medium long shot and cut away shot.
• 
• Angles - Eye level, low angle, high angle, birds eye shot, worms eye shot and over the shoulder shot
• Movement - Zoom in, zoom out, tilt up, dutch tilt, tracking shot, pan and hitchcock zoom.

Lighting terms:

• Types - Chiaroscuro Lighting, 3 point fill lighting, high key lighting, backlighting
• Effects - 

Editing:

• Cut types - Hard cut, jump cut, L-Cut and J-Cut, popcorn cut, cutting on the action.
• Transitions - Cut, Fade in/Fade out, Dissolve, Wipe, Iris.
• SFX - Isolated Sounds, Specialty Effects, Foley Sounds, Background Ambiences.
• Length & Speed - 

Sound:

• Types - Diegetic sound - sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film. Non-diegetic sound - sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action.
• Levels - 
• Editing - Sound editor (filmmaking) A sound editor is a creative professional responsible for selecting and assembling sound recordings in preparation for the final sound mixing or mastering of a television program, motion picture, video game, or any production involving recorded or synthetic sound.

11/1/18 L/O: TO RESEARCH SELECTED CASE STUDIES FOR USE OF MEDIA LANGUAGE AND REPRESENTATION.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Stop Where You Are

Name of the Artist & their Genre - Corinne Bailey Rae is her name and her genre is Soul.

Name of song & Release date - The song is called Stop Where You Are and the release date is April the 1st 2016.

Link to lyrics & summary of song meaning - 
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/corinnebaileyrae/stopwhereyouare.html

Corinne Bailey Rae told The Independent regarding this delicate acoustic lament: "I was just trying to write a song about being optimistic, really, about grabbing opportunity where it falls."

Description of what happens in video - At the start Corinne Bailey Rae is walking up some steps and singing. There is a guy with tattoos all over him sorting out his hair. There is also a girl looking sad in a blue hoodie with her hood up, Corinne Bailey Rae sits next to her and carries on singing next to her. Then Corinne Bailey Rae is walking around and singing when she walks into a group of bullies fighting each other, they run around the corner and start running towards her and Corinne Bailey Rae puts her hand out whilst singing "stop where you are" and everything goes in slow motion, and the bullies run past her. Then it cuts to a scene where a man in a suit is walking past a homeless man who is begging the man in a suit for money. The man in the suit comes back and gives the homeless guy a cup of tea or hot chocolate of coffee. Then a teenage boy walks round the corner with a Staffie, he is then cuddling his dog. Corinne is still walking around singing. Then it jumps to a guy dancing around everywhere. Corinne then walks around the corner and bumps into a guy with his hood up and a hat on who then starts following her but then Corinne starts dancing with the guy. Then Corinne is cuddling the Staffie from earlier and everyone is happy and smiling and some are still dancing and is all happy.

Stop where you are
Events that happened before the release of stop where you are -

• 
  
• Theresa May was campaigning to become Priminister
• Tump was running to be President
• Many celebrities died such as Prince, Alan Rickman, Terry Wogan and George Michel.
• There was the attack on Brussels 
• The queen tuned 90.
• The zika outbreak hit 75 countries.

David Guetta - Titanium
Name of the Artist & their Genre - David Guetta is his name and his genre is dance/electronic/house.
Name of song & Release date - The song is called Titanium and the release date is August the 8th 2011.

Link to lyrics & summary of song meaning -

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/davidguetta/titanium.html
Titanium talks about our inner strength and being strong in ourselves. The lyrics use many different literary elements to portray the message of the song such as metaphors, imagery, and symbolism. The meaning of this song is to be strong even when the world is throwing its worse at you. When bad things happen we must stand strong and not fall. As the song states, we must be "Titanium" which means to be strong hearted and strong willed.

Description of what happens in video - A boy is crouched on the floor in a destroyed school,
he walks down a corridor and sees a woman who is on the phone, when she sees him she closes the door because she is scared of him, he walks out of school and here is police car outside, the boy gets on his bike a rides away quickly, the lady comes out of the school and talks to the police officer about the boy, the boy rides to his house and sees news on the television about aliens and starts to pack a rucksack full of clothes, the boy sees the shadow of a police man outside the curtain with a gun, the police start to break in, the boy uses his super powers to get some keys off of the table, the police go into his room and see floating stuffed animals, the boy starts to walk through some woods away from his house, the boy starts to run with the police close behind him, the police catch up with him and make him get to the floor, he curled up in a ball and what looks like radiation starts to come off him, he then makes a massive explosion

Titanium
Events that happened before the release of titanium -
Japan earthquake
New Zealand earthquake
The world population reached 7 billion
The Royal Wedding

Titanium is based around a little boy who has superpowers, this music video was seen as a reminder of the sandy hook elementary school shooting that happened in 2010 so this song was banned from being played on any radio stations. There were a lot of disastrous earthquakes that happened all over the world in 2011 such as the New Zealand earthquake and the Japanese earthquake. the way the school was so broken down suggests that maybe this is a link to the earthquakes that happened and what the schools could have looked like. the music video could also be based around sandy hook elementary school shooting because that happened in 2010, the little boy in the school could represent all the children and him running away could represent how scared all the kids were and how they were trying to run away. The stuffed animals in the boys room could represent how young the children were who died and who escaped.

Titanium talks about our inner strength and being strong in ourselves.When bad things happen we must stand strong and not fall. As the song states, we must be "Titanium" which means to be strong hearted and strong willed.The song uses guns and bullets as a metaphor to the hateful words that people will say to us. In the chorus Sia, the vocalist of the song, sings about being bullet proof.This song has a very empowering message to give to those who are bullied. https://meaningfulsong.weebly.com/meaning.html
16/1/18 L/O:TO RESEARCH & EXPLORE REPRESENTATIONS AND CULTURAL CONTEXT IN MUSIC VIDEOS CASE STUDIES.



How has Rita Ora been represented in this 'official' wallpaper image?

Rita Ora has been represented as a sexual object kind of since she is looking at the camera whilst slightly opening her mouth but also pouting and then her jacket is half way down her arms showing her shoulders and showing her skin. She is wearing stereotypical female colours since her hair is slightly pink and so is her jacket showing she is being represented as stereotypical and basic, making people believe she is afraid to be different and is quite girly. She is being shown as more powerful since she is looking down on the camera as it is a low angle shot. In the photo there is no indication that she is actually a singer since she is doing a very stereotypical model pose so people may believe she is a model if they didn't know her. Direct address may connote confidence. Her skin is flawless which suggests airbrushing and the fact that they may want her to appear as perfect.


CORINNE BAILEY RAE

Corinne Bailey Rae has been represented as many different things, such as all the different bright colours that she uses like yellow, orange, green, blue and pink these colours connote fun and energy. Although the colours are happy she doesn't have a smile or a look of happiness on her face but she looks sad or she has no emotion which could also cannot that she can be serious and talk about more serious things which is represented in the music video for 'stop where you are'. Also because she is showing no emotion this could show she is powerful, I can also see that she is powerful because in one of the images she is looking straight into the camera and the other image she is looking down which could mean that she also isn't powerful, all of these different emotions could maybe mean that here music is a mix of different emotions.
DAVID GUETTA

David Guetta’s Official Merch and Album Cover seem to have a black and red theme going on, this could connote energy since he is a DJ and likes energy so he wants to be associated with it since that is what he wants when performs a set. Guetta is not wearing a lot of colour since he is wearing mostly black clothing which may show that he is not a very fun. He also pretty much always wears a leather jacket, this could connote that he has power and wealth because leather is expensive but also leather can be seen as something that powerful and dangerous people wear so he could want to create a powerful image for himself.



25/1/18 L/O: TO EXPLORE THE CULTURAL CONTEXT AND OVERALL EFFECT OF MUSIC VIDEOS.

LIST A SONG: Corinne Bailey Rae - Stop Where You Are

• A theme of time, optimism, appreciation, seeing the beauty in everything, being present, living in the moment.
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• Class is represented in the video as it shows a homeless woman who is obviously lower class and then there is Corinne who judging by her dress looks either upper or middle class. The man in the suit who gives the homeless woman a drink could possibly be upper class judging by their suit.
• Ethnicity is represented in the video as there is are different people of different races in the video, such as the girl in the hoodie and Corinne Bailey Rae are black and then the group of teenage girl bullies are white. Which shows cultural diversity.
• Age is represented in the video as similar to the representation of ethnicity. The large group of teenage girls look very stereo typically angry, moody and hormonal. Which the video proves is correct as they push each other around and run angrily. Another interpretation of this could be that when the Corinne Bailey Rae appears the girls have a change of thought and are now angry at themselves for acting in such a horrible. They then run away from who they used to be.
• Corinne Bailey Rae is represented as an omniscience character that it there to help solve the issues of the people that are experiencing bad things. They don't seem to be aware of her presence till their issues have been solved, It's as if she has some sort of power over them. All of the other people in the video are wearing stereotypical rough clothing, she is the complete opposite and is wearing a red flowing dress. I think she is being represented as some one who once was in the same position as the others in the video but has come our from the other side and now wants to help others. I think this because of the red dress that stands out very obviously throughout the video. Red can be seen and has connotations of sin, guilt, passion, blood and anger which could symbolise what she has already been though but not it may have a different meaning to her, such as love. I think the dress could also be seen as a warning as red is often seen as being a colour of warning. She appears just as someone is about to do something bad. She gives the impression that she is warning them that it would be a mistake to do so.

LIST B SONG: David Guetta - Titanium

• A theme of Youth, Authority, inner strength and being strong in ourselves and not to let anyone break you down because of who you are.
• ideas of the song: Don't let anyone break you down be "titanium", be yourself
• In this song there is a little boy around the age of 11-12 and then adults aged 20 and up. 
• the main focus of the video is around the young boy this could mean that there is more pressure from people who are trying to bring you down then what the adults have to deal with, and at one point the little boy has stuffed animals floating in his room that could represent how he just wants to be younger again because he didn't get bullied back when he was younger.
• In this music video ethnicity is not shown very much because all of the people until the very end are white, at the very end there is a black police officer who is telling the boy to put his hands up but instead the boy crouches into a ball.

30/1/18 L/O: TO EXPLORE THE SPECIFIC REPRESENTATION OF CHOSEN VIDEO CASE STUDIES.

Social Realism - Social Realism is a film genre which focuses on giving the audience a true indication of what life is like. 

Transcendence - Transcendence is the act of rising above something to a superior state. ... When you achieve transcendence, you have gone beyond ordinary limitations. The word is often used to describe a spiritual or religious state, or a condition of moving beyond physical needs and realities.

Intertextuality - The term Intertextuality refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media text via another media text. In other words Intertextuality essentially means for a type of media (film,television,music etc) to pay homage to another media text. Where you refer to a different type of media text within the text.

Post modernism - Postmodern media rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another.

Cinéphilic - Person who loves the cinema or movies. 

Filmic - Everything placed in front of the camera that is then captured on film and so constitutes the film image. 

Value transference - A value transfer system refers to any system, mechanism, or network of people that receives money for the purpose of making the funds of an equivalent value payable to a third party in another geographic location, whether or not in the same form.

Perfomance based music video -

The target audience is 13-30 year olds.

The artists are represented as
The target audience is positioned as
The values being celebrated are

Narrative based music video -

The target audience is 16- 40 years old.

The artists are represented as

The target audience is positioned as

The values being celebrated are


6/2/18: EXAM PRACTICE QUESTION

Explain how representations in music videos are chosen to promote the artist.
Refer to two of the music videos you have studied to support your answer.

Representations in Corinne Bailey Rae's music video for 'Stop where you are' are promoting her since she has featured a homeless woman in her video which may show that she is aware of the different classes in society today and that she still wants them to be included in her music video.This shows she does not see them as something she doesn't want to include in her video, she doesn't see them as "dirt" or "gross" which is what some people think when they see homeless people on the street, they see them and turn their head or try and avoid them whereas Corinne Bailey Rae promotes them to show they are no different than all of us, they are just in a bad place. At the start she has a man in a suit looking down on the homeless woman but then as it progresses on the man in the suit is sat with the woman and the camera angle shows them at the same level, probing they are the same as each other.

Another representation included is the variety of races in the video, showing cultural diversity. I know the Corinne Bailey Rae supports and promotes all ethnicity's because in her music video she has included some white people as the bullies in the music video are white. Then Corinne Bailey Rae and the girl in the blue hoodie that was sat on the steps are both black/mixed race. This shows that her music videos target audience is anyone since she has not discriminated against any race and has tried to make it appeal to all races. 

Representations in David Guetta's music video for 'Titanium' are promoting him since he is appealing to a range of different ages in his music video. I know this because Guetta has based is music video on the film 'super 8' which is from 2011 and their target audience is 13-35 so anyone who who was a big fan of the film will instantly appeal to Guetta's music video and then 12-17 year olds will like the spooky stuff that the boy does in the music such as moving stuff with his hands etc so then he will be promoting his music video to them. Also the boy in the music video is also in the film 'super 8' therefore he is semi famous so anyone who is a fan of him or the film will be draw to the video. There are also scenes or action from the police which will appeal to older men from the ages 20-40, so really Guetta has tried to make is music video so it can appeal to a range of ages which ends up being 12-40.

Another representation included in Guetta's music video is of race, Guetta may be promoting how people are supposedly more scared of black people than they are white people. I know this since during the whole music video there are no black people up until at the very end there is a black police officer who is telling the boy to put his hands up but instead the boy crouches into a ball. This may represent racism since instead of just doing what the man says he just tries to hide thinking that the man may hurt him. Also it could be racism since the only one shouting at him to put his hands up is the black police officer and none of the others so they may have been trying to paint him in a bad light.