Evaluation Questions

Question 1

Our music video and ancillary texts have similarities and differences with real media products. Our product is similar because it conforms in many ways to Goodwins points of analysis, however our video in particular also challenges several stereotypes and conventions of both music videos in general, but more specifically the pop genre.

Our video and more specifically our digipack conform very strongly in parts to the conventions of the pop genre by having two girls as the focus of the product, despite there being a twist to this the fact still remains that they are the focus of the target audiences attention. You can see this in our video for example in places like this in our video:

-The lighting illuminates the girls faces whilst darkening the background, drawing attention to them.

-The camera is positioned so that the girls appear taller, increasing their stature and their importance to the spectator.

This theme is recurring in both our ancillary texts, we can see the clear focus on the girls in both our digipack and our magazine advert.

-Focus again on illuminating the faces
-Made more evident my medium close up shot
-Costume change with hair styles

Despite this, our product also very strongly challenges gender stereotypes, as in our video we can clearly tell that the girls are the ones in the position of power as the boys are constantly getting injured and failing to catch up with the girls. 

-Here we can see Peter falling over a barrier as he attempts to chase the girls.

-He falls down which is symbolic as his level goes down so does his characters connection with the audience as it is desired to draw a comedy effect from the spectator.

Another way that our video challenges the stereotypes of the pop genre is by doing as is shown above and making the narrative a comedy about two boys chasing after two girls who have snuck out of a dinner party with them, the comedy is exaggerated by having many problems face the two boys as they go. For instance, there is a scene where we use split screen in order to show the chase taking place but confuse the audience by having an extreme close up of both the boys feet and the girls feet but going in different directions

- The use of the same setting with two pairs of feet running shows the close nature of the chase
- Also, by not changing the lighting, we can emphasise the fact that the scene is taking place late at night






In summary, our video conforms to pop conventions by highlighting the night life and focusing on two girls as the main characters. However at the same time, our video is less serious and is more orientated around comedy, also we have the two boys in the video being made fun of and humiliated which is not a very common feature in pop videos.

Question 2

Our main product (music video) and our ancillary texts (digipack and magazine advert) compliment each other well to create a rounded package for the target genre and audience. This is in the sense that we maintain the same style and image for both so that their is consistency in our final product.

Question 3

Ancillary task - digi-pak

Ancillary task - Magazine Advert

Effects used for digi-pak

Feedback on final music video

Positives

• Good editing
• Good lip-syncing
• Good narrative
• Touch of comedy in video
• Good lighting
• Nice handheld shots
• Good use of the split-screen effect
• Good editing - always cut on the beat
• Mise en scene is good - variety of costumes and props used
• The zooming in of the girls 'hiding in the bush' was humorous
• Good use of transitions
• Shadow works well in the lip-syncing footage
• Clothes worked well with the genre
• Variety of shots
• Funny narrative
• Good locations
• Easy to understand - communications between the artists and narrative
• Good cut rate

Negatives

• Acting is not convincing
• Not cutting to the beat
• More colour needed
• Shaky/unsteady camera in some footage
• Some shots a little too long
• Lighting is a bit harsh - could be improved
• Some mistakes in lip-syncing - out of time
• Could have used dialogue at the beginning during intro
• No clear narrative
• Lighting and location for lip-sync could have been more creative
• More performance locations

Ariel Levy: Female Chauvinist Pigs; Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture

We have been researching Ariel Levy's theory on the rise of 'Raunch Culture', her argument is that whilst the explicit kind of videos are going around of women in music, it should not be as widely accepted by society, especially for younger audiences.

In the video 'Iggy Azalea - Change your Life' she is practically naked throughout the video which is available to anyone on Youtube. This is inapropriate for a younger audience as they should not be exposed to this open sexuality at such a young age as this may have an influence on them.

Throughout the video, references are made about the artist, for example, the male figure in the video is presented as being Azalea's pimp. This is an issue for two reasons, firstly the video does not seem to challenge this idea in any way and seemingly accepts this, not a very appropriate message for a younger audience that might be watching the video. Secondly, T.I is presented as the pimp and this could be seen as a stereotype as he is black.

We believe that this video conforms to Levy's 'raunch culture' theory, we think this because the video carries negative connotations of solicitation and gender/racial stereotypes, in summary this is not acceptable messaging for a young audience. Similar videos include; Britney Spears-Work, Ellie Goulding - I need your love (this video is interesting because Goulding used to be presented as innocent and this is strangely changed in this video), and Rihanna-Pour it up. The main reason for the theory being applicable is that Azalea is presented in a minimally censored way, going to the limits of classification for the video rating. Throughout the video explicit content is presented of Iggy Azalea which conforms to the raunch culture of Levy's theory.


One can see evidence of raunch culture in the male side of the music industry as well. However, males are more in control of how they dress. Whereas, women are less in control as they can be thrown off their record label if they do not accept the terms of their producer.

For example, Justin Bieber is objectified in his videos and in the press, we can see this in his video 'Beauty and a beat' as he is shown as the centre of female attention:

Goodwins Six Points of Analysis

Goodwins six points:

Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

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 (a visual style).

There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

The video definitely demonstrates common pop video traits. For instance, the main focus of the song is on Katy Perry, she is shown in a manner conforming to the characteristics of her genre, we can see this because gradually as the video goes on she is presented with sex appeal, in the sense that she loses more and more clothing as the video goes on. Also there is a very genre oriented dance routine in parts of the video.

Music videos according to Goodwins analysis have a connection with the lyrics of the song. The example we found for this is Katy Perry's video 'Roar', in which we have the visual connection between the lyrics 'tiger' and the visual transition of the main character to become a tiger like figure:

As we can see this demonstrates not only a lyrical connection with the visuals but also the song in general, for example, the song edits mostly on the beat, in particular at the beginning, when the plane crashes, the song kicks in to represent the beginning of the present 'narrative'.

Katy Perry's other video 'Part Of Me', also demonstrates similar themes, for example the loss of a man from the central female characters life and showing the transition from vulnerability to empowerment, in the case of 'Roar', Perry's character must lear to survive in the jungle after her presumably partner disappears  In Part of me we are shown what seems to be a breakup, this then turns Perry's character to joining the military after seeming very vulnerable, and she is thus empowered. 

Final music video

Analysis of filming (day two)

On the 11/11/13 we had a second day of filming so that we could re-take some footage that needs improving and to get more of a variety in camera angles and locations.

Firstly, we took four more cuts of the girls lip-syncing as we knew that the battery in the torch had full power. We filmed two low angles from either side of the girls and a close-up of each of them individually. We kept the lighting the same by using the gold cover for the reflector to help fit with our genre. From this, we are then going to cut small clips and spread them about over the footage of the  boys running after the girls. This will keep our audience interested for the duration of the music video as footage of the scenes outside will be separated with the girls lip-syncing. By taking footage of the girls lip-syncing from different angles will make our music video visually interesting for the audience.

We then re-took the footage for the bathroom scene as before it was quite dark and the camera was shaky. After uploading the footage onto the computer, you could really see the improvement in lighting from last time we filmed in comparison to this time. There was also a dramatic improvement in the camera as this time the filming was a lot steadier.

Then we re-filmed a shot for the 'dinner party' scene of the phone as last time the footage we took was not in focus and you were unable to read the texts. We wanted to film the text from Siobhan's point of view and so that the audience are able to see the text coming through. This created some problems as the text did not always come through when we had positioned the camera where we wanted it and when it was in focus although after a few takes we got footage that we were happy with.
We came up with the idea of filming an over the shoulder shot of Peter looking at his watch in order to give the audience another dimension to the scene and allow them to feel as if they are in the environment.

Before heading outside we filmed some footage of the boys coming out of the house from different angles so that we could chose which one works best. This was so that our narrative could flow better and the audience would understand what is happening.

Finally, we went outside to film some more shots for that scene. The plan was that we filmed from some angles which we had not yet used to add variety to our video. After taking some shots from a variety of camera angles we had an idea of taking some hand-held shots. We experimented with hand-held camera and took three main shots. The first was a simple hand-held one whilst running behind the girls. Another was one of the boys turning the camera to face them in order for the audience to see how 'out of breath' they are. And the last one was again the boys chasing after the girls but with a stumble. We chose not to use this last clip as because we were filming when it was dark outside, the footage isn't very clear so the audience would not be able to work out what is happening. By adding some hand-held shots into our music video would help to continue with the humorous part of it.

Overall, we feel our filming went really well as we thought up new ideas on that day which meant we filmed a lot more footage than we had planned. As a result of this, we have more than enough footage that we can add to our music video to make it more visually interesting for our audience.

Stills taken for digi-pak