Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Music Video Genre Analysis

Genre is a set of characteristics recognised by the audience:
In our case this involved meeting and developing conventions of music videos, with similar or completely different music styles. 
We believed that genres exist and that conventions are in place to define a certain genre, therefore we disagree with Robert Stams theory about genre. 

A relationship between audience and producer minimises risk of financial failure:
We placed in intertextual references to other successful bands e.g. Led Zepellin and Foo Fighters, this allowed us to appeal to our audience, increasing the like ability of our product and so reduces the risk of not making enough money from our video.

There are set are a set of rules and vocabulary:
Lead singer has more screen time  compared to rest of the band which makes him identifiable to fans. Band are seen performing the song to give audience an idea of their live performance. Band wear clothes similar to that of other bands of the same musical genre making them more relatable to the audience. 

There is familiar and unexpected as well:
There is a basic narrative featured in our music video which challenges the existing conventions of the music video genre, as most music videos of a similar music genre do not contain any narrative at all. 
We used intertextuality in the bands clothing which challenges other conventions as most artists are more focused on promoting their own clothing and style instead. 

Meeting expectations of the audience:
During our video the message from the lyrics of is shown during the action of our music video, which meets the audience expectations as they expect to see a clear message and understanding from the artist.
You can also clearly see the band performing which  meets the audience expectations as they expect to be visually entertained as well as auditory.

Genre offers comforting reassurance and closing down of complexities of life:
Our music video does not offer this at all, mostly thanks to the narrative which makes it relatable to a large amount of the audience and so therefore makes it think that it could happen to them, although this may potentially make it better as it would be more long lasting in memory of the viewer and so making it harder to forget.

Genres work through important cultural myths and fears by repetition, innovation and resolution:
In our music video the cultural fear of ghosts and haunting and during our video we see the character being haunted many times throughout, however our video challenges this to some degree as there is no actual threatening or scary movements that you would normally associate these fears with. For the resolution the band as ghosts simply dissapear as if on a cliffhanger leaving the audience wanting to know more.

Genre is defined by the effect it has or by its content:
I think it would be more suitable to class our music video by its content rather than its effect, because in a music video I believe the music is more important than visuals and so the viewer may be more effected by that than the visuals. Also the content of music videos can vary even between music of the same genre and so defining it content and make it much easier to identify individual songs and artists. For our video the content was kind of like a thriller, however the bright light and colours and  the fact that their wasno actual deaths or conflict involved, meant that  the video did not really meet the conventions of a typical thriller.    



  

Genre and narrative analysis of our media production.

Task
1. Analyse your thriller or music video for genre.


The audience can recognise various characteristics within our music video which represent the genre of the piece. Our narrative follows the love story- with a breakdown and resolution of the main character. There is also a tempo to the storyline that again reflects the genre. Our use of mise-en-scene was mainly reflected through our use of location and scenery. The opening shot of a lonely, breezy field instantly allows for interpretation of genre.

Recent music successes within the pre production of our music video focus mainly around the artists of Jack Johnson, James Blunt, Paolo Nutini, Jason Mraz- so the alternative acoustic genre was going through a popular phase within the music industry- reducing the extortionate financial risk we took with our video.

Genre functions as a language, and through using our music video we wanted to get a message across to the audience.

Tuesday, 5 April 2011

Theorists Analysis

Music Video:
*Laura Mulvey - 'the male gaze' is relevant here as Jazz is in minimal clothing which objectifies her to the audience.


Thriller Video:
*Tzetan Todorov - 'Equilibrium' at the beginning. This is because at the start nothing has happened or gone wrong and Jazz is still calm. 'Disequilibrium' when she realises that there's blood running down her face. However, 'new equilibrium' does not occur as she finds more blood on the towel at the end of the film.
   Our thriller is 'fantastic uncanny' as what she see's is an illusion and doesn't really exist in reality.

*Laura Mulvey - I am made to look vulnerable and victimised. This relates to Laura Mulvey's theory.  I am also shown slightly as an object of desire as i am in the shower and shown taking off my clothes.

*David Gauntlett - The 'effects' theory may also relate to our thriller as people may believe that they're hallucinating or may be mentally ill.

Theorists and theories analysis of music video and thriller

 Music Video Theorist Analysis:

Roland Barthes - Semiotics
Our music video uses Roland Barthes of semiotics, the props involved e.g. Led Zeppellin poster, digital radio, NME magazine have pluralistic meanings in the sense that they represent examples good music trying to give the audience an impression that our music was of the same level. Also this relates to the genre of our media project which is a music video.

Vladimir Propp - Character Theory
Our video challenged Vladimir Propp's theories as it only featured one hero and multiple villains, this was done to achieve a simple narrative to the viewers so that more attention to the music and the conventions featured in our music video e.g. featuring the whole band sharing an equal amount of screen time giving the audience a clear view of each member.
We also decided not to feature any other characters from his character theory due to the length of our media product as we felt it would get confusing with the limited amount of time that the viewer had to relate to the amount of characters.
Our narrative supports his narrative theory to a large extent, we follow six of his seven narrative in order, but there was no recognition stage at the end of our video because due to the narrative of our video this is not needed, as narrative only affects one character and no one else knows about it.  

Tzetan Todorov - Narrative Theory
We support Todorov's narrative theory as our media project features an equilibrium (before the band arrive, character reading), dis-equilibrium (Band arrive and chase character), new equilibrium (band disappear leaving character alone).

David Gauntlett - Collective Identity + Media Effect
A variety of products feature in our product which represent a variety of collective identities which the audience could easily identify with e.g. Led Zepellin, Foo Fighters, therefore our video could different collective identities together.

Laura Mulvey - Over exposure of women
Our music video completely challenges laura mulvey's theory as our music video is aimed at males but contains no females, and also contains no sexual reference so there was no reference of women and men being used for visual pleasure.
However our feature does contain a male protagonist which laura mulvey says it quite common in media projects, we used a male protagonist for similar reasons to what mulvey says the majority use their protagonist for, these reasons were that our male audience can relate to the character's feeling, actions and emotions during our video.    

Applying theorists to our work


Music video


David Gauntlett - his anti-effects theory doesn't apply.

Roland Barthes - N/A

Vladmir Propp - a narrative was crossed with performance. but there are no 'characters'

Tzetan Todorov - no specific equilibrium.
                            dis-equilibrium is when the car breaks down
                            no specific new equilibrium

Laura Mulvey - male gaze theory  the objectification of women. there are no men in our video except for references in the lyrics. women in peril. however we are in control because we had the car. and we were the dominant characters not prancing after the men/male singers(which don't actually exist.)


Thriller Video

David Gauntlett -

Roland Barthes -

Vladamir Propp -
the villian- rabbit mask man(lewis)
in the opening we've only met the villian and the 'princess' whos the girl in peril.

Tzetan Todorov - Contains only an equilibrium as its the opening sequence. dis-equilibirum is when

Laura Mulvey - objectification of the women. in peril. voyeristic to men what will the masked man do to her? whatever happens its fairly clear she'll lose the coat/cat outfit.

Theories and theorists in relation to our Thriller opening

Narrative structure -

Our thriller opening shows an equilibrium as it is an opening, as it sets the scene and the beginning displays the location. As it is the beginning there is no dis-equilibrium as

Vladimir Propp -

Narrative theory - characters have specific roles
Our thriller has a protagonist and antagonist, we see the binary opposite being displayed through camera angles such as high and low angle

Roland Barthes -

Semotics - Rabbit mask could have different interpretations and represent different things
intertexuality - reference to Donnie Darko - multiple meanings

Laura Mulvey -

Voyeuristic - girls dressed up that appeals to Lewis's character

Monday, 4 April 2011

David Gauntlett

David Gauntlett graduated from the University of York in 1992. He then went on to teach at the University of Leeds from 1993-2003. He was then appointed as professor of media and audiences at the University of Bournemouth. In 2006 he joined the school of media, arts and design at the University of Westminster as professor of media and communications.
  His critique of media 'effects' studies sparked controversy in 1995 and since then he has published a number of books and research on the role of popular media in peoples lives. He focused on the way in which digital media is changing the experience of media in general.


Media and collective identity.

Identity is complicated. Everyone thinks they've got one. Magazines and talk show hosts urge us to explore our 'identity'. Religions and national identities are at the heart of international conflicts. Artists play with the idea of 'identity' in modern society. Blockbuster movie superheroes have emotional conflicts about there 'true' identity. And the average teenager can create three online 'identities' before breakfast.

David Gauntlett 2007.

Ten Things Wrong with the 'Media Effects' Model: (http://www.theory.org.uk/david/effects.htm)
Tackles social problems 'backwards'
Treats children as inadequate
Assumptions within the effects model are characterised by barely-concealed conservative ideology
Inadequately defines its own objects of study
Often based on artificial studies
Often based on studies with misapplied methodology
Is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence
Assumes superiority to the masses
Makes no attempt to understand meanings of the media
The effects model is not grounded in theory






Roland Barthes Theorist

Born 12th November 1915 in Cherbourg, France into a middle-class, Protestant family.
he later died 25th March 1980 (Died aged 64)
Studied French, Latin and Greek at the Sorbonne in 1935.
Taught for many years in France, Romania and Egypt.
Suffered from a relapse of tuberculosis in 1941 and spent the most of the next six years of his life in a sanitarium.
His essays were collected together into his first book Le degre zero de l'ecriture (writing degree zero) in 1953.
Taught at the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique while continuing to write and publish his most famous book Mythologies in 1957.
Served as the director of the Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes from 1962 to 1977.
He was elected to the Chair of Literary Srmiology at the College de France.
He was considered France's leading intellectual.

Barthes began to study the subject of semiotics (the study of signification), not as a process, but as an attitude. He believed that the importance of semiology resides in its functionality. This means Semiology therefore aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substance and limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all these which form the content on films. Used for, convention or public entertainment.

An example of semiotics and having pluralistic meanings such as the Swastika
In Buddism it stands for peace and has done for a few thousand years. Hitler reversed it for his own use to symbolise strength and unity amongst the Nazi's.


Friday, 1 April 2011

Vladimir Propp Theories

Propps Character Theory:
The Villain (struggles against the hero)
The Donor (prepares hero or gives hero some magical component)
The (magical) helper (helps hero in quest)
The princess (marries hero, often sought for in narrative)
Her father
The dispatcher (character who makes the lack know and sends hero off)
The hero or villain, reacts to donor weds princess.
The False Hero (disrupts hero's success by making false claims)

Star wars character theory:
The Hero: Luke Skywalker
The Villain: Darth Vader
The Donor: Obi-Wan Kenobi
Magical Helper: Yoda
The Princess: Princess Leia
The Dispatcher: Obi-Wan
The Helper: Han Solo
Princess Father: Darth Vader
The False Hero: (Lando Calrissian)

Star Wars follows propps theory in many ways, however tit does challenge it in some areas e.g. princess's father doesn't really exist.

Lando as false hero -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8tGOjW10ls&feature=BF&list=PL4C0078DC433DFFB6&index=21

Play at 5:00

Harry Potter character theory:
Villian: Voldemort
Donor: Dumbledore
Dispatcher: Hagrid
False Villain: Snape (challenges false hero theory)
The Helper: Ron + Hermione (Gender stereotypes as they help in different ways)
The Princess: Ginney Weasley
Princess Father: Author Weasley

Propps Narrative Theory:

Preparation

A community/kingdom/family is in an ordered state of being
A member of the community/kingdom/family leaves home
A warning is given to the leaders of the community or a rule is imposed on the hero
The warning is discounted/ the rule is broken
The villain attempts to discover something about the victim of the broken rule
The villain tries to deceive the victim to gain advantage
The victim unwittingly helps the villain

Complication

A state of disorder
The villain harms a member of the community/kingdom/family
One of the members of the community/kingdom/family desires something
The hero is sent to get what is desired
The hero plans action against the villain

Transference

The hero leaves home
The hero is tested or attacked/ he meets the test and is given a magical gift or helper
The hero reacts to the donor
The hero arrives at the place he can fulfil his quest

Struggle

There is a struggle between the hero and the villain
|The hero is branded
The villain is overcome
The state of disorder is settled

Return

The hero returns
The hero is pursued
The hero escapes or is rescued
The hero arrives home and is not recognised
A false hero claims rewards
A task is set for the hero
The task is accomplished

Recognition

The hero is recognised
The false hero or villain is unmasked
The false hero is punished
The hero attains the reward (princess/ kingdom)

Vladimir Propp


Vladimir_Propp_(1928_year).jpg

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp - (17 April 1895- 22 August 1970) was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.

Biography
Vladimir Propp was born on April 17, 1895 in St. Petersburg to a German family. He attended St. Petersburg University (1913–1918) majoring in Russian and German philosophy. Upon graduation he taught Russian and German at a secondary school and then became a college teacher of German.
His Morphology of the Folktale was published in Russian in 1928. Although it represented a breakthrough in both folkloristics and morphology and influenced Claude Lévi-Strauss and Roland Barthes, it was generally unnoticed in the West until it was translated in the 1950s. 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.
In 1932, Propp became a member of Leningrad University faculty. After 1938, he shifted the focus of his research from linguistics to folklore. He chaired the Department of Folklore until it became part of the Department of Russian Literature. Propp remained a faculty member until his death in 1970.

Theory
Vladimir Propp extended the Russian Formalist approach to the study of narrative structure. In the Formalist approach, sentence structures were broken down into analyzable elements and Propp used this method by analogy to analyze Russian fairy tales. By breaking down a large number of Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units, Propp was able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures. After the initial situation is depicted, the tale takes the following sequence of 31 functions.


He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types in the 100 tales he analyzed:

  1. The villain — struggles against the hero.
  2. The dispatcher —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
  3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
  4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. the hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
  5. Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
  6. The donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
  7. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
  8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Applying the theory to a contemporary blockbuster hit
Harry Potter character types-
1. The villain — Lord Voldemort 
2. The dispatcher — Rubeus Hagrid 
3. The (magical) helper — Ron Weasley
4. The princess or prize — Ginny Weasley
5. Her father — 
6. The donor — Dumbledore 
7. The hero or victim / seeker hero — Harry Potter
8. False hero — Draco Malfoy


4a4e5d8125322.jpg


Shrek character types- 
1. The villain — Lord Farquaad
2. The dispatcher —
3. The (magical) helper — Donkey
4. The princess or prize — Princess Fiona
5. Her father — King Harold
6. The Donor —
7. The hero or victim/ seeker hero — Shrek
8. False hero —


ShrekCast.jpg

tzetan todorov


Tzvetan Todorov (Bulgarian: Цветан Тодоров) (born March 1, 1939 in Sofia) is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. He has lived in France since 1963 with his wife Nancy Huston and their two children, writing books and essays about literary theory,thought history and culture theoryTodorov has published a total of 21 books, including The Poetics of Prose (1971), Introduction to Poetics (1981), The Conquest of America (1982), Mikhail Bakhtin: The Dialogical Principle (1984), Facing the Extreme: Moral Life in the Concentration Camps (1991), On Human Diversity (1993), Hope and Memory (2000), and Imperfect Garden: The Legacy of Humanism (2002). Todorov's historical interests have focused on such crucial issues as the conquest of The Americas and the Nazi and Stalinist concentration camps.


Todorov's theory is "the fantastic"; the fantastic is the study of whether a supernatural occurance is actually real and happenening or whether it has been an illisuion. After deciding whether the event is real or an illisuion, Todorov thinks we enter the stages of uncanny and marvelous. In the event of a fantastic uncanny, the event that has taken place is an illusion with an explanation; the fantastic uncanny can include dreams, drugs etc. In the fantastic marvelous the event has actually taken place which means the laws of reality have to change.
Todorov also developde the theory of the equlibriums; the equilibriam is the part of a film when everything is peaceful at the beginning, the disequilibrium is the opposite of the equlibrium in the way that it is when the bad stuff is happening and then the new eqilibrium is when peace occurs again better than before.


An example of the equilibrium 

An example of the disequilibrium is

An example of the new equilibrium is

Tzvetan Todorov



Tzvetan Todorov was born in SofiaBulgaria, on March 1, 1939.

'Todorov defines the fantastic as being any event that happens in our world that seems to be supernatural. Upon the occurrence of the event, we must decide if the event was an illusion or whether it is real and has actually taken place.' This quote explains why he would give a positive take on Dog Soldiers.

Todorov has been a visiting professor at several universities, including HarvardYaleColumbia and the University of California, Berkeley.

Todorov's historical interests have focused on such crucial issues as the conquest of The Americas and the Nazi andStalinist concentration camps. For example "all traces of moral life evaporate as men become beasts locked in a merciless struggle for survival".

Tzvetan Todorov Biography

Todorov has published a total of 21 books. This particular book 'The Fantastic'......
Todorov is mainly known in media studies for his contributions to narrative theory - his structuralist theory of 'Equilibrium' especially. However, his book on the genre of the fantastic provides us with such a clear and conscious method for studying the concept of genre that it deserves more attention. Todorov divides genre into two; historical genres that result from the observation of texts and theoretical genres that result from analysis. It is the later type that is of interest to Todorov in his study of the fantastic.
Todorov positions the genre he calls 'the fantastic' between the closely related genres of 'the marvellous' (the supernaturally inexplicable) and 'the uncanny' (the rationally explicable) suggesting that 'the fantastic' always resolves into one or the other and that the 'hesitant' delay in this act of resolving into one of these related genres is the defining aspect of 'the fantastic' as a genre.
This genre of 'the fantastic' has much to recommend it to students of the media as it allows us to comparatively consider seemingly very disparate texts.
............
Considering the range of different types of texts we can use 'the fantastic' to study it is worth us considering what other theoretical genres we can construct and use to analyse the media, such as Dog Soliders.


Tzvetan anaylsed by looking at 3 steps
- Equilidrium
- Dis-Equilidrium
- New Equilidrium

Another way of breaking this down would be to use 5 steps
Narrative Structure
Developmen
Complication
Climax
Resolution
-Narrative Function
(1. To organise groups of events into a pattern of cause and effect. 2. To organise time and space)

analysis of dog soldiers

1. The lighting in dog soldiers is very dim, this is to represent and show the rustic feel of the house. The rustic setting ads to the atmosphere of the situation that the soldiers find themselves in.

The costumes of the soldiers of dirty, torn and ripped. This shows that they are deeply involved in the situation and that they have already been fighting off the wolves.

There is also a vast array of weapons, this makes the situation they are in more dramatic, especially when they are all involved in the fighting and you can hear different sound effects for each weapon.

2. Iconography is used especially with the guns and the ammunition. These are vital for the soldiers to survive and be able to keep fight off the ware wolves. Also the silver knife is used to kill the last ware wolf.

3. Throughout the film it is all pretty much disequilibrium as they are constantly on their toes fighting off the threat of the ware wolves. There is a small bit of equilibrium at the end.

4. The gender represented in Dog soldiers is all male. With little female elements. Although the one female element is key. The one female that is in dog soldiers is trusted through out the film. This is because she is seen as inocent ands a trusted bystander.

5.Dog soldiers shows that the armed forces are tough and are very good at survving

Analysis of theories and theorists

LAURA MULVEY
"In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness."

Biography:

  • Born in Oxford on 15 August 1941
  • studied history at Oxford University
  • she came to prominence in the early 1970s as a film theorist
  • much of her early work investigated questions of spectatorial identification and its relationship to male gaze
  • the 1975 essay Visual pleasure and Narrative Cinema helped establish feminist film theory as a legitimate field of study
  • the most influential of Mulvey and Wollen collaborative films, Riddle of the Sphinx (1977), presented avant-garde film as a space in which female experience could be expressed
  • She is now a Professor of Film and Media studies at Birkbeck college, University of London

Theories:
  • Mulvey argues that in classic hollywood films in particular, women are merely represented to provide visual pleasure to men
  • Her theory of the Male gaze was influenced by the works of Freud
  • the audience is constructed in a manner where they are all expected to be men
  • This male gaze is both voyeuristic and fetishish
  • Her concept of "to-be-looked-at-ness" exemplifies that women were merely shown on screen in classic hollywood in order to provide men with visual pleasure and have erotic impact
  • Mulvey argued that the typical key protagonist within a classic hollywood film was male and the audience members where similarly typically expected to be men
  • the typical male audience are alligned by the film's protagonist by identifcation, admiration and aspiration
  • In a lot of Hollywood movies in which the target audience is male, events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a male's reaction to the events and she also believes that female viewer's must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification of a male.


A film that somewhat challenges the male gaze theory is 'Top Gun'. There is a scene in this film in which several male characters are seen playing volleyball on the beach. This scene does not serve any purpose in progressing the narrative further or provide anything useful for the audience. It is there simply for voyeuristic reasons to appeal to a female audience. In particular the camera shots have intentionally focused on the character's body's.


A film that represents Mulvey's theory is 'Fast and Furious' as the main aim of the women featuring in the movie is too simply look good and attract the male audience. The camerawork has intentionally allowed a firm focus on the women, which is an example of objectification. The film clearly has been constructed to be visually interesting for a male audience and the women are there to merely look attractive to the men.