-'talkies' introduced, end of silent film
-radio
-film
-tv
-tv's as a common household item
-internet -wifi, 3g,4g - the effect it has had on music video consumption
Around ten years after these films stopped being produced, the internet was invented, which proved a useful tool in the distribution of music video and the overall consumption of music from more diverse artists. This allowed small time musicians to produce their own videos, increasing their audience therefore consumption of their music.
When TV did start to become common in average family households there where only two channels, both displaying a black and white image. This limited access to visual arts meant that an audience had to go to the cinema in order to see their favorite stars, because the only other way an audience could see them is if they paid for concert tickets and flight tickets to the country that they were performing in, as well as things like accommodation, etc
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Sven Carlsson argues that music videos fall into three rough categories: performance, conceptual, and abstract clips.
Micheal Shore
(1984) He applies some aspect of post modern theory to music videos, thus deducing that music videos are:
Recycled styles.
Surface without substance.
Simulated experience.
Ambivalence.
Information overload.
Decadence.
Immediate gratification.
Anesthetization of violence.
The death of content.
Adolescent male fantasies.
Classical storytelling motif's (- for example circe and faust in Domaille's Narrative theory).
Bordwell, and Thompson
(1997) Based on Russian film theory, two distinctions between story and plot were made. A narrative consists of two elements; story and plot. Within this, there are inferred events, explicitly shown events, and non-diegetic material, such as music, or any on-screen text. The story (or Fabula) is what happens, and the plot (or syuzhet) is what is presented to us as an audience. This means that the plot contains inferred events which we do not visually see, but assume happen in order to support the rest of the plot which increases the verisimilitude of a media text. An example of this is when a character travels to a different location; you may see them leave the house and get into the car (plot), but the next shot might be them walking into a bar. In this situation it is assumed that the character drove all the way there, and probably parked in a nearby car park - this is an inferred event which is part of the story.
Tim O'Sullivan
(1998) States that narratives have a common structure starting with the establishment of a plot or theme.
Pam Cook
(1985) States the standard Hollywood structure should have:
A fictional world that contains verisimilitude
A high degree of narrative closure
Linerary of cause and effect
Andrew Goodwin
(1992) argues that in music video "narrative relations are highly complex" and meaning can be created from the individual audio viewer's personal musical taste to sophisticated intertextuality that uses phenomena of western culture. For example, Iggy Azaleas' music video for the song "black widow. In this video we see the man from Kill Bill, Michael Masden, which is not only an inter-textual reference to the film industry but to elements of western culture. In addition to this, an audience is more likely to consume this product because it contains a familiar face, of whom holds prestige.
This is also an example of cultural capital as it refers to other aspects of society.
Kate Domaille
Kate Damaille stated in 2001 that every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight types of narrative. Each of these 'types' has a source, an original story which has become the basis for all other narratives. The eight categories are as follows: Achilles - A fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless person. An example of from this category is Superman, who's main flaw is his inability to go within ten feet of the radioactive element kryptonite, which eventually leads to his destruction.
Candide - The indomitable hero who cannot be put down. Rocky - for example. Cinderella - When dreams come true, resulting in a happy ending - like in Pretty Woman. Circe - The chase. This refers to good vs evil, or hero vs villain style narratives, for example Alien vs Predator, and the Terminator films. Faust - This refers to 'the selling of one's soul' and being better off at first until it ultimately leads to their downfall. Examples include Bedazzled, and Wall Street. Orpheus - The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away. The narrative either focuses on the tragedy of the loss , or the journey which follows the loss. For example - The Sixth Sense. Romeo and Juliet - The love story containing romance between two characters; Titanic for example. Tristan and Iseut - The love triangle. Often seen in romantic genres, An individual loves another character, but a third party intervenes. An example of this can be seen in the film Casablanca. Tzvetan Todorov
Todrov's narrative theory states that most stories or plot lines follow the same pattern or path, and draws focus on this concept of equilibrium, and disequilibrium. In this path, there are five steps/stages. To the right, I have produced a timeline to show the five stages in order.
1 - A state of equilibrium (Everything is as it should be, in a state of equal balance)
2 - A disruption of that order by an event (disequilibrium)
3 - A recognition of this disruption
4 - An attempt in the restoration of the equilibrium through the repair to the damage caused by the disruption.
5 - (re-equilibrium) The restoration of the equilibrium.
This type of narrative structure is common and therefore can be used with application to a lot of mainstream narratives.
Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience, and cultural practices as well.In short, industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audience knowledge of society, other texts.
Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfill a particular pleasure.
David Buckingham (1993)
David Buckingham (1993) argues that 'genre is not simply "given" by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change’.
He believed that children and young people have identities that don't exist at all and are constantly changing. He looked at their interactions with electronic media and believes that the constant change of media is to do with their constant change in identities. The media shows the bad sides of society and the world and therefore means that parents keep their children hidden from this reality. With children and young people spending a lot of time around the media, they are learning too much about the world and are constantly changing their identities, views and opinions based on what they observe.
Her theory denies women their human identity,and objectifies them, stating that they are simply there to be admired, and add no real element to any narrative in film. Their only importance is to be there for the male viewing pleasure. It is also suggested that women can only watch a film from a secondary perspective, and only view other women from a man's perspective, thus leaving the audience 'masculinised'. The gaze deals with how an audience view the people they are presented with. This is either how men look at women, how women look at other women, and how women look at themselves. It deals with the objectification and sexualisation of women, and the positioning of the audience, reinforcing the idea of patriarchy.
Richard Dyer's 'star' theory.
Richard Dyer's star theory focuses on the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial gain, and are built to target a specific audience, or group of people. There are four key components to the theory which are as follows:
stars and constructs
audience and institutions
ideology and culture
character and components
Tessa Perkin's theory, applied to 'bros' by Wolf Alice.
Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that we can challenge. Perkins identifies 5 assumptions:
Stereotypes are not always negative.
Stereotypes are not always about minority groups or the less powerful.
Tim O'sullivan states that narratives have a common structure starting with the establishment of a plot or theme, which this video does. Throughout the video, there is a general theme of friendship and youth, specifically the innocence of youth. According to Sven Carlson's theory, this is a video which falls into the 'conceptual' category, because it consists of only narrative, and there are no performance elements to the video. The distinction between story and plot was developed by Bordwell and Thompson.This narrative, as with all narratives, consists of two elements; story and plot. This means that there are inferred events, and explicitly shown events. We see the girls in different locations, but we do not see them traveling for location A (the park, for example), to location B (the cafe). The inferred event, in this situation is the travel between location. This is part of the plot, but not part of the story - the story is what we are presented with as an audience. Andrew Goodwin states that meaning can be created through the use of phenomena of western culture. For example, the costume that the girls are wearing reflects a certain lifestyle that we are aware of because we are surrounded by it. Witnessing this in the media reinforces these common ideologies, and can be used in creating stereotypes. The phrase 'tomboy' comes to mind when finding a word to describe the clothes that they are wearing and the activities they are doing. An audience are therefore more likely to consume this product because of the environment that they are in, and because the things that they are doing such as; climbing trees, roaming round the streets, spending sime with friends. these are all relatable aspects of youth that an audience can grasp. Because they have an understanding of what is going on, they are more likely to consume the product. Todrov's narrative theory states that most stories or plot lines follow the same pattern or path, and draws focus on this concept of equilibrium, and disequilibrium.In the video, there is no clear pattern that shows a real plot development, apart from the ending, which shows them at a bus stop, supposedly going home. This means that the narrative also complies withPam Cook's theory. She states the standard Hollywood structure should have: A fictional world that contains verisimilitude, a high degree of narrative closure, a linerary of cause and effect. This applies to this video because of the narrative closure it has, suggesting an end to their day out.
The male gaze, according to Laura Mulvey, occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. This is done by displaying scenes that focus on the curves of a woman’s body through the use of certain conventions such as slow motion, cutaways, and any deliberate camera movements that highlight these curves. Her theory denies women their human identity,and objectifies them, stating that they are simply there to be admired, and add no real element to any narrative in film. Their only importance is to be there for the male viewing pleasure. It is also suggested that women can only watch a film from a secondary perspective, and only view other women from a man's perspective, thus leaving the audience 'masculinised'. The gaze deals with how an audience view the people they are presented with. This is either how men look at women, how women look at other women, and how women look at themselves. This means that the female percentage of the audience will look at the women that they are presented with, and then look at themselves and attempt to create an ideal version of themselves based on the ideologies presented to them in the film. It deals with the objectification and sexualisation of women, and the positioning of the audience, reinforcing the idea of patriarchy.
Richard Dyer's 'star' theory.
Richard Dyer's star theory focuses on the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial gain, and are built to target a specific audience, or group of people. There are four key components to the theory which are as follows:
stars and constructs
audience and institutions
ideology and culture
character and components
Dyer developed the idea that an audiences perception of a film is heavily influenced by the stars included in that film, and the audiences perception of these stars. This includes not only the individuals perceptions, but the perceptions of others too . This affects the way an audience experience a media text which can be determined by other peoples reviews of the film. He states that a star is a constructed image, represented across a range of media and mediums - a commodity produced by an institution to represent and embody certain ideologies. A star is not a real person,like in aspect of fiction, they are constructed in order to be desirable and consumable.
Tessa Perkin's 'stereotypes' theory.
Stereotyping is not a simple process and contains a number of assumptions that we can challenge. Perkins identifies 5 assumptions:
Stereotypes are not always negative.
Stereotypes are not always about minority groups or the less powerful.
Stereotypes can be held about one's own group.
Stereotypes are not rigid or unchanging.
Stereotypes are not always false.
We are a witness to this stereotyping through the media, which helps us understand them further. We may also witness these stereotypes first or second hand, showing there is truth behind stereotyping otherwise the ideology behind them would be non-existent - showing that stereotypes are not always false. In addition to this, these stereotypes are not always negative. Implications of Stereotypes: Stereotypes are always erroneous in content and are negative concepts. They are about groups with whom we have little or no social contact; by implication therefore, they are not held by one's own group. They are about minority or repressed groups most of the time creating a negative representation of the lower class possibly giving the upper class more power. People 'hold' stereotypes of a group or don't. This can lead to negative and wrong assumptions. Stereotypes lead to unfair treatment, Stereotypes are an invaluable aid in understanding the world.
This is the original deadlines list which can be found from the college website, on moodle. I will refer to this in order to manage my time effectively. Knowing when work is due in before it has been set gives me the ability to do prior planning to avoid issues like having too much work to do at once. I will add the dates to my personal calendar, which I check regularly. This should decrease the risk of reducing the quality of my work because of being to busy to complete it at a high standard.
Produce: A) An advanced Media Portfolio comprising a main and two ancillary texts. B) A presentation of your research, planning, and evaluation in an electronic format. 1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with:
