My group's chosen song

For our A2 music video, we had decided to use the song 'Beautiful' by Eminem. These are the lyrics to the song.



 Song Information

Song name: Beautiful

Artist: Eminem

Album: Relapse

Genre: Rap/Hip Hop

Release date: 11th of August, 2009
Director: Anthony Mandler

Our reason for chosing this song

The process of chosing a song for this coarse was a very long and difficult task. Me and all of my team members had many different ideas for song choices that we could have potentially used.
However we had realised that many of our choices had certain disadvantages that may cause problems for use during the production of this project and could potentially lose us marks.
For example a few of our song choices had been released by mainstream artists which would have meanmt thyat my group would most likely have problems contacting the artist's record label company.
 In addition we had to make sure that the lyrics of our song had some form of meaningful mis-en scene so that we could use it for inspiration to create a our own form of  Music Mis-en-scene that is based on the orginal songs lyrics.
I myself had initially suggested to use the song 'Playing in the Shadows' which is a UK hip hop song that was released by the British rapper Example in 2011, which is taken from his album of the same name (Playing in the Shadows.
My reason for suggesting this particular song, is that I had felt that this song had a very dark and ominious tone when I had listened to it. The song begins at a very slow pace, which gradually builds as the song progresses, which shows that song builds intensity as it reaches its climax, which sounded somewhat suspenceful.
Another aspect of this song that had intrigued me was the song lyrics. After I had listened to this song for a number of times, it had seemed as though to me the lyrics were expressing someone who was behaving in a rebelious and uncivilised manner.
These lyrics had sounded very ideal for me to include in a music video as , I felt that me and my team members could have used them to create mis-en-scene of a rebelious adolescent child living in the UK.

Playing in the Shadows song lyrics	Our music video’s Mis-en-scene representation
‘I got someone waiting at home for me’	A parent at home, while their teenage child is out very late at night.
‘Tomorrow she’ll probably disown me’	A teenage that does not have a good relationship with their parent or guardian due to a bad up bringings.
‘Playing in the Shadows all night long’	Adolescent children staying out very late at niht and meeting up with other teenagers. The ‘Shadows’ can be seen as very dark characters in which the music video’s protagonist is getting involved with.
‘So good to play with bad girls’	This can be used to show children mixing in with a group of friends that can be seen as a bad influence. Teenage promiscuity.
‘All those calls ignored’	An adolescent child could be shown to be ignoring/disrespecting their parents who are trying to contact them very late at night, as they are worried for their safety.

However, we were forced to scrap this idea, when we had realised that this type of music video would need to be shot at night due to its dark tone and lyrics. We wouldn't have been able to carry this out at night since the lighting would have made the music video extremely hard to see.

After this my group had considered a number of other songs to base our music video on. These suggestions had included 'Yesterday' by the Beatles (1965), 'Lego House' by Ed Sheeran (2011), and 'Too Close' by Alex Clare (2011).
We had found that all of these songs had a good amount of potential for creating a music video, however we had found that all of these songs had featured limitations to them that would prevent us from achieving the most amount of marks that we possibly could.
Another factor that had prevent us from using these songs where that most of these songs were very mainstream due to the fact that the artist had gained much popularity in the past years. This would be a problem since my group would be required to contact the record company of the artist so that we can inform them that we are using their property to create a new media text. This would be a main problem for the music artists that are based in America.

However we had ultimately decided to use the song 'Beautiful' that was released by Eminem in 2009.
Me and my team members are all familiar with Eminem's music as we all enjoy listening to his music in our spare time.We chose this song as we felt this song had contained very meaningful lyrics which we would be able to generate mis-en-scene from. We had noticed that the overall tone of 'Beautiful' is very emotional which features a few dark elements. This had helped us to think about what kind of video we would want to create ,in terms of it being a very positive video with lots of colour or being very negative with dim lighting and sad images.
Despite the fact that this song has emotional and depressing tone, it conveys a very positive message of accepting one's self for who they are and not to care what other people think about them. This message is  conveyed through the song's chorus which includes the lyrics # But don't let em say you ain't beautiful, They can all get f**ked, Just stay true to you'.
My group are fully aware of the fact that Eminem is a music artist who is american which would mean that his record company would be based in the United States. However we will only need to show that we had genuinely attempted to contact the record company.

This is the music video for my group's chosen song.



Audience Behaviour

Richard Dyer's Utopian solution theory



Richard Dyer



Inadequacy	Poverty	Confusion	Exhaustion	Isolation
Solution	Abundance	Clarity	Energy	Community

This solution gives people a choice of compensation for the inadequacies in their own lives.

An example of this solution being put to use would be if we tried to do an Anti-Smoking campaign into this: there would be clear motives that we could offer based on the Dyers solution, e.g. gain money, understand the facts,gain energy, join a quiet club.

So what does this mean for our product?

We aim to offer our target audience compensation for the inadequacies in their lives. This is Richard Dyer's Utopian solution.

Andrew Goodwin's theory of Music videos



Andrew Goodwin

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. Examples include stage performances are used in metal music videos, dance routines are used in music videos for boy/girl bands, aspirations are used in Hip Hop music videos.

2.There is a relationship between lyrics and the visuals. These lyrics are represented with images. These images are often described as being illustrative, amplifying or contradictive).

3.There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and the atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.

4.The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work.

5. There are frequent references to the notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages). In addition there are often voyueristic treatment of the female body.

6. There are often intertextual references of films, TV programmes, other videos etc.

This is an example of intertexuality of a TV programme being presented through music videos. The top image is a still from the music video 'Express yourself' by the british rapper Labrinth'.  In this image Labrinth is shown to be wearing an orange top and it appears as though he has been writing lines on the large black chalkboard behind him. This can be classed as intertextuality as this is very similiar to the opening of the animated american TV programme 'the Simpsons' in which Bart Simpson wears an orange shirt and constantly writes out lines on a large chalkboard.

Feminist Film theory and Audience

• Cinema reflects society.
• Therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society.
• How does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema.

Erotic Desire

Mulvay argees that women have two roles in film. Both of which are used for voyueristic purposes.

• As an object of erotic desire for the characters.
• As an object of erotic desire for the audience.

The Gaze

• The 'Gaze' of the camera is the male 'gaze'.
• The male gaze is 'active', the female gaze is 'passive'.
• Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze.
• The spectator is made to identify the male 'gaze', because the camera films from the optical point of view, as well as the libidinal point of view of the male character.
• Thus there are three levels of the cinematic gaze- the character, the camera and the spectator all of which objectify the female character (the triple gaze).

Media theories

• Effects theory- Hypodermic Syringe Inoculation- what the media does to the audiences.

• Uses and Gratifications-what audiences do with the media.

• Reception theory(Nationwide audience, Dallas, Seinfeld etc ) 

• Mass media/ mass communications make people powerless to resist the messages that the media carries.

• The consumers are then (metaphorically) drugged,addicted or hypnotised into believing what the media is telling them.

• Effect theories taken up with protection of young, link between violence and media.

Historical Facts

• Frankfurt School: Marxist German intellectuals reacting against Nazi propaganda and U.S advertising suggested the power of big corporation and the state to control how we think.
• The rise of TV in the 50's and 60's, had created a fear of danger to children as they were being exposed to many kinds of media which could endorse very negative behaviour.
• Influence of behavioural scientists(think of Parlor Dogs)- media may reinforce attitudes through repetition.
• The Bobo doll experiment(1963)- Bandura and Walters- this was an incident in which children imitate adult treatment of dolls seen on film.
• Moral panics- These include concern, hostility,consensus, disproportioningality, volatilty

Two Step flow

Media text---Opinion Leaders---Media consumers

                                  1-----------------2

List of things that are wrong with the effects theories

• The problems with violence are often social / psychological which are not to do with the media.
• While the media can send out a bad message to young viewers, it can also be positive rather than harmfull, if it has good intentions( for example, healthy eating).
• Critism of the media using the effects models is often politically motivated.
• There is not real grounding of reasearch and theory for this model.

U + G

Users of the media use media text to satisfy certain needs.

Maslow's hierachy of needs

• Self Actualization- challenging projects, opportunities for innovation and creativity, learning and creating at a high level.
• Esteem- important projects, recognition from others, prestige and status.
• Social (Belonging)- Acceptance, be part of a group, identification with a successful team.
• Safety-Security of the body, employment, reasources, morality, the family, health, property.
• Physiological-breathing , food ,water,sex ,homeostasis, erection.

Problems with the U+G

• We may not have a choice about what we watch.
• Neglects any aspects of effects theories.
• Neglects socio-economic factors.

Categories of Music Videos:Concept based Music Videos

In the Music Industry there are three main types of music videos that are created that include:

• Narrative Based Videos
• Performance based videos
• Concept based videos

A concept based music video, is a music video which has no structured narrative, and were the lyrics do not match what is happening in the music video at all. Rather than having a fixed storyline, this type of music video would instead be centred around the random concept of the video, which would be very unique in some way compared to other music videos.
For example a concept music video may use a  selection of visual effects in a particular style,so that this music video would stand out amongst other kinds of music videos
An example of a concept based music video which uses special effects as its main concept can be the 1986 song 'Sledgehammer' which was preformed by Peter Gabriel. This was one of the very few music videos to begin using visual effects and furthermore as its main concept.
The majority of this song consists of Peter Gabriel preforming this song, while he is surrounded by many random images and animations, none of which link to the title of the song 'Sledgehammer' whatsoever.

Song-Sledgehammer

Performer-Peter Gabriel

Release date-25 th of April,1986

Genre-Funk rock

Another example of a concept based music video could be Tinnie Tempah's music video for his rap song 'Pass Out' which was released in the year 2010. This music video can be classified as a concept based video as the choreography, song title and setting of this music video do not relate to the theme of 'Passing Out'.

There is only one element of this music video which relates to the song's title 'Pass Out' which is in the song's lyrics.There recurring segments in this song's lyrics which includes Tinie Tempah saying 'we can do this until we pass out' and other segments where he would end the chorus by saying 'until we hit the ground and pass out'. This both of these lyrics are used to refer to a person falling unconcious or 'passing out' due to excessive partying.