Question 1b, Applying a media concept to one piece of coursework.

When Girls Telephone Boys music video

Genre

The genre of music video that I tried to replicate in this piece of coursework was similar to music videos that are made for rock/metal music, this should be clear to those who listen to the type of music as it is loyal to certain traits and conventions that the music would have.

It follows typical media conventions that a music video of the genre would do; Fast past editing that follows the tempo of the music: This gives a edgy feel to the music, but it is dependent on the tone and pace of the Song. If a song is slow and sluggish it will most likely have a music video to support these traits, slow faded transitions and long cuts would be typical of this. Where as a fast pace song with plenty of changes in tempo will likely to have a music video that quickly cuts from frame to frame with minimal transitions.

Cutting and switching scene on beat to the music, this is a very popular trait within the rock/metal music video industry. As most music will not be to a 4-4 beat it is a significant way to cut and make the video ‘fit’ with the music. If the cuts were out of time and sudden it won’t have fluidity, this will weaken the videos appeal to the audience. I tried to make sure all my cuts were correct to the beat of the music, as it does give a feel that the video and the music were designed to work with each other.

Lots of extreme close up shots, this is a good technique if you want to give the impression you are watching the band. Lots of music videos will also have live shots of the band playing the music. I feel this gives the impression you are there watching the band. Which is significant as many people who listen to that kind of music will likely see bands at concerts, so if they achieve the feeling they are at a concert while watching the music video it will influence them to watch it.

As well as this following the traits of the genre I also followed a sub-genre that is key with the band I used, key features like the actors used and the location was all influence by that band so ‘their genre’ is also seen within this music video. For example, the band I used always use odd areas to record their music videos, so I choose to record on a public street on a typical day. Although it’s not too the extremes that the band follows, (Recording on floats in the Arctic Ocean) I feel it would be something that they would do as it’s unexpected.

If I were to analyses  my media piece in relation to Genre I would say I represent my chosen genre very well. I followed extensively the popular media traits that are used within the rock/metal music industry. I also fell the extended traits that I used to simulate the video being made by the selected band adds another level of depth to the genre I covered. The ‘cult’ videos of deftones were hard to emulate as they have to their disposal a much large budget, but I feel I have successfully achieved this ‘cult’ video feel with a much smaller budget because of the select traits I chose to use from the band that I could replicate easily.

Narrative

The story of the music video comes from the lyrics and story behind the song, but is slightly tweaked to make it easier for me to record and plan as the original story was far to complicated and controversial to do for a student film. I did want to stay loyal to the story but the location, time and preparation would of taking up too much time and effot to execute properly.

The original story of the song follows the life of a young teenage girl, she is of american   decent and is from California. She is a typical skater teenager. When she is returning from a night at the boyfriends she begins to worry about her surrounding, being from a rough neighborhood. She then stops at a phone box to ask her boyfriend to walk her home the rest of the way but he becomes easily distracted in the conversation. She, upset and frightened, continues to walk home and is met by 3 shady men who then begin to follow her. She turns back in hope to reach the telephone and call the police but she is closely stalk by three men and is cornered then attacked towards the end of the song.

In regards to my story within the video, I had to change my story in order to comply with the resources I had. It would of been ridiculous to do the music exactly how the story intends it to be: Filming in America and Have a Women of American decent for starts would make the filming process impossible. I changed the location and characters to make it simple to do, I reduced the 3 men to 1 and the teenage girl was an english teenager. The story stand very similar to that of the original story, a girl is returning home from the boyfriends and is stalked and attacked by a man who she sees during her journey home. I had to cut out the idea of her being attacked as it is a very sensitive subject so instead I took influence from the film Matrix and Matrix Reloaded. A character on these films has the ability to absorb people just by touching them, I chose to use this instead of attacking the girl. This use of the absorbing people also helped my develop the usage my desired technique of Rotoscoping, it easily integrated the use of rotoscoping as I could draw over the character to illustrate they were being absorbed.

Although I am disappointed that I had to change the original story idea, it was very unlikely I could do the story to a decent standard. The likeliness of finding a Brown haired 20 year old American women was bleak, so I had to alter the story. As well as the lack of actors and the location effecting the story I had to change it because of moral and ethic reasons. The story line covers a very serious issue of the mistreatment of women, but I felt that would be a very controversial topic to make a video about. I needed to change the story to a stage that did not underestimate the seriousness of the issue, but could not do the story to a tee. So I feel although I did need to step away from the story, I covered the main issue within the song as well as keeping true to some details.

Representation

The representation of the music video is kind of old fashion and based on a 50’s/60’s family lifestyle. I wanted to represent this time as it is a key trend that is relevant to now. The old fashion lifestyle is a trendy thing in todays media so I wanted to represent a darker side to the era.

Many domestic violence issues came up during the time period that were over shadows and in a sense forgotten, so I tried to show that this things happen. It isn’t the main focus in this video but I hoped it was a addressed as a sub story within the piece. I used the 50’s/60’s era to build my characters looks and characteristics upon as well.

The female within the story is a typical ‘housewife’; she is ‘under the man’s thumb’ (the person she was ringing on the phone) in the beginning of the music video there is little speech between this women and the husband/boyfriend saying she is “Hell-a sensitive”. This sexual innuendo, although this is a part of the song I used it to my own advantage. I used this short piece of text to represent a different side of my character. Although in my video it is not shown her saying it I feel it still stands as a way of showing a more erotic character.

To give more depth I also tried to represent naivety, fear and curiosity within the actions of my character. This was done through the story of the song, because a normal character would not stand and stare at a strange individual: This I feel represents the curios side to the character. The frightfulness is shown through the uneasiness through the character’s expression and body language. (Luckily I had a good actor!) Maybe my representation of women could be seen as ignorant and naive but that’s exactly as I intended. I wanted the stereotypes of the 50’s/60’s to be shown in this piece as if it was a 50’s/60’s man making the video.

Audience

The audience of my music video is both very narrow and broad. I planned to make the video both appealing to a wide range of people interested in the music genre, using typical music video traits to make it similar to others within the music industry. I also tried to make a cult feeling to the music video, having references to the band that I have made the music video for.

Trying to appeal to the wider audience was a simple process, I looked at various examples of music videos to simulate them and take key techniques they used. Cutting scene on time, fast transitions etc. I done this so I can appeal to the audience much like other music videos, I used these typical conventions that would make a music video ‘exciting’ to that group of people. They should feel a familiarity when watching this video as it uses stereotypical techniques all music videos use.

As well as making the video similar to others, I chose to make my characters and situation of the characters easy to relate to. I followed stereotypes of teenagers when choosing and making my characters. The characteristics of my main female character is close to those of a common teenager. I chose to make my character have blonde hair, scruffy clothes that are slightly provocative, a mobile phone etc to fall in line to a common teenagers life. This is what I consider what a teenage female girl would wear, although this might be being slightly ignorant, looking at other music videos that I researched girls also dress like this in those videos.

I also used this method of making the female character dress provocatively to attractive a male audience as well. The sex appeal of the character will stick in the minds of the audience. The male character as well follows things stereotypes of the people who would listen to this kind of music. Long hair, skater-shoes etc are traits of that section of people within the music industry.

I tried to stay true to my selected bands conventions, that only people who are fans of the band would understand. Like an inside joke or an easter egg to the band, e.g. the hair colour of my female lead character and the shoes worn by my male character. These things should be obvious to the fans of the band, and they should feel a certain sense of joy when they come across this. I feel this helps me represent my audience to another degree; as only certain people will understand the easter egg, and these certain people were who I wanted my initial audience to be. Obviously I wanted to keep a wide range of audience but these added features were a ‘gift’ to my main audience.

Media Language

No extended shot transitions, Shots switch in tempo to the music, traditional music conventions, Cinematography: Sound, editing, characteristics,

THEORIES!: HYPODERMIC NEEDLE, LONG TAIL, USERS AND GRATIFICATION, THE PERFECT STORM.

This piece is aimed to simulate the use of the hypodermic needle in a ignorant sense. I wanted to show the audience the stereotypes of the 50’s/60’s, but I didn’t intend for this to be the only source of evidence that the audience takes in. If they were to assume this is the way that women were treated and represented then they are foolish, this is why the hypodermic needle theory is weak. If someone was newly introduced to the period and their only knowledge of the era was this video they would have a very negative view, which is what I aimed to achieve but not for them to only have a negative view. I wanted to make them aware of the negative side of a very positive era.

How the long tail theory interlinks with my music video is also very key. As the music video is aimed mainly to have a small cult audience it is unlikely to have a huge amount of viewers when it is first released, but that’s the point of the long tail theory. I hoped for this music to leave an impression on the viewer and for them to remember the music video, so as time passes people will continue to view it as they remember it as it stands out. E.g. the Rick Rolled Never gonna give you up joke. Rick Astley’s song got more views from this than this then it had when it was first out and the years after.

The Uses and Gratification theory can only be used narrowly. Only the entertainment, Integration and Personal Identity factors can be used in relation to my media piece.

The Information side of the theory can be used as I explained in the Hypodermic Theory but it is not a decent source of information (such as the new or documentaries) which the information side of the theory is design to be used for. The Entertainment aspect is self explanatory, the music video is aimed to entertain and have the audience watch it and listen to the music. The Integration part of the theory could be used to educate the viewer into a social group or era that they were not not very familiar with before hand. Although this could be argued that it should be a part of the information side of the theory, it is secure and more relevant to this part of the theory as most people are already aware of the social groups that surround them just not to an extent as they should be.