Influences from the American Media Industry

In our music video we decided on having the classroom set out as an exam, as this linked perfectly with the title of the song "The Exam". The layout of the classroom is similar to the layout used in american classrooms; the inspiration was taken from american style classroom that I had seen in american films and television programmes such as Hairspray and My So-Called Life and from how British exam halls are set out. The use of individuals desk would be relatable to audiences because of the exposure they have had to american films, tv dramas and artists and their music videos.

The separate desks could symbolise two things: individualism and separation. The separation between the students could foreshadow the separation between the male and female character and their relationship breakdown. Whereas the individualism reflects the idea of individulism in teenage culture especially in the indie genre, where individualism and being alternative is important.

Taylor Swift - Teardrops on my Guitar

Name of Music Video: “Teardrops on my Guitar”

Artist: Taylor Swift

Release Date: 2007



Throughout “Teardrops on my Guitar” there are two prominent locations: a school setting and a home setting. The audience are introduced to locations in which they are familiar with and therefore can relate with. Although both of these situations are familiar, they won’t necessarily create a comfortable tone to the video for certain audience members; however it could create a form of escapism as the audience member can replace the artist with themselves, because the story is common: girl loves boy, boy doesn’t realise and loves someone else; and the location is familiar but perhaps different to their previous experiences.

Building on ideas from "Teardrops on my Guitar" I used different locations some that would be familiar to a broad audience, but others that would only be familiar to the target audience for Blighters; for instance, a gig setting and a non-commercialised coffee shop. As Blighters have a specific target audience in the age range of 16-25 and that would, perhaps, prefer independent quirky music and independent arthouse films, such as "Once", I decided that using a non-commercialised coffee shop and a gig would best represent the genre. However, in order to not alienate a large proportion of the audience, I used a narrative that was relatable and similar to that of "Teardrops on my Guitar" and similar to Swift I cast actors that would were average and normal; that the audience could replace themselves with, so that the audience could engage with the video on a different level other than the music.

Using a mixture of narrative and performance places the artist in a storyteller position, especially in this video as the lyrics run parallel with the narrative and performance. When the artist is within the home setting, it is as though she is telling a personal story to the audience, making them her confidantes; this effect is constructed through a variety of close-ups and extreme close-ups because it is as though the audience are getting close to her and she is whispering the story to them. By looking at the camera, she is drawing the audience in and engaging them, because it is as she continues to tell her story when she does this, which suggests it is only you she is telling.

The mixture of narrative and performance was an influential factor when creating our music video, as I have strong narrative and performance within our video. The idea of having being able to have characters that connect with the audience was also important, which is another way that this video helped; I wanted our characters to have the same connection that Swift has with her audience. The predominant difference being that I didn't use the characters as the performers, however they were in the performance space, and this familiarised them with the audience. Also, I used close-ups of the band; because the audience weren't able to see their faces they weren't able to connect with them on the same level that they could with the characters.

The artist is not only there for the performance aspect of the video, she is also the prominent character within the narrative, this again strengthens the sense of storytelling, however also makes her appeal to the audience as she is linking herself to the troubles within the narrative and instantly this creates her as relatable as she is going through what the ordinary person goes through. Swift is strengthening herself by making herself a familiar face within her video as well, by being in both the narrative and performance, often with just one or no-one else in the mise-en-scene with her, she becomes recognisable and relateable as the audience can connect with her because by allowing someone else to be the main female character would infringe on her connection with the audience.

Aswell as the audience being able to connect with the artist, there is also a sense of voyeurism especially within the narrative scenes; this is shown through the different shot types. The voyeurism also adds to the sense that the audience are Swift's confidantes, because they're listening and watching on her conversation. This could, potentially, alienate the audience from the artist because by being voyeurs they're not being involved, however I believe it has the opposite effect because the way in which the voyeuristic shots are shown creates the sense that Swift has set them up purposely for the audience to watch in on; almost saying: look, this is what I mean, this is how our relationship is.

Analysis of The Women - 1939original and 2008remake

Name: The Women
Director: Diane English
Writers: Diane English (screenplay); Clare Boothe Luce (play)
Release Date: 12th September 2008 [UK]

Name: The Women
Director: George Cukor
Writers: Anita Loos (screenplay); Clare Boothe Luce (play)
Release Date: 1st September 1939 [USA]

Synopsis: THE WOMEN is a smart, sparkling comedy about contemporary womanhood and the power of female relationships. It whisks us into a busy pocket of Manhattan society, where the publishing, fashion and finance industries play. At the center of the tale is Ryan’s character, Mary Haines, a thoroughly modern woman suddenly confronted with an age-old dilemma: a cheating husband. The ladies in her life swiftly rally to Mary’s side, led by her best friend, Sylvie Fowler, a dynamic magazine editor played by Bening. But when Sylvie betrays Mary in a Faustian bargain, the entire group is shaken to the core – and two women face the most painful breakup of all - their friendship.


Both the remake and the original film are similar, however one stark difference is the directors. In the 2008 remake the director is Diane English and in the 1939 original the director is George Cukor, this would suggest that possibly the way in which women are portrayed would differ; as the male director would, perhaps, objectify women more in a way that would be appealing to the male sector of the audience, whereas English would focus more on the strength of women and portraying them in a better light to both the male and female sectors of the audience. However, if English is strengthening the women’s power within the film and is going against the male gaze theory, it has to be seen that she doesn’t discriminate against men in the way in which the film industry do so to females.

The 2008 remake, received critical reviews; these reviews weren’t only critical of the film but of English’s ability and that perhaps it was her lack of ability that made the remake “a major dud” [Peter Travers, Rolling Stone]. The critical response suggests that there isn’t many places in the film industry for a female director, also perhaps there isn’t any chance for a director of TV to become a film director “English knows how to get good performances out of her cast, but her pacing is languid and sloppy, so much so that one is tempted to believe that for all she knows about pacing a 30-minute sitcom, English isn't quite ready to tackle the longer form." [David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle]; Wiegand critical response almost reinforces the male gaze, and suggests that it isn’t only incorporated within films, but also happens outside of films and within the music industry.

However, this may not always be the case, because the screenwriter for the 1939 version of “the women” was in fact a woman, “It's a testament to the actresses' skill that The Women is in any way watchable. The script is as funny as a deeply misogynist revenge tragi-farce romp could be - […] Anita Loos furnished the wisecracks. I did laugh. At it. Helplessly, sometimes.” [Al Kennedy, The Guardian]; also Kennedy is stating that it is just as funny as something misogynistic which suggests that, although the male gaze is portrayed as amusing which is a negative thought, just because something isn’t misogynistic doesn’t mean that it can’t be funny. Whereas, in a review of the English’s remake [written in the same year, 2008] “Seth Rogen asserts that weed 'makes shitty movies better', and how I longed to test this out during The Women, a generally excruciating remake of George Cukor's 1939 catty classic” [Jason Solomons, The Observer]. Jason Solomon notes that it is “excruciating” to watch, however there is no indication this is because he feels that it is because a woman has done a bad job, though this could be implied as he doesn’t just mention that is a remake of the 1939 film, he mentions the directors name “remake of George Cukor’s 1939 catty classic” but there is no mention of the female director; he doesn’t say longed to test this out during Diane English’s version of The Women.

Many of the reviews for, both the remake and the original have been written by men hence the film is being viewed through male eyes. The critical reviews could therefore have been written because the male audiences were frustrated by the lack of male dominance and male characters and this made it hard for them to relate to this; also due to the characters all being female, when they have issues – for instance, a husband cheating on his wife – it is women sorting it out with no assistance from the men, this could potentially make a male audience feel inadequate. With the 1939 classic, the male audience had the director to relate to, although there wasn’t any cameo roles and they didn’t see him, George Cukor would have had control over the female cast and would’ve been able to tell them what to do, whereas with the remake, not only is the cast and the screenwriter all female – similar to the original – but the director is also female, and therefore there isn’t any definite male input into the film.

Ideas for CD Cover

Photo Montage

Blighters are a modern band, first formed in 2005, however are heavily influenced by the 1980's and the bands of this era, such as Japan. I want to create an album cover that reflects the 1980's, but also is relevent and appealing to a modern 21st century audience. The idea of using individual sections of an object to create the bigger picture, similar to how it's used in the image above, would be appropriate for a band like Blighters, as the polaroid images creates a sense of nostalgia because polaroids were one of the first instant cameras. The use of polaroid images also creates an artisitc, creative feel and suggest individualism which should be considered as the product should appeal to audiences and give them a sense of individuality and collectiveness.

Images of the band

Rilo Kiley's album "under the blacklight" has the members of Rilo Kiley on the cover, this familarises the audience with the band members rather than creating an elusive image; also the outfits used suggests the genre of the music. Using a spotlight to highlight the band draws the audiences attention to the band, making them the main focus of the album cover. The title above the band divides the attention between the band and the title, as it is directly above the band and the space between the band and the title is shared equally.


"Black Kids" introduce the band using an image as well, but the audience can only see the tops of the band member's heads as opposed to the whole band. This creates an interesting effect as it suggest mystery, however at the same time doesn't allow the audience to familairise themselves with the band members. The use of the bubble font suggests the pop genre, however it is given a quirky edge because it isn't brightly coloured and the font doesn't fit all the way across the cover.

I like the idea of using images of the band, and I would try and use the people that the audience see when watching our video in order to create consistency and a sense of familiarity. It could prove effective as Blighters influence Japan use band images on the front of their album cover so would not only link well to their influences but also the era in that has influenced them as well.

Choosing a format : CD Designs

rounded clear cd case

This is simple minimalistic cd case design and is similar to how I would have my design for the cd case, however there are certain issues with this case compared with a generic cd case; for instance, there isn't alot possibility to have a booklet with the album art cover on it, because there would be nowhere to slip it and in order to draw attention to the case, there would have to be bright obvious artwork on the front of the cd.

conventional plastic cd case

This cd case is more of a conventional design; it is more practical design, and compared with the previous cd design displaying album artwork and including a booklet will be easier. In order to make the cd case interesting and appeal to audiences, the album artwork will have to be eye-catching. However, the case is fairly conventional, and although the most practical, I don't believe it looks as professional as the other cd cases. Millions of these cd cases are sold every year, and therefore I don't think they express 'Blighters' individuality.

3 panelled CD case

One of the more practical designs for designs for cd cases is the three-panelled case, as there is enough room for artwork on the front and within the inside of the case, also there is enough room for a booklet to be placed inside as well, or to have the information on the insides panels instead of having a booklet. I like this design as it's more professional, however if this was on sale it would normally have more than one cd inside it, because of the amount of space created by the panels.

Cardboard cd case with inside pocket

Although, this is a digipak, if it could be made into cd case size it would be appropriate, because there is the practical aspect in the plastic holding for the cd - so it doesn't slip out. The inside pocket of the case is practical and convenient as slipping the booklet inside it is easier than in a plastic cd case, however because there isn't anything holding a booklet into place when opening the cd case it could slip out.

Male Gaze Theory : Laura Mulvey

The 'male gaze theory' is an idea that feminists believe draws attention to the imbalance between male and females, due to living in a predominately patriarchal society and has analysed how women are viewed by men, and because of the what the men believe: how women view themselves.

"Mulvey identifies three "looks" or perspectives that occur in film which serve to sexually objectify women"

1. how the male characters view the female characters

2. how the spectators view the female characters

3. the male spectator taking on the perspective of the male character; this is essentially joining 'look one' and 'look two'.

The third way of viewing ('look three') enables the male spectator to become the male character within the film, and therefore allows him to have the female character as his personal sex object, because he is viewing her in the way that the male character is.

"Mulvey is best known for her essay, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", written in 1973 and published in 1975 in the influential British film theory journal Screen. It later appeared in a collection of her essays entitled Visual and Other Pleasures, and numerous other anthologies. Her article was one of the first major essays that helped shift the orientation of film theory towards a psychoanalytic framework, influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan. Prior to Mulvey, film theorists such as Jean-Louis Baudry and Christian Metz had attempted to use psychoanalytic ideas in their theoretical accounts of the cinema, but Mulvey's contribution was to inaugurate the intersection of film theory, psychoanalysis, and feminism.

Mulvey's article engaged in no empirical research on film audiences. She instead stated that she intended to make a "political use" of Freud and Lacan, and then used some of their concepts to argue that the cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema inevitably put the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire. In the era of classical Hollywood cinema, viewers were encouraged to identify with the protagonist of the film, who tended to be a man. Meanwhile, Hollywood female characters of the 1950s and 60s were, according to Mulvey, coded with "to-be-looked-at-ness." Mulvey suggests that there were two distinct modes of the male gaze of this era: "voyeuristic" (i.e. seeing women as 'whores') and "fetishistic" (i.e. seeing women as 'madonnas').

Mulvey argued that the only way to annihilate the "patriarchal" Hollywood system was to radically challenge and re-shape the filmic strategies of classical Hollywood with alternative feminist methods. She called for a new feminist avant-garde filmmaking that would rupture the magic and pleasure of classical Hollywood filmmaking. She wrote, "It is said that analysing pleasure or beauty annihilates it. That is the intention of this article."

Some feminists criticized "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," claiming that, while Mulvey believed that classical Hollywood cinema reflected and shaped the "patriarchal order," the perspective of her writing actually remained within that very heterosexual order. The article was thus said to have contradicted its "radical" claims, by actually being a covert perpetuation of heterosexual patriarchal order. This was because, in her article, Mulvey presupposes the spectator to be a heterosexual man. She was thus felt to be denying the existence of lesbian women, gay men, heterosexual women, and those outside of these identities.

"Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" was the subject of much interdisciplinary discussion among film theorists that continued into the mid 1980s. Critics of the article objected to the fact that her argument implied the impossibility of genuine 'feminine' enjoyment of the classical Hollywood cinema, and to the fact that her argument did not seem to take into account spectatorships that were not organised along the normative lines of gender. For example, a metaphoric 'transvestism' might be possible when viewing a film – a male viewer might enjoy a 'feminine' point-of-view provided by a film, or vice versa; gay, lesbian and bisexual spectatorships might also be different. Her article also did not take into account the findings of the later wave of media audience studies on the complex nature of fan cultures and their interaction with stars. Gay male film theorists such as Richard Dyer have used Mulvey's work as a starting point to explore the complex projections that many gay men fix onto certain female stars (e.g. Liza Minnelli, Greta Garbo, Judy Garland).

Feminist critic Gaylyn Studlar wrote extensively to contradict Mulvey's central thesis that the spectator is male and derives visual pleasure from a dominant, sadistic perspective. Studlar suggested rather that visual pleasure for all audiences is derived from a passive, masochistic perspective, where the audience seeks to be powerless and overwhelmed by the cinematic image.

Mulvey later wrote that her article was meant to be a provocation or a manifesto, rather than a reasoned academic article that took all objections into account. She addressed many of her critics, and changed some of her opinions, in a follow-up article, "Afterthoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'" (which also appears in the Visual and Other Pleasures collection)." Source : www.wikipedia.com

Representation in Music Videos: Kanye West & Marilyn Manson

Impressions of Kanye West:
*Arrogant
*Rude - insulted Taylor Swift

Impressions of Marilyn Manson:
*weird - 'rib surgery rumour'
*disturbed - music is blamed for high school massacres'
*iconoclast ---> takes iconic symbols and twists them

"Gold Digger" Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx

women are represented as:
*sex objects
*gold-diggers
*slags

Throughout the music video irony is used in order to excuse the depiction of women as the artist's says he loves the girl, so it's okay if she's a gold-digger.

SEX OBJECTS
___________

*Sexualised; close up of the girls.
*Binary opposites.
*Voyeuristic camera angles.
*Animated pornographic magazine.

VAIN
____

*Close-ups of the woman putting lipstick on - sensual part of the body.
*Lack of clothing; sexy underwear.

SELFISH
_______

*One girl in the mise-en-scene; main focus of the shot, attention seeking.
*"Gold-digger" - just want's the man's money, lack of emotion.
*Eye contact; sirens, draws the male audience in - makes the audience members feel important.

MANIPULATIVE
_____________

*Dancing close to Kanye, attempting to win him over? Keep his attention.
*Figures of entrapment; half dressed, sexualised dancing.

MUTE PASSIVE
____________

*Strip club; have to please the men.
*Pin-ups; normally 2D, vacant expressions - the women are 3D, yet still have vacant expressions, animated pin-ups.
*Cheap women; link them to the price on the magazines.
*Vulnerable - lack of clothing, have no control.

DANGEROUS
__________

*"Vixen" - take on the magazine title's as their personality.
*Aggressive; black costume and black background and fire.

"Tainted Love" Marilyn Manson

Women are representated as:
*Aggressive - apart from the cheerleader and stripper.
*Sex objects; sexualised dancing, lack of clothing.
*Bedroom toys; dressed as rabbits, childhood stuffed animals.
*Powerful; female leads the 'alternative' group in.

'Alternatives' are represented as:
*Fierce
*Powerful; take over/control over the party.
*More controlling; inverted stereotypes, influencing people.

_____________________________________

Both "Gold-digger" and "Tainted Love" both have representations of women, however in Kanye West's video, it is a more negative view and it suggests that there is only one type of woman - they're all gold~diggers, manipulative, and are sex objects; whereas in Marilyn Manson's video it shows different types of women, and inverts the stereotypes because the women are shown as more powerful and in control; there is a sense of, both, stereotype conformation and opposition, because the cheerleader is seen as dumb, annoying and 'easy' but the 'alternatives' are in control of the party and a level of influence as they change some of the party goers into 'alternatives'.