Goodwin's Theory Applied To Miley Cyrus

I am analysing the Fly On The Wall video by Miley Cyrus applying Goodwin's theory.



1. The music belongs to the pop genre as Miley Cyrus is a huge pop sensation appealing to young teenagers everywhere. The video represents this genre by lots of beauty shots of the singer, lots of dance routines and jumping around, sparkly clothing, a cheesy storyline, singing the lyrics into the camera and directly addressing and flirting with the camera.
2. The song is about knowing all of her secrets and knowing about her personal life. The lyrics are amplified by the video as she is talking about a boyfriend through the lyrics, saying that he wishes he knew everything she did when she was not with him. However this is amplified by the use of paparazzi in her video instead of a boyfriend. The paparazzi are known to be intrusive and at the beginning of the video when her boyfriend turns into a photographer, it is saying that her boyfriends can also be intrusive and rather suffocating at times and never letting her get her own space. The lyrics 'Don't you wish that you could be a fly on the wall' are amplified by the use of a shot with paprazzi chasing her as she is trying to hide. It is showing that they want to follow her around finding out everything about her without her knowing, therefore being like a fly on the wall camera which records peoples every move without them taking notice of it. It is a way of spying on somebody without them knowing which is basically saying that her boyfriend does not trust her when she is not with him.
3. The visuals are always cut to the main beat, cutting two and from the narrative shots to the beauty shots of Miley singing to the camera. As the song is a pop video and the main focus is the singer, Miley, the instrumental section is not used to illustrate the use of the different instruments in the video, instead it is made to stand out by creating a dance routine by male dancers dressed as the paparazzi. It breaks up the video and makes the instrumental section of the song more relevant to the theme of the video. The music is a quick pace the whole way through therefore keeping the video at pretty much the same pace throughout which is fairly up beat and fast. The only sections where the music changes pace is at the beginning and the end where it is all relatively slow moving, shown by the introduction and ending of the video which is slow moving too in comparison to the other sections of the music video. Also the verses are slightly slower than the chorus which is shown by less cutting between shots and more shots of the beauty shots of Miley Cyrus rather than the fast moving narrative.
4. There are lots of CU's of Miley Cyrus herself, therefore the music label is using her to sell the single. As she is already a huge popstar with millions of fans they use her as their selling point because as soon as people see the song is by her then they will listen to it if they are her fan. Instead of emphasising her tween star image from Hannah Montana, they are trying to give off a more grown up impression of her by giving her sophisticated, fashionable, rock chick clothing and making the videoe revolve around her and her boyfriend showing she has male attention and is into guys. She is wearing lots of makeup and her hair is done nicely, showing she is a typical teenager and not keeping up with her squeaky clean image. The video is like other videos she has as there are lots of beauty shots of Miley Cyrus herself and they are trying to portray a more roc chick image rather than a squeaky clean popstar image that she had previously, showing that she is growing up. Motifs that keep reoccurring during her music videos are the use of boyfriends to drive the song.
5. There is a huge sense of being watched in this video, as it is about being watched. The theme of the video is the aspect of being watched when she does not want to be. They emphasize this by the use of cameras and when there are beauty shots of her we see flashes from cameras in the background, showing that there are people watching her. Also right at the very end of the video where we see the scene through a computer webcam gives the sense of people spying on her without her giving her permission. The costume is very grown up, and although not very revealing, is rather sexy. She flirts with the camera rather a lot by twirling her hair and pouting at it which emphasizes the underlying sexual nature of the video which is rather subtle due to her meant to be very innocent.
6. There are intertextual references to the use of paparazzi in the media and the use of various websites and magazines as a way of telling the world about celebrity gossip. It is showing people how the paparazzi get involved with the lives of celebrities when they really are not wanted and is showing it from the celebrities point of view rather than how the audience see it as pictures and videos in the paper and on the internet.
7. The music video is mainly performance and narrative based with cross cutting between the two. However there is the overall concept running through the video of being spied on by the use of camera flashes in the performance scene and paparazzi and cameras in the narrative scene.

Pitch Reflections

On Wednesday last week we did our pitch to the rest of the class during the school open day.
At first i was very nervous to do it as i hate getting up and presenting things, however the casual atmosphere made me relax and feel more comfortable.
Overall i think the pitch went very well. We came away with some positive and negative feedback which is on our group blog, but the majority of the video was loved by the audience.
Our group worked well together leading up to the pitch, trying to finalise everything and making it pitch standard. We all divided up the jobs which needed doing and therefore got the job done much quicker than we had expected.
I was put in charge of genre within the song and costume, therefore making me concetrate most of my energy on these parts. The others in my group were given different roles and when it all came together it seemed perfect.
I think our group are getting on well at the moment, and hopefully this is a signifier of good things to come :)

Group Meeting Number 3 Reflections

Today during our group meeting we had a look at all our individual treatments and came up with our final one which merged all of them together.

We then went onto the main blog and shared the questions out between us which need to be answered for our pitch tomorrow.

I was given the question about genre and genre signifiers to do which i was happy about as i feel fairly confident about this area of the song. As it has to be done by tomorrow i did not want anything too tricky to do as i would never be able to do it in time.

I think overall our group is working well together so far with people being honest with each other and us all getting along. Hopefully this will continue throughout the project, even through the stressful parts.

I am extremely nervous about our pitch tomorrow which we have to do in front of the class, teachers and visiting future parents and students. I do not like speaking in front of an audience but hopefully if i am being supported by my group it will not be too bad. I am looking forward to seeing what everybody else thinks about our idea and what feedback they have to give us, i just wish there was a less tormenting way of doing it!!!

FINAL SONG IDEA!!

We have finally chosen our track for our music video. As soon as we heard this song we knew it would be perfect as it contains both male and female vocals and is neither too hiphop or too indie. We have all decided to go away and come up with our own treatment for this song and then we will go through them all and come up with our final one tomorrow.

So here is my treatment for this song:

It is going to be a performance video but with a twist. Like 'Run DMC and Aerosmith - Walk This Way' it will be the two different genres competing for attention from the audience/camera. They will be dressed very stereotypical for their genre of music with the male wearing skinny jeans and having his band perform behind him, and the girl wearing lots of jewelry and makeup and looking very hip-hop.

At first there will be a wall separating the two different music genres, but as the music video progresses this barrier becomes smaller and smaller until they eventually swap roles. This is signifying how the gaps between music genres are shrinking and also there is less of a divide between males and females.

Throughout the video we will cut to shots of the lead male vocalist and the female vocalist dancing and singing separately with an effect like the ipod advert on it. It will be their own individual chance to shine focussing the audiences attention on the two main focal points of the song.

We will begin the video with a close up of the sticks hitting the symbols on the drum kit and then cutting to a CU of the girl turning the volume up on her CD player.

There will be a lot of sexual tension between the male lead and the female throughout the song and this is eventually what brings them together because they cannot resist each other. They are teasing each other throughout. They both morph into the other person in appearance in order to be accepted by them.

At the very end the two people will be performing on a stage together in a dark room, almost like a concert venue, with lots of people dancing around in front of them and partying. There will be a distinct difference in the people as the boys will be dressed indie, like the male lead and the girls will be dressed very hip hop like the female lead, however they are partying together which shows the two genres and sexes can come together seamlessly and there is no need for a divide.

The last shot will be of

Treatment for Song AGAIN!

We had another group meeting today and ruled out about another million songs. We cannot all seem to agree on one. Anyway i really like the idea of doing an Arctic Monkeys song as their music is so iconically indie and we could therefore play on the genre throughout our music video.

Here is the treatment for my favourite Arctic Monkey's song:

I think with this song we could really focus on the performance side of the indie band genre.

At the beginning we could have a shot of the band performing in a blank room with lots of black and white photos in the background. We could be constantly getting close ups of the band and then close ups of various photos.

Everytime we cut to the photos, they will then turn into a sequence and we will see the sequence being played out and it will resemble what is being said by the lyrics. It will be in POV of a guy going out at night. It will be him wandering the dark streets of London and eventually he will get to a seedy club which he goes in. In the club it will be dark with lots of provocatively dressed girls. We will follow him round the club with people looking at him etc. Right at the end we will see him get to where the band are performing in the club and he will take up the place of the singer there. The narrative will turn into performance. When we cut back from the narrative to the performance in the blank room the sequence will freeze and turn back into a black and white photograph.

We will constantly be cutting from the narrative to the performance, until right at the very end when the two coincide and we see that the man is actually the lead in the band.

The black and white images turning into a sequence will resemble 'Pink - U and Ur Hands' where shes reading the book and the pictures turn into the scenes.

The club will be a mixture between the club in 'Akon's - Smack that' video and 'Kylie's - Spinning Around' video.

Second Meeting Reflections

We had our second group meeting today and came to the conclusion that none of our songs would be good enough to do a music video too. Therefore we all decided to go away and come up with new ideas for tracks which we would pitch to each other tomorrow. I liked the idea of doing a cover song so here are a few of my track ideas:

I also liked the sound of some of these tracks which i came across while looking:

The 4 P's of Music Industry Marketing

a) What band/artist related products can audiences buy?

They can buy CD singles, albums, merchandise e.g. t-shirts, key rings,

b) Where can audiences buy/listen to music/merchandise/hardware?

Internet stores, the band website, myspace.com, music downloading sites, record stores, radios, television on specialized music channels, gigs and concerts, music festivals, adverts for the band

c) Give 2 or 3 examples of paid-for/subscription based and free products.

Examples of free products are free music downloads, free episodes to watch online, free tickets to a gig when you pre order a CD.

Examples of paid for/subscription products are CD'S or albums bought from music stores or online, music magazines which you can subscribe to, merchandise such as clothing.

d) List between 5 and 10 examples of creative music marketing strategies (including at least 3 internet based examples).

• Topman CTRL: FRUKT brought the band closer to the audiences by inviting audiences to take over Topman for a month, program their own gig, and blog on the CTRL page.
• Nokia International Rights: Used music, song titles and artists to advertise their phones as they had mp3 players on them. They were both TV adverts, magazine and poster adverts.
• CocaCola: Using a interative YouTube webisode to promote their drink Sprite. It is called 'The Green Eeyed World: Reality Remixed' about up and coming musicians. There will be 5 seasons of 4 episodes. Related adverts may appear on TV and so might some episodes. It will also be included on Sprite packaging encouraging people to watch the videos.
• National Homeless Advert: Raising awareness to homeless people by using Radiohead's track 'It can happen to anyone of us'.
• Gatrorade: They are marketing their drink with the famous rapper Lil Wayne to fit in with the new gangster image.
• TicTac: Taking a musical approach to their campaign giving away free downloads with Sony BMG, using viral marketing to help a 16 year old boy create a TicTac orchestra by having a website which contains free ringtone downloads, examples of different instruments and a TicTac Guitar Hero game.
• KangaRoos: Pairing up with the band The Dolly Rockers in order to promote their new single and the shoes. Involves a competition where fans have to come up with a dance routine to the new song and post it on their Bebo page. The winners will receive lots of Dolly Rocker goodies plus KangaRoo trainers.
• Samsung: Bebo and Samsung are teaming up to promote their new Beat phone over the internet in a online series. It will be interactive and allow the audience to interact through blogs, upload track reviews, share music news and win chances to appear in episodes. They will also be trying to find a co-presenter for the show and are also offering live performances from White Lies and The Maccabees to promote the series.

e) Who is frukt uk and what is their mission statement/company ethos?

They are a specialist music marketing agency. They develop and create ideas that use music as a way to market products. Their ideas are creatively bold and distinct and created with a collaboration of their team and other agencies. They deal with music alone and use both on and offline ways to market products.

Black Eyed Peas - Rock Your Body

After our group meeting, it was decided that the song with the most potential on my blog was Black Eyed Peas - Rock Your Body. Now in order for my song to be considered i am going to write a brief treatment for it in order to tell the rest of the group and promote my idea.

Here are the lyrics for the song to begin:

I wanna rock right now
I want I wanna rock right now
I want I wanna rock right now
Now, now, rock right now
I want I wanna rock right now
I want I wanna rock right now
I want I wanna rock right nooowww

I wanna da-
I wanna dance in the lights
I wanna ro-
I wanna rock yo body
I wanna go, I wanna go for a ride
Hop in the music & rock yo body right

Rock that body, come on come on rock that body(Rock your body)
Rock that body, come on come on rock-that-body
Rock that body, come on come on rock that body(Rock your body)
Rock that body, come on come on rock-that-body

Let me see ya body rock
Shakin from the bottom to the top
Freak to what the Dj drop
We be the one to make it hot (to make it hot)
Electric shock, energy like a billion whats
Space be boomin, the speakers pop
Gollat the comb, we miss the spot
We bumpin your parkin lot

When you comin up in the spot
Don’t bring nothing we call pink dot
Cus we burnin around the clock
Hit the lights and then turn them off
If you bring that don’t make you stop
Like the jungle we run the block
No one rollin the way we rock,
Way we rock

I wanna, I wanna rock right now
I wanna, I wanna rock right now
I wanna, I wanna rock right nooowww

I wanna da-
I wanna dance in the lights
I wanna ro-
I wanna rock yo body
I wanna go, I wanna go for a ride
Hop in the music & rock yo body right

Rock that body, come on come on rock that body(Rock your body)
Rock that body, come on come on rock-that-body
Rock that body, come on come on rock that body(Rock your body)
Rock that body, come on come on rock-that-body


Supa fly ladies,
All of my Supa fly ladies,
All of my Supa fly ladies,
All of my Supa fl-
Supa fly ladies

Yeah you could big ballin
long as you feel like your own
Yeah you could be the model type,
skinny wit no appetite
Short, stacked, black or white,
long as you do what you like
Body outta sight, body, body outta sight

She does the two step and the tongue drop
She does the cabbage patch and the bus stop
She like electro, she love hip-hop, she like the rege
She feel punk rock, she love samba and the mambo
She like to break dance and calypso

Get a lil crazy, get a lil stupid
Get a lil crazy, crazy, crazy

I wanna da-
I wanna dance in the lights
I wanna ro-
I wanna rock yo body
I wanna go, I wanna go for a ride
Hop in the music & rock yo body right
rock yo body right
rock yo body right

Come on, yeah

Rock that body, come on,come on rock that body
Come on
Rock that body, come on,come on rock-that-body
Go Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh,
Now Go Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
Now Go Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
Now Go Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh

I want I wanna rock right now
I want I wanna rock-
I want I wanna rock-
Now Go Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh
I want I wanna rock-
I want I wanna rock-

Now Go Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh

I wanna rock right now
I wanna, I wanna rock right now
I wanna, I wanna rock right now
Now, now, rock right now

Now Go Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh

I wanna, I wanna rock right now
I wanna, I wanna rock right now
I wanna, I wanna rock right nooowww

First Group Meeting Reflection

We had our first group meeting today in the media block at 12:30pm.

The aim of our meeting was to narrow down our song choices in order to make the selection process a lot easier. We listened to the track ideas listed on everybody's blog and decided to pick one song from each blog that we would put on our shortlist. The songs we shortlisted were:

I Want It That Way - Dynamite Boy (Jack)

Sunny Days - Kid British (Shaun)

Rock Your Body - Black Eyed Peas (Me)

Out of the three songs listed above our favourite was Jack's song idea as we felt the fact that it was a cover track could make a good base for a video and also the band is unknown therefore we would have no image of previous videos influencing our music video.

We set everybody in our group the task of writing a treatment for their best song choice to post on the blog and pitch to the rest of the group. After this we will finalise our song choice...how exciting :)

Lady Gaga Case Study

1. Summarise the changing image of the band/artist as it has developed over time. It might also be useful to summarise the music genre also.

• Mainly influenced by glam rockers such as David Bowie and Quenn, pop artists such as Madonna and Michael , artist Andy Warhol, poet Rainer Maria Rilke and fashion icon Grace Jones.
• Her music structure is very similar to 1980's pop and 1990's Europop.
• Music that is a mixture of both dance and rock.
• Said to be extremely into fashion and inspired by her mother.
• She has her own creative team called Haus of Gaga who put together all her costumes, stage props and hair dos.
• Said to have drawn inspiration from Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani and Madonna.
• Considers her muse as Donatella Versace.
• She is seen as the rising gay icon and a lot of her success is down to the gay community.
• Markets herself a lot to the gay community as some of her first performances were to the gay community. One of her early performances was singing 'Just Dance' at the San Francisco Pride event and a later on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, two hugely rated events by the gay community therefore setting herself up as a gay icon.
• Early in her career she decided to focus on pop music to differenciate herself from the underground rockers of New York and took part in burlesque shows where a lot of her fashion inspiration still comes from.
• Was nicknamed 'Lady Gaga' early in her career after the Queen song 'Radio Ga Ga' due to her vocal style similar to Freddie Mercury and is still compared to Queen now.
• Begun performing with fellow burlesque dancer Lady Starlight and their show was known as 'The Ultimate Pop Burlesque Rockshow'. People still say her music has a rock n roll edge and compare her style to burlesque dancers showing she has not changed for the public very much.
• Used her history to help to market her nowadays and make her stand out from the crowd.
• Was dropped from her original record label Def Jam Records but maintained her trashy image in order to come up with her own record label.
• Her label Haus of Gaga supports up and coming people in the industry by getting them noticed through her fame.

2. Who are the fans? Do you have any sense of how the music companies have segmented the audiences? To what extent has the branding of a band been linked to target audience?

• The gay community are make up the majority of Lady Gaga's fans.
• Performed two of her debut concerts to target the gay community specifically, one at San Francisco Pride event and one on The Ellen DeGeneres crowd.
• Outrageous clothing, makeup and hair which appeals to the gay community.
• Her lyrics have underlying bisexual meaning which the marketing companies draw on in the videos and therefore appeals to the gay community.
• Her revealing and provocative clothing appeal to the male audience.
• The dancing and pop theme throughout her songs appeal to the younger generation.
• The influences from older bands appeal to the older generation.
• The use of male models in her videos appeals to both the female audience and gay audience.
• She markets herself in a feminist way which appeals to women.

3. What marketing strategies can you identify? What kinds of stategies can you list?(above/below-the line? unexpected promo stunts? etc). List any examples of the use of synergy with other industries to promote other media/products in connection with a band/artist.

Lady Gaga has achieved her prestige through a variety of different marketing strategies. She has her own official website, the look of the website is very trendy and bold - mirroring her personality. An image of the official website is shown below. Here is the link http://www.ladygaga.com/events. She also as her own myspace page www.myspace.com/ladygaga which automatically starts playing music as soon as you log onto her page. This promotes her music straight away and allows her fans to become aware of her latest tracks which they may or may not be aware of yet. Furthermore she has her official fan club on http://www.facebook.com/ where she currently has 105,527 fans. Furthermore she works in synergy with 'Heartbeats' to promote 'high resolution in-ear headphones' -http://www.ladygaga.com/

Analysing Music Video's - Beautiful Dirty Rich by Lady Gaga

Beautiful Dirty Rich is Lady Gaga's new single. I really love Lady Gaga as she is so individual and unique and her videos always catch my eye. This is why i have decided to analyse this music video to see the intentions behind it.
Here are the lyrics for the song:

Beautiful, dirty dirty rich rich dirty dirty
Beautiful dirty rich
Dirty dirty rich dirty dirty rich beautiful
Beautiful and dirty dirty rich rich dirty

We got a redlight
Pornographic dance fight
Systematic, honey
But we go no money

Our hair is perfect
While were all getting shit wrecked
It's automatic, honey
But we got no money

Daddy I'm so sorry, I'm so s-s-sorry yeah
We just like to party, like to p-p-party yeah

Bang bang, we're beautiful and dirty rich
Bang bang, we're beautiful and dirty rich

We live a cute life
Soundfematic, pants tigh-ter than plastic, honey
But we got no money

We do the dance right
We got it made like
Ice cream topped with honey
But we got no money

Daddy I'm so sorry, I'm so s-s-sorry yeah
We just like to party, like to p-p-party yeah

Bang bang, we're beautiful and dirty rich
Bang bang, we're beautiful and dirty rich

A bang bang bang, bang bang bang, beautiful, dirty rich
A bang bang bang, bang bang bang, beautiful, dirty rich

Bang bang, we're beautiful and dirty rich
Bang bang, we're beautiful and dirty rich

X5
Bang bang

When looking at the music video it is very typical pop-dance music which she creates in many of her videos. She is wearing leotards in very outragious shapes and styles with dramatic makeup and hair. There is a dance routine involved which is very typically found in both pop and dance videos, showing she is in a mixture of both genres. I think the video is mainly performance based as she is always singing to the camera, however there is the constant concept of being rich and living the high life running throughout it.
When watching the video closely, her dress sense and look is replicable of Madonna in the 80's, with the bleach blonde hair, dramatic makeup and unusual clothes which shows she may be trying to mirror the image found in 80's pop videos.
There are lots of beauty shots of Lady Gaga herself which is very typical of this genre of music as it is very much about the artist, as about the song. The camera continuously cuts back to shots of her, reminding the audience why they are watching and promoting her as the singer.
I think the images in this music video, although at first glance may seem to illustrate the lyrics, i think when looking at it more closely the actually amplify the lyrics. She is lying in a pile of money, smoking the money and throwing it around which illustrates the point of being dirty rich as they have so much money it doesn't mean anything to them anymore, they can treat it like an invaluable object. The setting in the house also illustrates the lyrics 'Dirty rich' as the house is very grand and big and would only be able to be afforded by a wealthy person. However the lyrics 'We are beautiful' is almost contradicting the images on screen. The people we see are very quirky and outrageous, not people we would nessicerily call beautiful immediately. Also the lyrics 'But we have no money' are juxopposed to the images of her lying in the piles of money and holding it etc. It is as if she is making fun of all the people out there who do not make there own money but instead use their parents as a way of getting money or doing illegal things to make money. Therefore they may look as if they are wealthy on the surface but really they are not. This also backs up the phrase 'dirty rich' as their money is not clean money, it is tainted.
The images are edited to the music, with the cuts being on the beat. The music is quite upbeat and fun, however it has an unusual style in parts of it and does not flow like a usual upbeat song. The images do not nessicerily fit with the lyrics all the time. For example when she says 'But we got no money', she is lying on money holding a wad of dollars which clearly does not show this. Therefore, again i think the music amplifies the images themselves. Also there are lots of images of people kissing and posing in sexual positions. This may also amplify the lyrics 'dirty rich' as they are being dirty in order to get their money. This is also backed up by the lyrics 'We got a redlight' as this is normally known for prostetutes who use their body as a way of getting money and are considered dirty.
As Lady Gaga has become a world renowned artist and is known for her long, blonde locks and outrageous dress sense they play on this quite a lot in this video. She has been often compared to the likes of Gwen Stefani, so it may not be a coinsidence that the opening shot is a ECU of her lips singing wearing Gwen Stefani's signiture red lipstick, throughout the video there are lots of shots of her lips with this red lipstick. This could be to emphasise this similarity or to highlight a sexy part of her body. At one stage there is a shot of her rubbing off the lipstick which could be a reference to erasing the stereotype of her being known as the next Gwen Stefani. As she is strutting down the corridor she is wearing dark sunglasses which she has become known for wearing in her videos, an iconic Lady Gaga image. In many of the shots of her she is wearing clothes which you would never expect to see people wearing in public such as a red jacket with huge shoulders, a lace leotard and a red leotard. Her blonde hair is long and perfectly styled, very typical of Lady Gaga as she is known for having perfect hair. Lady Gaga's legs are on show throughout this video. She is constantly being photographed in the press as always wearing outfits that show off her legs and was the first person to begin the trend of wearing knickers as clothes out in public. As she is now iconically known for her legs being on show and it gets a large amount of publicity, in this video her outfits are all created around showing off her legs.
In one shot, her dance moves seem to have a similar style to that found in Michael Jackson's video 'Thriller'. This video was supposedly one of the best videos ever made partly because of its seemless dance routine. Lady Gaga could be refering to this video as a way of telling the audience that her dance routines and music videos are just as good as Michael Jackson himself.
There are elements of voyerism by the way the camera moves and the way she teases the camera. It is as if it is a man watching her and she is trying to tempt him into bed with her.
After analysing this video and the lyrics I think the underlying meaning of this video is that she is a prostetute and has made her money by having sex with various men. That is why she is 'dirty rich' and not just rich and also 'beautiful' as she is using her womanly beauty to make her money. The lyrics ' Daddy im so sorry' are as if she is apologising to her father as he would not approve of her job. The fact that she says 'But i got no money' shows that when she has no money she reverts back to sex as a way of making her money and the lyrics 'Bang bang' enforce this more as this is often a term used to describe two people having sex. The constant images of the women wearing skimpy leaotards and posing provocatively on the men is hinting the the audience what they do and showing that they make their money in the sex trade. Also the fact that Lady Gaga is dressed in red over a pile of money signigys that she has made her living out of lust and passion, as red is the colour of lust and also the colour of a prostetute.

New In Town - Little Boots - Track Idea 3

Analysis of Eminem - Stan

Eminem's videos have always been one of my favorites so when asked to do an analysis of either his video 'Stan' or George Michael's - 'Outside', i opted for doing Eminem.

The Stan video has always caught my attention from when it first came out as it explicity tells the story described by the lyrics which very few other videos do. There has been a lot of controversy around both the song and the video due to its violent and threatening nature. Despite this, however, it went on to be nominated at the MTV Music Awards 2001 for various categories including best video.

When the video begins you know that it is not going to be happy video due to the setting and colour scheme used. Its very dark and all you can hear is rain and thunder and creepy background music. You can occasionally see flashed of lightening and the camera zooms in to an open window with the net curtains blowing. The audience instantly get an eery feel from this opening which sets up the rest of the song and video. There is then a long introduction before the music begins, introducing the basic story of the video. There is a high angle shot of a pregnant girl in a dingy house lying in an empty bed. We then cut to a shot of a man wearing a white vest and has lots of tattoos bleaching his hair blonde over the sink. We then cut back to a low angle shot of the woman running along a dark, run down corridor. It cuts back to an OTS shot of the man staring longingly into the mirror with a evil grin as his hair turns from brunette to blonde. We then see the girl begin to bang on the door, shouting 'Stanley'. The audience come to the conclusion from this that the man inside the bathroom is called Stanley and that the pair of them are having a child together. There is a high angle shot showing the two areas of the house with the wall dividing them. It is as if signifying the divide in personalities and interests between the couple, that later becomes apparent in the video. We then see a long, low angle shot of the man opening the door to the woman and getting abusive towards her. She says 'I really think you have taken this too far.' after a comment about his hair change which makes the audience think that his erratic, crazy behavior has been going on for a while. As the man, Stanley, slams the door shut the music begins. It sounds like a radio track being played, as if they have turned the radio on in their house and are listening to it, as if blending in with the scene more. This opening scene shows us just how much the couple do not get along but it never tells us the reasons why or what has been going on before. It sets the story up to be quite dark and depressing and so we are expecting an almost tragic or horrific ending. When watching this introduction the lighting and background music reminded me of an opening to a horror movie. It is warning the audience that something bad is going to happen.

The first shot we see of Eminem himself is after this opening introduction. We see a long shot of him sitting on a tour bus or coach with a man handing him mail which we assume to be fan mail. He is not rapping or singing along to the song, which although his setting does not seem to fit in with the rest of the music video so far, still makes him seem like part of the storyline rather than just the singer of the song.

Throughout the video we are constantly being shown a divide between the Stanley and his girlfriend, through the use of setting. At the beginning it was the door, further in its the use of the floor and then later on its the use of walls. It is showing the divide between the couple and the separation between them. Also the camera work also very cleverly does this with their positions in the frame. They will always be on opposite sides of the frames with an object in the middle seperating them. The editing also highlights this detachment too. In one shot we see her sitting alone with her back against a wall, and in the next shot we see him writing a letter facing the opposite side of the wall. It is almost as if the camera is emphasising just how far apart the couple are from each other in emotional terms as well as physical.

The colour scheme throughout the video is very dark and bleak. It is representing a very depressing and sad situation and therefore the use of colour reflects this. Also the scenery is very dismal which signifies just how bad and grotty Stan's life is. It is almost saying that without a life with Eminem, Stanley's life lacks any sense of happiness or colour and is therefore meaningless.

A lot of the cuts during the video are not straight but fades to and up from black. It is a way of showing clipets from their life backing up the lyrics. Some of them are memories from the past, others are showing the time passing between each letter write of Stan's. However they are all used in the same way, to tell the story and to allow the audience to get a deep an understanding as possible in a short space of time.

The video is very different from average music videos because instead of going back to CU's or MCU's as the focal or stable point of the video, instead the focal point seems to be Stan himself. We are constantly cutting back to shots of him in between the other shots telling the story. As the song is supposed to be a narrative from Stan, this is the reason why. Eminem is not the main focal point as he is not the one writing the letters, Stan is. Therefore with Stan as the focal point it makes the story seem a lot more realistic and believable, as if its a true story rather than someone telling the story.

The lyrics of the song mirror the visuals exactly. The lyrics are written as if it is an obsessive fan writing letters to Eminem and the video shows this fan writing the letters and living his life. During the verses where he is supposedly writing the letters, the camera keeps cutting back to shots of him writing in his dark basement to enforce the fact. We occasionally see shots of other things but these shots are placed in due to the lyrics being relevant to them. For example, when he talks about seeing Eminem's concert, we see a shot of him in the front row. It is as if we are seeing his memories as he is writing. We are observers in the video, watching the unravelling of two parts of a story and we hold more knowledge of what is going on than the people actually in the video, for example the dropping of the letters and the suicide.

The weather in the video emphasises the emotions that Stan is feeling when writing the letters. When he gets more angry the thunder and flashes of lightening become more prominent and the sound of the rain is more noticeable. By the third verse where he is about to commit suicide the rain is very heavy and almost masks the sound of the rapping. The lighting flashes are also more regular and the thunder seems to be a lot louder. It is showing how his emotions are becoming stronger and how he is getting more frustrated and angrier by the situation.

Summer Holiday

We have just returned to school after our long summer holiday. Year 13 is seeming quite exciting but yet quite scary. We found out our production groups and i am pleased to know that i will be working in a group with Nisha, Shaun and Jack. I think the fact that our group is mixed will hopefully put an interesting spin on our music video and we can get a mixture of opinions and ideas. However there may be some gender divides which we will have to work around but this only adds to the excitement and challanges of making a music video :). I am really looking forward to working in this group as i get on with them all very well and feel that we all work well together.

Rock that Body- Black Eyed Peas - Track Idea 2

After listening to the Black Eyed Peas album The E.N.D i heard this song and completely fell in love with it. I thought it would be a great track to do a music video to because of the heavy beat and fast pace. It is very upbeat and i think you could have a lot of fun with this song. I came up with a brief treatment and here it is:

It would just be lots of montages of people dancing around in various places to the song. At first they would be listening to it casually but by the end they will be dancing around the whole room they are in.

There would also be cuts to MCU's of a man singing the song into the camera. It would be a direct address and he would be dressed casually. This shot would be in black and white.

There would also be cuts to shots of a girl dancing quite provocatively and she is dressed very crazily with dramatic makeup and hair. The shots will either be MS or MLS.

Questions From Carol Vernallis Summary

After reading the summary by Carol Vernallis i answered a few of the questions provided in order to get a better understanding of her theories:

3.8)Carol Vernallis says the camera in music video seems to mimic the way we view sonic space... do you agree? Do you think we are conditioned by music video to read sonic space in particular ways?

I do agree. I think that when we listen to things they need to be interesting and not boring. A sound needs to catch our attention for us to pick up on it amongst that other sounds and that is like a music video. There is so much scope and choice that it needs to be able to grab a viewers attention in a single second so that they will continue to hear it. Also sound is not one distinct thing. We normally hear many different things all mixed together at the same time, this is like a music video with many different types of shots all put together.

3.10)She suggests that the jumping camera focus is like the camera in place of our eyes, doing what we do when we listen. However, this is predefined for us by the Director - we have even less choice to look away/outside of the Director's choice than we do in film - do you agree?

Yes i do agree. We do jump from one sound to another when we listen to things and the sound that seems most interesting is what we focus on. I think that due to the short, snappy style of the music video it allows less time for the audience to focus on something else other than the music video. It holds our attention for the whole period of time with the quick cuts and unconventional shots. This is what the director has done purposely, therefore only allowing us to view what the director wants us to see. However in film, the shots are far longer and therefore gives the audience time to think and maybe lose interest.

3.23)She says music video is more like listening than viewing - do you agree?

Not entirely. I think the track makes up the bulk of the music video but the images create a story which keeps the viewer interested and makes them want to watch and therefore listen on.

3.33)"We compensate imaginatively for what we do not see in the frame" - Agreed?

Yes. We fill in the blanks with our imagination of what we would expect or like to see in context with the music video.

3.37)

3.39)The audience are kept separate from the music video world making it seem more fantasy like and unrealistic. It therefore allows the music video to be a lot more far fetched and wild.

3.41)

4.1)

4.6)The constant motion in a music video and the variances it shows mean that a strong CU is a stable point. The music video "brings us towards these peaks, holds us against them, and then releases us" - do you agree?

I think the CU is a stable point in the music video and it does revolve a lot around this. Usually the CU's are of the main singer of the band and as the music video is used to promote the band and track, the main singer is usually the focal point to advertise the band and remind the audience who they are watching.

4.12)Is the viewer "sutured (stitched) into the diegesis of the film world through the editing"?

Yes. The order in which the shots of the music video are edited together allows for them to be interpreted in a certain way by the audience. The way shots are edited together can create totally different meanings to the audience from the same set of shots so really it is the editing that makes us create a story.

4.14) Music video is freer in terms of viewer identification and perspective - agreed?
Not entirely. It allows a lot more imagination from the director due to its lack of rigid structure and story-line but in order for the audience to achieve this freer interpretation then they may need to watch it more than once.

5.6)Carol Vernallis believes the image alone cannot tell the story - do you agree?
Not entirely. Sometimes the images do create a story of their own but other times the lyrics and momentum of the music also need to be involved in order to give the story a meaning and sometimes even for it to make sense.

BLK feedback

Excellent research posts so far Loren, a really great start to your background work for this project. I love the genre and music video analysis work you have done, very impressive. We need to get you using/applying advanced theory more explicitly when you analyse music videos from now on, think Vernallis for now, although you will also need to get to grips with Goodwin in the new term.

Just a couple of things outstanding from last term that I would like you to resolve as soon as possible.

So your short term targets are:
1. Post the work you have done for Miss T on Vernallis (see her post on the main music video blog for specific details)
2. Post your track research/ideas – we need to see what tracks you have in mind for your own video
3. Put some inspirational/useful weblinks up

All instructions are on the main blog if you are not sure what you should have done. There will be a lot happening when term starts so the sooner this outstanding work is completed, the better.

A really great blog so far, keep up the good work and see you soon!