1. 4 Essay Plans;
Essay Plan 1; Genre:
Intro: Genre is very important in any media production, and in my music video, getting the genre of the artist was very important. Both myself and my partner considered different aspects of genre and how we could represent it.
Main Body:
Para 1: Chandler: Chandler said that genre is a 'type', the genre of our artist was pop/rock and we made our artist very typical of their genre, by involving alcohol, love and heartbreak. These are in pre made products with the same genre, giving them conventions in which I followed.
Para 2: Neale: 'genres evolve over time' which is a concept I agree with, because if you compare my music video of a new pop/punk band, to an 80's punk band, there is a huge change in dynamics, they used harsh effects and gave themselves harsher representations to what I did. This links to...
Para 3: Mittel and Buckingham: Mittel said that 'genre surpasses boundaries' compared to 80's punk bands, I used gentler effects, to represent the love and care the characters felt for each other. This then links to Buckingham, he said that 'genre is a constant process of negociation and change' if a punk music video was to follow conventions, you wouldn't expect to see a loving relationship, as you don't associate them, this proves that genres have changed.
Conclusion: In my opinion, I would say that my music video meets many genre theorists, even though I have twisted many conventions, like the association of love and the effects used, it has also followed theorists like Chandler, as we followed the examples of pre made products.
Essay Plan 2: Narrative:
Intro: Everything is thought to need a Narrative, as many media products use it to present a story and entice an audience, all narratives are different. In my music video, narrative was a huge part of it, as we wanted our audiences to see the connection between lyric and visual.
Para 1: Cook: Cook argues that all narratives have a 'hollywood ending' where everything typically works out through aspects of hyperreality and simulacra. A very typical hollywood narrative is 'boy meets girl' and develops in a number of stages, and ends with them living happily ever after. My music video however, follows these stages, but challenges the 'hollywood conventions' as it doesn't end happily ever after, (titles at the end)
Para 2: Demont: Demont said that there was 8 different stages to Narrative, two of these stages apply to my music very well, which are 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Tristan and Iseult.' I chose Romeo and Juliet as the narrative in my music video tells a love story. The 'Tristan and Iseult' stage on the other hand, is more of a 'love triangle' which to an extent is the truth, as the female character is engaged, but due to an argument she goes off with another member of the band, forming a triangle of love/lust.
Para 3: Propp and Todorov: these two theorists are a big apart of my video, but are underlying. Todorov said that 'narrative has a beginning, middle and end' which is an obvious structure in my music video; Propp on the other hand came up with the ideas of different roles. The characters in my music use only two of Proppian character, which is 'The princess' which is the female character, the damsel in distress in love. and 'the villain' which is the main male character Andy, as he breaks the princess' heart.
Conclusion: The narrative in my music video does follow the structure of these theories, but challenges some of them, especially Cook, as the narrative doesn't follow the conventional hollywood ending, it ends in heartbreak.
Essay Plan 3: Audience:
Intro: Audience is one of the biggest parts to consider when planning and producing a new media product. Each company needs to find their target audience and then put aspects of it into their product, when planning my music video, audience was a very big part of it as we had to identify the audiences of pop/punk music.
Para 1: Hall: Hall came up with the approach of three different readings when viewing a media product as an audience, two of these apply to my music video, which is 'Dominant and/or preffered reading' which is the reading that the producers want you to have, so it is accepted, in my music video, the accepted reading is that the ring is supernatural, appearing when the characters are hallucinating. The second one is 'negociated reading' which means the audience may disagree with the set reading, and might make their own interpretation, this applies to my music video as the boy and girl have an argument over the boy apparenty 'cheating' audiences may disagree with this reading and feel the girl overreacted. The third one 'Oppositional reading' does not apply as audiences will not find my video offensive or explicit.
Para 2: McDougall: McDougall argued that 'it is getting harder to identify a stable group' which in many ways I agree with, as it isn't just one group of people that listen to pop/punk anymore, the conventions of that specific audience have grown. When planning my music video, it was hard to identify the aspects we should put in to help gain an audience, in the end we did but twisted many conventions to find our ideal audience, such as associating love in a pop/punk video.
Para 3: Hartley: Hartley said that 'they must know their audience so they can target them effectively' I agree with this as when planning and producing my media product, I had to know who my target audience was, so when filming I could make sure I included everything, to ensure I enticed them and they would enjoy it.
Conclusion: My audiences do follow these structural theories, as I had to identify who my target audience was and ensure that they would enjoy the product.
Essay Plan 4: Representation:
Intro:
Para 1:
Para 2:
Para 3:
Conclusion:
3. Timed 30 minute essay: Narrative:
Everything is thought to need a Narrative, as many media products use it to present a story and entice an audience, all narratives are different. In my music video, narrative was a huge part of it, as we wanted our audiences to see the connection between lyric and visual.
Cook argues that all narratives have a 'hollywood ending' where everything typically works out through aspects of hyperreality and simulacra. A very typical hollywood narrative is 'boy meets girl' and develops in a number of stages, and ends with them living happily ever after. My music video however, follows these stages, but challenges the 'hollywood conventions' as it doesn't end happily ever after, it challenges Cook's theory. I presented this by putting titles in at the begininning and end, at the beginning of the video, it had the titles 'Once Upon a Time' as this was a happy time for the two characters, but by the end, the relationship is in pieces, so instead of ending it with the genric 'happily ever after' I changed it to 'they lived ever after' as they are no longer together and the engagement was off.
Demont said that there was 8 different stages to Narrative, two of these stages apply to my video very well, the two stages are; 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Tristan and Iseult.' I chose Romeo and Juliet as the narrative in my music video tells a love story, with the girl and boy being in love, getting engaged in a 'fairytale' setting. The 'Tristan and Iseult' stage on the other hand, is more of a 'love triangle' which to an extent is apparent in the video as the female character is engaged, but due to the argument that happens just after, she goes off with another member of the band, forming a triangle, between the love she has for her fioncee, or the lust she feels for the other member.
Both theorists, Propp and Todorov are applicable to my music video, but they interlink as they Todorov said that 'narrative has a beginning, middle and end' which is an obvious structure in my music video, the beginning, which is a happy love scene, middle, tension, the girl turns to alcohol and cheats, ending, they both broke their promises and she was left alone. Propp on the other hand came up with the ideas of different roles in a narrative, depending on the genre, characters are usually similar. The characters in my music use only two of Proppian characters, which is 'The princess' and is the female character, the damsel in distress in love in my video. And 'the villain' which is the main male character Andy, as he breaks the princess' heart. But in many aspects it could be argued that the female character could be considered a villain aswell, as she cheats on the male character and leaves him.
The narrative in my music video does follow the structure of these theories, but challenges some of them, especially Cook, as the narrative doesn't follow the conventional hollywood ending, it ends in heartbreak, not the genric happy ending. It also challenges Propp's theory of 'the princess' as in many narratives, and not just my own, the 'damsel in distress' can also be considered as the villain.
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