Sunday 29 September 2013

Creativity

Is Creativity A Skill?
If it is a skill..
  • We can develop it.
  • Although some people may be more skilled then others, we all have the potential to have it.
  • We can learn how to be creative.
Does knowledge of culture/art, help us be more creative?
- I think that having this knowledge would help being more creative because these would help inspire you to create something, and these ideas would make it more
easier for you to come up with a design.
 
Does a knowledge of creative "tools" help us be more creative?
- Yes because if you have more knowledge of creative tools then they can help whatever you are thinking happen, for example Photoshop can make a picture look better and more creative and this can help us be more creative. The more you know about tools the more better and creative your work will be.
 
Does media technology inhibit creativity? Are we more "free" without media technology?
- Media technology I think helps with creativity because of all the tools you can use to produce something. I think we are free with media technology and it can help us explore and learn more from it but sometimes we can be just as free without it as well at times.
 
How creative are media producers?
- Media producers I think are quite creative because they have to come up with a whole concept of something and make it work. They come up with some really interesting ideas in which nobody else has thought of before and make it work. They can make music videos seem really different by the use of technology.
 
 

Genre and Auteur Theory

Genre Theory focuses on..
  • Generic similarities.
  • How texts are determined by historical/social/political contexts.
  • How texts emerge as commercial products from any industry.
Auteur Theory focuses on..
  • Invidual stylistic features.
  • How texts are determined by artists' creativity.
  • How texts emerge as part of an artists body of work.
 
Music Video and Auteurs:
 
 Spike Jonez -




Most of Spike Jonez music videos shows the funny side of things, this video is an example of this because he hired some professional dancers and asked them to come up with the worst dance ever, and look like they were no good in which they did. He uses lower production value so he can do more with the video and it also gives off a grainy and amateurish look.

 Michel Gondry -



Michel Gondry music videos tend to use what look like vintage camera and also tends to repeats the visual images of the video. This video looks like it has been inspired from a generation of other music videos and has an interesting look about them all. The videos that Gondry had produced tend to use fixed camera, clever techniques and long takes as well. The video experiments a lot too and tries to create and interesting and something new look.





Green Screen

My Little Nick
 
 
 

I experimented with a green screen and after editing this is how it turned out. 

















Stop Motion Animation - Bluetac Men

         

This is the stop motion video I did and this is how it turned out.

Redundancy and Entropy

Redundancy - is that which is predictable or conventional in a message... Redundancy is the result of high predictability. 

Entropy - is unpredictability.

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Taylor Swift Video -
Taylor Swift has a high redundancy because she has the type of video you would expect from an artist from her genre. There always seems to be a boy in most of her videos and if there isn't one she is singing about one, another item she tends to have in her videos is her with her friends which is shown in the video "22".

Yo La Tengo Video - 
 Yo La Tengo videos have more redundancy then entropy because the video I watched which was "Today is the Day" is them surfing, on the beach and also a campfire on the beach, all of this I think is normal and which you do see in some places of the world.

Ok Go Video - 
The video I think has a high entropy because you don't really see running machines lined up with 4 men dancing on the treadmills and pulling random moves. The video is quite quirky which you would expect from a high entropy video.

I think the video in which I will make will be more redundancy then entropy. I might add a little bit of entropy to make the video a little more interesting and slightly different but redundancy does seem more obvious from some of the ideas I have had.

Mulvey's Theory - Notion Of Looking

"There is frequently reference to notion of looking and particularly
voyeuristic treatment of the female body"

1) The gaze of the camera: the camera that looks at the female body

2) The gaze of the male actor: shots of males looking at women and then the shot of the     female body being looked at.

3) The gaze of the audience: what the audience looks at.

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Mulvey's theory is that "videos is produced from the males perspective, and that we as an audience are trained to see ourselves and the world through this "male gaze".
 


A good example of Mulvey's theory of male gaze is in the music video by 50 Cent's Candy Shop. From the start of the video the male gaze is used when you see all the women walking around he house. The camera tracking up the women who is wearing provocative clothing creates the male gaze to look at her. The close up of the women used throughout the video make them seem sexually available. This theme of video seems to run through most hip hop videos.

 


In this video the male look is still used and what the women is wearing throughout the video is still provocative. However, Goodwin's theory of the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics is shown in this video. The line "better go back to mother she'll take care of you" is represented throughout this video, the character in this video is messed up by drinking, doing drugs and starting fights you can tell she needs help. But the male gaze is still strong through out with how she looks.

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However, Mulvey's theory has a flaw she thought that all audiences were passive and couldn't step outside the male gaze. She didn't take into account that the modes of representation are not fixed but shift and evolve over time



Madonna's song Open Your Heart throughout the video uses male gaze but the difference is she purposely uses it in her video. With what she's wearing makes her seem like an sexual object and that she wants to be seen that way. She takes the male gaze to a different level when she actually decided to use it. The way she dances as well creates the male gaze in her video and al the camera zooms in on her and also uses the tracking to follow her hands up her body.




Lady Gaga's video Alejandro contradicts both Mulvey's and Goodwin's theory's in this video. In this video it was the men who were objectified not the women this time and it was aimed more for males who were gay. The camera did behave like a male gaze but towards the men instead. You can clearly tell who this video is aimed at with what the males in this video were wearing throughout this video. You can say however that the male gaze is on Lady Gaga in some parts with how she is dressed but also how she is acting as well.




Andrew Goodwins - The Demands Of Record Labels

"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 that reflects their star image/persona)"

        


1) This acknowledges the commercial nature of music videos. Music videos are essentially promotional devices  whose function is to sell the song to its target audience.

-Music videos are mostly commercial and promotional devices, they are not only used to sell and song but also products which the artist might use during the video. An example of this is in the music video the girls show the brand in which they used to dye their hair, this promotes the brand of the hair dye and also helps the brand earn money since some of the people watching this might want the colour themselves and now know which type to use.   

2) Ultimately, stars are commodities that are used to represent values that will be attractive to their target audience. They are a brand. How is this brand identity established through their videos?

- The brand identity of Little Mix is mostly established throughout their videos. First to create a brand you need to like the people, Little Mix are likable because young people can relate to them in some ways, they come off quirky and fun which is the main thing that they need to portray. The brand identity is shown throughout their videos and the sound of their music is what the brand Little Mix is. Also them getting a deal to create a make up range would also show that they are a brand.

3) To appeal to the target audience, record companies will demand that there are close ups of the star so that the audience will identify them. What evidence have you found in this videos you have watched of this star?
- In the Little Mix videos I have noticed how close ups are used when each of the singers sing their invidual parts of the song, when the chorus or other bits when they sing together they still have close up shots of each of the girls. This allows the audience to get see what each of the girls look like, sound like and their invidual styles.

Andrew Goodwin - The Relationship Between Music and Visuals

"There is a relationship between the music and visuals. The tone and 
atmosphere reflects that of the music."

This tends to focus on Cinematography, Misc En Scene, Editing and Sound.




This video shows examples of the relationship between the music and the visuals. The way the two members are showing how youth is today and how everything is revolved around things to do with technology. The editing in this music video is fast as it flicks between the two singers in different rooms of the house. Also at the start the slow down time as the first member jumps onto the sofa but then goes back to normal soon after. The lighting of the video changes through out, at the start when they are singing about the TV programs  they use a lot of studio lighting to represent this, and also when they are in the "Big Brother" chair there is a low key lighting used, from them on it seems that they use natural lighting. 

The misc en scene of this video changes throughout as they film different locations of the video. For example, when they film the lounge scene they have the obvious set up of the sofa, TV and other items that you would see in the lounge. But they also create the set to look like there on Big Brother so they have the dark room with the big chair in it, and then on the Jeremy Kyle set they have the sofa's, camera crew and the background of how the set looks like.  

All in all this music does have an relationship with the visuals and this is shown throughout the whole music video with everything relating to each other.













Tuesday 17 September 2013

Andrew Goodwin Analysis Of A Music Video - Rizzle Kicks Lost Generation

"There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.
 The lyrics are represented with images"

Illustrative: 
There is a direct link between the words of the song and the actions in the video.

Amplifying:
Introduces new meaning, images, actions that do not conflict with the lyrics but that
add or reinforce layers of meaning.

Disjunctive:
There is no direct relationship between the lyrics of the song and the events of the video

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Rizzle Kicks new song "Lost Generation" The music video represents youth and also 
things that influences things around us.. An example of this in the music video is technology.

Illustrative: 
The song is not always linked to what is going on in the video all the time, but there are 
moments when it is directly linked to the video. Also when the chorus says "I'm living in
a lost generation" the video shows young people just walking around on their phones.


Amplifying:
Some scenes in the video it does bring out different meanings which you start to realize as
 the video progresses. The one message the video tends to bring up a lot is about TV and
 how it effects people at times and also how camera's tend to follow people that are 
famous and film everything they do.    

Disjunctive: 
I don't think that there are many disjunctive scenes in this music video, they all seem to
flow and go with the lyrics. Every clip in the video seems to be able to relate to something 
to do with youth. You could say at the start of the video when one of the singers is making 
toast that it has no direct link to the lyrics.

Music Video And Genre

Girl Bands 

Narrative:
The narrative of some girl bands are going out and having fun as friends. Destiny Child and Little Mix followed this by filming the video in a room, whilst Spice Girls were going out and causing chaos. 

Theme: 
The theme to some girl band songs tend to be about 

Location:
The locations of some girl bands are either in rooms or outside. It depends on the type of song for example ballads were outside, whilst up beat songs were filmed in a room or a club set up.

Representations: 
Destiny’s Child and Spice Girls were seen more for male gaze with what they wore in some of the videos, while Little Mix on the other hand are more for the younger generation and don’t wear provocative clothes.

Costumes:
·         Girl bands tend to have their own personal style in what they wear but not too much of a difference to show that their a group. The costumes also depend on the type of song as well. For example, if they are singing a ballad they tend to wear dresses, whilst rock song tends to have a rocky look.

Props:
Girl bands tend to use props that are related to the music video and also the genre style of the song. A living room or bedroom set up is tended to be used  a lot in girl bands music videos but also outdoor set up are used with a wide range of props.