Martina McBride - Concrete Angle
I like the theme this music video raises and the way the lyrics and narrative connects. The young girl is a victim of child abuse who finds a friend , who we are lead to be a angel. The young girl is beaten to death and at the end of her funeral we see all the children who are victims of child abuse turned into angels. The angels are all happy and walk away together as their pain and suffering have now gone.
The structure of the music video is simple to follow and changes from the artist singing to the narrative.
Justin Bieber - Love Yourself
Jess Glynne - Take Me Home
Bars and Melody - Hopeful
Sia - Big Girls Cry Katherine Jenkins - Angel Jessie J - Who's Laughing Now
Jessie J - Who You Are
Alan Walker - Faded
The message of this video is very important in the similar message which I am trying to show.
I have interpreted this video to mean that the young needs to face himself by going back to his birth place. The video has a clear narrative.
Conventions
Take place within a school
Uniform
Lack of teachers
More than one person doing the bullying
About the individual being different
Cyber Bullying
Physical Bullying
Verbal Bullying
About reaching a limit of tolerance to being bullied
The bully doesn't show sadness
Although this music video has been made by a student there are conventions which seem to apply to this video. From watching this video it has allowed me to collect some ideas of what I may use in my music video such as elements from within the mise-en-scene.
Ideas For My Music Video
-Change of make up
-Changes in costumes
-Being messed about
-No fitting in
-School uniform ... to passing uni
-Different look ever time she appears
-No friends
-People avoid her
-Bullying Theme
-Flash cards expressing hurt/pain
-Self inflictive harm
There is a clear difference in the conventions of form (the music video) and conventions of genre (e.g. Rap, POP).
Conventions of Form (Music Videos)
-Narrative
-Performance -Lip-syncing
-Dancing -Change of costumes -Change in Make-Up -Change in locations -Change in lighting
-Range of Cinematography (Movements and Angles)
-Characters (Other People and/or The Artist) -Meaning of Lyrics -Editing Types (Fast, Slow , On The Beats) Conventions of Genre (Rap) -Commonly black people -Tilts up and down characters -Quick edits -Performance -Dancing -Change in location e.g. Streets
Conventions of Genre (POP)
-White people
-Bright Clothing
-Slow edits
-Performance
-Typical themes e.g. Love
-Changes in location
1 Textual Analyses Essay
For this essay I have watched two music videos in the following order:
1. Made no notes
2. Made notes
3. Made notes
4. Made notes
5. Write Essay
I have spent about a minimum of 3 hours making notes and writing this essay with a minimum word count of 1500 words. This essay includes a comparative relation between conventions of form and conventions of genre in relation to two music videos. I have made notes on Cinematography, Editing, Sound and Mise-En-Scene for each of the videos.
Both music videos are from the genre of POP and both hold elements of the conventions of their form (a music video).
Video 1 = Jessie J - Nobody's Perfect
Notes:
Video 2 = P!nk - Perfect
Notes:
My Essay:
In this essay I will be exploring the comparative relation between conventions of form and conventions of genre in relation to Pink's - Perfect and Jessie J's - Nobody's Perfect. Both music videos are from the genre of POP and both hold elements of the conventions of their form (a music video). I will analyse/compare the differences and similarities within the following : Cinematography, Editing, Sound and Mise-En-Scene.
Jessie J
Editing
Throughout this music video there are many cuts as the narrative changes direction and enters each room. Within the first room of this music video there are many jump cuts to each individual faces. This is to be symbolic of Alice In Wonderlands , Mad Hater's Tea Room. The use of many quick jump cuts is to emphasize the chaos which is unfolding within the room.
Within the clock room the room spins around. This has been added in during editing to show Jessie J trapped in time. The hands of the clock also speed up and slow down, to shows being stuck in time. This is a key part to the narrative as it shows Jessie J following conventions of an upbeat POP song.
Mise-en-scene
There are many conventions of form , such as the change of costumes. In each room Jessie J appears, she is wearing bright clothing and changes her appearance. Although when singing in the corridor she is wearing a black top and neutral top. This is an important part to the narrative as it symbolizes Jessie J changing character when she goes into different rooms. For example in one room she is tied up to lots of phones which all have lips on them to show people talking (gossiping) about Jessie J. The mise-en-scene helps to show the change from this room to the other rooms and therefore is a key part to explaining the narrative of the music video.
Sound
Non-diegetic sound is used as a young girl becomes the narrator of the music video. The narrators voice then combines with the a muffled sound coming from within each room. The non-diegectic sound then becomes a man who says "look into my eyes". This can suggest that the man is in control of the video. After the narrators have spoken the diegetic sound begins.
Elements of lip syncing have also been used to which is a convention of form.
The lyrics also appear on screen in the form of an onomatopoeia , such as "The words start flowing, aaaaaa.
There is a pause in the music when Jessie J enters the clock room. The sound changes from the song to many clocks ticking and spinning backwards and forwards.
Below shows my Prezi on The History Of Music Videos. I have started in 1920s - Present Day to show how music videos have developed throughout time.
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues 1967
This promotional clip was released in 1967, as part of an opening sequence to Dylan's film about his tour of England in 1965. The video features no fake narratives and characters played themselves. This music video was made as a promotional clip and the featured no elements of advance performance. According to Sven Carslon's theory this promotional clip uses a mixture of abstract and performance elements. The video consist of Dylan holding up cue cards for the audience with selective words chosen from the lyrics. In order to stand out from promotional clips before him, Dylan captivated the audience by placing intentional misspellings and puns throughout the clip. An example of this is, when the song's lyrics say "eleven dollar bills" the poster says "20 dollar bills". This music video uses a still frame shot and was shot in an alley behind the Savoy Hotel in London. Due to the selective location , Dylan made the steps behind him become know as the Savoy Steps. The video was used as the trailer to the film with superimposed text at the end of the clip while Dylan and Ginsberg are exiting the frame: "Surfacing Here Soon | Bob Dylan in | Don't Look Back by D. A. Pennebaker." Introduction of the Teenager The year in which the teenager was introduced is unknown however music videos have shown to influence when children started to explore and find their own identity. This was influenced by the music which children would listen to and watch at the cinema. Therefore films such as; Viva Las Vegas and Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley became very influential in the way children started to fall in love. These films showed how Elvis (who played various characters) would win the love of girls hearts. Boys wanted to spend there pocket money of looking like the artists and girls wanted to consume their products. Also the films meant that a wide range of people could watch them and stay connected with their favourite singers.
Overall music videos have changed significantly throughout time. Music videos are advertisements for the artist. Therefore as artist develop overtime so does the music and music videos they produce.
Firstly I have broken down the timings of the lyrics:
Secondly I have annotated key words within the lyrics:
Themes:
- Changing character
- Loving someone but they don't love you for who you are
- Trying to impress others
- Not being true to yourself
- Hiding your true identity behind a mask
- How death affects the way we grieve
What is Media Language ? Every medium has its own ‘language’ ( or combination of languages). These are used to communicate meaning which the audience and for them to understand them, as they are familiar with the codes and conventions used. Understanding the grammar, syntax and metaphor system of media language increases our appreciation and enjoyment of media experiences as well as helping us to be less susceptible to manipulation.
Media Language can be shown in a variety of ways, for example TV shows elements of verbal, written language, moving images and sound. Language and sound can be used to reach into the emotional core of humans. For Example the John Lewis Christmas Advert 2014 shows this:
Charles Sanders Peirce (1931) - Semiotics
Peirce said we only think only in signs, "Nothing is a sign unless it is interpreted as a sign". These signs take the form of words,
images, sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects, but such things have no
intrinsic meaning. Therefore these signs only become signs when we invert them with meaning. Different cultures and personal experiences determine how we create a meaning for these signs.
Anything can be a sign as long as someone interprets it as 'signifying' something - referring to or standing for something other than itself. We interpret things as signs largely unconsciously by relating them to familiar systems of conventions. It is this meaningful use of signs which is at the heart of the concerns of semiotics.
Peirce 3 Types Of Signs
1. Icon/iconic: A mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. 'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack.
2.Index/indexical: A mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes ) or medical symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate) or measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level) These link symbols to meaning e.g Clock = Time
3.Symbol/symbolic: A mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags.
Roland Barthes (1967) - Semiotics
In semiotics, denotation and connotation are terms describing the relationship between the signifier and its signified, and an analytic distinction is made between two types of signifieds: a denotative signified and a connotative signified. Meaning includes both denotation and connotation.
Barthes argued that in photography a connotation can be (analytically) distinguished from the denotation. What we see and how be interpret something is different.
Saussure's model of the sign focused on denotation at the expense of connotation and it was left to subsequent theorists (notably Barthes himself) to offer an account of this important dimension of meaning .
We all share these ideas f Myths Related to connotation is what refers to as myth. For Barthes myths were the dominant ideologies of our time. Ideology is reflective to beliefs and and ideologies.
Firske and Hartley (1982) - Semiotics and Representation
T The 1st and 2nd orders of signification called denotation and connotation combine to produce ideology - which has been described as a third order of signification.
Paradigms and Syntagms
Roman Jakobson (1956)
Jakobson and later Claude Levi-Strauss, emphasized that meaning arises from the differences between signifiers.
These differences are of two kinds: syntagmatic (concerning positioning, high angle, tilt. The audience becomes positioned in a certain way ) and paradigmatic (concerning substitution, choice such a props, narrative events such as Horror vs Sci-fi).
Genres are paradigms (models) which can have different meaning determined by structure. In film and television, paradigms include ways of changing shot (such as cut, fade, dissolve and wipe). The medium or genre are also paradigms, and particular media texts derive meaning from the ways in which the medium and genre used differs from the alternatives. Such as Alien , which is Horror and Sci-fi ...... .....
This therefore requires us to use semiotic terminology to explain our encoding of elements and codes and conventions within our texts. For example a low angle is used to create a certain meaning , such as showing a dominant character looking down on a weaker character.
Other Language Theorists
Linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1974)
- Working 1910s but work wasn't published until 1974. - Offered a 'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign. - He defined a sign as being composed of two elements:
---The 'signifier’ (Denotation) - the form which the sign takes
---The 'signified’ (Connotation) - the concept it represents
How is media language represented in Sam Smith-Lay Me Down ?
Between 0:00 and 0:25 , the introduction of this music video, there is silence. This has been done to demonstrate the typical start of a funeral. Funerals are places of morning and remembrance for the death of a loved one. As the camera pans around Smith it is evident that he is a time of morning. Through the use of mise-en-scene, the camera pans across burnt out candles which according to Pierce is a sign which can be identified into three types , Icon, Index and Symbol.
Insert candles
Peirce 3 types of signs:
Icon/iconic: A mode in which the signifier is perceived as resembling or imitating the signified (recognizably looking, sounding, feeling, tasting or smelling like it) - being similar in possessing some of its qualities: e.g. 'realistic' sounds in 'programme music', sound effects in radio drama, a dubbed film soundtrack.
Index/indexical: A mode in which the signifier is not arbitrary but is directly connected in some way (physically or causally) to the signified - this link can be observed or inferred: e.g. 'natural signs' (smoke, thunder, footprints, echoes ) or medical symptoms (pain, a rash, pulse-rate) or measuring instruments (weathercock, thermometer, clock, spirit-level) These link symbols to meaning e.g Clock = Time
Symbol/symbolic: A mode in which the signifier does not resemble the signified but which is fundamentally arbitrary or purely conventional - so that the relationship must be learnt: e.g. language in general (plus specific languages, alphabetical letters, punctuation marks, words, phrases and sentences), numbers, morse code, traffic lights, national flags
David Buckingham- Genre as change Barry Keith Grant 1995 Divided up into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them specifying by their familiar and what become recognisable characters Steve Neale 1995 Nosferatu 1922 - Trailer Horror Shadows Dark Lighting Interview with the vampire 1994 Shift in narrative explaining why he is a vampire still got the conventions - fangs, blood sub genre - love All genre have sub genre
