Monday 29 August 2016

Music Video Analysis 4

Imagine Dragons - Radioactive 

Genre: Alternative Rock




Relationship Between Visuals + Lyrics

In this music video there wasn't a direct connection, since this is a concept video. Dan Reynolds the main vocalist of the band was shows first as a prisoner later in the video we get to know that the band is in there as well. At the beginning we get a girl who at the end saves the band from prison.

Genre Characteristics

Camera:
  • Various camera shots were used during the video, especially on the band members. 
  • Close-ups of the band.
  • Long shots of the entire band
  • Establishing shots of the scene for example the field where the girl heart appeared. 
Mise-en-scene
  • Wearing baggy t-shirts and jeans. Messy hair, the general look is laid-back casual and carefree style.
  • In terms of lighting it is natural to low-key lighting. Then band was found in a dark prison with dark blue lighting. 
Performance, Narrative and/or concept

This music video is Narrative at the same time it is concept as it features the storyline of a girl doing into a place where the battles are made using teddies, there the audience find out that the band is trapped there as prisoners. The girl then wins the battle and rescues the band. 

It is also a concept based video as it features an unusual and obscure concept which is even surreal for the audience. 

Star Treatment

Dan Reynolds was featured in the video compered to the other band members. The star treatment was achieved using certain camera shots and edits. He is always in the middle with medium shots or close-ups as well as we can see him for about 2 to 5 seconds in every shot which makes him stand out from the other band members. 

Representations
  • The girl was portrayed little, weak and no one took her serious. 
  • The men who were featured on a battle arena as audience were massive, wealthy and criminal looking which gave the illusion of the girl being weak.
  • However, the girl later at the end of the video was shown as powerful  and smart.


Thursday 25 August 2016

Music Video Analysis 3

Music Analysis 3

Rihanna - Needed you

Genre: R&B

Genre Characteristics 

The conventions of R&B music is men being topless wearing jeans with tattoos and jewellery. 
Bellow we can see a medium shot of a male covered in tattoos and topless as well as wearing bracelets on his left hand.
Conventions of women are minimal clothing, make up and hair done, heels and also jewellery. These is a medium shot of Rihanna wearing a see-through kimono with a lot of neck jewellery, make up and hair done well. By following those conventions we can see that this is an R&B music video. 

Performance, Narrative and/or Concept

This music video is concept based. It is very unusual and obscure and surreal for the audience. 

Representations

In terms of gender, women were presented sexually they were wearing almost nothing. Males are the ones with money who attract all the girls. In the music video were featured only dark skinned people with lots of tattoos and money. 

Monday 22 August 2016

Music Video Analysis 2

Great you better by Shawn Mendes

Genre: Pop

Release date: 12 Jul 2016


  • Relationship Between Visuals + Lyrics 
There are some relations between the lyrics and the visuals. When Shawn sings about the girl and how her boyfriend treats her, audience see the girl being abused my her boyfriend.


Also when he said "But I see it on yours face" we get a shot of the girls face and her boyfriends hand. 


Genre characteristics

The conventions of pop genre are different but they all mainly based on relationships and love.
This song shows Shawn caring about the girl and wanting her to be with him while she has a boyfriend who abuses her. 
Often pop artists express the unity associated with teens, which is the main target audience for this genre. However, they are usually themed with bright and bold colours but in this music video the mise en scene is dark and dull. 

Performance, Narrative and/or Concept

This is a concept as well as narrative based music video. It features a story where Shawn is not abled to get the girl who is being tortured by her boyfriend. It is as well a concept based as it has shots of Shawn in his bedroom and all of a sudden he appears in the girls bedroom. The camera work and editing makes it look as if he was in the bedroom with the girl and saw what her boyfriend was doing to her. 

Looking/Mode of Address 

When Shawn sing "Treat you better" he looks straight into the camera and makes eye contact with the audience as he sing "you" to make the audience involved as the uses and gratifications theory would have it. 

Representations 

The representation of gender shows how women are treated in media. The girl is being abused and humiliated my her boyfriend. In turns of age they are all young and in their twenties, which suggests their unexperienced relationships creating this love triangle. The girl is clothed in very open clothing which creates Male Gaze. Her boyfriend was wearing a shirt towards the end of the video which shows who are the audience for this music video.

Locations + Mise-en-scene

There are 6 locations where the protagonists were featured. First one is inside a car where the girl and her boyfriend get into the argument in. Her house and bedroom where she gets abused by her boyfriend and bathroom where she is crying and looking at herself in the mirror. There is also Shans bathroom where he looks in the mirror and understands that he can't help her, and a bedroom where he sings hopelessly. At the end the girl goes to the night club where he tries to forget her problems where then she sees her boyfriend with another girl.0

  
 

 

Thursday 18 August 2016

Music Video Analysis 1

Twenty one pilots: Heathens

Who are they?

Twenty one pilots are alternative hip hop, electropop, Indie pop and rock genre. It is an American musical duo. They are originated from Columbus, Ohio. The band was formed in 2009. There are four members in this band; Tyler Joseph, Josh Dun, Chris Salih, Nick Thomas



This music video "Heathens" was made especially for the new coming up film "Suicide Squad" which is meant to be the "hit" of August 2016. Bellow is the home page of IMDb and as you may see almost all the posts are about "Suicide Squad". 


Performance, Narrative or Concept?

This music video is a concept, where the video is very obscure. The band is in a prison where the main characters of the movie "Suicide Squad" are featured. 

Relationship between visuals and lyrics

This is a concept based video therefore it does not hold into a story.  However, when the singer says

You're lovin' on the psychopath sitting next to you
You're lovin' on the murderer sitting next to you
You'll think, how'd I get here, sitting next to you?

The camera is showing the prisoners from the movie "Suicide Squad"


Genre Characteristics

This band has a lot of genres and one of them is electropop, the way they presented this genre in this music video is through the lighting. They have light, dark blue flashing lights, which are the conventions of electropop genre. 

Intertextuality 

For intertextuality the actors from the new movie "Suicide Squad" were featured. 

Looking/Mode of address

The character from the movie is looking into the mirror while blowing off matches. 


 There is another character looking into security camera. This scene was taken from the trailer.


As the camera pans from left to right. We see the vocalist of the band looking into the camera, this creates a sense if direct connecting with the audience. 



Performance Style

The style of this band is quite unusual. The band is in the prison while they have their instruments with them. 

Star Treatment

The star of this music video is Tyler Joseph. This was shown my camera angles and shots. He is alway in the centre of the frame, usually close ups of his face as well as many eye contacts. 
In terms of editing, the shots of Tyler Joseph keep returning. 

Audience in videos 

Instead of having fans listening to their band they had prisoners. Since the band is in the prison as well as the actors of the movie, the video featured big muscular men with tattoos and prisoners clothing. 


Locations/Mise-en-scene

The video took place in Belle Reve which is a prison where the characters of suicide squad were held. 

Tyler was covered in scars and wearing prisoners cloths. In that way he could relate to the movie.

Representations

There is an inequality between the genders. Throughout the video there are male guards, male prisoners and even the characters who were in the film are males expect the only female "Harley Quinn". 

Pace

The video is edited to fit the variation within the track. Where there is faster paced section of the track the edit is faster paced as well to match it. When he finishes his chorus the pace is faster. 

Tuesday 2 August 2016

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Adel Aitey last year I worked on As media course work about Film Opening.

I have learnt a lot from the previous coursework and this year I am aiming to get better at analysing
videos understand the concepts of distributions and expositions as well as to understand how media is used in Music Videos compared to Films.

 Last year I was able to work with Final Cut Pro for the first time, I have learnt a lot from the film opening. To help me understand how to use Final Cut Pro I have used YouTube. 

Last year I have worked with Riona Drangsfeldt but this year I will be working alone.

My goals for this year are to complete my coursework and exam with a good grade. I will also improve on the things I had troubles with last year. This year I will work more on my evaluation questions and do more research on genre and audience for my music video.

Here is my blog from last year :