T2-Music Video

Music Video

What is a music video?

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings.

There are also many kinds of music video and each music video will go in to one of the following categories...

1. Narrative- A narrative music video usually tells us a story. For example Hey Brother by Avicii . A narrative music video can often feel like you are watching a short movie because of the story. Narrative music videos can often include introductions before the song starts and can also have an opening. 

Some examples of good narrative music videos would be Thriller by Michael Jackson. The music video was quite long and had an introduction and ending which was just like an introduction and ending to a movie. Overall the music video had a storyline.

2. Performance Based- This is usually a music video that includes the artist, band or a live performance. For example Rihanna and Beyonce. Now days performance based videos are less popular than they used to be as most music videos usually have a story to them. 

A performance based video can either be of the performer them self which has been recorded especially for the video or can be a performance based video which has been taken from live performances for example, Rihanna's Cheers video has footage of her preforming from her LOUD tour in 2011.

3. Abstract/Artistic- This is usually a music video that is creative and unusual. For example Radio head and massive attack. Abstract videos don't usually  include the artist its self or any real human and it will usually be very colorful and upbeat. An example of a abstract music video with humans in would be Somebody that I used to know by Gotye. 

A lot of DJ's have abstract music videos such as Calvin Harris and Martin Garex. A lot of DJ's use abstract music videos as the genre of the music goes well with the abstract music video features such as being create, bright and loud!

Parody music videos are also created and are usually created by fans or people who create music videos for leisure purposes. A parody music video is a video that is usually similar to the original music video but is mimicked by the lyrics and characters being changed.  Some examples of parody music videos would be Beat it by Michael Jackson and Anaconda by Nicki Minaj. 

Music videos are released usually after the track to the music video is released or with the music track and music videos create a lot of money for the artist as it gets shown on TV on channels such as MTV and 4 Music and is also put on to websites such as YouTube and Vevo. 

MTV and 4 Music:

4 Music is a music and entertainment channel in the United Kingdom and available on some digital television providers in the Republic of Ireland. The channel launched on 15 August 2008. 

MTV (formerly an initialism of Music Television) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel owned by the Viacom Media Networks Music & Logo Group, a unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom. The channel itself is headquartered in New York City, and is a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. Launched on August 1, 1981.

Here are some examples of music videos which I spoke about perviously in this blog post...
 

T2-Short Film-Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold

Lynn Ramsay and Andrea Arnold-short film directors

What is a short film?

A short film is any sort of film which is not long enough to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as an "original motion picture that has a maximum running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits".

Here are some examples of well known short film directions and some of their products...

Lynne Ramsay is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar and We Need to Talk about Kevin.

Lynne Ramsay's films compared to a lot of short films are very dull but in a way to make the audience think and become interested in the short film and are very serious. One of her large short films was the "Ratcatcher". The Rat catcher is a short film set in the 1999 and was filmed in France and the UK, more specifically Glasgow. 

Here is the plot for the short film...

James Gillespie (William Eadie) is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne (Leanne Mullen), a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny (John Miller), who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.

 Gasman: 

Gasman is another short film by Lynne Ramsey and set in 1970's Glasgow and the story behind ‘Gasman’ is one of adultery and deceit, with the father of a working-class Scottish family lying to his wife and children as he lives a double life that includes a mistress and their two children together. The film raises many controversial themes and issues, including sibling rivalry, lack of education, endemic poverty, unemployment, economic deprivation and social
disenfranchisement and alienation. 

The short film focuses a lot on the children and how the camera is positioned an the kind of shots used explain a lot within the shot film...

 As you can see from the shot above, without even seeing the face and top half of the characters body we can tell that the character is a child by the way she is standing and by the color of her tights and shoes. 

Above is another screenshot from "Gasman" and as you can see from how the type of shot used we can tell the kind of relationship between the two girls by just their position and the way they are going to hold hands. Later on in the clip we see an opposite of the screenshot above as the same shot is used but this time the girls are fighting by trying to hurt eachother...

 Ramsay seems able to make the ordinary become beautiful through lighting and framing.A lot of Ramsay's films are like this and I think this is what makes her products so interesting and realistic to watch.

 Another short film directer is Andrea Arnold but compared to Lynne Ramsey, Andrea's work is a lot more different and up beat compared to Lynne's work.Andrea is again a Scottish short film director and has created a lot of short films and one of her large short films even won an oscar award!

The film which won the Oscar was called "Wasp" and she has also created a lot of other successful short films. 

Wasp:

Wasp is again another short film by Andrea Arnold and again is set in 1970's Glasgow. Wasp is all about Zoe who is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years. 

Poverty is shown a lot by the types of camera angles and shots used. Here is how poverty is shown in "Wasp"...

There aren't any characters in the shot above but we can tell poverty is being shown in this shot by the way she is trying to find money and where her money is kept. This is a similarity to Lynne Ramsays work as again she used these types of shots to show lifestyle and personality.

 

 Again, from the screenshot above we can see poverty straight away by the way the children look and where they are. This shot also shows aspects of "Homeless" and not being looked after properly by just the way the shot has been taken and by what the children look like. 

The dark and dull filer used over the shot also shows the mood of the situation and makes the audience feel like the characters are cold and tired.

Both of these directors produce short films but they have many differences, Lynne Ramsey creates more low mood and dull short films which have a very difficult story line to understand compared to Andrea Arnold who creates more upbeat and realistic short films. Her story lines are also more easier to understand and some of the products she has created could be relate-able to how people live.

Despite all the differences they have they both use the "Todorov Theory" in their short films and most films use this theory, even large conglomerate movies. The Todorov theory is simply the order of parts in a film. This is the format for the Todorov Theory...

Equilibrium(Good/Sad start?)

Disturbance of the Equilibrium

Recognition of the Disturbance 

Attempt to Repair

RE. In-statement of the Equilibrium 

The above shows how films will be set out and to usually be a success, there has to be a disturbance in the film to get people thinking and give the movie a twist. 

T2-Binary Oppositions

Binary Oppositions

What is a binary opposition?

A binary opposition is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. For example there are binary oppositions for cowboys and Indians, cowboys for example use guns as a weapon and Indians would use a bow and arrow as a weapon.

Binary oppositions in the genre "Action" are used a lot to show the differences and oppositions between villains and heroes. Some examples of action films with villain and hero character are used would be Indiana Jones, Superman, Robin Hood and James Bond and in this post I am going to be talking about Binary oppositions in the James Bond Spectre trailer which is due to be released this year. 

Binary oppositions are used in all of the James Bond films between the villain and the hero who would always be James Bond(Daniel Craig). The Hero in James Bond Spectre movie is James Bond and he has a very professional and smart look to him self compared to the villain who would have the impression of looking less professional and more untidy compared to the Hero. This Binary opposition is not only used in James Bond films but is also used in other villain and hero movies.

 

As you can see from the image to the left, Oberhauser who plays the villain in the Spectre films has a much more untidy and less professional look compared to James Bond(image below) who has a more confident and smart look. This is the kind of image you would get in a lot of hero v villain movies.

Another Binary opposition used in action films and especially in the Spectre trailer is the difference in personalities of the villain and the hero. In the Spectre trailer, the hero James Bond has a much more calm and relaxed personality compared to the villain, Oberhauser who is a lot more hot headed and on edge. This is the case in a lot of hero v villain films as the hero always has to look more smart and relaxed as they are the good characters in the movie and if they were to be hot headed audiences could mistake them as a villain or on the villains side. 

The Villain will always have a hot headed and less calm personality as this is a stereotypical feature for a villain to have. Here are some more binary oppositions in villain v hero films...

Hero V Winner

Quick V Sneaky

Quiet V Loud

Winner V Looser 

Smart V Untidy 

 How the theory of Binary oppositions started and Levi Strauss:

Levi Strauss was an Anthropologist with a French background who lived in the early 1900's. He believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as he called it 'binary opposites'. 

In the mid-20th century, two major European academic thinkers, Claude Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes, came together and discovered that the way we understand certain words does not depend so much on the meaning that they directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as they called it 'binary opposite'.
They realised that words simply act as symbols for society's ideas and that the meaning of words was a relationship rather than a fixed thing just a relationship between opposing ideas.

Overall, Levi Strauss's theory is all about that conflict is based around the binary opposites and that the binary opposites are the central climax of a narrative structure.  

Here are some more examples of general binary oppositions...