Finished Music Video

Here is the completed music video that we have made with the genre being pop music,with our sub genre being pop-punk.

Sexism in pop music video

The idea of sexism within pop music comes primarily within the idea of objectification, in which can be primarily be criticised because of the way how the way music videos are often recorded and made, in which is to show women in a more sexual way, provocative and may raise a set of questions in which would make the audience wonder if it is allowing women to be free or is it exploiting their bodies to attract their audience.

Male Gaze: Laura Mulvey is a feminist critic who has introduced the theory of the Male Gaze, in is the way in which a women is portrayed in a masculine perspective and that the women are passive to the active gaze and that Laura has also coined up the term scopophilia, the pleasure derived from people looking at the individual.

The song in which has garnered a lot of controversy was with the song Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke, where the song's lyrics has suggested the idea of rape, that even though the woman may say no, he is saying that they are saying yes, they are accepting it, even though it is clear that they are rejecting it.




Moreover, the other music video in which was created by Miley Cyrus, "Wrecking Ball". It showed Miley in as much perspective as possible. From licking a sledgehammer(Why?), to riding a wrecking ball while it is swinging, the video is to show her more risque side to her, changing her image entirely from her childhood style being Hannah Montana, someone who was looked up to.

Katy Perry - how her pop videos appeal to her target audience

Katy Perry is a pop artist who her target audience is mostly young girls, primarily between the ages of 14-17. In order for her to appeal to that demographic, she has to be seen as someone who can be described as an older friend or sister, to be able to reflect on some of the anxieties that young girls have and to also be someone that young girls can admire and want to be.

Each of her songs represent some aspects in which would represents and support those ideas in which she would be able to appeal to a mass demographic that she is targeting. However, later on, when she had married Russell Brand, she had strayed far from her target audience, and had tried to create a different image, something a bit more sexualised.

The first song in which was well known about her was with Hot and Cold in 2008, in which the music and the video itself represents her as the victim, it is slightly comic, as it is not exactly taken very seriously, it may show her laughing at herself, as she is poking fun of herself.

Eventually, a couple of years later, she has created another song, in which had a message within the music video and lyrics of the song. Last Friday Night was a song, in which had given a message that you can still be yourself, that you should not be afraid of your imperfections, such as her braces in the video and that you can still be beautiful no matter what.

Eventually, she followed onto that with Fireworks, in which had also had a powerful message within the video itself. It celebrates difference, that everyone is different and that it is perfectly acceptable, it is a positive image placed upon the people who are watching this and listening to this, the special effects in which are used are mainly for the fireworks, to show the spark that everyone has.

Once she had married Russell Brand, she has created the song California Girls, it is a new image, a more sexy image of her, this was while she was dating him, this music video came into question as what some people may have seen is that she has alienated her younger audience, and have instead targeted a more older audience.

Once she has split with Russell Brand, she has instead made a music video as a form of an apology, by the name of Wide Awake. This music video was a form of an apology, she wanted to reconnect with her audience, in which are teenage girls, it shows her empowerment and how the prince charming figure, is not all that it seems to be.

Treatment

Treatment

Group Roles Cinematography: Carly and Joshua Mise-en-scene: Carly and Michal Editing: Joshua

Title: A Song About a Girl

Synopsis: It is about a guy who decided to fall in love with a girl, but he does not realise that he is a man in disguise, even all of his friends are shocked with the decision that he has made, maybe a hint of jealousy from some of the girls in the group.

Key Genre Conventions: Pop punk

History of Music Videos

Pop Videos have been made since 1929. One notable example was of Bessie Smith, a very popular artist known for her Blues work during the time of 1920s-1930s. One of the first songs in which was made as a music video was of  St Louise Blue's.
This has included one of her own songs were involved, and was showcased for 4 years.
Fast forward to the 1980s, where MTV was launched in 1981, this was a contributor for changing the music genre, and has also allowed it to usher the golden age of music, more specifically, within music videos. The Buggles have released their music video for Video Killed the Radio Star, over time, they shifted a bit, instead of just focusing themselves to be music based, they eventually placed themselves to be within the entertainment genre. So in order to make themselves recognised as a entertainment company, they placed all their music and music videos to be within MTV Music, and they also have a lot of other channels that they have released over the course of time.


Now within this period of time, music videos have changed, different types of videos have been experimented with, and this allowed videos to advance, influencing different artists to be able to use some of the different genres and types of videos to be influenced with what they have eventually made.

Star Theory

Richard Dyer had created a theory known as the Star Theory, in which there are three ways in which the music videos are promoted:
1. Illustrate - It uses a set images to illustrate the meaning  of the lyrics and genre - Example of a music video in which represents illustration is of Bronski Beat- Smalltown Boy, as it is a narrative based.
2. Amplify - There is no clear distinction between the video and the lyrics. The example of an amplify music video is of Sia- Electric Heart. The cage has a meaning, in which relates to her life.
3. Disjunctive - The meaning of the song is completely ignored, in which the music video does not exactly or fully relate to the lyrics in which are being sung by the artist(s).

Richard Dyer believes that artists are constructed through artificial imagery, such as the use of advertisements. It is to try to represent a real person, while they also market different people within different audiences.

Eventually, some fans may want to replicate the stars, as they may have a feature in which they may admire or even share, this is an example with The Beatles during the time.

One specific star in which has received some awareness and had also raised some issues in regards to female identity, and that star was Britney Spears. She started out innocently enough with the music video Hit Me Baby One More Time, the way how she had appeared was with pigtails, she had also wore pink to make herself look a bit girly. Her choreographed dancing made her seem desirable to girl and would want to join her group.


Eventually, her image changed, so that the companies can be able to profit off of her appearance, so instead of her being linked to little girls(her original demographic). Eventually, her appearance has been created to appeal to the male audience, such as the fact that she is wearing a full latex suit, to appeal to men, the music itself is disjunctive, it does not link to the lyrics itself.

Michael Jackson

Known as the 'King of Pop', he has made a lot of music videos in which have shown who he is and how he is.

The early music video is mainly from Jackson 5, known as 'Rockin Robin', it was a basic music video, so that they could be able to promote themselves, the sophistication was limited, and it was lip synched. The costumes in which they have worn, matches the time period in which they were in, referring to Goodwin's idea, the video represents characteristics, there are small dance routines to represent them being in a group.

Following the success of the that song, he has made a solo song by the name of Rock With You, this in turn, contrasts with his style incorporated within, as it is now all about him. The outfit in which he has worn has a ridiculous style, his outfit shined with the lights, to give it a sense of disco involved.

Few years after that, he has made a song by the name of 'Billie Jean', he is not promoting the song, this is the first song in which he has made story based, it is narrative based, along with performance based. The introduction to all of this is black and white, eventually, there is some form of light involved, within the time that he starts walking, it shows that he is bringing light onto the world.

Eventually he showed later music such as 'Beat It', which introduced his signature jacket, where there is a lot of improvisation involved and his successful song, Thriller, which had a 14 minute music video and has eventually sold 9 million units of his music on VHS.

THe reason why with digital technology he has advanced, as the music videos became higher budget and allowed him to create various effects in which allows him to be able to create styles in which allow it to develop. His videos became more longer and complex, the video was just as important as the song. He used his pop videos to reinvent his image, to tell stories and to address serious images.

Case Study 2

Emil Nava - He dropped out of school at the age of 16, had trained as a chef. The way how he had entered, was via being a runner within film production companies, this has then followed by him working for Blink Productions and had eventually worked as a freelance within OB Management.

He had eventually graduated to being a Assistant Director, in which he manages the video shoots, over time, he had then decided to join Academy, in which is the biggest music video production company, he has worked for Between the Eyes and now mainly works for Pulse.

Apart from making music videos, he has also made advertisements, primarily for L'Oreal,  one of the advantages for him is that they can be able to have a higher budget, therefore getting paid more, on the other hand, it restricts the director as it gives them less creative freedom.

At his busiest, he has made 24 videos in a year, more or less a video every 2 weeks,  he had first began within independent labels, the budget was as low as £5k and £10k, his most expensive video was for Jessie J, in which the budget was £160k.

His first music video was for Kid British, with the song being Our House, in which the budget for that was £20k, it was filmed in Manchester, it included local people, it took him a single day to film, 2-3 days to edit the music video, and his pre-production took him 10 days.

OB Management are a agent for music video directors, essentially, they are a middle man. Their aim is to find natural talent, they work with production companies and record labels. They would want to match the right director with the right artists, as if they do not give it to the right artists, then there would be issues involved.

His advise for many people is to use extreme close up on faces wherever possible, and to not shoot the whole video within medium or long shot.

Following that, he has also created music for Ed Sheeran, music like Lego House and Bloodstream, as he was his main director for his music, at first within his first music video, he did not add Ed into the video as he did not deem him to appeal to the audience.

Case Study 3 - Alex Southam

Alex Southam is a freelancer for OB Management (similar to Emil Nava), he at one point was training to be a lawyer, but he instead wanted to go in a new direction because of the fact that it was boring and stressful for him to be within a job, but instead would want to work within filming. The first thing that he has decided to do is to start making music videos so that he can be able to "learn the trade", he has started to work within Agile Films within August 2012.

What he has done is that he has undertaken every single task, from filming, editing and camera work, however, once the budgets have increased, he decided to direct instead, as he needed more people to work on the videos. The reason as to why he prefers the music video format is that 'you can try new techniques and can have real artistic freedom'. On the other hand, similar to Emil Nava, he does not like commercials is because they give you 'much less freedom'. He has/still uses Vimeo to showcase his videos, it has 'higher status' than YouTube.

One of his first songs that he has created is for Alt+J, Tesselate. He has had for this music video a £10,000 budget and took him a day to film, there was a large cast involved and has also used Adobe AfterEffects to be able to use it for special effects.

Furthermore, he has also made a music video for Chase and Status, Lost and Not Found. This time the budget has increase to be £50,000. He has this time filmed it within LA, and has also recorded it within Steadicam, and was done within 3 shots, with barely any edits involved, and has also created a sense of an Early 90s VHS look and has recorded it at 36 FPS and eventually slowed it down, to give it a disorientated feel to it.

The last song that he has created was with Mumford and Sons - Ditmas, in which has some form of narrative involved, showing that his quality has improved from his first and second film that he has created.