Research

Music video theory:

Evidence of your understanding of music video theory that we have learned, writing full sentences: 

The main purpose of a music video is to promote the music as well as to entertain, they tend to consist of promotional clips. 

Before the term "music video" was popularised, the word "Soundies" was used instead around the 1940s. The first television channel to air music videos was MTV (music tv), and the first music video aired on TV was "video killed the radio star". 

Music video genres: pop, indie, rock, alternative, metal, rap, jazz, hip-hop, ballad, techno, boy bands, R 'n' B.

The four key points of Andrew Goodwin's music video theory:

Links between music/visuals.

Genre characteristics.

Intertextual references.

Performance, is the narrative of a concept based on 3 strands.

The 3 types of visual links are outlined in Goodwin's theory:

1. Literal - A literal link between the song and the visuals, on time to the beat of the song.

2. Amplified - Using narrative or the performance to convey themes and meaning to the song

3. Oppositional - Visuals that contrast with the song or lyrics

The genre characteristics for these popular music video genres:

Rap & Hip-Hop - Girls, money, cars, alcohol, jewellery.

Boy Bands - Metrosexual/flamboyant young adult/teen boys, girls screaming or obsessing over them.

Indie Rock - Acoustic guitars/ukuleles, symbolic visuals, dark atmosphere, comedy theme.

R 'n' B - Love interests, glamorised videos, voyeurism, drip/blin, sexual intent.

Heavy Metal - Electric guitars, mosh pits, tattoos, mullets/mohawks, spiked cuffs.

Intertextuality:

What does the term intertextuality mean? 

Intertextuality refers to the references made to other media within the media being viewed.

What does the term Bricolage mean?

A collection of references.

What are the two other types of intertextual references a filmmaker can use?

The two other types of intertextual references a filmmaker can use are parody and pastiche. Parody is often used as a way to joke or make fun of another form of media, whilst pastiche is often used to display respect to another media.

The 3 music video modes, otherwise known as strands:

Performance - Conveys a sense of the in-concert experience. performance-oriented.

Narrative - Narrative-based music videos mostly contain footage that develops one or multiple storylines in parallel to each other.

Conceptual - Based around a single concept or idea, fairly unusual and abstract.

It is better to use multiple strands in a music video so as not to bore the audience and to keep them engaged in the music video.

Lighting setups:

Dramatic indoor - This lighting setup is ideal for creating a dramatic effect, with strong shadows and low-key lighting to highlight the mood. You can use this for indoor shots where you have a wall behind your main subject so the fill light can spill onto it. The fill light is placed up higher so you get a nice spill of the light off the background of the set.

The back-light is placed behind the talent and closer to the background. It will be directed at a slight angle towards the talent. Place a white diffuser in front of it to soften the light.

Finally, the key light should be placed in front of the talent. To soften and warm the light you will want to use a white diffuser. You can layer the diffuser until you get the effect you want.

Top Back-lighting - This setup only uses one light but even with the minimalist approach you will capture amazing results. For this simple set, you will need one main light and a solid background, this should be a lighter colour for the light to bounce off of. 

Mount your light and set it so that it is behind your talent and slightly angled towards your background. This will create a perfect silhouette of your talent; it creates a nice mood for choreography shots or for shots of performance.

Two-point lighting - If you are shooting against a backdrop that you don’t want to highlight, then this is the setup to use. You simply set your key light in front of your talent as you would for a typical three-point set up. Diffusers are necessary to soften the light and don’t forget to experiment with different coloured gels. Your fill light you want to place more to the side of your talent, still opposite of your key light, but slightly behind them. 

Natural lighting - When shooting in natural light the best time to do so is during the golden hour. This is the time of day just after sunrise. The light from the sun is less harsh and you get about an hour of perfect lighting to work with. 

The blue hour is another favoured time to shoot videos. It is the time just before the sun sunrise or just after it has set. This is when there is a blue hue to the outdoors and occurs just before or just after the golden hour. Keep in mind you may only get about 20 minutes of shooting time during the blue hour. 

Remember that shooting during these hours requires careful attention to light changes. Since your lighting will be changing rapidly it is important to be aware of your white balance and temperature. If you begin shooting during the blue hour and transition to the golden hour the lighting will change drastically.

 Soundscape and soundtracks:

Parallel - Sound that matches the mood and tone of the visuals.
Diegetic - Sound that exists within the world of the film that can be heard by the characters.
Non-diegetic - Sound that is edited in and only heard by the audience, not heard by the characters within the film.
Contrapuntal - Audio doesn't match the tone of what is being displayed.


Three types of audio:
Foley - Sound effects that are created or sourced originally.
Music - Used to set a mood and establish a theme.
ADR - Dialogue recorded in post-production.

Photo documentary:

Documentary photography is a form of photography that captures the current state of something like a building or specific area as a way of documenting how it looked during that time as it will soon become history.

Documentary photography is important to society as it is a way in which we can all view the past, whether we are viewing people's interactions or an older piece of architecture, it is import to us as people to be able to view human history and historical changes and events (e.g war photography)

One form of photography that may not be considered documentary photography may be abstract photography which mainly relies on shapes and colours rather than a specific subject. usually, you can have multiple things going on in abstract photography and you can choose to blend them together to create something new, or you could be photographing something more specific to focus on its shape or colour.

Secondary research:

According to the source (mayo clinic), social media can negatively impact teenagers as it can disrupt their sleep patterns and can expose them to cyberbullying, peer pressure and the spreading of rumours. In addition to these, they can also expose younger people to unrealistic expectations and world views which they may start to pick up on and be influenced by as their brains are still developing at their age. Despite the negative influences stated, the source also states some positives, such as how it "allows teens to create online identities, communicate with others and build social networks". Social media can provide an escape to those who have been excluded by society in real life as they can meet online friends who have similar interests as them.

According to Helpguide.org, social media can also cause teenagers and adolescents to develop depression and anxiety as well as causing them to isolate themselves, whether that is a result of the developed mental health issues or not. social media could also result in a "fear of missing out" otherwise known as FOMO, this means that due to FOMO, even if you distance yourself from social media you may keep coming back as you don't want to miss out on things that your friend or peers may be talking about.

According to webtrainings.in, social media can spread "fake news" to younger minds which can cause them to believe false information as well as making it harder to know when something told to them is true or false.

Primary research (survey):

My survey found that the majority of people believe that social media has a more negative influence on teenagers.

One of the main answers (patterns) for question 7 tended to contain something along the lines of how "social media can influence teenagers into doing certain things and thinking a certain way, about theirselves and/or other people"

The answers from question 6 also shared a pattern, one answer received stated that social media is a "good way to connect and share things", and another stated that "people can share things they like online".

I feel it is also important to regard the fact that the vast majority of people who filled out my survey fall into the "13-18" age range.

More than half of the people who answered my survey believed that 13 is not an appropriate age to have social media.

Music video analysis:

Music video I have chosen to analyse: 1994 by Cavetown

The reason i have chosen to analyse this music video is so i can learn more about the song artists style and how i can try to imitate it in my music video.

Cavetown's music video "1994" contains both narrative and performance strands throughout the video, the main narrative strand consists of a simple storyline where a man is flying on a meteor in space and he jumps down to earth and starts singing with some other people. The narrative strand blends into the performance strand. there's not actually a lot going on in the music video, but there is a lot of meaning in the lyrics, as the main meaning of the song is about making peace with your younger self, despite everything you went through at that age.

The music video contains a range of wide shots as well as some mid-shots and close shots. The editing of clips in the video is much faster when the song is faster and they are slower when the song is slower, this is done to match the song's pacing.

Music video I have chosen to analyse: Take on me - a-ha

In the music video for "Take on me" by A-ha, the video links back to Goodwin's music video theory as it follows both a narrative and conceptual strand, the visuals manage to link up well with the music, with slight transition clips linking to specific aspects of the audio (sound effects). The music video contains amplified visual links as the director chose not to be literal with the visuals and decided to display a linear storyline narrative instead. The music video contains references to a popular form of media known as 'comic books' as the main narrative strand revolves around a woman who has been pulled inside a comic book by the guy inside the comic and runs off with that same guy. 

In the music video there are two shots that clearly present how there is a divide between fiction and reality, as from one perspective we see that the woman is real whilst the man is fictional, and from another perspective we can see that it is the opposite and the man is real whilst the woman is fictional. Throughout the music video there are mainly uses of mid shots and close-up shots, displaying clearly what the director wants us to focus on. The animated segments of the music video were made using 'rotoscoping' which allows the animation to be smooth when it comes to motion.