14/10/09 - Catch Up

This lesson I finished writing up about the theories and applying them to our work.
I am about 2 lessons behind now due to missing last lesson because of my theory test so for the rest of this lesson I am going to research in to Andrew Goodwin's theory and if I have time I will make any amendments to the blogs.

This lesson is a double so towards the end of first lesson, Sadie and I spoke to Mr Nicolle about what aspects of our blog were good and what we needed to add to it.
The feedback we were given were to add seperate labels to represent sections of the blogs which I have now done, to embed the youtube clips and if we can to find a way to embed a document page for the lyrics.
We were also told to link any theory work we have done to our practical which I have now done.


Andrew Goodwin identifies key features of a music video:
- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.

- There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music.

- Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography.

- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist.

- Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially in the treatment of females, but also in terms of systems of looking. Some examples are screens within screens, cameras, mirrors, etc.

- There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts, these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans.

Andrew Goodwin says that music videos are constructed by links between the visual aspects, the song and the artist. These aspects build up relationships in the videos and through the use of close-ups it represents the artist and gives them the publicity they need.
He says that the use of Voyeurism is to increase the attractiveness of the video particuarly towards males and in humorous videos, intertextuality is often used.

I have applied these key features to mine and Sadie's music video:


- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics. We will show a text with part of the lyrics of the song as Joel is singing them to amplify them.

- There is a relationship between the music and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the music. The music is a mixture of piano and guitar. It will be of a fairly slow pace to amplify the visual mood of Joel.

- Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography. We are using a similar style of spilt screen to that used in The Plain White Tee's video of Hey There Delilah which shows to different pieces of action happening at the same time.

- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist. We are having a lot of close-ups on Joel's face to show his emotions clearly. We will focus the majority of the shots on him alone.

- Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially in the treatment of females, but also in terms of systems of looking. Some examples are screens within screens, cameras, mirrors, etc. We are using split screens with one focussing on Joel and another of his girlfriend. We may also include a shot of Joel singing into the mirror/looking at his reflection.

- There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts, these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans. We have chosen music that is very similar to the acoustic, indie style music used by James Blunt and The Plain White Tees which will appeal to fans of this genre. We are also using similar shooting styles such as simple locations and shots.