Class Task- Being Creative

we were given a sheet to help us the development of our creativity for the music videos. First we were given an website with was a random generator which I found fun and got you thinking but didn't really help me with developing ideas for my music video. Then we were being inspired where we looked at different music videos which were unique which I did find useful. We also looked at advice to help us use are imagination and be more creative. Finally we create a mood board of all our ideas for the music video.

Group Task- Thought Shower

Today we listened to each other music choices.  Individually we were given a piece of paper to draw and write down any ideas that came to mind when listening to the music. We came up with a lot of ideas some more useful than others. Here are some of the ideas that were collected for my song choice:

• street scene
• swings and dancing
• roof party
• balloons
• holding up lyrics
• zebra crossing
• guy in mirror
• Grease film references
• fish swimming in an aquarium
• a dog being the main singer
• police cars
• dancing down the street
• have bear heads on people
• having a band following the lead singer
• thriller dancing
• animation
• electronic circuits

I really like may of the idea such as the mirror and the zebra crossing I also think the bear head are quirky and interesting.

Andrew Goodwins Star Image

 
 Star image is a very important part of music videos. Artists want to be and look unique in order to stay current and for audiences to recognise and remember them. This star image develops overtime and  is a main factor when it comes to the production process of music videos. In their music videos artist will include many close ups  of themselves and also may develop motifs which recur across their work; a visual style that reflects their Star image/persona.

Here is an example of how Katy Perry's persona is known for her unique  clothing, being an over the top girly girl with a hint of a naughty side:

Genre and Auteur Theory

Genre Theory focuses on the generic similarities, tends to determine texts by historical/social/ political contexts and also how texts emerge as commercial products from an industry.

Auteur Theory follows the ideas of individual stylistic features, how texts are determined by artist's creativity and imagination and how texts emerge as part of an artists body of work.

Auteur theory is different in the way it focuses the audience attention towards what's the differences rather than the similarities between films. as Genre theory tends to look at how the film develops as part of a generic history.


I looked a Film Director named Michael Condry work and we can see from viewing many of his videos that they share a lot in common and there is an auteurist style- It seems that the 1960's has a big influence in his work and that is why he uses vintage cameras. The majority of his videos are disjunctive and he has a fascination with this idea of repeating images and what you can create within a frame(which is why the camera doesn't tend to move) He has a DIY sort of set, nothing really big or flashy; it's a breakaway from modern filming.  

Andrew Goodwin Theory Summary

Music Video and Redundancy/Entropy

Redundancy-'is that which is predictable or conventional in a message.. Redundancy is the result of high predictability' something that you expect or is the norm to appear or visuals.

 Entropy-  containing elements of  unpredictability.

Applying this to different genres:

Taylor Swift - 22 (pop)
 We would expect it to be predictable and follow the typical conventions of Pop. Looking at the video we seen that she's dancing around with other girls, at a party and seems happy and content with life, it has a lot of close ups revealing this. There's nothing that is entropic about this video.

Yo La Tengo - Sugarcube (Indie Rock)

You'd predict a live performance and within the viedo hints of rebellious behaviour. looking at the video we see this, so it would be seen as redundacny. However things that may have been entropic before such as this as you wouldnt expected to see something like this is now the norm of indie bands so you expect something different making it redundant.

OK Go- End Love  (Alternative rock/pop)

We'd except it to be something different maybe featuring a live performance as most rock bands do include that in there video. As it's a boy band could include some syncrosied dacing. However looking at the viedo it would say is entopic and something weird and quirky. but it does have elements of reundancy with the dancing etc.

Mulvey's Theory

Mulvey's theory (1975) talks about how women are portrayed in a males gaze. She talks about how the media produce from a perspective that is almost always male, and that the we the audience of  the media have trained to see ourselves through the 'male gaze'.

The male gaze is broken down into three elements:

• the gaze of the camera: the camera that looks at the female body
• the gaze of the actor:shots of males looking at women and then the shot of the female body being looked at
• the gaze of the audience: what the audience look at ( even female audience members were position with a male gaze)

Applying this to a few music videos:

 50 cent's Candy shop would favor Mulvey's Theory and females appear to be a passive objects. They are viewed by all three of the ways Mylvery explains, it's never from there point of view. However saying this you could view it as that the females aren't completely just expressed as an object and not in control because 50 cent is entering to their territory, and you could say that this is the norm for the females in that situation; 'comfort zone'. It could been seen both ways but this video does support the theory.

Country girl the female is the main subject of the video and only applies to the first and last element of Mulveys theory. the women in this video 'runs the show' and is in control of what shes doing and the people around here; for example when she hitting people with glasses and wrecking the bar, she tends to be more active rather just passive and represented as an object to men.

Turning the theory upside down in Lady Gaga Video Alejandro at first it seems like the role of females and males opposite; that it's from lady gaga point of view and the males are passive and the objects. However the males in this video aren't necessarily attractive to females there are aimed at other males focusing on the queer guys, and this is where Lady Gaga challenges the theory, however ironically it still for the 'male gaze'.

Taking this all into consideration we have to remember that Mulveys theory applied to the time around 1975 and that mass media has changed a lot from there we now have access to so much more such as videos and movies online, internet, more TV channels etc also socially times have changed from what it may have been in the past.