Goodwin's Theory applied to "Jeans and Fitted" by Vybz Kartel

Links to music by lyrics:
In the video there are multiple links to the objects which are described by the lyrics. For example,
(Russian) Mi gucci belt a di realest
(Kartel)Mi rosary chain ah di purest
(Russaian)Mi G-shock watch... Timeless
All of these lyrics are referred to with shots of the objects themselves, like a "Gucci Belt"

Genre Characteristics:
The genre of this music video is known as "Dancehall" an hip-hop based genre heavily influenced by Jamaican style singing. This video conforms to the genre as it is set in an urban, Caribbean setting and both of the artists performing are singing in a Jamaican style, even the featuring artist.

Intertextual Reference:
There are lots of references to certain high-street products such as a "Gucci Belt", "G-Shock Watch, "Rosary Chain" etc. that is repeated throughout the music video. Not only are there references but there are physical shots of each of these products at least once in the music video.


Notions of Looking:
Women in this video are seen as sex objects and are heavily put down as the lower of the sexes and seen as an object to be used in the males way.

Audience Theory Analysis of Our Music Video - "To Catch a Thief" by Lovage

Our personal production of “To Catch a Thief” by the band Lovage, is aimed at a very specialised audience and would therefore fit into the category of niche marketing. Although the music video has a strong storyline behind it, it has a distinctive theme and perspective that would not appeal to most mainstream audiences. This narrowness of the market makes the production quite unique and distinguishable compared with other music video productions.

This uniqueness can be explained by the genre of the music itself. The genre is known as trip-hop; a mixture of electro and house music, that is a relatively new hybrid genre that was created in the mid-1990s. There are no specific trends or requirements that fit into the trip-hop genre as it quite experimental so we tried to incorporate this abstract feel into our music video and I believe the production reflects this well.

The production shows the abstract nature by the presence of the main protagonist and antagonist, the bunny. The video follows the bunny being a thief which links in with the title of the song, “To Catch a Thief” and the production shows an episode from his life, whilst the visuals and lyrics explain the story in the background. The band was included in the production in order to fit the stereotype of the trip-hop genre.

Overall, our production was aimed at a niche market and audience, therefore meaning that the consumers would more than likely be faithful to our product, rather than drifting between genres, as many fans of mainstream music tend to do. This means we would still be able to generate a respectable amount of fans and viewers of our music video.

In terms of our audience theory and profiling audiences, I would predict that our production would be aimed at the ‘Succeeders’ category, as that type of people generally like to feel secure and in control and they buy brands which reinforce their feelings of control. This would fit in with our production, as ‘Succeeders’ will feel in control, as this genre is relatively small and low key, so the small majority of them would hold a lot of influence over the artists. The other group that would be attracted by our music video would be ‘The Individual’, as they are highly media literate, expect high production advertising and buys into the product image rather than the product itself. This would fit in with our production, as ‘The Individual’ would like our product because they are buying into the product image, and would like the abstract feel of the music video.

The ‘Uses and Gratifications’ Theory would be the best example to compare with our production, as the audience have taken an active part in choosing and deciding what media they wish to interact with. This is true for the audience of our production as it is such a niche market and audience that the audience would have to willingly want to watch the music video. This differs to mainstream genres and markets as a passive audience usually consumes them, as the cultivation theory explains. Because mainstream audiences are so exposed to the mainstream genres they generally ‘like’ them just because they become over-exposed to them. Our audience however, would actively choose to watch and consume our production because it is what they want to watch.

To conclude, our production is on the whole aimed at a media literate audience who will actively choose to watch and consume the music video, because they like the abstract and niche uniqueness of the finalised product. The audience we have targeted is very specific but one that ultimately reflects the trip-hop genre and the song “To Catch a Thief” by Lovage.

Only Way is ESSEX Audience Analysis

Who is the text aimed at?
This reality television programme is aimed at teens to young adults, predominately females.

What assumptions are made about the audience which are revealed in the texts scheduling or positioning?
The scheduling of this programme is after the nine o'clock 'the watershed' so assumptions that are made would be that they are adults or young adults. Also, programmes after the water shed generally have strong language and possible sexual references in them so the audience would have to want to watch this type of programme.

Where and when is the aduience likely to receive the text?
On their home television or on the catch up service ITV Player. They have to watch the programme at the scheduled time on their home television yet on the catch up service it can be watched at any time whenever the audience wants.

How does this influence the form and structure of the text.
This influences the form and structure as they can put in swearing, sexual innuendos and the language that is used, as it will be more accessible to the socio-economic that understands the language and is more familiar with it. This group such as young adults are able to access services such as ITV player on smart phones, net books etc.

 
How will this audience read this text?
This audience will read this text through gaining a stereotypical view of people who live in Essex. When in actual fact the programme only focuses on one particular social group within Essex.

Using Genre To Describe Our Music Video

Our music video's genre would have been described as "trip-hop". Trip -hop is a reasonably new genre of music which was established in the mid-1990s and is a combination of electro and house music.
This genre of music video does not really have any set conventions, as it is quite experimental and is not generally seen as mainstream.

Trip hop is a music genre consisting of downtempo electronic music. It began in the mid-1990s, growing out of England's hip hop and house scenes, including that of the Bristol underground. It has been described as "Europe's alternative choice in the second half of the '90s", and a fusion "of Hip-Hop and Electronica until neither genre is recognizable."


This is is best illustrated by the fact that existing trip hop videos are all very unique and individual, with little to no connecting conventions.

The trip-hop genre perhaps fits best into David Buckingham's theory of genre is;
"Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change"

Genre Theory Theorists

John Fiske:
-What does John Fiske describe genre as?
  - Attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts

-Name three ways John Fiske categorises genre?
  - A way of categorising texts
  - A way of setting up audience expectations
  - A way of defining codes and conventions for a category of text

Christian Metz:
-What is he best known for?
  - Introducing semiotics to film

-Where was the three main places his work had most impact?
  -Britain, France and USA

David Buckingham:
-What does David Buckingham argue genre is?
  -Genre is in a constant process of negotiation and change

-What type of investigation has David Buckingham undertaken?
  -Empirical

Katie Wales:
-What does Katie Wales say genre is?
  - An intertextual concept

-Where is this concept most appropriately seen?
  - In music videos

Narrative Theory - Inception

After watching the film Inception it can been seen that the theory which fits it best would be Claude Lévi-Strauss's narrative theory or his "Binary Theory". Lévi-Strauss's theory depicts that the world is full of opposites, e.g. light/dark, and this is transferred into structuring texts in films, plays and novels.

Inception is a film based on the concept of how do we know what is a dream and what is a reality, as our dreams feel so life like and vivid and when we are dreaming we often can't tell it's a dream. This relates to this narrative theory as the binary opposites are the dreamworld where Cobb "extracts" the dreams and the form of reality where everything appears normal. This increases the confusion amongst the audience as they cannot easily define what is the dream and what is reality.

The "Enigma Code" theory by Rolande Barthes also has some relation to the film as the theory suggests there is a mystery or a hook that leave the audience wanting to know what happened or will happen next. It is commonly seen in the "come back next week" technique or in film trailers. It can be applied to Inception, as in the final scene, Cobb's totem is seen continously spinning. The totem is a symbol of whether he is in the dream world or in reality. If the totem keeps spinning he is dreaming, if it falls over, he is in reality. The effect of keeping the totem spinning is it keeps the audience wondering whether the whole film and Cobb's life is meant to be seen as a dream or whether it is a twist they will never figure out.

Inception

Genre

Defining Genre-

• Genre is a way of categorising literature.
• It originated from ancient Greece.
• There were 3 original classifications when the classification system began- Poetry, Drama, Prose.
• Different Genre's apply to different media types, such as film, music, books and TV.

Background To Genre-

• Theory was constructed by Plato & Aristotle
• Sub genres can be created
• Genres are created through conventions as they change genres become discontinued
• New ones are formed constantly, e.g. Thriller/Adventure

Analysing Genre-

• Tony Thwaites & his colleagues confirms textuality and reading
• Each genre has unique visual and sound qualities (four micro areas)
• Through iconography we can recognise the genre through particular ideologies

Desserts (Ewan McGregor) - Narrative Theory

This piece is an example of Todorov's narrative theory and can be shown through the following steps

Eqilibrium
Ewan is strolling around on the beach and everything is calm

A Disruption Of This Equilibrium Has Happened
Ewan finds a chocolate eclaire lying on the beach which confuses him a bit so he tries a small part of it

A Realisation That A Disruption Has Happened
After he takes a big bite of the eclaire, a fish hook appears in his mouth

An Attempt To Repair The Damage Of The Disruption
He tries to remove the fish hook from his mouth - which in this case does not work and therefore gets dragged towards the sea

A Restoration Of Equilibirum
The sea swallows Ewan and everything is calm again

This piece shows fishing in reverse where humans are the fish. The eclaire acts as the bait drawing the actor in, then sea acts as the fisherman by reeling in its catch.

Desserts (feat. Ewan Mcgregor)

Our Production Analysis - Lovage to Catch a Theif

Micro element: Mise en Scene

The first main denotation you see in our music video is the bunny, who plays the main character throughout the video. We chose a bunny as this connotes vulnerability, which is seen in the scene where the bunny gets kicked out out of his house by his wife. The bunny was also a thief in the video which link to the title, so the bunny costume connoted a disguises as most thieves have.

The use of alcohol in the pub was a form of non-verbal language as it is showing the bunny drinking his sorrows away yet no dialogue is spoken. The audience is likely to decode this encoding in this way as it is a typical and common ideology.

Another piece of encoding we put into the video was the prop of the bundle on as stick over the bunny's shoulder in the opening scene. We hope to our audience that this symbolic sign would connote that the bunny is leaving home and that they would decode this image in this way.

A simple iconic sign we encoded was the bunny behind bars. This image would be decoded by audiences everywhere as someone being in prison and 'behind bars' it is quite a literal sign. This image also links with the title of the song and the lyrics.

Analysis of Opening Sequence of Se7en

Micro-elements:
(Denotation and Connotation)
Weather is raining constantly - makes the viewer feel like the film is going to be depressive, dark and gloomy throughout.

Brad Pitt has tie's already hung up for him on coat hanger - shows that he's lazy.

Morgan Freeman has everything lined up, ready for the day - show's he's organised and possibly has a touch of OCD, which he then brings into his job, e.g. tools in the back of the car are organised.

Written Language:
When the first murder has been committed the world "Gluttony" is written on the wall, showing that the murderer is leaving a clue to the crimes he is going to commit - the seven deadly sins.

In the opening credits there is a huge amount of written language, comprising of newspaper clippings etc. These give the beginning of the film a mysterious feel and keep the audience hooked as they want to know more about the murderer.

"Se7en"