A Model of Media

Text->Audience->Institutions->Text   a full circle

Text:Newspaper, magazine,music video, blog, social media Accounts, videos, TV programs, video games, films 

Audience:- Consumers-How?, Why?, When?, What?, Who?, What happens?

Institutions:youtube, social media sites, google, disney, warner bros- Produce texts, Distribute texts, Exhibit texts, Market texts.

Audience to institutes: Monetary transactions.

Biggest issue nowadays is piracy of texts.
This means that producers will not be getting the money from consumers actively buying the texts so they must resort to lifting the price of those texts, for example go back thirty odd years and it cost next to nothing to see a live concert whereas now it can cost hundreds as those producers don't get the money they need/want for their products.

Michael Jackson

King of the Pop Video

Early videos with the jackson five such as "Rockin Robin" in 1971 the music video is actually very basic and just focuses on promoting the song with the dancing and costumes matching fashion at the time.

"Rock with you" the video focuses on Michael and his costume which is very hard to miss as it appears to be composed entirely of sequins. Like Rockin Robin the video is promoting the song and beginning to show Michael's own style such as his dancing.

Jackson's next big hit was Billie Jean in 1982

the beginning of the video doesn't even include Jackson, he has already sung a few lines before we actually see him in person,this video furthers his talent for dancing and his sense of style.



 

"Beat It" In 1983 is what really set of Jackson's career with his famous style of dance and costume. The video featured a lot of other dancers so the choreography must have taken a long time and multiple takes would have needed to be filmed.

 

Of course Michael Jackson's most famous song and video is "Thriller" it had a Budget of £500,000 when it was filmed in 1983 and quickly rose to top of the chart and since its release it has won many awards from best video album to viewers choice.

 



Case Study: Alex Southam

Freelances for OB management

To begin with he trained as a lawyer but decided to go in a new direction and work in film as he found being a lawyer to be uninteresting.
he began making music videos in an attempt to learn the trade.

In 2012 he joined Agile Films and he undertook all of the tasks for his music videos whilst working for them, however he now hires put others as the budget allows.

He likes the format of music videos as you can try new techniques and have real artistic freedom he is less keen on commercials as they have much less artistic freedom involved.

He showcases his videos on Vimeo as opposed to youtube as he feels it has a "Higher status".

His first breakthrough video was tesselate by Alt-J which had a budget of £10,000.


The people in this video have all been superimposed onto the background as the budget didn't allow for them to actually film on location and most of the effects were added post filming via editing software.

Another of his videos was Chase&Status- Lost and not found which had a budget of £50,000
 
He filmed this video in three takes and he filmed it slightly faster than usual and slowed it down in editing which gives it a smooth almost slow motion effect.

Sexism in pop music videos

Laura Mulvey's Male gaze: The male gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. It may linger over the curves of a woman's body, for instance. The woman is usually displayed on two different levels: as an erotic object for both the characters within the film and for the spectator who is watching the film. The man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to the active gaze from the man. This adds an element of Patriarchal order, and it is often seen in "illusionistic narrative film".Mulvey argues that, in mainstream cinema, the male gaze typically takes precedence over the female gaze, reflecting an underlying power asymmetry.

Look at the song Blurred lines by Robin Thicke for example.
the song is talking about how ambiguous women can be perceived to be, he talks about her saying no but he continues to say that she really means yes.

The song is very simply about rape, whether or not it explicitly says so in the lyrics.



Often in music videos women are set up to portray objects of desire by being made to wear revealing clothing or perhaps even no clothes at all, this is so men are more likely to watch and buy the music.

Katy Perry

Target Audience- 14-17 year old girls

Katy Perry has to:
-be like an older sister/friend
-reflect some of the anxieties young girls have
be someone young girls can admire and want to be (appear sexy in a threatening way).

"Hot and Cold"-2008 the video focuses around Perry at the alter with her fiancé who pauses when asked to say his vows, he then runs off abandoning Perry and the songs begins, linking to him changing his mind in the same fashion as a woman changes clothes.

"Last Friday Night"this video conveys to the audience that you don't have to be like every body el;se to fit in, being different is acceptable.

"Firework" this video celebrates everybody's differences, it gives a positive image where fireworks represent the spark inside everyone.

"California Girls" She released this song after she had married Russell Brand, it gives of a sexier image of her self which begins to question who the target audience is.

"Wide Awake" this is what came after her split up with Brand, this video was intended as an apology to her fans and she wished to reconnect with her younger fans.

Rough Draft

This is the rough draft for our music video, it still needs some work but we are happy with how it is at the moment.

Case study: Emil Nava

 

 This is a quote from Emil's website about how he got to where he is now in video production.

Emil began as a runner for film production companies. He then went on to work for Blink productions and now works as a freelance director for OB Management.

After working as a runner he graduated to assistant Director where he would manage the video shoots.
He signed to Academy-the biggest music video production company.

He has now begun to make adverts which have a higher budget and higher production values than music videos but they have less creative freedom.

At his busiest he has made 24 videos a year, when he began his budget could be s low as £5,000
but his most expensive video currently had a budget of £160,000

First budget- £20,000 for Our House by Kid British, filmed in Manchester with a local cast, 1 day filming, 2/3 days editing and 10 days pre-production.


OB Management- work as agents for music video directors.
Their aim is to:
Nurture talent
Work with production companies
Work with record labels
Match the right director with the right artist