Beyonce - Formation (Music Video)

In what ways are themes of conflict encoded in this video?

• MES of police car with Beyonce sitting on top of it symbolises rebellion, which is further anchored by her carefree and powerful facial expressions.

• Intertextual conflict - police persecution of black people.

• Hanging out of a car, conflicts with Beyonce's calm facial expression.

• Contrast between poor, dilapidated neighbourhood and rich antebellum house, also creates conflict through the mise-en-scene of Beyonce's dress as she is wearing a slave's owners wives dress.

• Black woman wearing antebellum signifies cultural appropriation, but also demonstrates Beyonce's power over the past.

• High key spotlight in empty swimming pool, shorts, crop tops and 70's loose afros and librarian glasses.

Context on Formation

• Formation was the lead single in Beyonce's album Lemonade. Was released the day after Beyonce played at the Super-Bowl 2016.

• The music video has won numerous awards.

• Set against the backdrop of the flooding in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and the associated racial tension in America.

• The use of a canon in her movement where you see the BME women get 'shot' down could connote the aggression that BME women have to go through and maybe the idea that they're all just getting taken down one by one. (2.54)

• The movement of not only Beyonce but the camera aswell, seems as if we are going into a coffin, and the ideologies and perspectives of society on BME women are going into the coffin and are going to be buried away, this happens near the end of the video so it shows how after all of these events in the video's these stereotypes of BME women are finally being put to rest.

Music Video Representations of BME's

What is Representation?

• The way a producer represents a group of people/issue/event or place.
• This demonstrates the ideologies of the producer.
• Importance because it allows people to make sense of the world.
• Consistent exposure to representations and ideologies can cultivate the ideologies into the audience's mind.
• Representation constructs reality. If people keep telling and seeing the same representations and people start treating the stereotyped group this could conclude in the stereotyped group in a self fulfilling prophecy.

Anaconda - Nicki Minaj (Music Video) - Representations of BME (BlackMinorityEthnicGroup)

• The long shot of BME women dancing in little clothing represents BME women as not being good for anything else only in a sexualised way.

• The high angled long shot of the 3 BME women wearing minimal clothing and posing in a very odd way which goes against hegemonic ideas, it is set in a jungle so the message that this could be presenting is that BME women are wild and uncivilised.

• Nicki Minaj is taking on a stereotypical BME women role in the video.

• However, in one scene she is taking on a stereotypical white woman role by being in a kitchen yet she subverts away from that stereotype as she is not actually cooking and trying to be sexual and seductive. Instead, she is giving BME women the stereotype that they are sexually promiscuous.

Lil Pump - Gucci Gang (Ethnic Minorities)

• Mise-en-scene of tiger represents ethnic minorities as potentially violent and aggressive, and emphasises massively his aggression and power.

• The binary opposition of the tiger walking through the american state school shows the rebellion.

• The mise-en-scene of the bags of cannabis then it shows he's a drug dealer and is rebellious as you can get in jail, he is in the underclass so he has no social status in society.

• By Lil Pump just giving out cannabis, it gives the audience the gratification of escapism.

• Using closed code language, its like no one can catch him out on what he is saying.

• BME's rolling their eyes at the teacher shows their disrespect for the teacher.

• There are many aspects of the video which connote taking drugs (hallucinogenic imagery) such as his extremely bright hair and the shimmer of his purple jacket all connotes drugs.

• The gesture of Lil Pump chucking his weed bag at the teacher shows criminality and the binary opposition of it being on the authoritative teacher it shows the breaking down of authority that the younger and 'criminal' generation are rebelling against the older 'authoritative' teacher.

Riptide - Vance Joy (Music Video Analysis) 3

How does the video Riptide by Vance Joy encode feminist ideologies?

• Presents a mocking parody of sexism in music videos - C/U 'how to photograph girls' - connotes that women are purely present to be looked at by heterosexual male audience.

• Many shots of women are in stereotypical male clothing. Low angle M/S of woman holding arms in a gesture that connotes power.

• M/S of blonde woman bound in Mis-En-Scene of tight ropes connotes that the restrictions that women face in society, and is critical of the notion of women as a 'weaker sex'.  connotative of 'being tied down' with maternal responsibilities etc.

• Video lacks anchorage which forces audience to make own assumptions, simultaneously providing sexual gratification for male heterosexual audiences, but also consistently informs the audience that scophophilia is creepy and NOT okay.

• Ironic representation of patriarchal hegemony - M/S man standing in front of woman with torch in exaggerated pose and situation - graveyard.

• C/U of woman singing as her makeup starts running so it is rebelling against the 'male gaze' theory showing that the woman isn't there for the pleasure of the heterosexual man but there for herself and to portray her emotions and connect with the audience instead of being sexualised for the heterosexual males pleasure.

Intertextuality

• Where one media product makes reference to another media product.
• It allows the audience a completely new way to relate to the media product.
• It allows the audience satisfaction as they known what it is related to.
• It draws in a specifically larger audience.

Suspiria - (1979) re-release trailer

• Genre Conventions;
• Blood.
• Weak and vulnerable female protagonist - damsel in distress archetype.
• Colour scheme - Red/Blue/White, very vibrant prominent primary colours, would use physical red and blue filters which is highly typical of 70's European. 
• Soundtrack - built suspense with the non diegetic sounds.
• Diegetic female screaming.
• Violent male antagonist.
• Iconographic features such as cherry red blood.
• Retro fashion is particularly 70's, muted colours.

Riptide - Vance Joy

• 'I was scared of dentists' - looks like someone is being tortured in a horror film as it is a blonde haired blue-eyed woman who is being tortured so it is not her at the dentist so it doesn't replicate the lyrics like we think it does.

• 'Stabbed hand' - looks exactly like a 70's horror film.

• Wasn't made in the 70's but it was processed like it was made in the 70's.

• Surrealism is an artistic movement which originated in France.
• A tech which follows the logic of dreams.

• Continuity Editing - Riptide lacks continuity and it takes you out of the narrative so it is discontinuity editing.

• Eyeline match / match on action - getting cut to different scenes which relate and make sense due to the way they've been placed and make a narrative, whereas riptide does the exact opposite.

• Combination of visuals and making intertextual references to surrealist cinema and provides audience with the gratification of social interaction.

Claude Levi-Strauss - Binary Oppositions

• Underlying meanings in signs and symbols. We all make sense of the world through binary oppositions, and one thing cant exist without the other.

• Look out the window. It's day. But how do you know its day?
• Because it's not night.

• Bart Simpson is really naughty. But how do we know he's really naughty?
• Because Lisa is really good, without Lisa, Bart would be normal.

• Psycho is set in an isolated motel. But how do we know it's isolated?
• Because it was set in a busy city and when its not its isolated.

• The killer jumps out of the cupboard and is very loud, how do we know it is loud?
• Because it was quiet before.

• The main reason for producers to make binary oppositions is to make it comical for the audiences.

• Emphasise something.

• Easy for the audience to understand.

• Comedic for the audience.

• Easy for the producer.

• Makes things intense.

Vance Joy - Riptide (Music Video Analysis) 1

Vance Joy - Riptide (Music Video Analysis)

• Music Videos as a postmodern medium 
• By combining two previously separate industries, using an often excessive variety of textual elements just for the hell of it, and by deemphasising the importance of traditional narrative.

• Postmodernism
• Impossible to define.

• Aspects of Postmodernism
• Distrust of form, convention and established conventions
• Style over Substance
• Emphasises surface readings over deeper analysis.

• Example of Postmodernism
• Breaking the Fourth Wall

Vance Joy - Riptide - Indie Pop Genre

• Directly connected with the lyrics

• Non-Continuity Editing

• Beat Matched

• General theme and narrative - montage of shots suggests themes of drowning, dying and death.

• Alternative theme and narrative - an unpredictable and deliberately misleading montage of shots.

• Deliberately invites polysemic interpretations.

• Montage consistently matches the themes of the lyrics, eg 'cowboy running' is matched with the long shot, symbolic of dual personalities, afraid of what he has become.

• Intertextuality - the mise-en-scene suggests the conventions of a Western film, and therefore functions as a referential code.

• Referential codes create audience appeal, as only certain audiences will understand the reference.

• Additionally, the mid shot of the seance and the mise-en-scene in the ouija board is referential of horror cinema, in particular 70's horror films. 

• We see reference to the 70's in the mid shot of the letter dated 'August 1974' anchors the audience into a particular time period, because it is seen as 'cool'.

• By seeing the mid/ls of feet being dragged under a bed, slightly low angled shot, low key lighting and blue/purple lighting which connotes darkness, misery and threat.

• It denies the audience a definite response and definite conclusion.

• Voyeuristic M/S high angled POV shot of young blonde woman removing the one piece yellow swimsuit, the mustard yellow is very 70's along with the slow zoom. Intertextual reference to early Bond films.

• Heavily manicured female hand pushes red leather bound book into frame in a manor which seems rehearsed, robotic and non-consensual.

• Positions the audience in a voyeuristic, even perverted perspective, forcing the audience to consider Van Zoonen's notion of a predatory male gaze.

Context

• Vance Joy was born in Australia.
• He is signed to Atlantic Records (a subsidiary of major-label warner).
• Its an indie-folk-pop genre.
• Riptide was Vance Joy's first single to be released in the UK.
• It went platinum as over 1 million copies got sold.

Key Terms

• Objectification
• The process in which the producer dehumanises a person, and make them appear on the same level as an object, this is done through the use of mise-en-scene, media language and shot types etc.

• Male Gaze
• The assumption that every media product is made for heterosexual male audience, which means that the function of every women we see, is there for the pleasure of the male. - Lisbet Van Zoonen.

• Sexualisation
• The process of valuing someone only for their sexual appeal.

• Voyeurism
• 'Peeping Tom' - taking pleasure from watching someone whilst you're undetected.

• Scopophillia
• The love of watching, another word for Voyeurism.

Textual Analysis of Shot in Riptide

• High Angle/Mid Shot - voyeuristic connotations, and we are positioned as the voyeur.

• Mise-en-scene of the ty-dye looking top looks almost like she is bleeding, so it has the intentions that theres something bad in the 'riptide'.

• Looking out into the ocean which is symbolic of adventure, and exploring the world.

• Costume is quite exotic and exciting.

• Framed in the centre of the shot so she is centre of attention and emphasising her importance to her heterosexual male audience according to Lisbet van zoonen.

• Shallow depth of field, she is the only thing in focus so a zoom lense would be used, it positions the audience in a scopophilliac way.

• By her having her back turn't it connotes that she is unaware that someone is watching her again positioning the audience as a voyeurist.

• The setting of the beach makes it seem luxurious.

• Seems like natural lighting.

Representation of Women in Vance Joy - Riptide (Music Video) 2

Representation of Women in Riptide - Vance Joy (Music Video)

 

• 1 ideology that is presented in the video is that women are vulnerable, women are represented as being a stereotypical 'Damsel in Distress'.
• Individualistic and Powerful.
• Women are always looking distressed and in pain (Shot 1)
• Consistent shots of hands and feet which objectify women and dehumanises them as we do not know anything about these women.

• Looks like a model.
• Glowing, healthy face. 
• Mature face - 35/40.
•  Prominent facial features (Cheekbones)
• Sharp nose.
• Sensible hairstyle - slick, severe.
• Lipstick stands out - shade of red is a dark berry red suggests she is mysterious.
• Middle Class
• Close up - we are extremely close to her - and makes her feel uncomfortable, were not supposed to be this close to a performer also with the high angled shot it makes the shot even more creepy as we are supposed to be seeing a performer in a long shot from a low angle shot with a lot of other people in the audience aswell.
• There is no specific ideology of anchorage in the music video, nothing works together.
• Her lip syncing goes wrong throughout the video and does get worse as the video progresses along with the wrong subtitles.

Music Video - Lesson 1

Analysing Music Videos

Pulp - Babies (Music Video)

• Diegesis of sound is complicated - both and neither at the same time.
• Diegesis: in the world of the narrative.

• Inter title's are used communicating explicit meaning to the audience.
• Important to make the music video clear.

• Long shot at the beginning introduces audience to the band slowly coming into focus.
• So the audience are aware of who they're watching.

• Mise-En-Scene - typical of socio-political context (costumes/bedroom).
• Working class/small/grubby.

• Mise-En-Scene - Costumes refuse to conform to hegemonic codes
• Close Up of disinterested face of the keyboard player which is extremely unconventional.

Convergence

• The 'coming together' of two previously separate media industries.

Why Do Music Video's Exist

• To make money - advertising of songs.

• Entirely new form of entertainment - important for the audience.

• Synergy - the interconnectedness of media products leads to a result of more of the sum of its parts.
• Examples include merchandising tie-ins, TV shows, etc. 

• Music Video's are adverts for songs.

• Music Video's are easily shared between audiences. If the new generations are always online then it will end up being successful sharing music on the internet.

• MTV is an American channel that just showed music videos and that was there brand as there was a market for this, so it was tying in television and music together.

Music Videos VS Cinema

• Music Videos
• Generic Music Video's are quite short. (3.5-4 minutes)
• Edited around a song.
• Simple Narrative.
• We would expect an advert sometimes but not always.
• The music video is the advert for the song.
• Music Video's generally a hyper energetic/over the top.
• Music Video's will often use confusing narrative techniques (non continuity)
• Music Video's involve high paced editing generally.
• Music Video's are more direct address.
• In Music Video's we aren't exactly placed in the scene, we know were watching something through a screen.
• Music Video's are free.

• Films
• Generic Films are long. (1.75-2.5 hours).
• Traditionally the film is made first then the music.
• Elaborate Narrative.
• With films we would expect a trailer.
• The film is the product.
• Films are generally quite relaxed and more realistic.
• Films involve continuity.
• Films involved normal speed paced editing generally.
• Films involve no direct address sometimes this does happen when conventions are broke typically in comedies to show the variation from a generic film.
• In Film's we are placed within the scene and watching it first hand.
• You have to pay to watch a film.

Terms we call performers in music videos are Celebrities:

• Celebrities are people who are well known not just in a certain group of people they need to be widely known. 
• Need to be well known for something you've done and people know about. 
• They will have a bold personality.
• They will be seen as role models.
• To do something to become known.
• A celebrity is the attribution of glamorous or notorious status to an individual in the public sphere.
• Can give us life lessons (not all good life lessons)

Applause - Lady Gaga (Music Video)

• A close up at the end shows the mise-en-scene of the mask perhaps showing she's trying to mask her identity.

• We know she is a celebrity as we can see she is wearing minimal clothing and we dont bat an eyelid whereas if we saw someone wearing it in the street we would find it extremely strange and weird and they would be breaking hegemonic codes, whereas when Lady Gaga breaks the hegemonic rules of society we dont think its strange so it shows her glamorous celebrity status.

• Mid Shot - The mise-en-scene of the use of the cauldron symbolises a witch shows connotations that she is a difficult and unpleasant person, her hair is also looking scruffy which is outlandish and strange again showing her breaking the hegemonic rules.

• Mid Shot - The mise-en-scene of the lighting and positioning is constructed so that we are always focused on Lady Gaga throughout, through the use of the spotlight and we dont see any other lights (fill lights, key lights)

• Close Up - the use of high key lighting shows the importance of Lady Gaga, also with the boldness of the mise-en-scene it emphasises her celebrity status. 

• The mise-en-scene of the bouquet of flowers, she also looks like a ghost as she is mixed in with the shadows, also Lady Gaga looks as if she is saying goodbye to the old lady gaga and reinventing herself as this new person showing her confidence and boldness, also with the bouquet of flowers it shows her fans love for her and expresses her celebrity status a lot more than originally.

• The consistent use of close ups of Lady Gaga's face encodes her as a celebrity, also she is spaced centre and the main attraction of each shot we see, we always see her first, nothing else.

• Metanarrative 
• Also known as grand narrative, this refers to an overarching narrative or system of beliefs that helps us to make sense of the world.

• Marxist
• Marxists believe that the ruling class have complete control over the working class and exploit the working class by blaming everything on them.

Music Video

Kylie Minogue - Hand On Your Heart

• Use of Gratification - Bright colours and hearts.
• Primary audience can be teenage girls.
• Ideology is about love, not sex.
• The Mise-en-scene of her hair appeals to the target audience as it is aspirational for a young target audience.
• The mise-en-scene of her outfit encodes the ideologies of the music video as their are hearts all over her dress.
• Reach out for a more male audience as she is trying to look sexy.
• Always looking directly into the camera which is an example of a direct mode of address, always happens in music videos because the artist is always trying to make you feel involved. 
• The narrative in this can come through the symbolic code of the change of the dress and they can mean all different type of things, its left up to the audience to decide what they believe. The video doesn't anchor the audience in so the audience are left to do a negotiated reading.
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