In this short section I will be attempting to further my understanding of the narrative codes, primarily 'hermeneutic' & 'proairetic'. Now it is hard to distinguish these into a music video as the story sometimes cannot be sure however I will try to make it as clear as possible.
Roland Barthes developed a theory that there are 5 major codes within a story/music video (in this case) that are interwoven in order to create meaning. I am only going to concentrate on the two mentioned above as they are the primary ones, including many separate points within. Hermeneutic refers to the parts of the story that are untold, and in our music video we have a very strong concept with this in terms of the letter Nick receives. The audience automatically try and guess the outcome whilst intrigued and determined to see the outcome themselves. Our video is very typical of this first theory, only revealing the outcome at the very end. 'Partial Answers' are used throughout the film to reveal some of the truth but not all of it, increasing the audiences involvement further. Something known as 'The Snare' is often used to deliberately avoid the truth, whilst at the same time teasing the viewer. This is a great concept however it does not suit our particular genre at all. Proairetic codes are more to do with the actions that the character(s) take, or their reaction towards someone or something. In our music video Nick has these moments all the way through, most obviously the point where he approaches me on the phone and I turn him away, suggesting that Nick is not entirely used to the situation. Furthermore Nick is in a trance when confronted with the vast majority of huge and impressive landmarks such as St. Paul's cathedral and the London Eye. Again the audience relate to this and begin to make guesses, which is a very good way of mixing the video up into one big sequence of hermeneutic & proairetic coded features.
Our music video incorporates this further by giving the audience their answer at the end, when Nick finally meets the mysterious letter sending girl, this is also when nearly all the audiences questions are answered because Nick has met the mysterious girl and the reason why he's in London in the first place.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Introduction to Target Audience
Iglu & Hartly's core target audience mainly concentrate on the older male teens and younger men up to the mid 20's, a good testimony to this is that we chose to do one of their songs as our music video choice. This is a short introduction of how me and my group are going about researching Iglu & Hartly's target audience. We will annotate various photos and pictures of bands in situations and combine this with commentary and a short video explaining what categories the target audience would fall into. http://www.myspace.com/igluandhartly - This gives a little insight into their lifestyle and train of thought. The font is very bold and grabs your attention instantly, as are the images. There is a featured video which gives an insight into the lifestyle of one of the members of the band, showing him and two of his lady friends dancing and singing in one of their swimming pools with an underwater camera.
http://igluandhartly.forums.umusic.co.uk/ - This is where the band are discussed by their fans and fans can also share their Myspace profiles, which also shows part of their target audience and who they aim at are very much computer literate and are part of the 'Cyber Generation' that go on social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook etc.
http://igluandhartly.forums.umusic.co.uk/ - This is where the band are discussed by their fans and fans can also share their Myspace profiles, which also shows part of their target audience and who they aim at are very much computer literate and are part of the 'Cyber Generation' that go on social networking sites such as Myspace, Facebook etc.
Iglu & Hartly - 'In This City'
In This City Lyrics
You came in to my life
You cannot separate yourself
You came in to my life
You cannot separate yourself
(Chorus x2)
And I found that round here
In this city
That I won't disappear
In this city
I got nothing to fear
In this city,
In this city
Close those doors
Close those doors now
Now, now, just keep em open
Keep em open
Yea, keep em open
I'll keep on, keep keep on going
Taking it in so, so heavy
Take it easy son, this aint so deadly
Got keep on, gotta go on, gotta go on
Take it all with what we've done
Gotta push it push it push it
To the top of the building
Even when no one is feeling
It might bother you
Don't let it
If these people just don't get it
They can't express it
They won't accept it
She said it's okay that they may never give you that credit.
(Chorus x2)
And I found that round here
In this city
That I won't disappear
In this city
I got nothing to fear
In this city,
In this city
I've been down here
Down these roads
People pass through
Some stay some go
Standing here broke
Not a penny to my name
But she says she loves me all the same
I try my best
And you do to
And all you want is something you can move to
Everybody's gotta get their kicks somewhere
Everybody gotta fit in somewhere
There's, an open road
And I'm traveling down
Don't know where to go
But I lock and load
Shoot that sky till the moon explode
Moon explode
Now we're laying in a field
White flowers on our backs
Talking bout home
But we can't go back
I guess that's why we left
So we could take a step
Keep moving and forget the rest.
You came in to my life
You cannot separate yourself
You came in to my life
You cannot separate yourself
(Chorus x2)
And I found that round here
In this city
That I won't disappear
In this city
I got nothing to fear
In this city,
In this city
And I found that round here
In this city
That I won't disappear
In this city
I got nothing to fear
In this city
Locations
Eton Wick is the rural village which the beginning of the music video was shot in. Sam, played by Nick, will start his long journey to the city from here. Instead of quiet, village settings he will soon be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of the city which at the moment seems like a million miles away
Compared to his normal quiet life in Eton Wick. He will need to get used to the hustle and bustle of the busy London streets quickly if the trip is going to be one he enjoys.
Thursday, 24 September 2009
Sunday, 13 September 2009
Textual Analysis of "I wonder if heaven got a ghetto"
In this post I will be analysing the music video "I wonder if heaven got a ghetto" by the late rap artist Tupac Shakur, the music belongs to the hip hop/rap genre and was released in the mid 90's when rap music was just beginning to fall off its peak in the 90's as the dominant music genre. The characteristics of this genre in the video are major figureheads in the black community (Hip hop and rap being predominantly seen as a black genre of music), people playing the likes of Martin Luther King, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Snoop Dogg (another major rap artist), there is also an appearance of someone playing Elvis Presley, the video also begins with Shakur stumbling to a nunnery after he was shot and a woman portraying Mother Teresa appears in the video.
In the video Tupac is in heaven, or a Mexican town called Rukahs (Shakur backwards) and the song's title is I wonder if heaven got a ghetto, the song is also a posthumous track refering to Tupac's death and the line "I wonder if heaven got a ghetto" is repeated by Tupac.
The video doesn't go along to the beat, the camera angle is a first person view of Tupac after his death walking around in the fictional town, meeting people and he helps out a young boy after a group attack him, gives the boy his trademark black bandana and disappears, he .
The record company are looking to sell the track by showing the death of Shakur and showing it as a hard hitting song, as if Tupac had foreseen his death and this would make people want to buy the artists tracks because they would be interested to see the video/songs lyrics and content. Tupac's image is being shown as a figure who was wrongly targeted, by him helping out the boy he is shown as a helpful person instead of a criminal or gangster that he was shown as in the media before he died, they tried showing him as changing from the underground rap/gangster rap scene then going into music which was seen as more mainstream then going into more hip hop and more politically based tracks and less offensive to some audiences. This video was the first Tupac video not to show him in the video directly, obviously because of his death he wouldn't be able to make a direct appearance in it, however it's more of a video showing things from his point of view, which is a clever move from the record company.
Because of the context of the video there is only one sexually implication in the video when Tupac goes into the room with the girl, seemingly has intercourse with her then has to leave because the police arrive at the location, this again showing Tupac as being a person on the run or as a criminal but nobody knows what for. The video is one big reference of looking because it is looking from the point of view of Tupac.
There are intertextual references throughout the video, the town's name is Rukahs which is Tupac's name backwards, in the first 5 seconds of the video there is a radio report which says "rapper Tupac Shakur shot multiple times" (reporting the shooting of Tupac) and his character stumbles to the nunnery and is taken care of for 6 days, (Tupac was in hospital for 7 days before he died). The video is also based on September 14th, the day after Tupac died. The number plate on the man's car in the video is 61671, which is 16th June 1971, which was Tupac's birth date. When Tupac helps the boy who is getting beaten up he gives him the trademark black bandana which Tupac wore as a mark of comfort towards the boy and Tupac letting go of his gangster persona. The time on the clock in the motel Tupac goes into is 4:03, which is the time Tupac died, the diner he goes in right at the end of the video is called "Amaru Diner" and Amaru is Tupac's middle name.
The video is narrative based because it's telling a story of Tupac's death and the aftermath with a creative twist to it and adding in lots of subliminal messages.
This video being released after Tupac's death, therefore not being able to show him directly is done very cleverly by the director by telling a story just from Tupac's point of view, not showing him directly but from his eyes, and putting alot of references of his death into it, almost like telling the story step by step. It is a narrative video, which tells this story and how it unfolds.
In the video Tupac is in heaven, or a Mexican town called Rukahs (Shakur backwards) and the song's title is I wonder if heaven got a ghetto, the song is also a posthumous track refering to Tupac's death and the line "I wonder if heaven got a ghetto" is repeated by Tupac.
The video doesn't go along to the beat, the camera angle is a first person view of Tupac after his death walking around in the fictional town, meeting people and he helps out a young boy after a group attack him, gives the boy his trademark black bandana and disappears, he .
The record company are looking to sell the track by showing the death of Shakur and showing it as a hard hitting song, as if Tupac had foreseen his death and this would make people want to buy the artists tracks because they would be interested to see the video/songs lyrics and content. Tupac's image is being shown as a figure who was wrongly targeted, by him helping out the boy he is shown as a helpful person instead of a criminal or gangster that he was shown as in the media before he died, they tried showing him as changing from the underground rap/gangster rap scene then going into music which was seen as more mainstream then going into more hip hop and more politically based tracks and less offensive to some audiences. This video was the first Tupac video not to show him in the video directly, obviously because of his death he wouldn't be able to make a direct appearance in it, however it's more of a video showing things from his point of view, which is a clever move from the record company.
Because of the context of the video there is only one sexually implication in the video when Tupac goes into the room with the girl, seemingly has intercourse with her then has to leave because the police arrive at the location, this again showing Tupac as being a person on the run or as a criminal but nobody knows what for. The video is one big reference of looking because it is looking from the point of view of Tupac.
There are intertextual references throughout the video, the town's name is Rukahs which is Tupac's name backwards, in the first 5 seconds of the video there is a radio report which says "rapper Tupac Shakur shot multiple times" (reporting the shooting of Tupac) and his character stumbles to the nunnery and is taken care of for 6 days, (Tupac was in hospital for 7 days before he died). The video is also based on September 14th, the day after Tupac died. The number plate on the man's car in the video is 61671, which is 16th June 1971, which was Tupac's birth date. When Tupac helps the boy who is getting beaten up he gives him the trademark black bandana which Tupac wore as a mark of comfort towards the boy and Tupac letting go of his gangster persona. The time on the clock in the motel Tupac goes into is 4:03, which is the time Tupac died, the diner he goes in right at the end of the video is called "Amaru Diner" and Amaru is Tupac's middle name.
The video is narrative based because it's telling a story of Tupac's death and the aftermath with a creative twist to it and adding in lots of subliminal messages.
This video being released after Tupac's death, therefore not being able to show him directly is done very cleverly by the director by telling a story just from Tupac's point of view, not showing him directly but from his eyes, and putting alot of references of his death into it, almost like telling the story step by step. It is a narrative video, which tells this story and how it unfolds.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Media Evaluation
Media Evaluation
1. Our film is a conventional thriller, we use non-diegetic music to build up tension while my character is following Matt, and as I appear from the bushes the music gets more edgy and it is a stronger tone of music as if a fight is about to happen. While I am running away from Adam there is a fast-paced drum and bass electronic beat to connote fast-paced action. There is a negative representation of youth culture in our film, my character is dressed in a tracksuit, hoodie, bandana and white trainers. The bandana is the main use of iconography; a bandana is usually a representation of gang culture. Matt’s character is carrying a shoulder strap bag with money inside, this indicates he is quite well paid, his suit and tie also show that he is either older or from a better background than my character. In most thriller films you will see non-diegetic music build up tension and if there is a chase or a character is being followed the way the camera shot is set up will show the spatial area around the characters and where they are going to go. There are also narrative enigmas involved which are a common convention of thriller films, e.g. who is my character, why is he following Matt, why has Matt got all the money out and why is my character beating up Matt and taking his money. The setting is counter-typical of a thriller film, instead of being in a more urban surrounding, or at night, it is set in a town centre and then moves over to a public park.
2. There is a negative representation of youth culture in our film. My character is shown to have a bandana – usually linked with gang culture, and when my character gets to Matt he beats him up ruthlessly showing he has no mercy, then when chased by Adam he shows more ruthlessness by beating him up and just walking off once he has finished. Matt and Adam are positive representations, Matt is shown to be an innocent victim and Adam tries being a hero but in the end he catches up to me and my character beats him up.
3. Either a small media institution would distribute our film, or
A large one like Pathe would, a company to handle production would probably be a large thriller institution e.g. Lionsgate, the reason a larger company would handle distribution and production would be because of the large male target audience, and if the main parts were played by Hollywood stars then that might attract a fair amount of female viewers as well.
4. The target audience for our film would be 15 – 30 year old
Males who are of lower social class because the violence and edginess of the film would appeal to the younger, lower social class. We made questionnaires to help us get a rough idea of who our target audience would be. The psychograph of our target audience would either be mainstream or struggler or a YAK lifestyle.
5. We decided the thriller genre would be the best genre of film to make because of the range of sub-genres and films we could use as examples. In the opening two minutes we see my character stalk Matt and create tension to the audience, then we see that Matt has money for someone by the phone call, then we are briefly introduced to Adam’s character who at this moment is an extra or innocent bystander. Matt goes into the toilets to check everything is in place and my character re-appears wearing a bandana and hood up and the audience knows that he is about to do something troublesome because of the clothes he is wearing, he sneaks to the toilet and sees Matt and ruthlessly attacks him and robs him for his bag and money, Adam’s character comes to check Matt is O.K after the brutal beating and pursues my character, he catches up to me and my character beats him up as well and walks off and music fades in and the film title is flashing on the screen. It would have a certificate of 15 because of the violence; the casting was easy because I was the only one who had stereotypical urban youth clothing so I was the one to play the robber and Matt and Adam were the others in my group and were easy to cast. The location’s were in Windsor town centre and Bachelors Acre, Windsor Town because of the hustle and bustle and false sense of security that Matt is safe, we then used Bachelors Acre because it is an open space and was handy for filming because of the amount of shots we could use. Costume wasn’t a hard decision to make, the bandana and hoodie I wear were to connote the urban youth culture and to show secrecy of my character’s identity, Matt and Adam needed to wear smart clothes to show the difference in class between my character and theirs. We used a few innovative shots, the point of view shot from Adam when I am punching him, and the shot in the alley when the camera flips 180 degrees to follow Matt’s movement which we saw in Kidulthood and thought would be quite good to use. We used fast paced music for when Adam was pursuing me and during the fight to connote the fast-paced action that was happening and we used hard rock guitar when I was running towards the toilet to create tension to the audience, and the stalking music was also to create tension and make the audience ask questions of what was happening and why Matt was being followed and creating Narrative enigmas.
6. The equipment we used was really helpful to creating the final product, the Macbook was the most helpful because of the software all inter-linked and you could import and export anything you did to Finalcut express to add to your film, you could make a soundtrack on Garageband and Send it to Itunes and then import it into Finalcut express to add to the film. We also used Livetype which we created our credits and film title on. The cameras we used were really simple to use and this was helpful because we could get to our location and get into filming straight away. We also had vast options of what we wanted to do on Finalcut express and Livetype and Garageband to alter what we wanted in order to make the final product how we wanted it to.
7. We have progressed excellently from the preliminary task because we were allowed much more time to shoot and edit the final footage, we used a lot more shots and were allowed to be more creative with the shots we used and music we added. We were also given more time to plan what we were going to shoot and what locations that we were going to use. We could have much more storyboards and our film was allowed to be longer, we were also allowed to use Livetype and put in credits and our understanding of the Macbook and its software became better. Our costume and mise-en-scene had a much wider variety as well, instead of all of us using school uniform we could go home and get other costume but chose not to because of the social class barrier shown in our film.
Tuesday, 12 May 2009
Initial Ideas
Initial Ideas for our film were not followed, the only thing we kept from our initial ideas sheet was the film title and film setting.
Completed Questionnaires
Monday, 27 April 2009
Saw 4 Opening Sequence
Opening Sequence - Saw 4
In the opening sequence to Saw 4, we see the idents for the production company and distributor. Then we are introduced to the main antagonist of the series Jigsaw, this starts with a horizontal pan of Jigsaw's body, as he has his autopsy. The surgeon performing the autopsy finds a cassette inside Jigsaw's stomach and it is given to the protagonist in this film (Lieutenant Hoffman) to listen to, there is a sinister message in the message for Hoffman. We are positioned to dislike Jigsaw because of how evil he is, let alone the fact he has died and we are supposed to feel sorry for Hoffman as we know he is the one who will undergo more of Jigsaw's infamous tests. There are alot of camera shots on Jigsaw's body, alot of close-ups when he is having his body cut open and a lot of close ups on the parts that have been taken out, a medium shot when the cassette is playing of his body as if he's talking from the dead and there's a close-up of Hoffman as he listens to the tape. The opening sequence reveals that the setting will be quite a dark place by the colour pallette used in the surgery theatre. The editing is slow paced cuts which shows this is quite a slow process.
There is a fast, low pitched score at the end under Jigsaw's voice when Hoffman listening to the tape and when Hoffman has finished listening to the tape there is a loud bang and a noise which sounds like someone screaming, the title is then shown at the end in the middle of the screen in a sharp white font and it is then emphasised by a brighter flow of white going through the word as it becomes broader in the background.
In the opening sequence to Saw 4, we see the idents for the production company and distributor. Then we are introduced to the main antagonist of the series Jigsaw, this starts with a horizontal pan of Jigsaw's body, as he has his autopsy. The surgeon performing the autopsy finds a cassette inside Jigsaw's stomach and it is given to the protagonist in this film (Lieutenant Hoffman) to listen to, there is a sinister message in the message for Hoffman. We are positioned to dislike Jigsaw because of how evil he is, let alone the fact he has died and we are supposed to feel sorry for Hoffman as we know he is the one who will undergo more of Jigsaw's infamous tests. There are alot of camera shots on Jigsaw's body, alot of close-ups when he is having his body cut open and a lot of close ups on the parts that have been taken out, a medium shot when the cassette is playing of his body as if he's talking from the dead and there's a close-up of Hoffman as he listens to the tape. The opening sequence reveals that the setting will be quite a dark place by the colour pallette used in the surgery theatre. The editing is slow paced cuts which shows this is quite a slow process.
There is a fast, low pitched score at the end under Jigsaw's voice when Hoffman listening to the tape and when Hoffman has finished listening to the tape there is a loud bang and a noise which sounds like someone screaming, the title is then shown at the end in the middle of the screen in a sharp white font and it is then emphasised by a brighter flow of white going through the word as it becomes broader in the background.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Hermeneutic Code Essay - Saw 1 Opening
Hermeneutic Code - Saw 1
In Saw the Hermeneutic Code is used extensively in the opening sequence of Saw, the type of Hermeneutic Code mainly used is Jamming. The first question we ask is why this man is in a full bath in a pitch black room, when he wakes up the water drains through the plughole and he climbs out, also what was the blue light that went down the plughole but most importantly, who put him there. He gets out of the bath and the room is pitch black, we then find out that he is not alone in this room and there is someone else, another question we ask is who is the other man and why is he here also, we assume that they have both been put there by the same person. When the other man turns on the lights we see that they are both chained to pipes on the wall. We also see a man laying dead with a pistol in one hand and a cassette player in the other in the middle of the two men in the middle of the room, we ask how did he get there and we presume the way he died was suicide because he has a hole in the back of his head and he is holding a pistol. We also can tell that the other man has been there or awake longer than the man who was in the bath because he is noticeably calmer. The only way for these question to be answered is obviously by watching on, the main code used is Jamming because the men have obviously got no means of escape to start with, but as we go through the film snare’s are added to add tension and keep the audience watching.
Preliminary Sequence Evaluation Essay
Preliminary Sequence Evaluation
The preparation for the preliminary sequence was to fill in storyboards, we were originally supposed to shoot it in the drama green room but we couldn’t so we then had to move shooting into the history/I.T corridor and into a history room, we chose this location because we needed a corridor to film a walking shot and also the room was adequate size and length so we had room to shoot. We used a handheld camcorder to film the scenes and a Macbook Pro to upload the footage and we used First Cut Express software to edit the footage. The editing went well after Mr Titheridge told us how to use the software and after we re-located the filming went well, the only major problem we faced with the filming was the re-location but we basically found another location straight away, shooting started in the green room, but because we took so long to work out dialogue we chose to re-locate as people kept on walking in and out and we didn’t ask permission, also with First Cut express we couldn’t work out what all the windows were for and we had to delete the last bit of editing and start again because it was all mixed up and we thought it would be easier to start the last bit over, this wasn’t a major problem as it only took us about ten minutes. The Preliminary task went well and I am happy with our progress so far, I’m looking forward to giving in improved work and starting to film our final sequence. I would improve next time by spending more time on the things that mattered and prepare better than we did and to go over things more concisely, I have learnt to manage my time better and to spend less time on the minor matters, such as in this sequence we spent fifteen minutes trying to think of dialogue when dialogue doesn’t really play a major part.
The preparation for the preliminary sequence was to fill in storyboards, we were originally supposed to shoot it in the drama green room but we couldn’t so we then had to move shooting into the history/I.T corridor and into a history room, we chose this location because we needed a corridor to film a walking shot and also the room was adequate size and length so we had room to shoot. We used a handheld camcorder to film the scenes and a Macbook Pro to upload the footage and we used First Cut Express software to edit the footage. The editing went well after Mr Titheridge told us how to use the software and after we re-located the filming went well, the only major problem we faced with the filming was the re-location but we basically found another location straight away, shooting started in the green room, but because we took so long to work out dialogue we chose to re-locate as people kept on walking in and out and we didn’t ask permission, also with First Cut express we couldn’t work out what all the windows were for and we had to delete the last bit of editing and start again because it was all mixed up and we thought it would be easier to start the last bit over, this wasn’t a major problem as it only took us about ten minutes. The Preliminary task went well and I am happy with our progress so far, I’m looking forward to giving in improved work and starting to film our final sequence. I would improve next time by spending more time on the things that mattered and prepare better than we did and to go over things more concisely, I have learnt to manage my time better and to spend less time on the minor matters, such as in this sequence we spent fifteen minutes trying to think of dialogue when dialogue doesn’t really play a major part.
Monday, 9 February 2009
First Post.. Finally!!
This is my media blog where I will be putting my essays and work to be tracking my progress as we work our way through the coursework.
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