Goodwin's Theory

You Me At Six - "Bite My Tongue"

You Me At Six's music video for "Bite My Tongue" has many conventions that Goodwin would say was conventional for a rock music video. The song is aggressive and conveys how the band want to be seen through this video.

One of Goodwin's theories that can be applied to this music video, is thought beats. This is where we see the sound in our head. The way Joshua Franceschi, the lead singer, conveys his mood through his voice is important. He starts off slow to begin with, to match the pace of the song, but, when the drums and guitars start going, his pace picks up. During the chorus, he is almost shouting. This is because he is trying to give a performance, we as an audience will remember, yet also display his emotions to the lyrics. This enables him to act as a narrator and explain the lyrics through his emotions and performance.

This links nicely onto another point Goodwin makes. Goodwin believed narrative and performance also make a music video. Joshua Franceschi starts off behind a control pad, controlling his other band members. He is singing the song while he is doing this, thus he is performing and narrating, which enables us as an audience to believe it is more real. However, he is also keeping us interested and is helping us to understand the music video. He gives us someone to attach to - someone we find interesting. For the majority of the song, he is the only active character, until Oli Sykes (the lead singer from Bring Me The Horizon), features and sings a verse. We get a sense that they are two similar characters with the same motives, as Oli takes over from what Josh was doing.
As they both sing, they are both in control. This is portrayed by the fact that they control there band members, suggesting only they can effectively control each other, not anyone else.

Star image is definitely evident in the music video. Both Josh and Oli are lead singers from two rock bands and have a rock image amongst the music industry. Oli Sykes is known for being a singer in a heavy rock band, so involving him in the song, suggested the pace of the song would be fast. They both give a performance that  helps maintain their image. Josh gives a emotional performance, as to much his feelings to the lyrics. Whilst, Oli gives a more aggressive performance to match his style of rock and his character. There are many close-ups of both of the lead singers, so that the audience can feel a connection with their star. This is a important part of making a successful music video.  The close-ups of the band help to keep the band's image as a new, young, modern-day rock band.


There is a clear link between the visuals and the lyrics. The song is about arguments that had previously existed amongst the band. When they were at breaking point, Josh wrote this song to convey how he felt. So by having Josh separate from the band, it conveys how he felt at that time. Moreover, by having Josh control the band, it conveys that the band can't function or exist without him. By getting an aggressive personality like Oli Sykes involved, it further conveys Josh's former feelings towards the band as angry and hostile.

The technical aspects of the video also help to convey genre. The dark and gloomy setting help to convey the song as a rock song, also to convey the mood of the song. The white light helps to convey how dark it is and acts as a glimmer of hope for the band in such dark circumstances. It acts as hope that past differences can be put behind them and they can progress onwards. This is further helping to convey Josh's emotions. The quick editing enables us to see the band play and match the pace of the song. Having the band playing is a convention of a rock song and is normally the main focus, however, Josh and his emotions are more in focus.

There are no aspects of voyeurism nor of intertextuality, as the band are not trying to exploit themselves nor anyone else. The song doesn't need voyeurism as the pace of the song doesn't suit scenes of voyeurism; the song more about the band and their emotions, rather than them trying to win over fans by exploiting themselves. They hope people will like them for there passion and unique band performance in this video. Moreover, due to this it is not necessary for their to be any intertextual references, as the band are doing something personal to them. They are not trying to reference anything people may know about, just what they have been through.

Genre

Intertextuality

Intertextuality is incorporated into many artists' music videos. Intertextuality is the idea of combining two existing ideas to create a final product. In the case of a music video, this can be done by:

• basing the music video around a film, e.g. Madonna's "Material Girl" is based upon the film "Gentleman Prefer Blondes".
• basing the music video around a TV show, e.g. the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" is based on the TV show "Starsky & Hutch".
• basing the video on: a comic strip, news report, a storyteller, video game ect.

By doing this the artist is trying to make a reference to their audience that they hope they will find interesting. However, not all of the audience will notice this reference and they will just see the music video as it is and not what it represents.

 Here are some examples:

Robbie Williams' "You Know Me" is based upon the novel 'Alice In Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll. Williams falls asleep and ends up in a fantasy world, dressed as a rabbit. This is highly similar to that of the plot line in the novel of "Alice in Wonderland", where Alice falls asleep and ends up in 'wonderland'. There is a tea-table set up as to represent that of the 'Mad-haters Tea party' that features in the novel. One of the characters that features in the novel is a rabbit, whom, is particularly well-known for his catch phrase "I'm late". The fact that Robbie is dressed as a rabbit further hints that Williams is trying to convey that his music video is based upon "Alice in Wonderland", as it could be that Williams is trying to convey this character.

Taylor Swift's "Love Story" is seemingly based upon Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet". The song was used in the movie "Letters to Juliet" (2010) that is also based upon the idea of "Romeo & Juliet". The song features the idea that Swift plays "Juliet" and she is searching for her 'Romeo'. One huge difference throughout the video is the ending. In Shakespeare's version, there is no happy ending for Romeo & Juliet. However, in Taylor Swift's version, there is a happy ending; this has been done to match the genre of her music video and to appeal more to her fans. The lyrics are from the perspective of Juliet, which adds to the sense that this video is based upon the play. The story is moved into a modern setting, and features 'Juliet' searching for her 'Romeo' as the main plot line.

Voyeurism - Male artist

Justin Timberlake: "Cry Me A River"

This music video by Justin Timberlake was for one of his first songs. Therefore, Timberlake is trying to generate fans by trying to appeal to his primary audience, females, through using himself in the video. He does this by using a number of intimate close-ups or mid-shots. Moreover, he is also trying to appeal to male viewers through the use of a women in the video, where again, intimate close-ups are used. The mood is very intense and is passed onto the audience, creating sexual tension. This makes viewers of both sexes want to watch on, which Timberlake wants. The sexual build up concludes with Timberlake and the women in the video coming together, shown through the uses of close-ups. This appeals to both genders, yet the female audience get more pleasure as Timberlake is the star. The use of the shower adds to the sexual setting and tension, and creates an a sexual atmosphere amongst his audience. Timberlake uses many pans and creative shots to help create this tension, and keep his audience entertained. This is what Timberlake wanted, the video got him many fans and became one of his most iconic videos ever.

Voyeurism - Female artist

Beyonce: "Best Thing I Never Had"

This video by Beyonce is one of her most famous for demonstrating the idea of voyeurism. The clothes Beyonce is dressed in is one of the factors that contributes to the voyeuristic aspects of the video. For a start, the clothes are see-through and she isn't wearing very much. This helps to attract the male audiences as they are intrigued by this aspect of her video. Moreover, she is dressed in white, in a white room. White has connotations of pure and this can suggest this to the male audience; they find this appealing. She is also lying on a bed, which also has sexual connotations. The male audience like the fact that she is lying on the bed and are able to become more involved in the video. Furthermore, the male gaze is able to be cast over this video, and this is what primarily gets the male audience into watching this video. This is what Beyonce intended to happen, so she could gain more male fans; boosting sales and appealing to more people.

Voyeurism

Voyeurism: the practice of obtaining sexual gratification by looking at sexual objects or acts, especially secretively.

This is used predominately  in women's music videos. Artists such as Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj commonly use voyeurism in their music videos to attract male viewers. However, more recently, male artists have taken on this idea and inputted this in their music videos. Though, they also expose women's bodies in their music videos instead of their own.

Photoshop - Clean Image

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Photoshop - Changing Backgrounds

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Photoshop - Moving Object

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Photoshop - Removing Object

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Photoshop - Creating layers

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Photoshop - Filter

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Photoshop - Spot Replenish

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Green Screen

In yesterday's lesson we were showed how to edit footage from a green screen shoot. The footage was good and so was the performance, but it was harder to edit than first thought. Once we had imported the footage and added the Chroma Key in Adobe Premier Pro, we were able to remove all the green from the green screen, out of the footage. By doing so, it enabled us to create a new background for our footage. The song chosen was a hip-hop song, and my group chose to add a warehouse to the background of our performers, However, once we had blended our footage into the background, we struggled to pull our performer down, as half of her body was missing.

What Went Well?
We were able to successfully remove the green screen and put a new image over the top of it. This was the main purpose of the task, and we managed to do it. We also managed to input a new background of which we hadn't previously done.

Even Better If:
We had been able to pull the performer down and made our shot look more realistic. We could have blended our performer more into the background, to add to the believability of our shots.

We are unlikely to use this in our music video, as it doesn't suit our genre.

Practice Music video

This is our practice lip sync which we did during lessons to practice different techniques of camera movement and performance.

What Went Well?
We had a good lip sync and our editing was good. We edited to the beat of the music and our lighting wasn't too bad. We tried out a variety of camera movements and shots, of which some will be used in our final music video.

Even Better If?
We had a lot more enthusiasm. We didn't look particularly convincing as a band and our performance wasn't great. Although we used a variety of camera angles, for the part where I was singing, we only used the one angle and this may be boring to the audience. We couldn't always get the right effect we wanted from the lighting and we will have to practise this as we will use this in our final music video.