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.

Categories of Music Videos:Performance based video

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 Performance based video is a music video in which the main focus is the video's singer or the band performing the song. In most cases this type of music video is often presented as the singers performing to the camera however there have been some music videos where the performers are shown to be performing to an audience.

Performance based music videos are often commonly used by Rock bands such as Linkin Park and Green Day as this music video technique is used help to present this music video as a Rock concert that the band would be performing at which gives the video more of a realistic and livelier feel .

This is an example of a Performance based music video by the american band Linkin Park

                                                                   Song:What I've done
                                                                  Performers-Linkin Park
                                                              Realise date- 2nd of April,2007
                                                                 Genre: Alternative Rock

Narative theories of Media texts

A Nartative theory is essetially the formula for how a story would progress, consisting of a begining, a dilemma occuring that would cause disturbance or disruption in the storys setting or a problem that the protagonist would need to face and then a conclusion which resolves the dilema in the end.

The Franco Bulgarian philospher and phyciatrist Tzvetan Tordrov had once studied story naratives and had used is findings to produce a formula, that represents the order for how the story would follow.

This theory would begin in a social setting, in which there is a sense of peace and order present at the time along with a firm sense of social order.This state of peace is called Equilibrium which means a situation in which any of the opposing sides in the story's setting are balanced.

The story of this Narrative then progresses into the middle of the story , to which the Equilibrum has become disrupted by a dilemma, such as a conflict or the arrival of the story's antagonist and the sinister actions by the antagonist. As this is the complete opposite of  Equilibrum this is called Disequilibrium.

The effects of whatever the dilemma is , or what the antagonist has caused to happen would the lead to the introduction of the story's protagonist. This person would then set out to intervene in the in the story's dilemma and put an end to it . The protagonist would then succeed to provail in his mission and over come the antagonist and any other oppposing forces that he would have to face. The  story is then restored to its orginal peacefull and balanced state in the form of 'New Equilibrum'.

Narative formula : Equilibrium leads to Disequilibrium which then eventually leads to New Equilibrum.

A russian structuralist called Vladamir Propp had reasearched a number of fairy tale stories and had produced a listed of character types and events that are associated with them, based on what he had learnt from he's studies(much like Tordrov). He then called these factors that he had identified 'functions'.

The main factors and character types that fairy stories consists of are:

• The hero(protagonist)
• The villian (antagonist)
• The doner (offers gift with magical properties)
• The helper (sides hero)
• The princess (hero's award)

                                                            Tzvetan Tordrov

                                           

• Tzvetan Tordrov was a philosopher from Bulgaria who had theoriszed the Narrative story method of Stories are that is based on the changing states of Equillibrum. This method would involve of a story which begins in state of Equillibrum thst means this setting in which this story is taking place would be a society that is currently in a calm and peacefull state where the opposing forces are even.
• This Equillibrum would then be disrupted by the film's dilemma in which the story will be faced with a certain predicament that affects either the story's characters or the story's setting in some way that could potentially be life threatening to them.
• The state of when a story is faced with a dilemma is called a Disequllibrum.
• This predicament would then cause the story to introduce the protagonist of the film, who would be set with the task of solvig the story's dilemma in any way they can and therefore putting an end to the story's Disequllibrum.
• Most often in stories or films the protagonist would be forced to set on a task to put an end to the story's Disequllibrum because they are unwilling and the task could be extremely risky, however there are a few situations when the protagonist would accept their task freely as they would see it as their duty.
• The protagonist would then eventually overcome all of their obstacles by then conclusion of the story and then restore the films peaceful and calm state therefore creating New Equllibrum.
  
                                                     Vladamir Propp

                                                   

• 
  
• Vladimir Propp was a soviet russian scholar and film critic.He had studied the various folk tale stories to find out all of their structure similarities in order to see whether they had all followed a specific Narrative pattern.
• As a result of his findings, Propp had concluded that each folk tale that he had studied followed 31 narrative functions and resolved around a group of eight different kinds of characters:
• The Hero-the Protagonist of the story.The person of whom's prespective shown is shown in the story and who sets out on a quest to thwart the Villian's schemes. 
• The Villian-The person who opposes the stories Protagonist.
• The Dispatcher- The person who sends the hero on his or her task.
• The Helper- The person who helps the hero in his task.
• The Doner - The person who provides the hero with a magical object or the person that trains the hero for their mission.
• The princess- The hero's love interest that the hero cannot marry throughout the story (which is often because she is being imprisoned by the Villain). At then end of the story when the hero defeats the Villain the hero is now able to marry the princess as his reward.
• The Princess' father- This person can also be seen as the dispatcher as their have been numerous occasions in which the father of the princess sends the hero to retrieve his daughter safely. By the end he often rewards the hero by giving him and his daughter his blessings to elope.
• The False hero-The person who attempts to take credit from the protagonist's heroic actions or the person who pretends to be the protagonist so that he or she can benefit from the hero's rewards.

                                                                     Cluade Levi-Strauss

                                                             

Cluade Levi-Strauss was a french ethnologist and anthropologist.
He had researched the different narrative structures by identifying the binary oppositions that are presented within a story.The Binary oppositions in a story are essentially a group of one or more individuals that are conflicting against each other because they have contrasting aims and beliefs. This causes them to fight for their separate causes which therefore  makes them see each other as enemies.

The most common example of this is the forces of Good verses the forces of Evil. This conflict is very common in stories and various types of other media because these two forces are very identifiable as being enemies seeing as though they are polar opposites of each other.This means that these separate groups would believe and want different things for themselves as well as the well beings of their societies, whether they'd want to keep the peace in it or damage it.

Categories of Music Videos:Narrative 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 Narrative based video is a music video which follows a storyline(or a Narrative) throughout the whole of the video. These types of videos often involve fictional characters made solely for the music video, which are often mute so that  only the video's performers can only be heard singing in the video. 

At times the video's singer can be featured as a character, in which they would interact with the other characters.

In most cases the characters in a Narrative based music video will often be faced with a kind of Dilemma or will have a story arc that would progress as the music video progress and the lyrics that the video's performer sings would often represent how the characters are feeling or reflect their situation.

As this type of music video is structured by following a narrative, the same film narrative theories which were theorised by Vladimir Propp,Tzvetan Todorov and Levi Strauss can also be applied to music videos the same way as if they were films.

A example of a Narrative based video can be the 2012 song 'Payphone' which was performed by the American Pop rock band Maroon 5.

Song: Payphone 

Performers: Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa

Release date:17th of April ,2012

Genre:Pop

This Music video can be viewed as a Narrative music video as it follows a particular storyline which centres around Adam Levine (who the lead singer of Maroon 5), while he and the rest of the band are performing the song in the background. In addition this video appears to follow all of the Narrative theories that were theorised by Propp,Strauss and Todorov as elements of all narrative theories can be present in this video.

Propp's Music video analysis of Payphone

The Music video begins with Adam Levine(the Hero) in an unknown location, looking ragged and injured while remembering his life prior to this happening when he was working in a bank and simply living his ordinary every day life. His peaceful life changes when the bank he is working in , is suddenly raided by a group of armed robbers(the Villains) who take the whole bank staff hostage and rob the bank. 

While this is happening Levine looks over to his attractive female co worker(Love interest/ Hero's reward) who is hiding behind a desk and tells her to remove her shoes(which she does), indicating that he is planning to escape with her.

A robber than approaches Levine with his back facing him and Levine notices a handgun sticking out of his back pocket. Taking advantage of the situation Levine takes the gun from the robber(which makes him an inadvertant Doner) and then uses it to over power him and then distracts the other bank raiders while Levine and his love interest safely escape the building .

Unfortunately when they get outside, a policeman sees Levine still holding the handgun and opens fire at him(mistaking him for one of the robbers) which causes Levine and his love interest to run from the police. 

The two protagonists then take re fudge behind a car, in which Levine tells his female co worker to hide in its boot so that the police will only follow him.

Once his love is safely hidden, Levine then notices that the famous rapper Wiz Khalifa has arrived in the same location and leaves his car with his chauffeur. 

Desperate to escape the police Levine then steals the keys from the chauffeur , gets in the car and drives away, which then leads to a lengthy car chase between Levine and numerous police cars.In addition the fact that Levine gained the car from Wiz Khalifa would make him a accidental 'Doner' to Levine.

Eventually Levine manages to escape all of the police cars by causing one of them to flip over, which causes a massive car crash stopping all of the police cars and injuring Levine.

The music video ends, where it began with Levine using a Payphone in an unknown area  trying to contact his love interest.

                                         Struass's Music video analysis of Payphone  

There is a sense of Binary opposites that are clashing as this music video is progressing.
The video begins with Levine and his love interest(forces of Good) being confronted with bank robbers that are armed with guns(forces of Evil). Levine then briefly fights back at the robbers by taking a gun from one of them and uses it to, throw the other robbers off guard as him and his love interest escape the building, while narrowly dodging the bullets that the robbers are firing at them.

                                            Todorov's music video analysis of Payphone

Narrative formula-Equilibrium leads to Disequilibrium which then eventually leads to New Equilibrium.

In order for the stage of the music video to transition from Disequilibrium to New Equilibrium, the protagonist of this story would then have to take notice of the dilemma that he or she is being faced with and would then have to do something to solve this problem.
The stage in which the protagonist notices the problem is called 'Recognition' and part in which the protagonist is compelled to solve the solution is called 'Reparation'.

• The video begins with Levine and his love interest working peacefully in a bank-Equilibrium
• This peace is then disturbed when a group of masked gunmen , enter the bank and being to loot it while taking everyone working there hostage (including Levine and his love interest). -Disequilibrium
• Levine and his love interest are taken hostage, and he realises that if he does not act, all of the they will be either killed or robbed.-Recognition
• Levine then fights back by taking a gun from one of the robbers and uses it to defend himself against the robbers , so that he can escape the building with his love interest. Unfortunately he is still holding the gun when he and the girl escape the building and a nearby policeman spots him with it and starts shooting at him which causes various other policeman in police cars to pursue the protagonists. Levine then hides his love interest in a car boot and the steals Wiz Khalifa's car so that he can evade all of the police cars that are chasing him.- Reparation
• Levine then successfully escapes from all of the police cars and is now safe from them and all of the bank robbers.-New Equilibrium