TRACK CHOICES AND INITIAL IDEAS

INITIAL TRACK CHOICES

1. The Adored- T.V Riot
2. The Duke Spirit- Dark Is Light Enough
3. Supergrass- La Song

1. Our group initially thought that this genre, being indie/rock, uses conventions that can be easily implemented in our videos. One convention is that they are shot to give the impression of live performance, often on a stage, set up as an amateur gig. Secondly, in terms of editing, it is usually cut and edited to the pace of the music, and we could then use similar techniques to create a varied tempo within the video. Performance based videos create an imersive environment which we feel would benefit what we are striving to achieve in the video, also a live act would enhance the viewing of our music video.

2. Like above, this indie/rock music video conveys conventions that as a group we feel would benefit our style. There is a lot of individual guitar playing in the piece, and this performance related technique could be used by the group to great effect. Also, we could effectively use the fast pace to our advantage, to edit and cut around it, making the cuts quick and often.

3. This music video is similar to the above two in that it fits the genre of indie/rock. We liked the gradual start to the video, creating a climax, as this could be effectively used by our group to build up the performance and therefore provide the viewers with a contrast in tempo. Generally, the videos are low budget, with locations that are often in parks, garages and sheds. This appeals to us as it could easily be achieved by our group.

Group Analysis of : JayZ Fade To Black DVD Cover

Through careful anlysis of Jay-Z's Fade to Black Album cover our group concluded the following:

How the cover art represents Jay-Z as a singer-songwriter:

From the cover the viewer is immediately drawn to the main attraction of the image, Jay-Z. It is apparant he is displaying his signature move/pose of which many can easily refer and relate to. He is thus easily distinguisable and is not required to show his face. The bright spotlight centred on the artist and the substancial crownd watching him indicate his popularity and importance within the music industry, the large croud personifies his dedicated fan base of which are one of the largest of any artist. The list of songwriters and producers located at the foot of the cover shows that Jay-Z is at the top of his game in terms of reputation and demand, in a sense the fact the artist is promoting these other well known performers implies that his standing within the music industry is higher than all the others proving him to be a very well estblished individual. The bold characters of the title prominently display the artists name thus helping to symbolise his prevalence, the scale of the title shows that his is a universally known personality already well endorsed.

SPIKE JONZE- Auteur

Unkle- Heaven

Our chosen Auteur was Spike Jonze, and he was the director of this music video, Heaven by Unkle.
He approaches it in a movie like style, and the video is climatic, building as it goes on. The slow motion effect is employed, as well as this the shots drag on for ages. This emphasises his signature style that it is not performance based, but expresses emotions. This slow and melodic backshot contrasts with the active sport that is skateboarding, present in the video.

AUTEUR THEORY

AUTEUR-French for AUTHOR

• Auteur theory was first created in the 1950's by French cinema critics/directors.
  
• Le Cahier du Cinema was their publication that discussed who should or should'nt be recognized as an auteur.
• Someones work who has particular characteristics is Auteur. These characteristics could be stylistic (micro), structural, thematic or about process.
• Below are the following famous Auteurs:

Jonathan Glazier
Michael Gandry
Anton Corbijn
Spike Jonze
Chris Cunningham

You can use Goodwins criteria to analyse all music videos across the spectrum


Lil Jon- Get Low

This music video by Lil Jon employs many of the conventions of the hip-hop genre. These conventions consist of women dancing mainly half naked, lots of jewelery, and focuses on the artists performance based approach. There is lots of voyeurism of the female body included and an example is when they dance around the artist with little clothing. This encourages the viewer to see the women as commodities. Further notion of looking is apparent when the screen is portrayed as a fish eye camera, this focuses the viewer on the subject of the video. There is also an illustrative relationship between lyrics and visuals, this is shown in the over exaggerated acts of the female body in the video. By getting low, it emphasises the view that the females are seen as sex objects.

GOODWIN ANALYSIS

Chris Brown- Fallen Angel

Conventions of a RnB video includes both performance based acts such as dance routines, as well as a plot, present in this video is the artist falling in love with a girl he should not.
Some of Goodwins criteria occur in this video, such as the contradictory relationship between lyrics and visuals. This is displayed through the woman of desire who, unlike the description of an angel, is portrayed as having vampire characteristics. Further contradiction is that he is singing about love, however she portrays dark qualities. The song has a slow and melodic approach to it, and this is a firm comparison with the negative and dark atmosphere. The performance slant to the video, with the dance routines, engages the audience and maintains their focus and interest.
Chris Brown's motif that follows through all of his videos is that he wears a baseball jacket. Secondly, dance routines with his as the focal point are evident in his videos.

GOODWIN CRITERIA

• Music video demonstrates genre characteristics.
• Relationships between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)
• Relationship between music and visuals.
• Artists may develop motifs that reoccur across all work (visual styles)
• Reference to notion of looking (telescopes, mirrors, reflection etc), particularly voyeurism, treatment of the female body.
• Often inter textual reference (t.v, film references etc).