Review of student video

In class we had a chance to view the videos of the last year A2 students, i'd say that i enjoyed looking at all the videos because it gave me a chance to see what we could do better to improve our videos. To be honest a lot of the video were actually good to watch on the other hand i really didnt like a few of them partly because they looked tacky,rushed and not really thought through.

I chose to review and analyse Group 24's video because i thought the whole idea of it being black and white with only the red showing in red worked absolutely well, i enjoyed watching it because it manages to show the fun side of life in my oppinion. This video did catch my eye in which i really did enjoy watching it.
The audience for this video, i would think is for Everyone although there is a female doing it she shows the inequality in the edits of people holding up the signs which amplies the meaning of the song.
The Genre of this song would probably be classified as pop.

The narration of the song i think is about this who is very interested in society and how we live, she talks about how everybody should learn to love, in a way that she is protesting to people about the subject. I think that the editing really works well the way the colour Red is the only colour shown does contrast with the word love as red is normally the symbol of Love.

I would say that in the video she is the narrator of the whole thing as well as participating in it also though there are other participants holding up the signs which creates a sense of togetherness as the song does the song.
The song has a representation of a stong willed woman who is able to stang up for their own rightss, all of this shows courage and that she isnt afraid of anybody telling her anything, normaly women are represented as sex symbols where as this sends out a positive image of women, this is what i love about the video.
If i had to relate it the Andrew Goodwin theory i would would say that it is amplication as the video went with the theme of the song.

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp was born on 17th of April, 1895 to a German family in St Petersburg where he attended university where he did Russian and German, in which he went on to becoming a teacher at a secondary school, then a German college teacher. He analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.




Vladimir Propp, Developed a characyer theory for media texts and production, the 7 broad characters he analysed could also be applied to other media and can be applied to almost any story, be it in literature, theatre, film, television series, games, etc.



The tale takes the following sequence of 31 functions:




ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. This may be the hero or some other member of the family that the hero will later need to rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline. The hero may also be introduced here, often being shown as an ordinary person.

INTERDICTION: An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').

VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.

RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc.; or intended victim questions the villain). The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information, for example searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. They may speak with a member of the family who innocently divulges information. They may also seek to meet the hero, perhaps knowing already the hero is special in some way.

DELIVERY: The villain gains information about the victim. The villain's seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information, often about the hero or victim. Other information can be gained, for example about a map or treasure location.

TRICKERY: The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim). The villain now presses further, often using the information gained in seeking to deceive the hero or victim in some way, perhaps appearing in disguise. This may include capture of the victim, getting the hero to give the villain something or persuading them that the villain is actually a friend and thereby gaining collaboration.

COMPLICITY: Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy. The trickery of the villain now works and the hero or victim naively acts in a way that helps the villain. This may range from providing the villain with something (perhaps a map or magical weapon) to actively working against good people (perhaps the villain has persuaded the hero that these other people are actually bad).

VILLAINY or LACK: Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc., comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc.). There are two options for this function, either or both of which may appear in the story. In the first option, the villain causes some kind of harm, for example carrying away a victim or the desired magical object (which must be then be retrieved). In the second option, a sense of lack is identified, for example in the hero's family or within a community, whereby something is identified as lost or something becomes desirable for some reason, for example a magical object that will save people in some way.

MEDIATION: Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc./ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment). The hero now discovers the act of villainy or lack, perhaps finding their family or community devastated or caught up in a state of anguish and woe.

BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action. The hero now decides to act in a way that will resolve the lack, for example finding a needed magical item, rescuing those who are captured or otherwise defeating the villain. This is a defining moment for the hero as this is the decision that sets the course of future actions and by which a previously ordinary person takes on the mantle of heroism.

DEPARTURE: Hero leaves home;

FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR: Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc., preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);

HERO'S REACTION: Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against him);

RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT: Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);

GUIDANCE: Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;

STRUGGLE: Hero and villain join in direct combat;

BRANDING: Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);

VICTORY: Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);

LIQUIDATION: Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);

RETURN: Hero returns;

PURSUIT: Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);

RESCUE: Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);

UNRECOGNIZED ARRIVAL: Hero unrecognized, arrives home or in another country;

UNFOUNDED CLAIMS: False hero presents unfounded claims;

DIFFICULT TASK: Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);

SOLUTION: Task is resolved;

RECOGNITION: Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);

EXPOSURE: False hero or villain is exposed;

TRANSFIGURATION: Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc.);

PUNISHMENT: Villain is punished;

WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).
The villain (struggles against the hero)
The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
Her father
The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
The hero or victim/seeker hero, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

His character types are used in media education and can be applied to almost any story, be it in literature, theatre, film, television series, games, etc.

Lip Synch Tutorial Experience

In order to be successful with our course for A2, we needed to learn variouse skill in our lip synch tutorial. During the hole process of learning how to do it, i learnt some new technical skills which actually did take time to get around but in the end i was actually successful.
Some of the skills i learnt was putting up the base track in the editing, putting up the different video parts that link to the song, Learning hot to fixate the audio and video so that they both synch was very important, we also learnt to razor some parts of the video so that different video parts linked. All of this took a bit of skill and concentration.

In order to get the lip synching intact we had to look out for a particular word and fixate on that word with a marker, so it was easier to find the mouth movement to that particular word.
At first it was hard for me because i kept missing the word, but with much practice i was able to do it.

The next lesson after that we had to then put everything to practice and do it our selves, we got into our groups and out teacher gave us a song that we had to do which was 'Le freak' by Chic which was 1978 hit disco song which really helped us to get in the mood, a sheet to learn the lyrics so we could actually sing it and a cd player so that it was easier to be in synch with the words. We were told that we should not mime the lyrics but to sing so that it would not look messy in the actual video it self.
The whole video was done hand held so no tripod was used, because of time we only had a chance to record the 1st verse and chorus. We had to take 3 shots of our video baring in mind that there had to be different camera angles.

When it came to editing out Lip synch, to be quite honest we had not encountered and problems as we were able to put the base track and had a specific word we were able to mark.

I think that the Lip synch video is much more challenging and difficult that the thriller video because in the lip synching concentration is much more required as you have to watch out for the words and make sure that you get it exact with that you have to make sure the music is there at the same time, where as in the Thriller trailer it was more laid back all you had to do was basically film what you needed to edit it then add soundtracks which aso requires time.

Three catergories: disjuncture, Amplification, Disjuncture

Example: Wiley : wearing my rolex

Illustration: An outside location focusing on dancers in costume of  wolves performing a continuous dance routine throughout the video.

Amplification: The idea of having the dancers dressed as foxes is a metaphorical idea of portaying the narrative, this idea is an indication that girls are becoming increasingly 'fame and money hungry' and are willing to become puppets and robotic to all reach that aim. It is interesting as they are portayed to look like foxes when they are hunting for food.

Disjuncture: The video has little connection between the lyric and the videos as you would expect it to be a typical 'grime' video with the girls positioned in a stereo typical way, The song is about women acting in a certain way but this video is a metaphorical representation.

Andrew Goodmin task

Andrew Goodmin comments on the role gender represents in music videos and discusses why both genders are accustommed to behave in a certain way. I summarised the theory and argued a point like this, 'Women are expected to behave in a certain way to please the male audience. It is expected that the male figure would feel like this and women have to obide by this to gain recognition' Although some argue it is just to please the male audience, there is a still a strong demand in the female demographic for artists to represent themselves in todays fashion so they are suitable role models for the young girls of today's society. Artists we are familiar with that may take this role are girl bands such as the saturdays, girls aloud or artists in the Hip Hop Genre where they are well known for their appearances in bikini's.

Examples of Amplification

This is an example of amplification as the video dosen't contradict with the lyrics but introduces new meaning , as he is expressing his happiness when the sun shines. the lyrics also add layers of meaning as he states all of his problems go away when the sun shines.
The song is upbeat and each cut shows a different scenary. At the start of every scene it is darkerly lit, it gradually begins to get lighter as the light represents his problems going away.

Analysing the music video - Beyonce Single ladies

Beyonce - Single ladies a classic well known upbeat tune belongs to the RnB genre a genre where Beyonce is widely recognised. The Video 'Single ladies' portrays a variety of shots in order to show her full frame at all times. The main shots that are use are Midshots and long shots this allows the audience to mainly see her body and focus on her body movements. The close up shots are to enable us the audience to see her beauty, something Beyonce is well known for.


The narrative is relevant to what 'Beyonce' is singing about, Beyonce uses strong dance movements to portray her narrative. Her video being indepedent with her and only two fellow dancers is relevant to the lyrics ' Single ladies'


The location of the video is quite plain and low key , it is filmed in a white studio with the focus in being only in black and white, this allows the lighting to be standard and being continuous throughout. Her previous videos are filmed in locations similar to this to allow her famous dance routines to take place.


Iconography: Classic black leotard shows her luxourious body shape she is known for, beyonce will also want to show her best assetts as she is singing about being single! Her fan base will admire her. Her clothing sbows elegance, style and sophistication something she is admired for.

Examples of Illustration

In this video 'Beautiful Monster' Neyo (The artist) is telling the story of the lyric , as he breaks into the dance sequence where he is expressing his love for a woman who he calls a  'Beautiful Monster' who he describes to be deadly as said in the lyrics You're a knife


Sharp and deadly

And it's me

That you cut into

Acting is also involved nearer the end of the video , where Neyo is trying to find the Beautiful Monster, as he finally catches up with her, the high angled shot above them shows them as they dance together , the sequence at the end involves a variety of different dance genres. Each showing differrent meaning . The contempary dance moves express the love that he is feeling for her .

Summary of Andrew Goodwin's Theory

• Illustration: This is where the viseo tells the story of the lyric "Pap dont preach" (Madonna) for example. Dance is often used to express the feeliings/moods in the song.

• Amplification: Occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrucs but add layers of meaning.

• Disjuncture: Tyhis is where there is a little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. Michael Jackson's Man in the mirror.

Analysis of a music video

The Saturdays

The genre of the music is pop, the location is external and is set on a white sandy beach . The girls are all wearing long maxi dresses as that is the type of dress you would wear to the beach. The location is very light this is associated with pop as most pop videos are always well lit with alot of exposure on the faces. The lighting also affects the mood and tone, althought it is a slow song it is still upbeat. I would describe the narrative as linerar and it dosent have an equilibrium. There is also alot cuts some places cut alot faster then others. There are also different type of shots , firstly starting with a close up of Frankie's face (one of the singers) as she is lying on a bed, it then immediately cuts to a long shot of the other singers .

Example and Analysis of Videos that follow Amplification, Disjuncture and Illustration!

Illustration

This video by chipmunk is a great example off illustration. The song is about the idea of chipmunk wanting to be a superstar and becomming one. The video shows images of chipmunk past and present to convey to us the difference between then and now. This is the same with the lyrics from the beginning chipmunk Aka "Chippy" speaks about the different stages from his rise to stardom and as the song prgresses he speaks about the life as a "superstar" where the video shows us videos and images of chipmunk performing.

Disjuncture



This single by Taio Cruz is a good example of disjuncture as the lyrics and video do not connect. The song is about going to a club and basically enjoy yourself where Taio Cruz uses the word dynamite as a way to express the way to ejoy yourself. however in the video its shockingly the mise en scene doesn't reflect the lyrics at all as the video is set with in a machanical area. there no signs of a club which is what the song is about.

Amplification




This video by eminem called Not Afraid is a great way to show amplification. The song is about taking and a stand and not being afraid to. Now in the lyrics is doesn't say anything about doing scary things or braves things and not being afraid but towards the end of the video we see eminem jump of a cliff. This implys and is a directors way of introducing more meaning to the song and video!

Requesting Copyright Clearance!

Dear Sir/Madame of Columbia Records,

I am writing to you for your permission to use Chipmunk latest new single superstar in my A2 Media Studies project.


I'm a A level student who has enrolled on a media course where we must a promotional pack from scratch for a release of a new album track which will be added to my advance portfolio for my course. I was hoping you would gives me permission to use the above track to complete this task.


No one will view the finish product publicly and will only be included for coursework and shared between other pupils doing the course and whom else had access to our blogs e.g teacher, exam board.


If you do not hold the power to grant me this clearance i will be very grateful if you can reply back with the details i require as soon as possible.

Kind Regards

Feelando Francis

Example and Analysis of Videos that follow Amplification, Disjuncture and Illustration

Example of




Illustration

This is an example of illistration as is tells the story of her lyrics, Katy B narrates and illustrates/participates in the videa very well. She basically talks about her letting go of everything and just letting her self sink into the music, this is conveyed through her performing it on stage, the beat is definatly used to express her self in the music as apart of nightlife. The video itself looks very free and relates to the song and Andrew Goodwins view.





Amplification

This Video is Keyshia Cole 'You complete me' In this video there it introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but definately does add layers of meaning, for example this song talks about a guy who completes her at the same time praising him for what he does, but the video includes parts of a wedding as the song talks about the partner completing him/her, the wedding also involves the meaning of completing somebody.





Disjuncture

This where there is little connection between the lyric and video. In this video 'Riding for love' By Clea ft Bashy. This song basically talks about some one who was heart broken in their previous relationship but now feeling free. While in the video the artists are just walking on the pavements of the streets just telling the story to us by looking straight into the camera. The video definately contradicts the lyrics of the song.

Copyright clearance

[My Address]



6/09/10

Fascination records- The Saturdays

Dear Sir/Madam



Request for copyright Permission to use the whole of The Saturdays- Missing you



I am a student of A Level Media Studies and for my Advanced Portfolio i will be working in a group to produce a promotional package for the release of a new album track. I would like to request permission to use the above track for this project.



The finished project will not be made available publicly and will be used solely for coursework purposes. The holder of the original copyright will be fully acknowledged in the finished project.



If you do not hold rights for this song i should be grateful if you could forward this request to the appropriate person, or return it to me with the contact details in order that i might approach the copyright holder directly.



Yours faithfully





Yolande Agbotro

Yolande_x@hotmail.co.uk

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin believes that the traditional narrative analysis does not at all apply to pop videos. The reason being isnt because they are trying to be avant garde, it is because they approach narrative from a different angle  to novels and films .

The 3 reasons for different narrative structures are:
1. Pop videos are built around songs and do not have narrative stuctures
2. Pop videos normally use the singer as both narrator and character
3. The singer often looks straight into the camera, this involves the viewer at home with the performance.

Pop videos rely on repetition. The same way the chorus or lines are repeated, the images of the video repeats itself. This is a way to become familiar with the genre itself and have certain expectations. Finally the video would be played on TV, played on the radio and might be featured in an advertising film or tie-in making the song very popular and familiar through repetition.

Pop songs and videos do infact have a form of closure and ending. The 3 minute single that a video is based on must end which is normally reflected on the structure of the music, this is normally done because it builds to a climax or constant repetition before fading away.

Some videos are independent from the music they spring from, the way the video may come out may go beyond the original meaning. Sometimes the video provides a visual pleasure that encourages repeated viewing which promotes the music. Sometimes the video might promote other commodities such as films.
which then goes on to the fact that there are types of relations between songs and videos:
Illustration - This is where the video tells the story of the lyrics
Amplification - This happens when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers or meaning
and Disjuncture - This is where there is a connection between the lyrics and video.

Pop videos are often recognisable by the features used. One feature is the way women are represented as objects of male desire. For example artists such as Madonna and Beyonce present themselves for men to look at but the difference is that they look directly back at the viewers through the camera and cease to be passive.

Videos will also try to reach a wider audience without alienating the core audience. Eg. Older bands often show them in their younger days.
In conclusion Videos that are from songs written for particular movies often involve images from that movie into the actual video of the song, for example Celine Dion- My heart will go on from titanic.

Analysis Of Music Video

I have analysed a video track called 'Cater 2 u' by Destiny's Child. The Genre of this song has considered to be R&B, i can tell this because of the smooth beat throughout the whole song. In the beggining of the song see that they are wearing no clothes but covering their parts with their hand, this shows the purity of the song.
As the beat in the beggining sounds like twinkling starts we see that they have added effects to show this. In the video they are seen to be wearing long black dresses, when it comes to their own verses they have their own different outfits, in this video there is no comparison with genre and oufits whereas if it were in a hip hop video we would be able to tell as the artists would probably be wearing big chains, glasses etc

I would say that there is no distruption in the video as it runs smoothly and in order, although there are different parts to the video they all link. Beggining-Middle-End so there is an equilibrium.

To be honest i do not think there is an illistration in this video, as far as im concerned the track is a love song, but if you saw the video without the track you would not have thought it was a love song, because it is set outside, where they are dancing showing clips of a man, this is known as a aplification.

Media Langauge
This video has various amount of shots. The first few seconds of the video consists of close ups and tracking shots also with fade outs and quick shots.
The second scene of the video has a long shot this shows us her background and medium shots


Narrative
Baiscally this song is about a woman who wants to cater to their partner hence the song title 'Cater 2 u'.
It begins with the 3 women sitting down naked on the floor as an introduction to the video, there are no lyrics this just shows their face expression and possibly their love and lust to their partners. The whole video in my opinion has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics apart from the part when the girls are singing to the three boys who are possibly their partners.


Representation
In this video the representation of women varies in ways that are clear. The beginning we get a shot of the girls sitting down ‘naked’ this straight away shows us how girls in the media world will normally be seen as sex objects, by zooming in to their bodies and going down their shoulders shows the intimacy and the impact they may have on men. The next scene shows us Beyonce posing in her bikini again automatically the stereo type of the female figure is again a sex icon. This tells us that the audience of this video would generally be for men. As the video goes on we are then presented with the girls wearing elegant looking clothes.

Lip Synch

In this video me and the people in my group had to lip Synch to a song that was given to ask by our teacher . We then had to learn the lyrics to the following song 'Freak out'. As we played the song repetively , we  then began to pick up the lyrics line by line. After learning the lyrics we then tried to figure out how we would shoot this as if we was to compose a real music video. After many attemps of filming differnt shots we realised we didnt see much of the lip synch. One of the group members then had an idea to keep still while we were singing. After we filmed all the shots , as we had to repeat parts of the song three times we then came to an end. Before we done this we were taught how to lip synch to a song using Final Cut Pro.
As demonstrated it looked it easy , once i gave it a try i found it hard and confusing as i didnt know what key to press next. It was also hard to get the timimg right as timing is crucial . Once you have chosen a word that you can clearly hear all markers have to be lined up , otherwise the lips will be out of synch with the song. After using final cut pro we then had to cut different scenes, to fit the song as it is quite upbeat .