A Model of the Media

A Model of the Media

Audience Research

Audience Research

Before we make our music video we will have to do some forms of audience research and ask questions such as:

• Types of music videos they wanted?
• What kind of music do they listen to?
• Do they watch music videos?
• Age of audience?
• How/where do they listen to music?
• How do they watch music videos?
• Comment on the track.
• Identify target audience.
• Possible wider audience?

We will be able to do this in a variety of ways, some will include having to film and others will not. Ways that we can do this will consist of:

• A Survey, in which we will have to evaluate the results of the questions that we ask. 
• Through the form of a questionnaire.
• Personal interviews. (which will need to be filmed)
• Focus groups.
• Or we could do Vox Pops.

Obviously for each of these we will have to a few different questions, some questions that we can use are: 

• Do you watch music videos?
• What is your favourite music video?
• What do you like about music videos?
• What makes a great music video?
• Where do you watch music videos?

Production meeting

 Production Meeting

Here are some images of our first production meeting, through this we were able to discuss where possible areas of filming could possibly happen and we began work on the storyboard of our music video.

Some places that we decided that we could film was that of the music rooms in All Saints school or the music rooms in Robert Clack. We also considered using the drama studio in All Saints or maybe even at a friends house who has a small band room.

Artist permission

Artist Permission

For our music video we had to ask the permission of the artist of the song, for legal reasons. I was able to find the band on Facebook and sent them the message asking whether we could use their song for our media coursework. We said that they will get all the credit for the music, as it is their song and so we could avoid legal and copyright problems. As a result we can use "The River" to make a music video.

Mood Board

Mood Board

Mood Board

Artist Profile

Groundswell Artist Profile

Groundswell (now known as Three Days Grace), are a band which plays music in a variety of genres, such as, Alternative metal, hard rock, post-grunge, alternative rock and even nu metal (metal with rap). It could be said that "Wave of Popular Feeling" has some nu metal influences due to the way that the music is played.  

The band has various different styles of music so therefore there are different audiences to the band, but the main target audience of the music is probably males aged 16 and up. 

The song that we have chosen to do is that of their original style is somewhat of a mixture between grunge and rock. 

The band consists of two guitarists, one bassist and a drummer. 

The song "Wave of Popular Feeling" was one of the only songs that the band made under the name of Groundswell after which, two of the original band members left and were replaced by the members of Three Days Grace. 

When the song "Wave of Popular Feeling" was released in 1995, most of the band members were still in secondary school (The lead singer was only 17). So therefore it is a song that some teenagers may be able to relate to due to the age of the band members in this song. 

Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

Narrative is known as the way that the story is organised. This is how the audience will see the story in this way. Narrative can be split up into three main elements:

• Time- How much time that the film covers.
• Closure- How the story ends, is it a neat and tidy ending with all the problems being sorted out or is it the case that there is no closure at the end of the film?
• Enigma- An enigma of a film is that of a problem that needs to be solved, all films contain an enigma because otherwise the film would be absolutely pointless.

There is the basic style of narrative structure, and then there is also the idea of Classical Hollywood Narratives which are also made up of a few key elements:

• Classical Hollywood Narratives tend to be linear, meaning that the events of the film take place in a chronological order.
• There are few, if any sub plots to the film.
• The ending of the film has a tendency towards closure.

Theories of Narrative

Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov came up with his own idea of narrative theory, saying that there is four main stages to which a film is structured which are:
Equilibrium- where everything is in balance and the characters life is normal
Disruption- In which the equilibrium is disrupted by the enigmas of the story
Resolution- where the main character solves the enigma
New Equilibrium- Where equilibrium is restored but characters are different.

Roland Barthes

Barthes came up with the idea that texts can be:

'Open' with numerous 'threads to pull'
'Closed' with only one obvious thread to grasp
Texts that can be read in a number of ways are known as Polysemic texts.

Barthes also came up with the idea of the enigma code.
This is constructed to attract and hold the audience normally by creating a mystery or puzzle that the audience want to be solved.

Vladimir Propp

Propp identified 8 key characters roles in these stories/ films.

1. The Hero (Protagonist)
2. The Villain (Antagonist)
3. The Donor (Provider)
4. The Helper
5. The Father
6. The Dispatcher
7. The Princess 
8. The False Hero

Theories applied

These theories can be applied to the music video Stan by Eminem

Todorov's theory can be applied to the music video "Stan". The Equilibrium starts at the beginning of the music video where everything 'seems' normal. The Disruption in this video happens at the point where we find out Stan is actually a stalker and is mad about Eminem. Which causes enigmas to turn up such as what is Stan going to do. The Resolution happens when Stan kills himself with his girlfriend. Finally the New Equilibrium happens once Eminem answers Stan's letters and realises that he's already dead.

Barthes' theory can also be applied to this music video due to it being 'Closed' text where Stan and his girlfriend are dead and nothing can change this. The enigma code is also present in this music video because there is a strolling which causes the characters problems so the audience wants to carry on watching.

Finally, Propp's theory can be applied to the music video as:

1. The Hero= Eminem
2. The Villain= Stan
3. The Donor=Eminem
4. The Helper=Eminem
5. The Father=Eminem
6. The Dispatcher=Eminem
7. The Princess=Dido
8. The False Hero=Stan

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey

Laura Mulvey is a feminist who came up with the idea of Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

She had a theory which does develop as a logical argument:
1. Cinema reflects society.
2. Therefore cinema reflects a patriarchal society.
3. How does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema.

The Gaze

The 'gaze' of the camera is the male 'gaze'. The male gaze is active, the female passive. Within the narrative male characters direct the gaze toward the female characters.

The spectator is made to identify with the male gaze, because the camera films from the optical as well as libidinal; point of view from the male character.

There are three levels of the cinematic gaze- camera, character and spectator- that objectify the female character. (the triple gaze).

Agency

In the classical Hollywood cinema the male protagonist has agency- he is active and powerful.

He is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds.

The female character is passive and powerless- she is the object of desire for protagonist and audience.

Erotic Desire

Mulvey argues that women have two roles in film:
1. As an object of erotic desire for the characters.
2. As an object of erotic desire for the audience.

Evidence of theory




The idea of this theory is definitely evident in this music video. The object of desire in this video is obviously the women, what with them wearing little clothing and posing in all different poses over the cars and such. The women are definitely the object of erotic desire for the audience. Some part of the theory is wrong though, the women are not passive in this video, they are the driving force and make the video progress whilst being at the same time the object of desire for the audience.

This music video is a prime example to help provide evidence for Laura Mulvey's feminist theory as it shows the women of the music video working on cars whilst posing in certain positions which help to show off their bodies, with some of them wearing little clothing.

This is obviously not the only music video that does this there are plenty more which do, it is mainly seen in rap videos and genres like that. For example Kanye West's "Gold Digger".



This music video helps to employ the ideas of Laura Mulvey's theory that women are the object of erotic desire for the men in the video and for the audience. The males of this music video are definitely more powerful in the video and move the music video on whereas the women are passive and are unable to move the video on. They just seem to be there and are not important and they do not have agency unlike the men. The mise-en-scene can be used to help and provide evidence for the feminist theory as it shows the men dressed in full clothes where as the women is seen in lingerie.

All of the following images provide evidence for music videos and how they can be applied to Laura Mulvey's feminist theory, the fact that throughout the video the women are barely wearing any clothes so then it automatically makes them the object of desire for both the men in the music video as well as the audience. This also helps to imply the idea of agency, the women are made to just pose there

and be passive compared to the men of the music video.

Elton John Don't go breaking my heart music video (lip sync)

Elton John Don't go breaking my heart music video 

For our first exercise to do with a music video, we had to do a lip syncing exercise to the song "Don't go breaking my heart" by Elton John. The aim of this exercise was to be able to correctly sync in time a video with a song whilst using a variety of different camera shots.

To do this we first had to film the people singing the song a few different times in different camera angles, which meant that the people we were filming had to attempt to do the same actions as they did in every take. We had to do whole takes for every different camera angles.

The main issue that I noticed while helping to make this video was trying to keep the continuity throughout the music video. Other issues could be seen with the fact that it was hard to find the correct shots to use for the video.