Task 1+3: Analysis of music video, focussing on narrative, genre, media language and representation.

Beyonce's video Irreplaceable has a narrative structure where the video tells the story of the lyrics. There is also an element of performance where she just performs on stage for the camera. Beyonce is the main character and she is basically kicking her boyfriend out and taking back all the stuff she bought him, she is also telling him that she's not upset and she can easily find someone else to replace him. This is a big contrast to a video like Akon's Lonely video. Both video's are based on adultery or cheating. Although the difference is Akon is a man.

Beyonce's video is mainly aimed at teenage girls or women. It is an RnB song that presents women to be strong and not so emotional. Where most videos portay women to be an object of desire this is also present in Beyonce's video. For example there is a part where Beyonce flicks her hair in slow motion while looking at the camera, her cleavage is also on display.

In terms of mise en scene the lighting sees beyonce alot in a golden dim light. It is a way of showing that she's glowing. In this picture below you cannot see her just a sillouhette of her body. This also adds to the way women are portrayed. She is a strong independant woman, but also an object of mens desire. It is as though she is trying to seduce her viewers.

However in contrast Akons video women are seen as vulnerable, weak and always crying and often in distress. This reflects a mans view on women in the media. 

Beyonce-Irreplaceable

Akon-Lonely

Short List Of Potential Songs (Planning)

This is our final song choice. We chose this song because we like the beat in the song especially the three-beat sequence. We think that we will be able to do creative editing with this as it is a fun, lively and energetic video which we feel we will enjoy working with.

'Gravity' by Pixie Lott was our original song choice but we chose not to do it as the lyrics keep repeating itself and we could think of creative ideas to go with the lyrics of the song.

Theses are other songs that we thought of:

Review Of A Student Video

In today's Media class, we were told to analysed a variety of music video made by students a few years ago. The genre of the music I chose to review is Garage-Dance, and the target audience are teenage girls. The narrative of the music video is about a girl who does not want to be with her boyfriend anymore, so she decided to break up with him. All of her friends then turn up and throw a party as a result of her getting over him. The storyline is very typical for the target audience as it  is all about girl power, and girls staying together.
The media language was very basic. It included many close ups, mid shots and long shots. The camera work though was very good for the music video that she chose and the genre was garage, and it does not need a lot of extravagant camerawork and editing as a Rock video would have.
The mise en scene was quite conventional for the genre, there was a phone as one of her props which is quits conventional for her storyline, in some of the scenes she was standing in a black background wearing a pink dress with is also very conventional for the genre. The Location was good as it can relate to teenage girls who are having problems with their boyfriends, then all of their friends come over to have a party at her houses.
Overall the music video was very conventional for the narrative and the genre.

Vladimir Propp Theory

Vladimir Propp was a was a Russian and Soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian Folk Talesto identify their simplest irreducible narrative. Here are Propp' theories:

 1) VIOLATION of INTERDICTION: The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale).

 2) RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance 

 3) TRICKERY: The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim.

 4) BRANDING: Hero is branded (wounded/marked).

 5) PURSUIT: Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero).


 Timberland FT So Shy "Morning After Dark"




In this video, many of Propp's theories come into action. The villain is a vampire and is trying to kill the female in the video. He makes many attempts to meet her, but is chased of by the hero's. The villain also uses trickery as they change their identity multiple times to fool the hero. In the end the victim is pursued and wounded by the villain. Propps theories has been used in this video many times.

Task 7: Analysis of a Previous Student Video (research)

One of the videos we analysed in class was the genre of British pop. This is related to the genre of one of my group's potential song- 'Pixie Lott- Gravity'.

The soundtrack was ' La Roux- Bulletproof'. The narrative in the video showed three young teenage girls having a fun time. They were shown trying on some hats in Spitafields market and in Liverpool street station. There were also shots of them in the park and in one of girl's bedroom. This targeted young teenage girls as the audience because it consisted on 'girly' activities and young girls are more likely to relate to it and sing along than boys. However, after it had finished playing, we were told by our teacher that the characters in the video were actually bunking of school. This was not clearly shown which can confuse the audience. Therefore, if we apply this music video to Goodwin's theory, we can see that there is disjuncture between the song and the video. The song contains the lyrics 'this time baby, I'll be, bulletproof'. The video had very little connection with the song as it just showed girls truanting. However, there is some amplification in this video because by bunking off school, the characters may want to show that they are superior and tough and therefore' Bulletproof'.

The media language is this video was good. When the effects were used, they were at an appropriate moment if the video, For example, towards the end, when the music became faster, there were a montage of shots which I thought worked very well with the rhythm of the music. However, the lip syncing was often out, which made the video seem less realistic.

In the video, I didn't like some of the mise en scene. The female character looked quite uncomfortable singing and was shown outside the college, wearing her ID card, which must have made her less confident as there were more students outside. The setting did not really work well because it made it more obvious that she was a student and that this video was a student video. There were also shots in the girl's bedroom, where she is singing to a microphone, but the end of the wire is shown, which immediate showed that she did not plugged the microphone in and makes it more noticeable that she is lip syncing. The video portrays girls as being fun. However, it is usually common for boys to bunk, so it conveys a message that girls are just as bad as boys.

I thought overall, the video was good, not brilliant. I would have scored the video between 21-30 at a level 3. The video did in fact get 23marks and was a level 3 video which must have gained the students a D+ to C+ grade.

Task 5: Lip synch tutorial experience

When doing the lip synch tutorial it was very interesting as we had to think about setting, camerawork and also performance. It helped in terms of how we can approach our actual music video. We did a number of embelishment shots as we learned that usually that is how women are portrayed in music videos. When editing we had numerous shots where only one part of her body could be seen. Also we had to work free hand without a tripod, this was quite difficult but we managed. To make sure that when we edit everything is in synch, instead of just miming the song I decided to actually sing. In the end result it was perfectly synched. One thing we could improve on is our layering in editing. Instead of cutting and puting shots in one after the other, next time we will have base tracks.

Lip Synch Tutorial Final Video (Planning)

This is our first edit of our lip sync experience.

Task 2: Andrew Goodwins Theory

Andrew Goodwin believe's that traditional narrative analysis doesn't really apply to pop videos. Pop videos narrattive structure normally are as so:

• they are filmed around songs (often they don't have traditional narrative structures)
• the singer usually plays both character and narrator
• the singer will often look into the camera to try and invole the viewer, this is a reflection of their music hall performing.

pop videos can be seen as very reptitive and rely on this a great deal. If the song repeats choruses or lines then the image of the video will often do this too. repetition is also seen in the fact that the song is seen (on TV), heard (on the radio) and promoted. Sometimes the video is such a visual pleasure that it encourges viewing which also promotes the song. Music videos can also be used to promote films.

There are three types of relations between videos and songs:


:
Illustration: The video tells the story of the lyrics and song. Dancing is often used to express specific moods and feelings. The video can have a narrative to show the story in the lyrics.


Amlification: the video will convey new meanings that do not contradict the lyrics but it adds layers of meaning. It doesn't tell a narrative story to the song but also the lyrics resemble the video.



Disjuncture: little connection is made between the lyrics and the actual video itself or the video contradicts the lyrics. This can often be stage performance.

Women are also often presented as just objects of mens desire. This can be done by emblishing the women, the camera will focus on one part of her body, this is often a provocative part e.g. bum.

Videos try to appeal to as wide an audience as possible without forgetting the core target audience. Videos are often also made for movies so the video will consist of extracts of the core movie.

Reflection On Lip Synch Tutorial

In our Media lesson, we were told that we were going to create mini music videos and lip Sync them to practice for our main product late on. My group were given the song "If I Can't Have You" By Yvonne Elliman. We were told that we were not aloud to use a tripod as we should get use to filming handheld. I was not in charge of filming, but I learned from watching my group film were the main buttons were and how to hold the camera properly. I have learned not to rotate the camera as most of our film was the wrong way, but we learned how to change it in Final Cut Pro.

During this experience, I learnt more on how to edit clips and put them together on the timeline on Final Cut Pro, but it was more difficult for my group as we had to add our soundtrack to our video that we had shot. It had to match it perfectly or the singing would be out of sync. I also learned how to cut out pieces of our editing to create many different shots instead of leaving the camera on only one shot as this can get very boring and look quite inexperienced. I was very familiar with some aspects of editing such as marking in and out, dragging clips to the timeline and editing overall.

I was in charge of taking picture of my group while they were filming, this also was quite easy for me as I have experience in photography.

This was a great learning experience as it is very necessary for us in the near future.

Examples And Analysis Of Videos That Follow Amplification, Disjuncture And Illustration

                   Example Of Amplification

This music video is by B.O.B Ft Bruno Mars called "Nothin On You". In this music video, it introduces new meaning without contradicting the lyrics and adds new layers of meaning. The lyrics contains "Beautiful girls all over the world". In the video, as he sings this verse, we see many collages of women all around the world. The lyrics link with the images, B.O.B is shown with many women trying to find the right one.

                    Example Of Disjuncture


This music video is by Arctic Monkeys called "Brainstorm". The lyrics do not portray what is shown in the video. In the video, there are many scenes shown of black and white images of a man, many women dancing, and some images of the band. The lyrics do not match the video as they have nothing in common. The lyrics does not really have a meaning to it, which may link to the video as it also does not have a meaning to it.

                       Example Of Illustration

This music video is by Lily Allen called "Smile". In this music video, the audience can see that a story is being told by the lyrics and the video as they both link very well together. The video is about Lily Allen who is dating her boyfriend, but he cheated on her and she wants to see him suffer. The story is told well, through both aspects and this makes it very easy for the audience to see what is happening.

Who was Vladimir Propp? Find out who he was and apply his theory to music video you have seen (Research)

The twentieth century Russian Folklorist and Formalist, Vladimir Propp identified the analysis that reduced Fairy Tales to a series performed by the dramatis personae in each story. Propp argued that every Fairy Tales uses this concept by constructing a certain plot element, which he called ‘Functions’ and these elements were consistently reiterated in a uniform sequence. Propp’s theorem was published in 1928, ‘Morphology of the Folk Tale’, where he wrote about the thirty-one generic functions (below), which proposed the plot components which were used in all Fairy Tales conventions.

These are thirty- one generic functions

1. ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. This may be the hero or some other member of the family that the hero will later need to rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline. The hero may also be introduced here, often being shown as an ordinary person.
2. INTERDICTION: An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').
3. VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.
4. RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc.; or intended victim questions the villain). The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information, for example searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. They may speak with a member of the family who innocently divulges information. They may also seek to meet the hero, perhaps knowing already the hero is special in some way.
5. DELIVERY: The villain gains information about the victim. The villain's seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information, often about the hero or victim. Other information can be gained, for example about a map or treasure location.
6. TRICKERY: The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim). The villain now presses further, often using the information gained in seeking to deceive the hero or victim in some way, perhaps appearing in disguise. This may include capture of the victim, getting the hero to give the villain something or persuading them that the villain is actually a friend and thereby gaining collaboration.
7. COMPLICITY: Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy. The trickery of the villain now works and the hero or victim naively acts in a way that helps the villain. This may range from providing the villain with something (perhaps a map or magical weapon) to actively working against good people (perhaps the villain has persuaded the hero that these other people are actually bad).
8. VILLAINY or LACK: Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc., comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc.). There are two options for this function, either or both of which may appear in the story. In the first option, the villain causes some kind of harm, for example carrying away a victim or the desired magical object (which must be then be retrieved). In the second option, a sense of lack is identified, for example in the hero's family or within a community, whereby something is identified as lost or something becomes desirable for some reason, for example a magical object that will save people in some way.
9. MEDIATION: Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc./ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment). The hero now discovers the act of villainy or lack, perhaps finding their family or community devastated or caught up in a state of anguish and woe.
10. BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action. The hero now decides to act in a way that will resolve the lack, for example finding a needed magical item, rescuing those who are captured or otherwise defeating the villain. This is a defining moment for the hero as this is the decision that sets the course of future actions and by which a previously ordinary person takes on the mantle of heroism.
11. DEPARTURE: Hero leaves home;
12. FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR: Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc., preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);
13. HERO'S REACTION: Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against him);
14. RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT: Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
15. GUIDANCE: Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;
16. STRUGGLE: Hero and villain join in direct combat;
17. BRANDING: Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
18. VICTORY: Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
19. LIQUIDATION: Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);
20. RETURN: Hero returns;
21. PURSUIT: Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
22. RESCUE: Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);
23. UNRECOGNISED ARRIVAL: Hero unrecognised, arrives home or in another country;
24. UNFOUNDED CLAIMS: False hero presents unfounded claims;
25. DIFFICULT TASK: Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);
26. SOLUTION: Task is resolved;
27. RECOGNITION: Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
28. EXPOSURE: False hero or villain is exposed;
29. TRANSFIGURATION: Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc.);
30. PUNISHMENT: Villain is punished;
31. WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

Propp analyses the narratives to link with the aspects in Fairy Tales, which can be applied to music video, too in terms of their structure and form. The form of a typical narrative involves an individual called the protagonist- a character who is presented as some kind of ‘hero’ and this protagonist is brought to face a conflict that disturbs the equilibrium of life.

The conflict is created by another character (or a system) called the antagonist presented as being on the side of wrong. For example as a villain, this usually does some form of ‘helper’ object that aids the protagonist. The typical narrative, events are related in a sequence using a structure that seems convincingly to move along a course of cause and effect; these linked events form a natural seeming of ‘ beginning-middle-end’ to the story and move quite naturally into such aspects as the narrative climax, itself followed by satisfying resolution.

This engages and compells the audience by this form and structure, which is easy for us (the audience) to relate to the hero figure, which fascinates the audience by the tension created by wondering ‘what will happen next’; and the audience want to know ‘where it will all lead’.

Propp’s theorem applies to these music video.

In the video, ‘Smile’- Lily Allen used the generic function of ‘Villainy or Lack’. Lily was originally the protagonist who was treated badly by her ex-boyfriend (antagonist) who was being horrible to Lily. But now, Lily seeked revenge on him by planned street attack on him, getting his flat ransacked and Lily putting laxatives in his tea. This showned Lily taking the role of an antagonist an her ex-boyfriend rather being the protagonist.

In the video, ‘Hot ‘n Cold’- Katy Perry used the generic function of ‘Wedding’ which was Katy getting married to her fiancé but is unsure it will work as one minute he is up and the next he is down.

In the video, ‘Family Portrait’-Pink used the generic function of ‘Absentation’, where Pink is having a problem with accepting her parents breaking up. Pink wants her parents to get back together and be a family unit for her and her elder brother.

Task Five: Reflection on lip synch tutorial experience, including photos and embedded video

Today’s lesson, my group were given the song ‘If I can’t have you’ by Motown Songtress Yvonne Elliman where had to practise making a music video.

I learnt how to put together the soundtrack and video cuts onto ‘Final Cut Pro’. This was matched to the soundtrack, which was vital to making the lip synching in sync with the track playing. There were shots that my group filmed that were portrayed at horizontal angle which unintentionally gave the video a black background. This did fit into the genre of the video but it happened because were did not know how to rotate the film. This was indentified during editing the video.

Every group, were not permitted to use tripods, thus we were practising how to use the camera hand-held. I found this quite easy yet it required a lot of stillness, nevertheless the weight of the camera was a strong disadvantage to how long you could keep the camera still for.

During the editing it was challenging to get the footage to match in sync with the lyrics and beat. Nevertheless, my group prevailed and we successfully completed the editing and the lip synching was remarkably accurate for my group’s first attempt. In addition, in Final Cut Pro I learnt how to place footage on to top of each other like ‘layering’, which included us opening sounds and listening to our footage back. Then put a ‘M’ for marking the time to the rythym of the song.

Task Three: Examples and anaylsis of videos that follow amplifcation, disjuncture and illustration- choose from genres that you are interetsed in exploring for your own music video (Research)

Illustration is where the video tells the story of the lyric 'Rehab'- Amy Winehouse for example. This music video used Jazz to express Amy's annoyance at people telling her to go to Rehab to sort her drug problems out.




Amplication occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but adds layers of meanings. An example of this type of video is 'I'm not a robot'- Marina and the Diamonds. This video uses moods to add a different layer of meaning to the video's meaning, which  shows the different moods in the song.







Disjuncture is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. Spike Jonez's 'Pharcyde'. This song is about contrast between rich and poor people in New York but the video is shot backwards with a nonsensical interpretation to what the lyrics mean to the music video.

Summary Of Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin View on music videos.

Andrew Goodwin argues that traditional narrative analysis does not apply to pop videos anymore. Goodwin claims that there are many reasons in explaining his theory.
Goodwin argues that since videos are all about music, they do not follow the structure that is of films or novels. In some music videos, they do not end with a resolution, most videos just end with an unsolved ending with transitions such as fading out.
Music videos often uses the singer as part of the storyline as well as just singing in some scenes.
Goodwin also argues that most pop videos repeat the images as this is very conventional. The repetition of the images are like the repetition of the chorus as a way of the audience becoming familiar with the genre. Music videos can be played on many different types of media, such as TV, radio and TV tie-in. Goodwin therefore claims that pop music videos do have an ending. The constant repetition to a fade away is a closure.
Many music videos are autonomous, he claims that some videos are meant for viewing pleasure which promotes the video, e.g music videos/soundtracks for films. Goodwin therefore argues that there can be three different types of videos.
Illustration: When the video tells the story of the lyrics
Amplification: This is when the videos introduce new meaning that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning
Disjuncture: Where there is little connection between the lyrics and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics.

Analysis Of A Music Video

                               JLS "Everybody In love"

Analysis Of A Music Video (JLS - Everybody In Love)

JLS's music video "Everybody In Love" conveys the genre "Love". This is shown through many aspects of the video such as the lyrics and the images. The narrative of the video is about finding love and being with someone that you love, JLS are involved in and out of the narrative. This may make it easier for the audience to understand as they play both parts, instead of having actors portray them.
The genre of the music video is "Love". The audience can hear this through the lyrics, "Everybody in love", "I'd wait forever and a day for you" and "I wait up, wait up for you". These lyrics all convey love as they are saying how much they are in love and will do anything for their loved ones.
The editing of the video contains many transitions such as slow fades to convey the genre of the video which is love and R&B. The video has a very slow pace to it and the fade in and fade outs help contribute to the genre. The costume is very casual which does contribute to the genre as they are not wearing extravagant costumes which could be pop or rock, but simple clothing fit for a love song and R&B. The lighting is quite light and bright when the camera is showing their faces, but other than those scenes, the lighting is quite low to set the mood for the song. The location contributes to the genre as the location is very simple for example the balcony and a stage, involving props such as a car. Other video may use locations such as a club for Hip Hop, or plain rooms for Rock. Since the genre is R&B, The location they used was a simple stage and a building as in most R&B videos, narratives are told in these locations which is very conventional.
As the audience we are encouraged to participate by thinking about the loved ones that we may have. From the lyrics to the images, it makes it very easy for the audience to identify with the video as they are always mentioning the word "love" and therefore we as the audience will hear the lyrics and images and think about ourselves.

Task Two: Summary of the main points of Andrew Goodwin's Theory (Research)

'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (1993)

Chapter Four

The Structure of Music Video
Rethinking Narrative Analysis

Goodwin believes that traditional narrative analyses using such ideas as Todorov do not really apply to pop videos. This has served explanation to Goodwin's theory as pop videos are trying to be too innotative. The reasons for the different narrative structures:
1. pop videos are built around songs- and often songs do not pose traditional narrative structures(normality-problem-resolution)
2. the pop video uses the singer both as narrator and as a character
3. the singer often looks directly at the camera- this is an extension of (music-hall) performance and trying to involve the viewer at home with the performance.

Pop videos rely on repetiton. Often the video repeats images in the way the song repeats images in the way the song repeats choruses or lines. This repetition of parts of a song can become familar to a specific genre on TV, music videos or radio.

Pop videos have a form of beginning and closing,which is based on  the structure of music. This is built on the climax or to constant repetition before fading away.


The visualation of a song may exceed the original meaining. The video prvides a visual entertainment encourages more people to watch it more than once. Pop videos can be percieved as a synergical promotion from a film , for example 'You say it best when you say nothing at all' by Ronan Keating for the film, 'Notting Hill'.

Three types of  relations between songs and videos are illustration, amplification and disjucnture.

Illustration- this is where the video tells the story of he lyric 'Pap don't preach' (Madonna) as an  example. Dance is often used to express the feelings/ moods in the song.

Amplification- occurs when the videos introduce new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning.

Disjuncture- this is where there is little connection between the lyric and video or where the video contradicts the lyric. Micheal Jackson's 'Man in the Mirror is an example. Whereas,  the song is about sel realisation bu the video  is full  of radical world events.

Task 5: Lip Synch Tutorial Experience (planning)

In lesson, we were given the song 'If I can't have you' by Yvonne Elliman for which we had to make a practice music video to.

I learnt how to add the soundtrack and video footage onto Final Cut Pro and match the footage with the soundtrack, to ensure the lip synching is accurate. Some of the shots that we filmed looked at a better angle when the camera was vertically straight. I did not know how exactly to rotate this and learnt so during the editing process.

We were not given tripods to use and were told to practise filming hand-held. However, whilst filming, I found this very difficult because the camera was very heavy and my arms began to ache. Because of this, I found it hard to hold the camera still and so the shots were not as effective as it could have been if shot on a tripod. There was one shot in which my group wanted to include. It was a shot of our team member's legs showing her walking down the stairs. However, it was very hard to follow her footsteps holding the camera in my hand. In addition, the shot did not go with the music when we were editing, so we decide as a group to leave the shot out.

Whilst editing, it was quite hard to get the footage and the right moment in the song. However, as a group we manged to successfully complete it and the lip synching was impressive for a first practise. I learnt to put some footage on top of each other in final cut pro and cut bits out of each footage to show a cool effect. This included opening the sound up and listening out for a particular word and putting a marker there. I used the same word to put markers in the footage, to ensure I get accurate lip synching. In my group, we did shoot many shots, some of which were in a classroom, while the others in the hall. The classroom shots were cut out as it did not go well with the other shots or song. Although we did put many shots in our video, we still needed more. This showed me that a music video contains many different footage and that the shorter the clips in the video, the more effective they are. This is something that as a group we will be doing to ensure that our video stays as appealing as possible.

With a thriller opening, the longer the clips were, the more suspense it created. This was much easier to edit because it didn't require lip synching or matching beats. A music video needs quicker editing which is quite hard because you have to get the right footage on the beat of the music. However, I feel as though creating a music video will be more exciting than it was creating a thriller film as it is more fast-paced and entertaining because it has repetition and rhythm and can be used for repeated viewing.

Task One: Analysis of a music video focusing on the four key concepts of narrative, genre, media langauge and representation (Research)

The narrative structure of this video tells the story about the narrator (Lily Allen) being hurt by her ex-boyfriend and now sadistically caused him emotional pain without him knowing she was behind the revengeful acts that where happening to him, for example his flat being trashed.
This reminscent of something else as Pink's video 'So What', where she has her ex-husband appear in it being shouted at by Pink. This is a symbolism of revenge in which Pink felt humilated by him and now she felt that it was his turn to be shamed.

There is an equilibrium because it is a balanced thought from Lily's view point.

Lily was the central performer in this narrative because the story is one of Lily's life experience based on her revenge towards her ex-boyfriend.

The lyrics link to the narrative through the shot from Point Of View angles to highlight the amplification between Lily and her ex because the video is narrating Lily's story about how she felt after their break up.
The cross-cutting between two different scenes of action , as the link to the narrative was the example of Lily sits in the Cafe with her ex-boyfriend, whilst she has paid for his flat to be wrecked. The ellipsis is a big jump in time from afternoon, when her ex-boyfriend's vinyls for his DJing were destroyed and then he realised that they were ruined at his gig.

The primary audience for this video are teenagers and young people because emotionally they can look at relationships in very naive and commit revenge in an impulsive way. As young people want to take revenge on their partner if he/ she had cheated and think its fair to let the ex-partner suffer from the pain, too. Though, many people have not gone too such extreme examples of revenge in Allen's video but they can still relate.
The secondary audiendce for this video is anyone else because some may find it funny how Lily's behaving in the film. Even some may remember the first time they had a boyfriend or a girlfriend who treated them badly similar to Lily's narrative and may emphasise with this video.

This video appears to me as a generical convention of an ex-girlfriend seeking revenge on herex-boyfriend who caused her pain.

The creation of perspective is from Lily's point of view as the use of low angles are used to show she is in control and is the dominant role in the narrative. This encourages the view to emphasise with Lily's situation of being treated.
The manipulation of time from afternoon then evening.
The shot reverse shot when she was sat in the Cafe talking and listening to her ex-boyfriend rant about getting mugged.

The tone of the voice creates a funny video about revenge morally being a bad thing to do but the idiom revenge 'dish is a served sweet' is the underline reference.

I agree it has been edited conventionally to give the pop video the message of revenge can be fun, nevertheless the video does this a jovial way.

The 'still' is from the genre of pop.

The street corners where Lily pays yobs to trash up her ex-boyfriend's home, which is reminscent of the stereotype that chavs hang around streets causing trouble. The location of Cafe has strong connotations with work-class people, who go to eat at what is refer to as 'creasy spoons'.

The 'still' used icongraphy to help the audience, by the first picture she has a glum expression becasue she sat on her bed eating chocolate. Then,her sadden turned to revenge due to her feeling better as she plots revenge on her ex-boyfriend.

The artist and the costume links with the genre as Lily wore dress and trainers are stereotypically very chavvy,which links to the fact the song 'Smile' highlights her paying chavs to trash her ex-boyfriend's home. Also, she took revenge by putting laxatives in his tea.
Towards the end of the film, Lily wore a long black coat with the collar up highlights Lily's sinster dress code link with a private detective completing her mission on seekng revenge on her ex-boyfriend. Also, it shows that mishievious and cunning side of Lily as she wore it in the Cafe scenes.

The representation of Lily Allen enforces the stereotype of being a female chav who has a strong negative prespective by the media connotations involving crime, rudeness and gold jewellery. The media uses Lily Allen's stereotype to enhance the mediated persona of this singer's personality based on her appearance, which marginalised the media's view of her.

Task 3: Examples and Analysis of videos that follow Amplication, Disjuncture and Illustration (research)

ILLUSTRATION

Micheal Jackson- Bad



This video tells the story of the lyrics. The song title is called 'Bad'. Micheal Jackson's mise en scene portrays him as a 'bad boy. The leather jacket and chains portray a gangster, cool image. This relates to the lyrics- "I'm bad" Repetition also occurs in the lyrics, which helps to give rhythm to the song and and repetition of images are shown too as said in Andrew Goodwin's theory. Micheal Jackson also has all males dressed in similar clothing and he is at the front, portraying that he is the baddest one. The location is at a prison like atmosphere which also helps to convey bad men and who are quite angry and strong. This video helps to illustrate the lyrics by the mise en scene and dancing. Micheal Jackson's facial expression is quite aggressive which helps to portray the badness in him.


AMPLIFICATION
Leona Lewis- 'Bleeding love'



This video introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but adds more depth and layers of meaning. The video does not actually show people bleeding love. However the narration in the video shows people cheating, couples in a bedroom, couples arguing, during things which all portray that love hurts. No one is shown bleeding but the video helped to illustrate other meanings to the song through its narration.

DISJUNCTURE



In this video, there is little connection between the lyric and the video. The video contradicts the lyrics. The song is after a break-up, saying I will miss missing you when we were together. However, there is no illustrations or narrations in the video to help portray the meaning of the song. Instead they are in a beach, dancing and having beach parties. There is some connection with the lyrics, that of them being happy to feel that there is no feelings there anymore, other than that the video is completely different to the lyrics. This genre is pop, which is what I am interested in exploring for my own music video. With Pop videos, there is not much shots that relate to the lyric, they are instead more eye-catching and fun to watch, which helps to appeal to a larger audience as the video does not focus always on one topic.