Friday 21 November 2014

Laura Mulvey


Laura Mulvey states that in film and video women are typically the objects, rather than the possessors of gaze because the control of the camera comes from factors such as heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film and video genres. Mulvey believes that the female model is often put on display directly to the spectator (male audience), thus viewing herself as the male audience views her.

More than just being an object of a gaze, the woman in the advertisement becomes what’s being bought and sold: “The message though was always the same: buy the product, get the girl; or buy the product to get to be like the girl so you can get your man” in other words, “‘Buy’ the image, ‘get’ the woman”.

 In this way, the male gaze enables women to be a commodity that helps the products to get sold (the “sex sells” adage that comes up whenever we talk about modern marketing). Even advertising aimed at women is not exempt: it engages in the mirror effect described above, wherein women are encouraged to view themselves as the photographer views the model, therefore buying the product in order to become more like the model advertising it

A video that puts this theory on display is the video by Madonna called "Like a virgin". Throughout the video Madonna dances provocatively with a male gazing at her, with camera shots emphasising on her body parts, this video definitely supports Mulveys theory.

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Pop conventions shopping list

Thursday 20 November 2014

Group Introduction

Hello! This is a short introduction of my group and I. These are the ladies that I will be completing this project with.

Monday 17 November 2014

Real Love - Tom Odell

Thomas Peter Odell is an English singer-songwriter. He released his debut extended play, Songs from Another Love, in 2012 and won the BRITs Critics' Choice Award in early 2013. He is an indie pop artist.

The title implies that Tom Odell went through some sort heartbreak as he experienced love that according to him, was not real, hence the title. In addition to this, the lyrics in the video suggests that Tom

Friday 14 November 2014

Auteur Theory - Jonathan Glazer

The term auteur originates from France which translates as author.

The Auteur theory was introduced in the 1950s by French film directors like Francois Truffaut who advocated a focus on the contribution directors made on the style and form of film. Truffault quotes, "A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the orgiginal material".

Auteur Theory suggests that a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that a writer uses a pen or a painter uses paint or a paintbrush. In law, the film is treated as a work of art, and the auteur, as the creator of the film, is the original copyright holder.The film maker's style and practice has to be different which then gives them a signature status.



Jonathan Glazer (born 26 March 1965) is an English filmmaker, whose directing work includes feature films, music videos and advertisements. Glazer has a dull grey-ish style that runs through the vast majority of his music videos. They are often dragged and are slow paced, making the narrative videos complexed and often hard to follow and understand. In addition to this, he has a specific theme that runs through his videos which ususally consists of disturbed characters. An example of this would be "Rabbit in your headlights" by UNKLE ft. Thom Yorke (1998)


"Rabbit in your headlight"


From watching Glazer's work, he tends to use a lot of close up shots and mid shots to fully portray the tone of the piece. In "Rabbits in your headlights" his use of these shots illustrates the vulnerability og the lead role which goes against male objectification conventions. Glazer's work is typically very cinematic, in this he has fully captivated the tones of the piece, setting it apart from a "normal" music video.

"Under the skin"


In terms of mise-en-scene, by taking everyday environments, Glazer tends to manipulate them with negative or darker connotations and create surrealism. For example, taking a look at "Under the skin", Glazer uses clinical lighting to create an out of place feel to the audience. The evident minimalist take on the movie throughtout provides an 'eerie' and 'unsure' feel for the audience.

In addition to this fast editing and long shots are combined with special effects to create the enigmatic and disturbed feel to the video. In the case of 'Under the skin' he uses the woman as symbolic reference to convey lust/love.



Friday 7 November 2014

history of who created what labels

History of record industry

5 record labels

Case Study-Britney Spares

-Era
- Competition
-Song Realease Dont go knocking on my door

Beyonce's Album Box Set Inspiration







I was browsing on the social media app called Instagram when I stumbled across what seemed to be Beyonce's New album box set! I must say I was in absolute shock.
After going off and doing some research I found out that a representative for the singer Beyonce has confirmed that the pop star will in fact release a platinum edition boxset of her 2013 self-titled album, including two brand new songs and a disc of live performances. 

This method of design for an album is very inspiring to me and I would love to interpret the idea into my album cover when the time comes. Yet so, I have taken into consideration that I will be designing an album cover and not a box set, however if I can incorporate some of the features and ideas into my work and redesign it to make it my own, I would most definitely do so.

Top 10 song choices


Maroon 5 -Animals Analysis




After the release of Maroon 5 new video, they have been heavily criticised for their "Animals" music video, with support groups claiming it promotes violence against women. 
In my point of view the video is a very interesting that can either be loved or cause controversy. 

In the video, Adam Levine's wife is stalked by his sinister character, a sociopathic butcher who takes secret photos of her and stores them in his meat locker.
At one point, he breaks into her apartment and lies beside her while she sleeps.
Covered in meat blood, Levine fantasises about having sex with her before approaching her in a club and creepily touching her shoulder. Then there are explicit blood-soaked sex scenes.






After watching the video, I thought to do some research to see how the audience reacted to such a strange video. After all, this is a different side to Maroon 5 which I think shocked many people. 

Unsurprisingly, sexual assault support groups are disgusted by both the track and its video, a group called RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network) released a statement of concern over the "dangerous depiction of a stalker’s fantasy".
A member of the group stated; "The trivialisation of these serious crimes, like stalking, should have no place in the entertainment industry."
I do agree with that particular statement as I believe that funnily enough the music video encourages activities such as stalking, which is seen as a crime. 

I was also shocked at the amount of sex scenes in the music video, I immediately started to think about the younger viewers who may watch this particular video online as there are no age restrictions as to who can watch it. This has definitely made me consider the context of my music video and what type of audience I would like it to be for.

Thursday 6 November 2014

Ed Sheeran-Thinking out Loud Inspirational video










I was watching different music videos online and stumbled across this new video by Ed Sheeran, I must say that I found the concept very interesting and thought to look deeper into behind the scenes of the video. Below is a quote from Ed Sheeran explaining the concept clearly.
"My original concept was to have a couple walk in and do some made ballroom dancing, at first I was going to get two talented dancers but as was the idea was formed, I thought hmm maybe I should have a crack at this."
The video particularly grabbed my attention because of the smoothness and elegance that ran throughout. The choreography was so perfectly done, it created a rhythm with the song, not to mention the perfect camera angles that showed chemistry between the two. In addition to this I also really liked the choice of lightings used, the tones of warm yellow lights really set a romantic theme to the location of the video which seems to be a hall where a wedding reception would take place.