Major vs Indies

Major vs Indies from Esther Sole

Goodwin Notes

Goodwin’s Theory Goodwin found that there were 6 key aspects when analysing a music video:

1. A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, highlighting or in contrast to the lyrics.

2. A relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.

3. Typical genre icons and styles used.

4. Close ups of the artists face. 

5. The use of Iconography

6. Voyeurism- Watching them without their knowledge.


I am going to apply Goodwins Theory the Kanye West Ft Jamie Foxx - Gold Digger  

Relationships between lyrics and visuals 

"Get down girl go head get down "

 “You don’t want a dude to smoke but he can’t buy weed!" 

 “But when you get on he leaves you for a white girl”

“She got one of yo' kids, got you for 18 years”

2. Relationship between music and visuals 

The editing pace of the video is in sequence to the beat which is very common in R&B music videos as they tend to have a quick, sharp tempo to them which makes it easier to know when to cut to the next scene. There is no straight narrative to the video so it mainly relies on the beat of the  music to give a pace to the video and make it attractive to the audience. For instance, when the tempo speeds up so does the editing pace. This is done in the from the clip 0:20- 0:24, 1:30- 1:31, 1:34-:35 and 2:12- 2:13. 

Furthermore the shots themselves change to the beat of the music. For example a cut edit is used to zoom in or out of the frame very quickly this can be seen in the video from 2:32. By the visuals being edited together by the beat and rhythm of the music, it makes the video much more effective, catchy and unique as many would recognise or remember by the beat and rhythm.

3. Star image 

This  is an over the shoulder shot of the lead ‘gold digger’ this shows  Kanye stronger presence as he is looking down upon the woman. The mise en scene has once again changed , the lighting is softer with a warm pink tone applied and also the ‘gold digger’ is out of focus it shows the audience that Kanye is the main focus of this framing.  Also the close up is used so that the audience remember Kanye as an artist and to also to attract his target audience.

This shot is a close up of the featured artist Jamie Foxx , this is done so that the audience can also identify Jamie as he is also an independent artist and he also has to sell himself to his target audience. 

This image is an establishing shot of kanye and Jamie they are both wearing similar costumes which creates a distinctive look to the video as it shows that they have a strong relationship. 

 

Conventional Elements of R&B Music Album Covers

Good Girl Gone Bad is Rihanna’s third studio album and was released in 2007 . The background is plain and simple which can be seen as sense of class and sophistication, which is a common theme, represented in female R&B artists. The medium/ long shot of Rihanna shows her body in a tight dress, which is attractive to her male audiences and is seen as the male gaze. The low-key lighting also highlights the shape of Rihanna’s hourglass body which is also very Important in the R&B industry as women have to look a certain way to appear alluring and sexual .

The “Makings of Me” album was released in October 10th 2006. Her costume is a scarf covering her chest and jeans, the significance of the little items of clothing that she wears is a common stereotype of R&B as women are shown to have less clothing or more revealing clothing. The artist position show that she is at the centre which also highlights that album is all about her. Her pose is relaxed and it is not staged, it is an everyday pose which indicates that she is comfortable. The lighting is suttle and bright which is common in R&B album covers.  The bright lighting could suggest that the alum is something to look forward to. Bright lights often signify good and positive things, so this could suggest that the album is about positive things. The mise en scene with the makeup is natural, natural colours such as brown, gold, bronze are used instead of bright colours for the eye shadow which complements the artists skin tone. Looking at the album cover I would say that the target audience for this album would be teenage girls ages 14-18 and young adults between the ages of 21-27.

Animatic

Animatic from Esther Sole on Vimeo.

Planning my Pitch

Today I began to construct my pitch , that I will be presenting to my class after the half term . The pitch will include an artist brief, mood board, animatic, synopsis of the video ( narrative, performance , location shots and costume).

Storyboard Planning

I have began planning for my storyboard for my music video. This is very important for the production of my music video as it will help guide me on what shots i need to take and where. I have not yet finished my storyboard but I will complete it during the half term to present to my class when we come back. Furthermore, I have made sure that all the shots reflect with meaning and feeling of the song , as the my song choice is a sad song I have decided that video with be completly in black and white to address the theme of the song. 

The song begins with a sound of an alarm , the video will begin with the name of the production company name and the artists name, the name of the songs. Then then will be a cross dissolve which will lead to  an extreme close up of the artist angry so that it reflects the artists feelings and emotions. 

I will also be experimenting with light to make the the video look professional. I will also be incorporating Andrew Goodwins theory to the video. There will be a variety of shots taken so that there is a lot of footage that I can select when editing. 

Brainstorm of chosen genre R&B

After researching several music genres I have decided I will base my music video and digipak on the R&B music genre. I have created a brainstorm of artists that are in the R&B genre and the stereotypes of the R&B genre. I researched and looked at artists who would be similar to my artist research. I have looked and researched on the artists Ciara, Beyoncé and Rihanna.

Ciara is a very well known R&B artist however she is more versatile and different to Beyoncé as she challenges the codes and conventions of an female R&B artists, this can be seen in her music video  “Like a boy” as she is dresses as boy in tracksuit bottoms and a male vest top. Whereas Beyoncé is your more stereotypical R&B female artist as she is highly sexualized which can be seen in her music videos. She also wears a lot revealing clothing so that she can appear attractive and appeal to her audience especially males. Similarly Rihanna is also portrayed the same as Beyoncé as she to is also a very sexualized in the R&B music genre, as she is also in proactive clothing and always viewed through the “Male Gaze”.

Furthermore, a lot of female R&B artist are portrayed through the “Male Gaze” this done so they can reach to their male fans as they are meant to be viewed as objects of desire.

Digipak First plan

 In lesson today we were asked to design the first draft of our digipak. The image on left is a quick sketch of how I would like my digipak to look like. The idea I have is for the audience to know that this digipak is an R&B one. My artist is a solo artist so I will have a close up or mid shot images of her for the album cover so that her face will be easy to recognise. Inside the digipak there will series of photos of the artist which will be in a mini photo leaflet from the photo shoot. However, I have not fully decided how I want the back of the digipak to look like, I am considering have city night light as I want the photo shoot to be done at night time in city. This is because the songs on the album will be mainly slow and my chosen song for the music video will be slow and the lyrics link in with the night life/ love theme. Furthermore, the CD will just be black with the artists name on it across in a bold font. I have also decided to add another CD on the digipak which will feature live versions of the songs and a behind the scenes of the artists UK tour. Lastly, the front cover will also have a parent advisory symbol on the bottom right as some songs have explicit lyrics.

Influential Music Videos

I decided to research music videos that are similar to one that I will be creating. All RnB music videos have a clear narrative and I want to make sure that I incorporate this into my music video .The songs below link well with my chosen song as they are about women who have been cheated on and the thoughts and feeling which they go through during this experience. The narrative in the videos were very clear and the viewer could understand clearly what was going on. I need to make sure that I do the same in my video as I do not want to loose the  audience interest. 

Digipak's Analysis

Green screen digipak analysis

In this video I will be analysing the album "Talk that Talk " Rihanna.

Music Video Ideas

 Toady in class iI had to think and plan and possible ideas that i may have for my music video.  The narrative of my music video is of a girl who has a crush on guy but he never finds out and she regrets not telling him. However she has many opportunities to tell him but she never gains the confidence to tell him. The main feature of the video will be close up and mid shots of the artist so I will need to make sure that the performance in the video is excellent as well as the cinematography, as a majority of the video will performance. The visual in the music video will show her struggling to try and talk to her crush and contacting him via social networks. 

After I wrote the down the rough idea I had on the narrative , I then started thinking of possible settings and miss-en-scene. I look at several music videos which had the same narrative as mine, a majority of these videos where studio based with some scenes in a different location for example, a park, party etc. Which means that the main location for filming the music video will be at school as the have all the facilities and equipment need to film .  The other scene would be recored outside school either in my house or Lewisham. I have decided that Lewisham could be a possible filing location as it has an urban fell and setting which is what I want in the music video especially because its a RnB song. 

Moodboard

In class today I researched images for the creation of my moodboard , my moodboard needs to resemble the RnB genre and the lifestyle. As I missed the lesson which the class had created theres I was not able to do it on paper as the printer was not working. So I decided to do a digital version mooboard. My artist is a female solo artist of the RnB genre. She will illustrate the conventions of fashion, hair, make-up and the lifestyle that is portrayed in RnB. This moodboard is beneficial as it gives a visual idea of what my artist will look like and what will be featured in the music video. 

Music Industry in Crisis

Postmodernism and The Music Video

What is Postmodernism ? 

Dictionary Definition :  " A style and concept in the arts charxctised by a distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions"

Postmodern media rejects the idea that any media product or text is of any greater value than another. All judgements of value are merely taste. Anything can be art, anything can deserve to reach an audience, and culture ‘eats itself’ as there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute. The distinction between media and reality has collapsed, and we now live in a world  defined by images and representations – a state of simulacrum. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some ‘pure’ reality that exists before the image represents it – this is the state of hyper-reality. All ideas of ‘the truth’ are just competing claims – or discourses and what we believe to be the truth at any point is merely the ‘winning ‘discourse.

To understand what post-modernism is you have to look at what came before. There is a theory that suggests that genres go in order of :

1.  Post- Modern 

2. Cannon 

3. Experimental 

If the experimental stage of genre aims to establish trends and the cannon stage works within those trends to fix them into our cultural understanding, then post-modernism looks at those trends, and adds something new in which creates a new experimental stage etc. Furthermore it has been said by some that the music video is a post-modern stage of the evolution of cinema as many artist are now starting to add a short stories/films into their music videos. So Postmodernism becomes the ‘new’ by referring to the ‘old’.

Postmodernism is also said to reflect modern society's feelings of alienation , insecurity and uncertainties concerning identity, history, progress and truth, and the break-up of those tradition like religion, the family or, perhaps to a lesser extent, class, which helped identify and shape who we are and our place in the world. Artists like Kanye West , Michael Jackson and David Bowie are all cited as examples of postmodernism in the ways in which they have created or re-created different identities for themselves.