Monday, 8 October 2012
Codes and conventions essay
The music of genre defines pieces of music in different categories which all group shares their own different set of conventions. The conventions categorises each genre by the codes used in the same genre. In this essay I intend to explain and research my music genre and clearly show some examples of the different codes and conventions used within the chosen genre of my choice. I am going to research the music genre of pop and the theory behind cinematography and mise-en-scenes. I will analyse the music video Rihanna we found love and two other videos of the same genre, Kylie Minogue cant get you out of my head and Katy Perry California Girls.
Firstly, pop originated in the 1950’s from rock and roll. Pop has many elements from different genres, such as, urban, dance, rock; they all define pop. It’s up-tempo music with strong beats, which creates catchy tunes for people to listen too. The structures of the songs are normally easy to understand, such as the narrative and lyrics of the song. There are numerous artists and groups who perform in that genre; Examples of artists such as, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga, Kesha, Madonna. All these artists have had hits within the genre of ‘pop’ and many are well known songs. Also, groups such as, ABBA and Bee Gees also performed in that genre. All these songs have many codes which all become and convention of the genre pop, although my main focus was on the three music videos that I have analysed.
All three videos have catchy lyrics, which are simple to understand. 'We found love in a hopeless place', the lyrics in Rihanna's video are repeated a lot throughout the song; this applies to the other two videos also. The simple lyrics then become memorable to the audience; likewise, there might be memorable dances throughout the music videos as the genre ‘dance-pop’ is dance orientated. All these music video clips all have a dance nature to them. For example, normally in the genre there is lots of performance, polished productions and videos, which keep the audience entertained and hooked whilst watching. Performance in the videos such as, dancing to beats of the music, sometimes a story alongside it, depending on the specific song. In Rihanna's video, at the beginning it has non-diegetic sound, which was used effectively and created an introduction of the story between the two characters.
The lighting is normally high key lighting, which adds a glamorous effect and also makes the artist/group look important. Over the top clothing of the singers in the videos attracts the attention of the audience and makes them focus on the singer throughout the video. Also, the clothing that they wear might become memorable and even influence their intended audience. For example, Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry are both positioned closer to the camera whilst the backing dancers are shown behind them. They are also positioned in the centre of the screen, which shows the importance of the person. In Rihanna's video, close ups of her singing are shown occasionally, although, most of the video consists of her acting.
The genre of pop is also represented through the music video of Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry. For example, Kylie is moving to the beat of the music whilst she lip-syncs the song. She is shown in driving a car, representing her wealth and power. Moreover, she is dressed in a white flimsy outfit. The connotation of white suggests purity and innocence, goodness and the colour of perfection. She also has red lipstick, which captivates the audience’s attention from the contrasts of white and red. The connotation of the colour red suggests energy, strength and passion.
The reception theory is an important theory for how we view and analyse the videos, as the audience will have different analysis. For example, the preferred reading of Rihanna’s video is seeing the ups and downs of the relationship between the two characters and the intriguing and thrilling scenes such as, in the Skate Park and takeaway. The representations of the characters are both rebellious. Whereas the negotiated reading of the music video could be the imitable behaviour, suggesting their relationship and actions is the norm to today’s reality. All videos in the genre are risk taking with not just the video but also with the song. The theory behind cinematography and mise-en-scenes is the theory of semiotics. Semiotics is the ‘science of signs’, which has two sides, the signifier (denotation) and the other side ‘signified’ (connotation). The theory was created by Ferdinand De Saussure and is the theory on behind how we view our media texts. You cannot separate the signifier and the signified as it would not make sense. For example, when we look at the car in Kylie Minogue‘s video, we automatically label that a ‘car’ because it’s a cultural meaning in our visual society.
In conclusion, the genre pop is popular music genre and has very successful well-known songs, for instant the three videos that I have mentioned. Within the genre, audiences become aware of all these similar techniques and styles used. And so, all the codes used in pop music videos become a convention of that genre.
My examples of the genre dance-pop music videos: Kylie Minogue can't get you out of my head and Katy Perry California girls:
Firstly, pop originated in the 1950’s from rock and roll. Pop has many elements from different genres, such as, urban, dance, rock; they all define pop. It’s up-tempo music with strong beats, which creates catchy tunes for people to listen too. The structures of the songs are normally easy to understand, such as the narrative and lyrics of the song. There are numerous artists and groups who perform in that genre; Examples of artists such as, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Kylie Minogue, Lady Gaga, Kesha, Madonna. All these artists have had hits within the genre of ‘pop’ and many are well known songs. Also, groups such as, ABBA and Bee Gees also performed in that genre. All these songs have many codes which all become and convention of the genre pop, although my main focus was on the three music videos that I have analysed.
All three videos have catchy lyrics, which are simple to understand. 'We found love in a hopeless place', the lyrics in Rihanna's video are repeated a lot throughout the song; this applies to the other two videos also. The simple lyrics then become memorable to the audience; likewise, there might be memorable dances throughout the music videos as the genre ‘dance-pop’ is dance orientated. All these music video clips all have a dance nature to them. For example, normally in the genre there is lots of performance, polished productions and videos, which keep the audience entertained and hooked whilst watching. Performance in the videos such as, dancing to beats of the music, sometimes a story alongside it, depending on the specific song. In Rihanna's video, at the beginning it has non-diegetic sound, which was used effectively and created an introduction of the story between the two characters.
The lighting is normally high key lighting, which adds a glamorous effect and also makes the artist/group look important. Over the top clothing of the singers in the videos attracts the attention of the audience and makes them focus on the singer throughout the video. Also, the clothing that they wear might become memorable and even influence their intended audience. For example, Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry are both positioned closer to the camera whilst the backing dancers are shown behind them. They are also positioned in the centre of the screen, which shows the importance of the person. In Rihanna's video, close ups of her singing are shown occasionally, although, most of the video consists of her acting.
In the story of Rihanna’s video, there are two characters focused on in the video. She is shown with a man. The man looks like he has the more dominate role between the two characters. The representation the two characters signify a couple. This then may make the intended audience to relate to the story line of the video. It is clear to the viewers that the narrative of the story is about drugs as pills are shown dropping and clips of them smoking together. Also, the effects used emphasised the drugs. For example, the camera zooms into the eye as it dilates, creating a chilling effect, suggesting the consequences of the drugs. Also, the cigarette lights up different colours with the beat of the music, which makes it fit with the dance nature of pop. As my song is very upbeat too, I chose to make my video have a narrative of a relationship by fast cut clips of different scenes which made the video keep up with the pace of the fast genre of 'pop' music.
The genre of pop is also represented through the music video of Kylie Minogue and Katy Perry. For example, Kylie is moving to the beat of the music whilst she lip-syncs the song. She is shown in driving a car, representing her wealth and power. Moreover, she is dressed in a white flimsy outfit. The connotation of white suggests purity and innocence, goodness and the colour of perfection. She also has red lipstick, which captivates the audience’s attention from the contrasts of white and red. The connotation of the colour red suggests energy, strength and passion.
The reception theory is an important theory for how we view and analyse the videos, as the audience will have different analysis. For example, the preferred reading of Rihanna’s video is seeing the ups and downs of the relationship between the two characters and the intriguing and thrilling scenes such as, in the Skate Park and takeaway. The representations of the characters are both rebellious. Whereas the negotiated reading of the music video could be the imitable behaviour, suggesting their relationship and actions is the norm to today’s reality. All videos in the genre are risk taking with not just the video but also with the song. The theory behind cinematography and mise-en-scenes is the theory of semiotics. Semiotics is the ‘science of signs’, which has two sides, the signifier (denotation) and the other side ‘signified’ (connotation). The theory was created by Ferdinand De Saussure and is the theory on behind how we view our media texts. You cannot separate the signifier and the signified as it would not make sense. For example, when we look at the car in Kylie Minogue‘s video, we automatically label that a ‘car’ because it’s a cultural meaning in our visual society.
In conclusion, the genre pop is popular music genre and has very successful well-known songs, for instant the three videos that I have mentioned. Within the genre, audiences become aware of all these similar techniques and styles used. And so, all the codes used in pop music videos become a convention of that genre.
My examples of the genre dance-pop music videos: Kylie Minogue can't get you out of my head and Katy Perry California girls:
What did I achieve?
8thOctober: I have started to start my production plan for my music video. I have done a mind map to show all my ideas. I can’t wait to start planning my filming and develop my ideas!
Friday, 5 October 2012
diary of production
Diary
24/09/12:
Our group discussed and decided which music video we would recreate. We finally made a group decision of the music video of 'We Found Love' by Rihanna and Calvin Harris. We then produced a 'production plan' of our roles of the group and the locations where we would film each clip.
28/09/12:
We started planning the timing for when we start recording. We examined and analysed each clip of the 30 seconds we chose. We did this by, timing each clip and when it changes, the camera angle and distance, and the actions of the characters in the video. This then made us organized for our filming on Monday.
1/10/12:
We collected our camera and started filming the main part of the 30 seconds. The skate park and takeaway. Our first location of filming was in the skate park in Beverley leisure center. This took about an hour to record, re taking each shot to make sure we had it as accurate as we could. Then our next scene was in a takeaway, fish and chip shop. We filmed in 'pizza fez' in Beverley also, and very kindly of them, they let us use their tables and chairs to make the scene more realistic and the same as the original video.
3/10/12:
After all the main filming had been done the night before, we started editing all the clips we had done. We stayed on during our lunch break to finish it all off and we managed to have enough time to do so. I found the editing really challenging and exciting but also sometimes stressful, although, when it was all put together it was so worth it!!!
4/10/12:
We used our free periods and lunch to carry on filming the scenes of Rihanna singing, with the projector for effect. During this time we used our time well to film the video, although, it became hard as the we found the lighting was darker then on the video. We tried different solutions to over come the problem but as we projected more light we lost the images behind on the scene, such as, the clouds, flowers and the corn.
5/10/12:
Our group then edited the rest of the video. We combined the video clips of me singing to the others that we had already edited. It was hard trying to match me singing with the music but with patience we managed to do it. We carried on throughout our lunch break and free lesson time to record the last few clips for our video. These were the tablets dropping, medicine bottle, close up of the mouth and hands and eye. We used tic-tacs to create the effect and realism of the tablets like the original video. There was just a few final things to be done to complete it such as, the colouring tones and effects and the positioning of some clips.
8/10/12:
We finally finished our music video which my group and I were so happy with. We put our video onto YouTube and then onto our blogs. As we had extra time we added the 'outtakes' from the filming that we did which is very entertaining! I think our group worked together well, we listened to each other’s ideas and took it in turns to edit the different clips. Overall, I am pleased with our final result and I'm so glad we did this task as it's taught me about the editing equipment and gave me an idea on how my music video will be like. J
24/09/12:
Our group discussed and decided which music video we would recreate. We finally made a group decision of the music video of 'We Found Love' by Rihanna and Calvin Harris. We then produced a 'production plan' of our roles of the group and the locations where we would film each clip.
28/09/12:
We started planning the timing for when we start recording. We examined and analysed each clip of the 30 seconds we chose. We did this by, timing each clip and when it changes, the camera angle and distance, and the actions of the characters in the video. This then made us organized for our filming on Monday.
1/10/12:
We collected our camera and started filming the main part of the 30 seconds. The skate park and takeaway. Our first location of filming was in the skate park in Beverley leisure center. This took about an hour to record, re taking each shot to make sure we had it as accurate as we could. Then our next scene was in a takeaway, fish and chip shop. We filmed in 'pizza fez' in Beverley also, and very kindly of them, they let us use their tables and chairs to make the scene more realistic and the same as the original video.
3/10/12:
After all the main filming had been done the night before, we started editing all the clips we had done. We stayed on during our lunch break to finish it all off and we managed to have enough time to do so. I found the editing really challenging and exciting but also sometimes stressful, although, when it was all put together it was so worth it!!!
4/10/12:
We used our free periods and lunch to carry on filming the scenes of Rihanna singing, with the projector for effect. During this time we used our time well to film the video, although, it became hard as the we found the lighting was darker then on the video. We tried different solutions to over come the problem but as we projected more light we lost the images behind on the scene, such as, the clouds, flowers and the corn.
5/10/12:
Our group then edited the rest of the video. We combined the video clips of me singing to the others that we had already edited. It was hard trying to match me singing with the music but with patience we managed to do it. We carried on throughout our lunch break and free lesson time to record the last few clips for our video. These were the tablets dropping, medicine bottle, close up of the mouth and hands and eye. We used tic-tacs to create the effect and realism of the tablets like the original video. There was just a few final things to be done to complete it such as, the colouring tones and effects and the positioning of some clips.
8/10/12:
We finally finished our music video which my group and I were so happy with. We put our video onto YouTube and then onto our blogs. As we had extra time we added the 'outtakes' from the filming that we did which is very entertaining! I think our group worked together well, we listened to each other’s ideas and took it in turns to edit the different clips. Overall, I am pleased with our final result and I'm so glad we did this task as it's taught me about the editing equipment and gave me an idea on how my music video will be like. J
Monday, 1 October 2012
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