One of the first media theorists we looked at was Andrew Goodwin. In 1992 he published a book titled "MTV: Dancing in the Distraction Factory" where he identifies a variety of ways to distinguish music video as a form. His theory includes 6 steps that allow us to recognise a music video and what we should look out for as an audience.
Using Goodwin's theory I applied some of his steps to my own music video to create a professional and realistic media product.
One of his 'steps' is that the lyrics should either illustrate, amplify or contradict the visuals. As my music video genre was electro-pop I chose to go down the route of abstract over performance and narrative structure this was a little more challenging for me.
I decided in the end to link the visuals with the lyrics "everything we touch turns to gold". To bring this image to the screen I chose to use coloured smoke grenades which also merged into my 'arty', 'abstract' theme.
The song is about a connection between two people and how that connection is rich, limited and exclusive much like the connotation of the word 'gold'. The smoke illustrates the colour but not so much the connotation. So in order to allow some relation in further detail I used gold metallic paint and painted mine and Sam's hands to illustrate "everything we touch turns to gold".
Goodwin also states that there should be relation to music and visuals and I feel that my music video flows very well and the matching of the beat to the visuals I concentrated hard on. I wanted the visuals to follow the music in order for the audience to understand the way the tempo was heading. So leading up to the bridge the music slowed down and the main beat dropped, for this I used medium close ups from a tracking shot and also a medium side-shot with a soft bokeh effect gliding over, this indicates a slowness in the tempo before the long shot in front of the sunset which I then used another effect on Final Cut X called Bad TV to make it static and reflect the static electronic change in the music. I think this effect illustrates well to music.
I mentioned a lot in my research into planning that my iconography and genre-style was to be as minimal and simplistic as possible. I wanted to infuse influence from the film 'Tron' and from other artists such as Charli XCX into my own style for the music video. Goodwin states that a a "genre related style and iconography is present" and as most abstract, electronic and contemporary music videos are now stripped down to being quite minimal and embracing the colour black I decided my costume and main attribute for the video would be black. Thus the black and white studio shots, use of silhouettes and black costume design. Another huge convention in music videos that Andrew Goodwin mentioned was the amount of screen time the artist gets. It's clear that a media product form is music video when there are multiple camera close-ups of the star. This is so the audience identify who the main artist is and that they are recognisable. I use a lot of close-ups, extreme close-ups and kept main screen time on myself as I was the star. I also kept it visually stimulation by switching the shots between locations and using lighting to my advantage and only showing one side of my face then cutting it to another shot where light is hitting the other side.
Voyeurism is another key theory which Goodwin stated, mainly in women more than men. This is because of something called the 'male gaze' which is a theory from Laura Mulvey. The 'gaze' deals with the audience viewing the people in a media form. The main features of the 'male gaze' are:
- The camera concentrating and lingering on the female body - specifically their curves or 'sexual' features e.g. eyes, lips, chest, waist, legs.
- The regulation of women being objectified
I wanted to bring in this theory in a much lighter tone than compared to Miley Cyrus's 'Wrecking Ball' video as it's an effective and commonly used aspect in music videos. And as I am female I think it would be appropriate and more 'professional' looking if there was a sense of voyeuristic 'male gaze' shots.
I decided to film medium shots of my legs and wearing the short front and long back skirt to express this 'gaze' and also some shots were close up and slightly out of focus of my face which was to represent a 'home video', 'hand held' voyeuristic feel. It's typical for women in pop videos to be shown off in this way and as my genre is 'electro-pop' I wanted to incorporate some of the traditional 'pop' connotations in there for more audience appeal.
As you can see from the above images I selected my camera angles specifically for this theory. I personally like the way the camera has focus pulls every now and then and feel this is an effective method to create the illusion of being watched or recorded.
Post-modernism is a concept which we have looked into in relation to music video. A famous example of post-modernism being used in music video is by The Death Set 'They Come to Get Us'
With many popular culture references such as The Simpsons, Batman and Back to the Future. I used intertextual references in my music video inspired from the film Sin City; where they use a black and white theme throughout and then pin point a select colour to highlight something during the film. I used this effect with the gold metallic paint on our hands to emphasise the lyric "everything we touch turns to gold." You can see it in the trailer below:
Overall my music video follows the codes and conventions of a real music video, especially within the genre of 'pop' and 'electro pop'. It is a music video of mainly conceptual, abstract and performance based. (a theory introduced by Sven Karlsson). My video showcases the performer (me) as a materialised commercial exhibitionist, which simply means that the artist is often seen selling an item and fans find themselves wanting or desiring to be them or to have what they have. It includes a sleek, contemporary theme with the black and white which is often seen in electro-pop videos such as Kate Boy's 'The Way We Are' video with a post modern inspiration from hit movies like Sin City and Tron.
In relation to my digipak the codes and conventions are again of a typical genre. I spent a lot of time on photoshop editing and airbrushing to give it the professional look. I wanted it to stay black and white with the pop of gold text to link it back to the music video and lyrics as Goodwin suggests. Some of my influences for my album cover we're artists in the electro-pop genre e.g. Kate Boy and then Adele who is more of a 'pop' artist.
(Adele left, mine middle, Kate Boy right.)
As you can see, some of the typical conventions of these genres on albums are black and white, crisp profile shots of the artist. In Adele's album the main focus is her face and there's a pop of lime green in the title '21' this brings in some focus the album. I wanted to include is pop of colour as previously mentioned to relate to the lyrics and so my target market will be able to find my album easily as it links to the video. In Kate Boy's album again, it is black and white with her face blacked out from the lighting and the use of a hat. I incorporated this idea into my album too but with just lighting as I think this is a really effective, abstract way to have an album. I didn't choose to hide my whole face as I wanted it to be recognisable and again to attract the right audience.
This style has to be consistent throughout the entire digipak so the audience can easily recognise the artist. Another key part of any digipak is the font used. I went with a very modern, contemporary type face as this is seen more and more in album covers today; especially in electro-pop. It gives a mature aesthetic vibe to the digipak. As you can see, another one of my inspirations, Lana Del Rey, used the same image for both her album and promotional poster:
Analysing my digipak:
Front Cover -
The front cover of my album is a profile shot of myself facing the camera. I chose to position the camera slightly at a high angle so it's looking down on my face. This creates a voyeuristic effect and my expression is subtle yet sultry and flirty. I challenged the typical conventions of these genres (pop and electro-pop) by showing more of my face than usually would in an abstract album and expressing a more 'sexy' facial expression which is more related to pop. I chose to look straight at the camera as it gives of a aura or intensity which will draw the audiences attention.
The use of lighting also attracts the audience as it is hiding the rest of my face this causes a sense of curiosity and would make the audience want to see more. The use of my font choice is to attract my target market age which is 18-30. As it's a sophisticated style and appearance.
Middle and back covers-
The choice for my middle and back covers was quite difficult to pick in the beginning. I ended up choosing a side profile photo of myself for the inside next to the CD and then for behind the CD and on the back I used my own original photo from on the set of day 3, filming with the smoke grenades. The colour pallet works well and is synchronised throughout my digipak with pops of yellow/gold and the use of one photo on the inside in colour adds definition and challenges the consistency within reason. Not challenging too much to take away the relation to the music video, album and poster.
My promotional poster -
I found the magazine the most challenging part to create. Through thorough research I realised a lot of artists choose to have the same or similar images on their albums as they do posters/magazines (as seen above). Nine times out of ten the image used is the same as the album cover, however, I chose to challenge this convention by using a different image for the poster. I made sure to use different, unique images for each of my adverts. In the album I used a front cover photo, a different photo for the inlay and for the poster another different photo, however, they don't differentiate from the style and theme of the music video thus the consistency is still there and the audience are able to recognise and link the digipak together. I find this an effective way of advertising as it isn't all the same and keeps the audience interested.
All the images used hold a 'voyeuristic' feel to them, again related to Goodwin and Mulvey's theories of sexualising the female artist in order to achieve the male gaze. Although mine are very subtle as in the genre 'electro-pop' there isn't a obvious amount of voyeurism and it's very effective. I love how lighting can create an emotion and this I used throughout my digipak and in my music video. On the poster/mag advert I included the album cover so audiences could find it easily, a smart phone barcode to take them straight to amazon or iTunes to purchase it, a quote from the Guardian relating to the album along with a 4 star rating and lastly the web address for audiences to click onto to find out more about the artist and their songs. I went into a lot of research to make sure I could achieve a very realistic and professional looking digipak and tried to include the right amount of information to fully attract the audience.
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