Our First Attempt at Music Video

Today, June 23rd 2015 my class mingled with another in a block day a day where we spent all morning in the media studios recording our set groups singing 'shake it off' by Taylor Swift. We then hopped on to the editing suit and edited all the clips by syncing each cut to the beat.



We had 3 different stations to record various takes of the music video. One o f which consisted of a plain green screen, one consisted of an artificial rocky background and one consisting of a sofa and a white background.

What I've learned today?


I have learned a few tricks in Premier Pro, such as pressing the key "C" that shortcuts to cut or pressing the "V" key to switch from the cut tool to the traditional pointer tool. I've also learned that if you select many different video clips and set the timeline pointer to somewhere on top of all of them and press "Command K" you cut all those clips at that specific point. That was very helpful because it sped up the process of cutting all clips and dragging them out of the main clip's way.

Andrew Goodwin, Narrative and Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin argues that narratives in music videos and in novels/films is different. He has various reasons to support his theory. If we think about the narrative of a story, it usually starts off with the equilibrium (the world is balanced), then going into the disruptions (something happens to that world), Afterwards, there is the disequilibrium (meaning the world is in chaos, it is not established any more), then there is the force (where a force overcomes another one) and lastly there is the new equilibrium (the wold is balanced again after everything was solved).

Goodwin's theory goes states that music video narratives go against this traditional story telling structure. He has three main reasons to support his theory. He says pop videos are different because they are built around a song, and a song very often repeats (i.e. it might repeat the chorus). He also states that pop videos usually use the singer as both the narrator and a character in the story. Lastly, he says that the singer looks straight at the camera, addressing the audience, breaking that "reality" ideology. This is an example of a repeated chorus...

Muse Starlight Chorus 1

Muse Stalight Chorus 2

Goodwin states that the relationship between lyrics and video is divided in 3 aspects:

1: Illustration- When the lyrics say exactly what is seen on screen such when we see Madonna sings "cas I have always been your little girl" in her music video for "Papa don't preach", we see a clip of what probably was her at a young age running to her dad and hugging him.

2: amplification- when there is a relationship between the lyrics and the video, however not in a literal way. Instead, in a very exaggerated way. We can see an example of this in the song "Where's your head at" by Basement Jaxx. The song follows an insanity, paranoia, trapped theme. We can link these themes with this specific bit of the video where the monkeys being experimented with go insane and attack the character.

3: Disjuncture- This is when there is very little connection between what is sung and the music video. We can find disjuncture in "Superstylin" by "Groove Armada".  The video is about alien life that came to planet earth and are discovering the human race. However, the song is all about how to make music and how to mic up singers and how to get all the connections and signal routing correct for a show.  In this but, the

Negus - Organic and Synthetic Acts in the Music Industry

Negus has a theory that, in relation to the music industry, states that all artists are constructed by the media, some more than others. He says that artists can either be synthetic or organic. Synthetic being that they are all constructed by the labels in order to make a huge income in a short period of time and organic being that the artists are less constructed and more talented. An example of an organic act is 'Ed Sheran' and an example of an synthetic act is 'Les Ketchup'. A synthetic act is constructed by a record company in order to reach a very wide audience, which is the reason why they profit so much in a short period time. An organic act consists of people who compose music that they love, and not to attract a wide audience. Therefore, the artists being less controlled by the record labels are more likely not to make a song that will be targeted widely. In conclusion, a synthetic act provides a big short term burst of profit for the record company and an organic act provides less money per song but keeps profiting in the long term.

This is an example we did in class of an organic artist and what makes her organic by looking at the album cover.


This is an example of a synthetic artist and what makes her synthetic.

Constructing My First Webpage Using Wordpress

I have constructed a website about myself, using my artistic name, Tavo. I got influence by looking at websites of famous artists within the same genre of music as me (House Music). This link will take you to the website : http://gustavodornellesdemello97.wordpress.com

Firstly I picked a theme that would use a simplistic font for the title "Tavo" . The colour of Tavo was white therefore I decided to create a contrasting background by using black. I did this by going to the customise section for the website and changing the "active theme" as well as the "colours & backgrounds". I also created a logo saying "Gu" short for my name Gustavo with a strong emphasis of the colour red. This is to add some bright colours as opposed to the two contrasting ones, black and white. 

I made four pages in my website which are led from the tabs that appear in the home page. The four tabs include Home, Gigs, Music and Tavo. I have done this by going to the main editing page for the website and adding pages. I added a colourful image to the pages in order to portray the neon lights effect that attracts the audience by making them relate the website to clubs and parties.

Conventions of a Website in the House Genre

Conventions of a house music website include pictures of a massive crowd all with their hands raised to the DJ performing.

 

Another convention is the fact that very contrasting colors with their title name is shown. Usually black and white. In addition the font used for the title.

 Furthermore, most of these artists use similar tabs that lead to similar kinds of pages such as the store page and the music or releases page.

In conclusion, as it can be seen the most typical features of web pages for house music artists consist of contrasting colors such as black and white. And simplistic fonts that stand out and are easy to read. Usually the font and the background are the two contrasting colors. Also, it is not rare to see that some artists include vivid neon colours with the black and white to create a vibe that the page visitor is at a party or a club where the neon lights would be flashing. Usually, this genre of music will be targeted to the younger generation. The younger generation usually likes to party and club, therefore, the vivid colors and the two contrasting colors attract this audience.  As it can be seen in all the artists' sites (Hardwell, Avcii, Calvin Harris, and Dzeko & Torres)  there are pictures of them playing and enjoying themselves in front of a huge crowd. 

What Do Audiences 'Get' Out Of Watching Music Videos

Blumler, Lazarfeld and Katz have a theory called 'uses and gratifications' which states that, unlike the 50's where audiences used to be passive, audiences are now active. Meaning that in the 50's it was used to be believed that media could harm audiences, and that they would just let it happen to them. Whereas nowadays, their theory is that audiences evolved into becoming active, that they now consume media texts for positive effects, audiences actively select texts and use it for something they want to do. Blumler, Lazarfeld and Katz also believe in 'diversion' and 'personal relationships'.

Diversion means escapism from a mundane, boring reality. When in a music video for instance, a more dangerous, exciting world is shown. (depends on the genre) 

Personal relationships mean that audiences start feeling friendship connections with characters within the media texts. 

In this post I will be exploring 3 of the top 10 music videos of 2014 ranked by the 'Rolling Stones' magazine and applying the theory of 'uses and gratifications'.


OG Maco - U Guessed It

Diversion = 'OG Maco - U Guessed It' is shown throughout the video because it shows them not playing by the rules. Showing them, for example, shirtless in a fancy hotel as if they were in control of everything and also being extremely noisy and not carrying whether they were being disrespectful due to the noise they were making. Basically showing that they don't have to play by the rules. We also see that the security guards were ok with all the mess, emphasizing the fact that the artist has more authority.

Personal relations = created in the video by the use of the shaking hand held camera, making the audience think they are together with the artist in that mess. It is also possible to relate to the audience through the use of direct address when the artist sings while looking to the camera, making it seem as if he was singing to the audience viewing the video. 

Disclosure - Grab Her

Diversion = This video escapes from the reality of a typical boring office by the use of some comedy. The boss is shown as a prankster who just wants to fit in and be cool around his co-workers. However he is disliked my most of them due to this 'power' he  has to change gravitational polarity with his touch. This strange, creative video basically takes the mick of the seriousness of the corporate world therefore, being a song heard by teenagers and having a music video set in an office the music video can be targeted to an audience with a wider range group, perhaps ranging from 16 to between the 30's. 

Personal Relations = They are shown in the video through the use of comedy in the music video. The comedy portrayed sets a more relaxed and welcoming mood to the audience, as if the viewer was being welcomed and presented to the funny office life. Another way in which the audience is able to relate to the video is due to the fact that the co-workers share what they feel about their boss. We can see that they dislike him, but still pretend to laugh at his jokes and be friendly with him. Therefore, it makes the audience realize they know something that an actor in the music video doesn't.

 

DJ Snake, Lil John - Turn Down for What

Diversion= There is a huge escape from the mundane reality shown in this music video. Again, in an extremely comedic way. The video basically starts with a man in the roof of a residential building and every time the beat drops the people 'affected' by the music fall into the floor below by breaking the ground. The world of the music video is shown to be a very sexual and comedic world, simply by turning sexual concepts into comedy. The escapism in the video goes against the boring life that the majority of the people have, showing families united at night time suddenly going crazy when the beat drops. 

Personal Relations= The video establishes personal relations by showing that the characters enjoy the music specifically when the beat drops. Emphasising the fact that they enjoy the music at the same time that we, the audience, do. The music genre is trap and it is often very dirty music played in clubs, therefore the video helps to set the hardcore, sexual mood to the audience. Another way in which they establish relations with the audience is by the use of a hand held shaking camera with a slow motion effect when the beat drops for the last time. All of those combined makes the audience feel as if they were in the moment with the characters. 

Madonna, Like a Prayer Controversy Evaluation

The music video of Madonna's song, "Like a Prayer" is debated to be one of the most controversial music videos of all time in the industry. This music video is believed to be very controversial for various different reasons. most of which are related to religion (Christianity) and ethnicity towards the black community. These will be the two areas I will be covering in this essay.

As soon as the video starts at around 0:10 we see burning crosses. It still hasn't been portrayed to the listener what the context of the music video is going to be. But initially, with the appearance of the burning crosses we feel a bad vibe for the video.  We also get a shot of a black individual getting arrested at about 0:30, enforcing the stereotype against black people and the context about police brutality.

Throughout most of the video we get controversy because Madonna is shown dancing in church with a lot of cleavage being exposed, this brings controversy between religion and sexuality. We are also shown that Madonna brings a crying black saint to life by doing a prayer and kissing him on the foot, this transmits the message which dictates that there is still a sense of racism in the world through showing that the black community is sad due to inequality between their race and the white race. But then again, we see Madonna dancing is front of burning crosses which emphasises the video's controversy because we see her feeling sorry for the black community and then we see her dancing in front of the burning crosses. The symbolism related to the burning crosses has a historical background including the KKK. Basically, every time a member of the clan would capture and kill a black person they would burn a cross to show what they've done.

What also makes this music video very powerful is the fact that some white people assaulted Madonna in the streets and as soon as a black person steps in to save her the police man arrest the black person because they assume he's guilty due to his ethnicity. Therefore, apart from only creating conflicts with ethnicity and religion, the music video also cerated tension with police brutality.

In the video we are also shown Madonna and the saint she brought to life kissing and eventually having sex in the church. This is extremely controversial against religion because Christianity dictates that there should be no sex until marriage, yet the two still do it in church. Something else which is debated to be sinful is the fact that Madonna represents herself as being Jesus since the grabs the knife and accidentally cuts both her palms symbolising Jesus' palms when he was crucified.

Music Genres With Similar Conventions

conventions: colorful environments, wide target audience, very happy music in general

conventions: dancing, parties, rave, alcohol, teenage music, usually simple, not very musically complex, played in clubs









conventions: cowboys, southern north america, Texas, deserted areas










                                                                                             

Conventions= old, very musical, for older age group, violins, orchestral instruments.
Conventions= laid back, drugs, relaxing, yellow, red, green, Jamaica

conventions= drugs, alcohol, sex,