The model of the media shows the way in which the production and consumption of media texts allows for future texts to be made thus the cycle continues.
Institutions use the model to work out how to best make media texts for their audiences. This tells institutions what it is that audiences want to see, and what they will pay for as to sustain the model there must be a finacial transaction.
The first step of the cycle is the institutions producing, distributing, exhiting and marketing their new media text products. Institutions are large companies within the media that produce media texts such as The big six, BBC, Sky etc.
A media text is the products that institutions put out such as a film, tv programme or a video game.
Audiences/ consumers by and use the different media texts, utilising different means to use their products such as Netfilx, games consoles, DVD's etc. Audiences/ consumers pay for these different products which allows a financial transaction which fuels the institutions allowing the cycle to continue and the institutions to continue making products.
A digipak and a magazine advert are key parts of promoting an album as they are used for marketing and creating a brand for the artist.
Digipak
A digipak is an insert that comes inside of a CD, this has six square sides including the front, back and the place for the disk. These usually contains images of the artist/band and are used to create the right style according to what fits with the track and the artist.
The key features of a digipak:
The six panels which are placed in the correct order
The name of the artist and the name of the album
The barcode
The spines
The list of songs
Here is a template of what the six panels should look like in order to create the right layout. This is the template that I will be using.
Magazine Advert
A magazine advert is used to promote the new album and to make audiences aware that it is being released. It usually contains an image of the artist/band and are used to create the right style according to what fits with the track and the artist.
The key features of a magazine advert:
The name of the artist and the name of the album
A linking factor between the digipak and the advert (such as a similar image)
Different font for different texts
A method of distribution
iTunes and a website
Here is an example of an advert that I found for the band Nirvana:
Alex Southam started off training as a lawyer but changed career path and went into working in film. Started his career in film on his own, he is entirely self taught, and is often very creative with his music videos taking on a variety of different styles all of which he is using to teach himself about film and make himself a well rounded film maker. When starting off Alex took on the role of doing everything for his videos he would do the camera work, the lighting and the editing all by himself, now though he had a director of photography that works with him. He has worked in the past with Agile Films and now works freelance with OB Management. Alex prefers music videos as a medium to be creative as he believes it allows for more creative freedom as opposed to commercials, this is because Alex takes his work very seriously and does not want to do anything to compromise it therefore because of this Alex focuses more on music videos but he also chooses to present his work on Vimeo as opposed to YouTube because he believes it is a more professional platform than YouTube.
Alt J "Tesselate"
Alt J's music video for "Tesselate" was Alex's first big music video shot in only one day for a budget of £10,000, even on this tight schedule and small budget Alex Southam still managed to make the video a hit. The real standout feature of this music video is Alex's work on the special effects using After effects, which are really effective and gained Alex attention which allowed him to go on and make more music videos.
Chase & Status "Lost & Not Found"
Chase & Status' music video for "Lost & Not Found" is one of Alex's biggest productions to date with a budget of £50,000. After being influenced by Massive Attack's music video for "Unfinished Sympathy".
Massive Attack "Unfinished Sympathy"
Which follows a woman around a town and you get glimpses of the town and life going on around her. Alex took this idea and decided to expand on it using a steadicam and filming at a 36 frames per second which was later slowed down in post production. He followed the events of daily life in a town and all of them seemingly connected as they are all happening so close to one and other. What really makes this music video stand out however is how it appears to have all been taken in one shot as the camera goes through the different locations, when it is in fact three pieces of footage seamlessly cut together to create the effect of one continuous shot.
Emil started his career as many others
do as a runner on film sets. He worked as a runner for Blink Productions and
worked his way up to being an Assistant Director. He signed to Academy then went on
to work for Between the eyes, now he mostly works for Pulse. He now does freelance work for OB Management- OB
Management describe themselves as "a motley crew of passionate director
agents whose sole mission is to nurture and promote incredible talent for
commercials, content and music videos".
Emil's first budget was for a song called "Our
house" by Kid British, he received a budget of £20,000 for one day of
filming.
Emil has gone on to do a lot of work with Ed
Sheeran - here is an example of his work with Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran- Lego house
Lego House is a narrative music video following Ruperts Grint acting as a crazed fan of Ed Sheerans. It follows him singing along to the song and then attempting to break in back stage at one of Ed Sheeran's gigs unsuccessfully. This puts a spin on the lyrics of the song seemingly sweet and devoted, which instead are portrayed as the creepy, obsessive behaviour of a crazed stalker. Interestingly this is a mixture of an amplifying and contradicting music video as the visuals seem to completely ignore the sweet meaning behind the lyrics instead choosing to focus on how intense they were and framing them in a way that made them creepy instead of sweet.
Jessie J Price tag
Price tag uses a lot of close up shots on Jessie J's face of her singing, but there are also quite a few wide shots establishing the setting and letting the audience see what else is going on in the shot. Unlike in Ed Sheeran's Lego House there doesn't seem to be a clear narrative behind the video. It is clear that the video is trying to discuss and criticise the materialistic nature of modern society. However through out the video Jessie J goes through multiple outfit changes which, to have such a vast wardrobe would require a lot of money as such the "price tag" would be quite an important factor, so this doesn't really seem to correlate with the message that the lyrics in the song are trying to convey. There is even a point in the song where the lyrics say "And your heels so high that you cant even have a good time" to which Jessie gestures to her high heels, I am unsure if this is supposed to be mocking the ways of society or if it is a way of admitting that even she falls into the category of those that she is trying to criticise as the materialistic ways of society are unescapable. Either way this aspect of the video does not align with the message being conveyed through the lyrics of the song as such the music video seems to be in disjuncture to the song.
Jamie Thraves started his career off making short films in university. He later started working for a production company called Factory Films where he began directing music videos. He started making a few music for a small budget around £5000 each to start off with.
The process when directing a music video starts when a commissioner sends out a song to a few different directors for treatments (this is unpaid) the commissioner then looks through the treatments to get a rough idea of the direction that each director wants to go in for the music video and chooses the one that they think will make the best music video. The chosen director is then commissioned (paid) to make the music video.
Coldplay "The Scientist"
Jamie's music video for Coldplay's "The Scientist" cost £200,000 to make and was filmed in 3 days.
One of Jamie's biggest tips when making a music video is to use the lyrics as a guide for the narrative of the music video. Indeed the music video for Coldplay's "The Scientist" is a great example of this principle as Jamie took the lyrics "Oh, let's go back to the start" and decided to have the music video going backwards on events that were happening.
Current music videos:
Jamie Thraves still makes music videos but now his average budget is around £20,000 and are shot in around 2 days.
Sam Smith "Money on My Mind"
Jake Bugg "Two Fingers"
He is now working with great music artists such as Sam Smith and Jake Bugg to make their music videos.
Jamis has used his success with making music videos to further his career he has currently had the chance to make three feature films Treacle Jr., The Cry of the Owl and The Low Down.
Women are often objectified or portrayed as sexual objects in music videos. A feminist media theorist called Laura Mulvey's talks about classical Hollywood cinema, however her theoryof male gaze can still be transfered to apply to the ideas of women in music videos. Laura believed that audiences must look at images from the point of view of hetrosexual males. In music videos this is done by having women viewed as the object of male erotic desire and show men to be active dominant characters and women to be passive submissive characters. Which reflects the views of a patriarchal society. Lily Allen's music video "Hard out here" at a first glance may be labled as objectifying and sexist. However after a closer inspection it can be seen that her song lyrics and the underlying message behind the song is one about the injustices that women face with lines like "You'll find me in the studio and not in the kitchen", "If I told you 'bout my sex life, you'd call me a slut, When boys be talking about their bitches, no one's making a fuss," and "Don't you want to have somebody who objectifies you?" it becomes clear that this music video is supposed to criticise and represent the way that women are represented in the media.Taking the stance that equality is needed and that there shouldn't be different standards dependant on gender. This video is a clear criticism of the patriarchal society and is supposed to show just how rediculous the inequality towards women is.
Robin Thicke's music video "Blurred Lines" is a good example of the male gaze as it clearly objectifies the women in the music video using lines like "you're a good girl" is patronising towards women and lines like "tried to domesticate you, but you're an animal" suggest that women are subhuman and meant to be trained, The women are viewed as sexual objects with women parading around with very little clothing on (a banned version where the girls are actually topless) showing that all women are good for is being attractive and sex. This song has some very misogynistic themes with some even inturpretting the song to have rape undertones with lines like "I know you want it" suggesting that the women cannot say no.
Miley Cyrus' music video "Wrecking ball" became very contriversal as Miley had previously been know as a role model to young children and this video was seen as setting a bad example. She no longer appears as the innocent youthful Hannah Montana she was known as before. She came back as an adult acting in seductive manners wearing very little clothing. She was trying to appeal to a new audience an older audience and started attracting a lot more of a male audience falling under male gaze.
Micheal Jackson is known for creating new and inventive music videos. He put a lot of time money and effort into making his music videos brilliant and unique.
Jackson 5 before his solo career
Early videos consisted of just a performance on stage, this is during the period when he was a child and in the group Jackson 5. At this point there was no emphasis on the importance of the music video it was more about the song.
Jackson 5 - ABC - 1970
Gradually the videos got a little more put together. They started putting more effort into crafting a music video, using more techniques as they began to realise that the music video was a fundamental part of marketing a song.
Jackson 5 - Blame it on the boogie - 1978
The start of his solo career
When Micheal Jackson started his solo career his music videos were still simple but it was clear that he was starting to pay attention to the impact a music video had on a song. He focused still mostly on the song but incorporated some effects, colourful green lights and a unique costume to set his music video apart.
Micheal Jackson - Rock With You - 1979
Then Micheal started to use his music videos to tell a story. They incorporated a narrative aspect to them not just the performance base videos that had come in the past. Also beginning to show Micheal' s dancing abilities, by using light up pavement blocks to draw attention to his moves in Billy Jean.
Micheal Jackson - Billie Jean - 1982
This idea of telling a narrative in his videos continues on and his music videos become more complex. This is when his music videos begin to showcase Micheal Jackson's dancing with elaborate dance sequences and they begin to realise that this is his unique selling point. As such we begin to see the emergence of the Micheal Jackson we all recognise today.
Micheal Jackson - Beat it - 1983
Thriller
Micheal Jackson - Thriller
The music video for thriller was a phenomenon and considered one of the most famous music videos of all time.
Thriller was the first of it's kind. It was a film in it's own right and much more complex than anything seen before it. It marked a new milestone for the music video transforming the quality expected from music videos to come. Thriller's choreography was extremely complex and the costume's and dialogue created a video of a completely different calibre to the videos of the time.
As can be expected for such a high quality advanced music video it cost a fortune to make coming to a total of $500,000 which Micheal's record company refused to pay for. He was willing to pay for it himself but in the end didn't have to as he made deals with both MTV and Showtime.
Showtime paid to air the hour long "Making of" documentary and the long version of the music video which came to a total of 14 minutes long. MTV who had a policy of not paying for videos found a loop hole where they were able to pay $250,000 for the documentary for the exclusive broadcasting rights once Showtimes contract ended. MTV mostly showed the 5 minute shortened version of the video.
Sales of the music created a Guinness World Record as the top selling music video of all time. At the time it was possible to buy Micheal Jackson's Thriller on VHS which included the full video and the "Making of" documentary. This was timed perfectly as the hype for the video started weeks before Christmas.
The Library of Congress added Thriller to it's National Film Registry and was the first music video in their registry. It also won a series of awards: Best performance video, Viewers choice and Best choreography at the first MTV video music awards in 1984.
Katy Perry is an American singer who started her career as a gospel singer under the name Katy Hudson.
However this changed along with her name when she became a pop singer, who became an idol for teenage girls all over the world. Her branding is someone who teenage girls can look up to. A unique appeal among her target audience taking on the role of a relatable slightly older role model like older sister or an older friend, someone they aspire to be like that they feel they can depend on for guidance and advice. She comments on the different issues and insecurities that her teenage audience go through, attempting to convey an inspirational message. Katy Perry is also able to reach a wider audience due to her certain brand of "sexy" while not compromising her younger audience by appearing "sexy" but in a non threatening way.
I'll be using Goodwin's theory to analyse Katy's music videos.
But first I need to look at what Goodwin believed. Goodwin found that there are specific genre characteristics in music videos. For example Katy Perry's music is from the pop genre and pop videos often use bright colours, bright lighting and colourful quirky costumes. A good example of this is Katy Perry's music video "Hot N' Cold"
Goodwin also believed that there was a relationship between the visuals of a music video and the lyrics. There are three different types of relationship between the lyrics and image.
The visuals canIllustrate the lyrics to the song.
The visuals canIgnore the lyrics to the song.
The visuals canAmplify the lyrics to the song.
An example of Katy's music video being used to illustrate th lyrics of her song is "E.T." which depicts and alien and the lyrics are about an alien life form.
Goodwin also talks of linking the narrative of the song to the performance of the song. This is done by having the artist actively take part in the narrative story of their music video while also providing their vocal performance. Goodwin believed this adds authenticity to the story within the music video. An example of this is "Part of me" as she acts as the character in the music video while also providing the vocals for the song.
Audience reception theory is the way that different audiences recieve and respond to a media text in very different ways. The different responses come from the audience being affected by the text in different ways. The ways that people respond is how we group differemt audience interpretations.
Encoding decoding model
Encoding decoding theory
The encoding decoding theory was thought of by Stuart Hall, 1973 and states that producers encode/ put meaning into texts which is supposed to be decoded by the audiences. Audiences can ccept/ reject the producers message and come up with their own interpretations. Encoded texts can be decoded based on the body language present as it allows the audience to understand the emotions and relationships. Some texts may have multiple meanings and therefore audiences can decode them in different ways. This means that different people will interpret the same text in different ways.
There are three different types of readings that auduences may have. 1) Preferred reading- this is when an audiences agree and accept what is encoded in the text. 2) Negotiated reading- this is when audiences partially agree with the encoded messages in the text. 3) Oppositional reading- this is when the audiences reject/ dissagree with the what is encoded in the text or they chose to decode the texts differently.
Audiences have both a preferred and negotiated reading in response to McDonalds advert's
The preferred reading is that the advertisement is supposed to encourage the audience to want the food inducing feealings of hunger or cravings for the food. This is supposed to lead audiences to have the same feelings when the pass by the same companies different locations.
The negotiated reading of these advertisements is that audiences or the majority of audiences will enjoy the food products however those who are more health minded may pass and infact become irritated by the advertisements although they know that the products aren't harmful as long as they aren't consumed to frequently.
Oppositional readings of the Teletubbies. Some audience members believe that Tinky winky from the teletubbies is a symbol of the gay community. Here are some of the audience responses from people who hold this belief. "He is purple - the gay pride colour; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle - the gay pride symbol", "Tinky winky also carries a magic pink bag" and "Modeling the gay lifestyle is damaging to the moral lives of children".
Encoding and decoding in music videos.
Artists are encoded with certain ideologies in order to increase financial gain.
When it comes to this encoding the artists target audienc will have the preferred reading as they are the ones being targeted they will accept the encoded messages withought question and intrepret them in the intended way. The secondary audiences will often decode the text with a negotiated reading. Outside audiences such as parents will view their childrens favourite artists could take an oppositional reading as they do not understand the message being presented.
Hozier "Take me to church"
This is the music video to Hozier's "Take me to church" this is a song that I really enjoy. As I fall into the target audience, Stuart Hall's audience reception theory would suggest that I take the preferred reading when it comes to this song and music video and I do take the preferred reading. For this song the preferred reading is that we shouldn't persecute people based on what we interpret as their "sins".
Stormzy "Big for your boots"
This is the music video to Stormzy's "Big for your boots" this is a rap song and I am not a fan of the genre and as such I fall outside of the target audience. Stuart Hall's audience reception theory would suggest that I take an oppositional reading when it comes to this song and music video and I do take an oppositional reading, after watching this music video I have very little idea about what the intended message, I am unble to understand what has been encoded into this text.
As research for techniques, the types of shots and the speed of editing used in real music videos we decided to watch through a real music video and create a storyboard of all the shots and edit the pictures together to create an animatic in Premier Pro. We cut the images to be roughly the same length as the shots in the real music video so that we could match the same pace as the real music video. This would give us a better understanding as to how to properly plan shots for our final music video and allow us to practice editing fast cuts to the beat. This allowed us to learn how to make very fast cuts work for a music video and gave us this skill which we will now be able to transfer to our own music video.
For the purpose of making a music video one of the key skills that we had to learn was how to edit to the beat. For this task we had to use some footage of dancing mascots and cut them to the beat of a song we were given. In this task I used premiere pro when editing and I found that the ability to expand the audio to see where the sound rises and falls helped me a lot in this task. As this allowed me to see where the beats were so I was able to move the playhead over the beats in order to cut them. It was also crucial during this task to make the actions and the timing/lyrics of the song match for the best visual effect. From this I am now able to edit to the beat much more effectively a skill which I will now be able to transfer to making my music video.
Richard Dyer came up with star theory. This theory details his different beliefs surrounding the stars. He believes that the persona's that stars portray are carefully contructed by their management using different media platforms such as their music, magazine articles etc. in order to increase finacial gains for the artist. This image is caitered to attract a certain target audience and completely controlled in order to create the perfect persona which is completly artificial, but is just right for making money for the artist and their record label. This is also done to diversify artists as record lables need to sign a variety of different types of stars in order to reach the widest range of audiences and reach more people therefore making more money.
Richard Dyer also believed that if an artist was authentic and portrayed their real selves, their audiences prefer this and that if an artist does this now it is considered a unique selling point because it is so rare among all of the fake personalities. Another thing that Richard Dyer belived was that artists are infuential to there fans they are trendsetters and often attract fans with similar backgrounds, religions,cultural views and personal lives. Music videos can convey certain messages about race, gender or religious identities and fans use these as indicators that they can look uo to these stars as role models.
Stars a limited in the way that they express themselves as they are not allowed to put across the wrong idea for fear of damaging their image this is made worse by the overwhelming social media coverage that stars get now. It is now quicker and easier for fans to get information about their favourite artists online which has both its pro's and con's. Pro - it is easier for artists to interact with their fans, Con - it is easier for a stars mistakes to become public knowledge. Social media habbits now mean that fans follow their favourite artists throughout their day to day life, this is the cause of many stars drastic personality changes and can often prompt stars "loosing" themselves.
The unique selling point of the Spice girls was that each of the girls were very different each one targeted a different type of girl meaning each of the Spice girls had their own target audience. This was managed as each of the girls had different styles that reflected different types of girls.
The way in which the girls were shown to be different relied heavily on their clothing.
Baby Spice- Emma was the youngest of the Spice Girls and this is played up in her persona as she is portrayed as the baby of the group this is shown through her outfits she wore a lot of white and pink often wearing her hair up in "childish" styles to symbolize her youth and innocence.
Posh Spice- Victoria was considered the sophisticated one of the group, labeled as "posh" because of her style and smart dress sense. She often wore darker colours and tight fitted clothing.
Ginger spice - Geri was unique as she was the oldest member of the group originally too old to be considered almost didn’t make it into the group and when they asked her age, she allegedly said, “I’m as old as you want me to be. I’ll be 10 with big boobs if you want".” this fiery response branded Geri's defining look was red, she often opted to wear red clothing and she was a red head - the fiery ginger spice.
Scary spice- Mel B her outfits were often more daring and experimental compared to the rest of the group, making her stand out as she wasn't afraid to be dramatic and scare a few people off.
Sporty spice- Mel C helps represent the girls who aren't very girlie, dressed in sport/ work out gear
t-shits and tracksuits, she is the most laid back out of the group.
The Spice Girls were a synthetic (manufactured) group created by a management team of Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert and Lindsey Casbon. The initial recruitment for the Spice Girls happened in February 1994. An advertisement campaign was marketed requesting "18-23 with the ability to sing/dance? R.U. streetwise, outgoing, ambitious and dedicated?" this campaign was specifically detailed to attract the right kind of girls in order to fit the image of the band. The idea behind the spice girls was to have a female version to match the popular boy bands of the 90's .
The group were completely under control of the management team and they were pitched as being a close group of friends that also just happened to be making music together which encouraged a wide female fan base. The Spice girls became huge securing a ton of sponsorship and merchandise even managing to secure their own line of dolls.
The branding of Katy Perry
Katy Perry has a unique appeal among her target audience and a wider audience as well. Her target audience consists of young teenage girls around the ages 14-17. The way that Katy Perry's acts to appeal to this target audience is taking on the role of a relatable slightly older role model like older sister or an older friend, someone they aspire to be like that they feel they can depend on for guidance and advice. She uses her songs as a way to do this commenting on the different issues and insecurities that her teenage audience go through, attempting to convey an inspirational message that they shouldn't let themselves get to down and they should never give up hope. Katy Perry is also able to reach a wider audience due to her certain brand of "sexy" while not compromising her younger audience by appearing "sexy" but in a non threatening way.
"Firework"
In Firework we see her ability to address the insecurities of her target audience showing herself to be someone who understands what they are going through. This is something that is very important in her appeal as it makes her someone that her target audience can rely on for advice with these issues. This song has an overall message that her target audience should love themselves no matter how different they are because their differences make them unique and being unique is beautiful.
"California Gurls"
At the time that "California Gurls" was released
At the time that "California Gurls" was released Katy was struggling with her marriage to Russell Brand which greatly affected her branding as Russell Brand was a well known womaniser. She began to change with her marriage and started becoming more sexual in her music videos. This was off putting for her young audience as and as such she started to loose her original fan base. This is prominent in the music video for "California Gurls" as she begins to appear more sexualised wearing less clothing and appearing nude on a cloud at one point. This is not the representation her brand was aiming for and as such her fan base started to loose interest.
"Wide Awake"
After struggling with her marriage to Russell Brand, Katy ended up getting divorced which was unfortunate for her but allowed her to get back to who she was before she began to change. She took this as an opportunity to make a video in apology to her fans and show that she was no longer being affected but her marriage and that she could still be the same person that she was before Russell Brand. She took it as a chance to reunite with her fans showing she could still be a role model for them showing her journey of how she began to change so that her fans could understand that she didn't abandon them.
"Roar"
In this music video Katy has managed to get back to her "brand" she is back to being who she was before her marriage and is showing how she is now fearlessly fighting back against the influences that changed her. She is showing herself to be ab better role model stronger and more empowered than ever.
Sometimes an artist needs to use their music video to add value and perhaps boost the popularity of a song that would otherwise only perform averagely in the charts. These are some examples of songs that have been made increasingly popular because of their music videos.
A-ha! - Take on me
Released in May 1984 on the album Hunting High and Low the song didn't perform as well as the recording studio may have liked only managing to sell 300 copies and peaking at number 137 in the charts. As a result of this the recording studio hired director Steve Barron who created the idea for the music video an animation method called rotoscoping combined together with live action shots, the video took 16 weeks to complete and boosted the song to number one in the charts and won six awards.
Sinead O'Connor- Nothing compares to you
The recording studio initially had plans to have Sinead take part in a video using French landmarks. They paid out a lot of money to have her sent to France which equated to a total of a few seconds worth of footage, this obviously enraged the recording studio when they realised that all their money had been discarded for one close up shot of Sinead singing the song. However this decision turned out to be a brilliant one as the close up shot was able to capture authentic emotions from Sinead when she cried during the song. This was powerful for audiences as it was so authentic and helped the song reach number one in the charts and won the award for MTV music video of the year.
For some songs it isn't just the content of the music video that adds value but also the version of the track as well. Now many artist use auto tune to regulate their vocals and make them sound better. So when you see them in live performance their vocals are often completely different to the sold track.
