Real Media Concepts - Analysis of Music Video-Goodwin

Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song


Links between lyrics and music- in this music video Bruno and the monkeys' actions within the video constantly make reference to the lyrics. For example when they are talking about leaving a message on a phone then they make a phone with their hands and when mentioning the birthday suit they pull down their trousers.

Genre Characteristics- the genre of this video is Pop and it has some of the conventions of this genre such as dancing a  routine to the lyrics, also the up beat tempo to the video connotes pop. All of the characters are also wearing bright colours which could be seen as a convention of pop.

Intertextual Reference- within the lyrics MTV the reality television program is mentioned. This is the only reference made within the video.

Notions of Looking- Through this video Bruno Mars (the artist) is seen as a chilled out person and quite relaxed, within a house. In his other videos, 'Just the way you are' for example, he is also seen in this way so it is how the audience expects to see him. 

Demands of the label - Bruno's videos are all very clean and respectful so his label may want to represent him as a role model and good person which is very different to his personality in real life. So the label may be creating an alter ego for Bruno but through his music videos.

Applying my music video production to the theoretical area of Narrative

The media product I created was a trip hop music video to the song ‘To Catch a Thief’ by the band Lovage. Other music videos within this genre have a very strong narrative to them and tell a story throughout the video. For example Karmacoma by Massive attack has a strong narrative but to get to the meaning behind it all you have to look past the abstract image it portrays just as you have to do with my music video/ So through my own interpretation of a Trip Hop music video I wanted to follow the same convention.

The music video I helped to create told the story of a male bunny character who had been kicked out of his house by his wife. As a result of this the bunny turns to crime. He only turned to crime because of his sorrow and as an audience we should feel sorry for him. The bunny costume the character is wearing connotes the idea of disguise and also innocence to what he is doing and had experienced. We hoped that the audience could see this behind the costume and look behind the abstract image it may portray.

As a group we thought a lot about the idea behind the narrative and all that was involved in creating this short story/film. As the narrative is so strong, it can easily be applied to narrative theory. When looking at this the music video I have created can be most closely related to Todorov’s theory of there being five stages to narrative:

- an equilibrium

- a disruption to this equilibrium by an event

- a realisation that a disruption has happened

- an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption

- a restoration of equilibrium – which may be a new equilibrium

In my media product I feel that the equilibrium was the positivity seen at the beginning through the bunny gaining help from a wise counsellor. The disruption of this was the crime that took place by the bunny. The realisation was being caught by the police and sadness seen by the bunny and then the attempt to repair was being put in jail to correct the wrongs and finally at the end of the music video the restoration of the equilibrium was seen as the bunny revisited the counsellor.

I believe that because of another theoretical area (Genre) the narrative of this media product had become very apparent and therefore easily related to narrative theory.

Audience Analysis - Own Production of Music Video - To Catch a Thief by Lovage

My production of the music video for ‘To Catch a Theif’ by Lovage is aimed at a very niche market, therefore a niche audience. The music video has a unique theme to it and is quite abstract. Although the storyline is strong this type of music video would not appeal to a mainstream audience.

The uniqueness of the music video I helped to create comes mainly from the hybrid genre the song belongs to; trip hop, a combination of electro and house music. This genre does not really have any set conventions, as it is quite experimental and is not generally seen as mainstream and I feel that the music video that we have produced reflects this well.

Our music video is abstract as it’s main character is a bunny who steals and the music video simply follows an episode within his life whilst the lyrics and visuals link throughout. We also included the band which conformed to the conventions of the trip-hop genre.

So, as you can see from the summary of the genre of our music video the audience is a unique and niche market. Through being a niche audience I would assume that the consumers of this product are very loyal towards it so do not necessarily float from genre to genre as mainstream audiences may.

When looking at specifics and profiling our target audience I would say that this music video is aimed and the ‘Individuals’ within the categorisation of personal aspirations. This type of audience would be highly media literate and would by this grungy image that our music video portrays rather than the actual music video. However, the audience who buy products such as our music video may also fit into the ‘Succeeders’ category as they are within this unique band of people so may feel secure in such an immediate group therefore will buy this brand/product to reinforce their feeling of control and security.

I would say that the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ Model is prevalent with our target audience as they have actively chosen and almost created this niche genre of music and this niche market. Unlike mainstream genres and markets which are usually consumed by a passive audience through repeated exposure, as the cultivation theory explains. Most of us listen to and watch mainstream products and media and this is what we have been exposed to the most and most often therefore we ‘like it’. Whereas, with our target audience, like I have said they actively chose to seek out this genre and music video type.

Overall, our media text of a music video is aimed young people who are media literate and can look into a music video to see behind the motion picture to reveal the meaning which are video holds. The audience wee have targeted is a very specific one which reflects the unique music genre of 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

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

Analysing 'Inception' in relation to narrative theorists

I feel that the film inception can be applied closest to Claude-Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites. Inception is based around dreams, also known as being in limbo. The film focuses this dream world compared with reality and how easy it is to become confused over what reality is.

Reality and 'limbo' or dreaming are the binary opposites seen in this film and this theme is followed throughout. The viewer, especially in the opening sequence of the film, also experiences the confusion between was is reality within the film and what is in a dream. So through Levi's theory its not just the characters within the film that interact and are familiar with these binary opposites it is the audience as well.

As a result of this confusion felt by the audience the film also has a slight sense of mystery to it and this leads me onto Rolande Barthes' theory and his Enigma Code. This code is a mystery to be revealed, and as well as the mystery felt throughout the film, a particular example of the Enigma Code seen here is right at the very end of the film where the main male character, Dom, leaves his totem spinning on the table. The totem is the indicator to whether he is in reality or limbo, if it stops spinning he is in real life, however the audience never gets to see whether or not this happens at the end of the film so it is left a mystery until a possible Inception 2 is released.

Todorov's theory and Propp's theory are slightly more difficult to be applied to this film as they are quite specific in their requirments and usually are applied to the traditional, more typical film, unlike inception.

Narrative Theory - Desserts Short Film Analysis

We can see elements of other theories within this text, such as the element of mystery to begin with which would relate to Rolande Barthes theory and the enigma code and also Todorov's theory doesn't really apply to this short film as there is an equilibrium at the beginning, it is disrupted and there is a realisation of this yet there is no attempt to restore this equilibrium or an actual restoration. His theory is more likely to apply to feature films rather than unconventional short films such as Desserts.

We believe that Claude Levi-Strauss's theory is most useful when analysing this short film as he discusses binary opposites. These oppositions are seen in the short film Desserts as the roles of fishermen and fish have been reversed. The cake is put on the beach as bait by the fish, the man takes the bait and then is hooked and dragged into the sea by the fish. The message this may be trying to portray is that the audience should see fishing from the fish's perspective rather than the fisherman's.

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 Se7en opening scenes-using media language

Micro-elements...

(Denotation and Connotation)

The denotation of the lighting in the opening sequences is dim, gloomy, and with a gray hue. The connotations of this could be the dark atmosphere within the house when the man had died, death is a very dark subject and the lighting within the house represents this.

One denotation of the mise-en-scene of Brad Pitt's character's clothing and the way he just throws them on with his tie already done up connotates his laid back, 'couldn't care less' attitude. In contrast, Morgan Freeman's layout of his clothing and possessions is very ordered, conotating his structured and organised approach to his job.


(Written Language)

In the first murder scene 'Gluttony' is clearly written on the wall as past of the mise-en-scene. this serves to give both the characters and the audience a clue into the nature and the reason for the crime. 

In the credit scene there is substantial use of written language in the form of written notes and newspaper clippings. These create the effect of both mystery and gives an insight into the mental instability of the murderer.


(Non-Verbal Language)

Morgan Freeman's character is seen laying in his bed all alone in the first scene. No dialogue is spoken yet his characters loneliness and his direction in life seems almost absent. This can be supported by his obsession over being organised, he may put all of his life into his job.