Previous Student Music Video

Review On Previous Student Music Video

The editing in this video is well done from the beginning and goes with the beat smoothly. However they could've started off with slower editing and increased the speed as the song carried on to create and nicer visual effect and tension. This video shows disjuncture and illustration as it does have some performance but also has other scenes in the video. They could've used more locations to make the video visually look better this would've made a big difference as location is a key aspect of a music video. Also the ending could've been done a bit better, like fading out the palm of his hand or something, not just looking at the floor.

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze

'Visual pleasure and narrative cinema'

This video shows what Laura Mulvey means by her male gaze theory, loads of the shots in this video are related to the male gaze. They also have loads of under dressed women shot from real low angles or high angles, making them look either sexy or vulnerable  Also many shots are not of their faces but alot of body shots also relating to the male gaze. This portrays the females in this video more as objects that men watch rather than normal women.

(DO SOME SCREEN GRABS OF 'MALE GAZE' SHOTS DOESN'T WORK ON MY LAPTOP AT HOME)

Vernali's Theory

Carole Vernalis observed that edits in music vids are more frequent than those we see in films. These edits stand out as disjuncture and the edits that accompany them have an occurring rhythmic basis connected to the song.

Her theory at a glance:

* The regular 'continuity' editing found in classic broadcast fiction is broken so our attention is focused to what is performed on screen
* These edits are obviously seen for example wipes & special effects
* Jump cuts are usually always used
* A base track is normally used to give the video a smooth structure (e.g you'll be able to identify with the chorus a lot more when it visually goes to a specific spot)
* The camera may move in synch to the musics rhythm

RESEARCH: Andrew Godwin

The Structure of Music Video’s, Rethinking Narrative Analysis

Andrew Goodwin does not feel that a traditional narrative analysis applies to pop videos. This is because they have a different approach to the narrative of the story than novels and films. The reasons for this are

- Most films and novels follow the common narrative structure of normality-problem-solution whilst songs do not.

- In pop music videos the singer is often portrayed as the narrator and the character.

-  In pop videos the singer often tries to engage the viewer by staring directly into the camera thus involving the viewer at home with the performance.

Pop videos rely on repetition. They will often re-use the same techniques/images used in other pop videos (intertextuality) so that the user can identify with this genre and knows what to expect. All pop videos must come to an end and to do this they often build up to a climax or to a constant repetition before fading away.

In some pop songs we see the music video go above and beyond the original meaning of the song. If the music video provides some sort of visual pleasure it encourages the viewer to watch it more than once and therefore promotes it.

There are three different types of relations between songs and videos which are

-Illustration: This is where the video tells the story of the lyric “pap don’t preach”(Madonna) for example. Dance is often used to express the feelings/moods in the song.

-Amplification: This is where music videos add extra layers of meaning that do not contradict with the original lyrics.

-Disjuncture: This is where there is little or no connection between the lyrics and the video. For example Michael Jacksons man in the mirror is about self-realisation yet in the music video it shows radical world events.

Another feature in music videos is the way woman are often shown as an object of male desire. The best examples of this are seen in hip-hop and heavy metal music videos. Artists such as Madonna and Beyonce deliberately sell themselves as a male sex symbol. Although in their videos they look directly back at the camera and cease to be submissive.

Another aspect of music videos that we see is the visual of every time an instrument playing we get a visual. For example in Rock the Casbah by The Clash every time the piano plays we get the visual of an armadillo trundling along.

Blogging task on the music industry

Some other points about the recent state of the music industry in 2012

Because technologies are now more developed than every before, there are no many different ways that music reaches its audiences. We now have things such as Streaming, YouTube and YouTube Converter, iTunes and a lot more that gives us more access to music. Some of these ways to access music are in fact illegal and neither the artists nor the labels receive money when these illegal means of downloading are used.

So, if more and more people are using these illegal means of downloading then this means the artists and their  labels are missing out on money therefore they would have to think of other ways to produce money. They do this either through concerts, festival appearances or through the sales of other products such as perfumes, tops, singed posters and whatever else they have to offer.

  Artists could now use new technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to promote themselves and their music. This is an easier, cheaper and more effective way to reach larger audiences. this type of promotion would benefit the artists in independent labels the most as they do not have as much money and those in the main stream labels.

Blogging Task on Student Video’s

First I’m analysing Ryan, Rebecca, Rosetta and Samitz video

I believe their video was done to be disjuncture but it also had a bit of amplification. This is because they were singing a song about heaven and the video showed shots of the angel statues in grave yards. Other than that it didn’t really follow the lyrics very much so therefore its disjuncture.

They did follow Carol Vernallis’ theory too because they made the edits very clear such as jump cuts, slow motions and blurs and they did try to make these cuts in time with the music however at points they were slightly off beat so they could have attempted to match it up further.

It didn’t really follow the theory of the male gaze as given by Laura Mulvey because there were no sexually suggestive camera shots and the female in the video was fully clothed and wasn’t made to look inferior by high camera angles at all in the video so it goes against this theory which is becoming more common in music videos as tine goes by.

The main strengths of the video was that they did find some interesting locations that did comply to the themes of the video. Also the lip syncing was very realistic and the performance was good to.

Some of their weaknesses was that sometimes the lip syncing was out of time and some of the cuts weren’t in time with the beats so they could have matched that up better. Also there weren’t that many locations featured in the video to change things up and keep interest so they could have tried to use a bit more locations.

This next video was untitled...

This video was disjuncture with a bit of amplification as well.  It didn’t follow the lyrics but it tried to add meaning to what was being said in them.

The edits was made very clear as well such as the fades, jump cuts and they were also cutting to the beat as well. Also the artist was looking directly into the camera which is also part of Andrew Godwin’s theory of the artists attempting to engage the audience.

It didn’t comply by the conventions of the male gaze because there was no specific gender being sexualised in this video.

Their strengths were that they were very creative with the location and the edits. Also their cuts were in time with the music and these combined kept me interested.

Their weaknesses were that the camera quality was quite poor in some shots and this could be because the artist was over the camera therefore blocking the light and stunting the quality.

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's main points of music videos:


- A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.- A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.- Genre-related style and iconography present.- Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.- Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.- Intertextual references to other media texts may be present.

Illustration is used in this music video.

Amplification is used in this music video.

Disjuncture is used in this video.

Blogging task on Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey is a gender representation analyst and she realises that media constructs certain stereotypical representations on the two gender groups and these representations are portrayed in media products such as music videos.  She describes what she calls ‘The Male Gaze’ when discussing representations of women in the media. She realises that representations are simply the points of views of the people representing something, and in the example of the music industry, these would be the point of views of the producers/writers/camera men which are mostly male dominated roles. So we as consumers are shown males point of view of women and what they think a woman should look/be/act like thus being the male gaze. In music videos, the micro features help create these representations. Certain camera angles/shots are more commonly used when shooting to show them as either inferior to the males in the video (achieved through high angle camera shots) or very sexualised (achieved through close up body shots or tilts coming up from the female body). Also woman are mainly seen in these videos in very little clothing whereas most of the time the men are fully dressed.

An example of the male gaze is shown greatly in a lot of music videos. One example is Rihanna- you da one

This is a prime example of the male gaze in action. There are many long shots showing the artist Rihanna in very few clothes. There were also many close ups of her body and many tilts as well.

However times are changing now and woman are starting to reject the representations given to them and are now starting to become more equal to men. There are now more and more videos coming about where the gaze is rather neutral and no one is seen as sexual objects. An example of this would be Azealia Banks- 212

There are man close ups that don’t go any lower than the shoulders. There are also many extreme close ups of her lips and she recites her lyrics, this would normally be ignored with the male gaze unless the lips are covered in lipstick which doesn’t happen in this video. We see the artist is wearing shorts however the shorts do not show her legs and never go any further than the knees.

There are now even some videos that have what is known as ‘The Female Gaze’ where men are seen as the sexualised objects in the videos  however these are not as common and are harder to find. 

Blogging task on Carol Vernallis

Carol Vernallis studies the editing and camera work in music videos as apposed to that used in classic broadcast fiction. She realises that the usual rules of continuity editing usually found in classic broadcast fiction are broken in order to draw attention to whats on screen. Also edits may be obvious to draw attention to themselves such as wipes and special effects added. Another of her observations would be that base tracks are frequently used to give the video structure, also jump cuts are usually used to jump from one base track to another and the cuts usually has a rhythmic basis closely connected to the song.

Nicki Minaj - Starships

·      Obvious edits such as a four way split screen, negative colouring effects, smudges and dual screen shots.

·      Numerous amounts of base tracks also. Helps when editing, makes the jump cuts more interesting

      Kanye West – Good Life

·      The visual effects move along in time with the lyrics

·      They also are made obvious to draw attention to what’s on screen and what’s being said

Frank ocean - novacane

• The video has numerous obvious edits to add to the interest in the video. some of these edits are the effect of creating the shots of the women through the smoke, adding a polar bear face over the artist and the picture deformity when the artist is rubbing his face and it stays in that position.