Examples of Intertextuality

            


This music video by Robbie Williams utilises intertextuality throughout the video. This is evident with the theme and visuals being heavily inspired by the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.


           


The music video for Taylor Swift's "Love Story" takes heavy inspiration from the Shakespearean tale Romeo and Juliet. This demonstrates that intertextuality has been a part of our culture for centuries.


            

Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park demonstrates how intertextuality can be used to transfer styles from different areas of media and different cultures. This is because it utilizes the style of Japanese animation or otherwise called anime.

Intertextuality

Location List

Due to the limited budget we had access to, we were restricted to the range of locations we were able to shoot at. However, the plan for our video does include small shots of varied locations meaning we are gaining a percentage of our shots without needing a full crew present.

Locations List:

1. House: This is the location we plan most of our music video will be shot at due to this being where the artist will spend a majority of their time.
2. Park:  Here we plan to show our artist acting like a kid on the swings and seesaws. This will show the viewer that the artist is out of the ordinary and certainly doesn't mind being that way.
3. Coast: Here is another location we intend to shoot at with our artist however it will hopefully also provide a variety of interesting shots depicting the passage of time.
4. Busy High Street: This location will be used to further indicate the passage of time.
5. World Shots: These are shots that can be taken randomly wherever inspiration is found and will hopefully serve the purpose of separating the artist from the rest of the world.

Actor Auditions Review

After completing the auditions process, we have decided that the actor from audition tape three is ideal for our artist. We decided that all the actors we auditioned looked the part however actor three provided us with the best performance.

These auditions have also allowed us to cast another role we have developed for the video. We believe that actor two is a good fit for the role of the postman due to his performance being very monotone and unenergetic.

Actor Audition 4

Actor Audition 3

Actor Audition 2

Actor Audition 1

Indie Artist Mood Board

Pre-Production Diary 4: Review of New Ideas*

Lyrics Analysis

Copywrite Permission

In order to continue with our project, we need the permission of the record label of the artist to create a music video for their song. So we emailed them.

Contacting the record label was more difficult than we first thought it would be, due to the record label (DCG Records) not having a website of its own.  We were also unable to access the parent organisation (Interscope Geffen A&M)'s website too meaning we had to contact the Universal Music Group directly.

Pre-Production Diary 3: New Path*

Key Concepts Of Indie/Alternative Rock

Level of Appeal:
The Indie genre gets its name for the word independent. This is because songs in this genre are usually rejected by the commercialism of the mainstream culture. This means that many artists in this genre are generally unheard of by the masses and therefore has a very niche audience to appeal to. It is argued by artists who operate within the genre that it allows them more creative freedom however it isn't as commercially viable as bigger genres like Pop and Rock.
Lyrics and Rythem:
The Alternative Rock genre tends to make use of very unconventional rythmic and lyrical structures in their songs which often leads to the music videos also being unconventional in their visuals and narrative.

Key Concepts Of Rap

Rhythmic Beat

• Rap songs always have a rhythmic beat. This steady, strong beat makes rap music popular in dance clubs. The beat is particularly strong on the bass line, which can sometimes dominate the other instrumentation.

Lyrically Based

• Two rap songs can have a similar pre-recorded track, but with different lyrical interpretation. Rap lyrics tend to follow a set of themes, such as boasting, insulting, nonsense and party.

Emphasis on Performance

A rap music video would typically have a mostly performance theme to the video due to the lyrics implying less of a narrative and more of individual sets of punchlines. 

Change of Plans*

Audience Research Genre Results*

Audience Research: Genre Questionnaire *

Risk Assessment

During the filming process there could be hazards that we have to be aware of to ensure that we stay safe when on our shoot. Even though risk is small in our decided locations, it is better to be prepared for any hazard which we could face during production. This table shows a list of considerations we will have to make.

Equiptment List

On this post I will list the equipment and software which we plan to use to shoot and edit our music video.

Camera, Dolly and Tripod
The Camera which we will be using to capture the visuals and sound during production shoots is a Sony HD 4K handheld. A benefit of using a handheld camera is that we can easily carry it or attach it to a tripod allowing us to create steady shots. As well as this, both pieces of equipment can be attached to a dolly so that we can move the camera whilst keeping a steady shot.

Lighting
We will use different lamps and shaders to create different effects which we can use to create a more immersive shot that can provide connective tissue between scenes.

Green Screen
Green screen will allow us to include locations which may be inaccessible to us, giving us the opportunity to include a wider range of sequences within our music video.

Editing Software
When it comes time to edit footage we have gathered on production shoots, we will be using two different pieces of editing software to give us more creative freedom; Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier Pro.

Pre-Production Diary 2: Review of Initial Ideas

Today, we reviewed our initial ideas. We pitched our ideas to each other and we noticed that they can all work combined with one another.

For example, Charlotte's idea was to have the video flashback so that we can see how the relationship described in the video started and grew. She was inspired by the line "rewind the picture" in the song. This works well with my idea because it can add to the impactfulness that the main character feels when she believes that her significant other is cheating.

James's idea was to juxtapose the idea of cheating in the typical fashion and have it as a representation of how a wife during WW2 would feel when her husband went to war. This would then lead the mise-en-scene to have been in the style of the 1930's to 1940's which is a hard thing to achieve on a limited budget however this did help inspire what could be used as a visual metaphor for the characters feelings.

My Pitch

After analysing the lyrics, I have come up for an idea for the narrative of the video. The overall theme that I had thought of was that the main character was a female, represented by the artist, who finds out that her significant other had been cheating. This is the main theme in the song anyway but I wanted to expand upon this idea by exploring a representation of her feelings, taking place in her head; suggesting that she could be a little paranoid because her findings might not be the truth.

Lyrics:

You lay here with me, you're shutting down                       The song opens with piano notes before
I smell her on ya, I'm focused now                                    the lyrics start. I see this as her walking
I know what's going on in your head, yeah                         up stairs to find "evidence" that she had
I know what's happened here in our bed, yeah                    been cheated on and coming to the end of
Your phone is buzzing, so pick it up                                  the first verse, her face would be the only
I know she calling, so what the f***                                  thing in frame and then the visuals would
I should've known a cheat stays a cheater                           change to something that represented her
So here we are                                                                 emotions.

And there goes the alarm ringing in my head                      An idea for something that represent her
Like somebody said, "Don't you trust him, no"                  emotions comes from the alarm lyric
Texting from his ex, what did you expect?                          which I think can be likened to a police
Now you're lying here knowing where he goes                    siren. Maybe her thoughts are of a 
Now he gotta getcha                                                         police unit going to arrest a criminal who
Karma is a b****, yeah                                                    would be the representation of her partner
Same way that they come that's the way they go                  only to find that the "criminal" wasn't 
Now he gotta getcha                                                          doing anything wrong.
Rewinding the picture
There goes the alarm and the siren's go

There goes the alarm                                                       In this verse we then flashback and see
I saw it coming, I let it go                                                the start of her relationship and how she
My girls will tell me, "I told you so"                                was warned that it might not be the best
But I was so intrigued by your style, boy                          thing for her. Inspired by the "I told you"
Always been a sucker for a wild boy                                 line.
I'm better than this, I know my worth
I might be getting what I deserve
But I ain't sticking 'round for the rerun
What's done is done

And there goes the alarm ringing in my head                     In this part we would flash back and forth
Like somebody said, "Don't you trust him, no"                   between the past and present with a larger
Texting from his ex, what did you expect?                         emphasis on performance.
Now you're lying here knowing where he goes
Now he gotta getcha
Karma is a b****, yeah
Same way that they come that's the way they go               We could also see her in a room with her
Now he gotta getcha                                                            freinds at an undisclosed time where they
Rewinding the picture                                                          tell her that shes foolish to stay with him.
There goes the alarm and the siren's go

There goes the alarm
Now he gotta getcha
Same way that they go
Now he gotta getcha
There goes the alarm, yeah                                                 For this chorus and bridge we could
Same way that they go                                                        go back to her mind and the police scene
Now he gotta getcha, yeah                                                 where she eventually shoots the "criminal"
                                                                                            that represents her significant other.
Bang bang, two-shots fired                                                 As well as this there could be some shots ofMan down, one fool, one liar                                              fire imagery.Ring ring, trust gone missingHouse on fire, house on fireBang bang, two-shots firedMan down, one fool, one liarRing ring, trust gone missingHouse on fire

And there goes the alarm ringing in my head
Like somebody said, "Don't you trust him, no"                 Now were back in reality and see the couple
Texting from his ex, what did you expect?                        argueing that climaxes with her leaving.
Now you're lying here knowing where he goes
Now he gotta getcha
Karma is a b****, yeah
Same way that they come that's the way they go
Now he gotta getcha
Rewinding the picture
There goes the alarm and the siren's go

There goes the alarm                                                      This would act as a prologue where she is seen
Now he gotta getcha                                                        felling free.
There goes the alarm
There goes the alarm
Now he gotta getcha
There goes the alarm
There goes the alarm

Copyright Permisssion

Crew List

Crew

It is impossible to create a media product without a crew to help, we will have various jobs for people to take on which will benefit the outcome of the opening.

Camera- We need somebody to operate the camera, get the right angles and highlight the key moments of action.

Editing- Someone will need to sit down at a computer with the camera, take all the shots that were filmed and order them, inserting transitions and text- this person will be in charge of putting the entire final piece together.

Director- Somebody is needed to direct actors and camera people as to what to do and how to do it, changing things they don’t like and making sure everything is perfect.

Light/Locations-  There will be someone in charge of where each shot will be filmed and how much light will be needed, it is down to them to decide what light is used and if they need to change it.

Green Screen Practise

           

This video shows us practising applying background images to a green screen behind our artist using the chroma-key. This practice has shown us the mistakes we have made and how to improve them in the future.
For example, our artist was too close to the green screen making her seem like she was glowing green. As well as this, it is also ideal to film on a tripod and not handheld because the handheld technique causes the background to be moving unnaturally, creating an uneasy effect however we could use this to our advantage if we need to.

Examples of lighting effects*

Pre-Production Diary 1

These pre-production diary will document the process of the journey up to filming. So far, I have learned how use blogger more effectively to ensure the presentation of my work is good. I have also learned the conventions of different genres and what the basic process of making a music video is. This will help me and my group, ensuring that we have as smooth a production phase as possible.

Artist Mood Board

Our Record Label Logo

Record Label Name

For our record label, we decided upon three names that we would all be willing to use, each with a different meaning. We then brought these forward to a group of people for them to vote upon which names they preferred and they decided that 16 Hour Records was their favourite, because it gets its name from the average amount of time a person spends awake a day.

Our Artist

The results of our questionnaire showed us that a majority of our target audience favoured the name Ava Grace.
The sample we used for this questionnaire was more female than male because we believe our target audience is predominantly female.

Key Concepts of Pop

Pop music has been the most prominent genre in the music industry since its conception. It has changed a lot with the times. In this post I will be talking about the key concepts that make up the pop genre from the turn of the millennium.



Appeal:
Pop music gets its name from the word popular, so it has to appeal to the larger, general audience. This means that it has to be conventional for it to be more likely to appeal to a larger audience.
It does this by conforming to the trends of the time and by having a larger emphasis on technology and production over the song and its meaning.


An example of this is the artist Katy Perry. Her videos are always high production elements and less emphasis on performance. An example is her video for her song "Dark Horse" she is playing a pharaoh in Egypt as pictured to the left. The video was massively popular and was awarded best music video at the MTV European music awards.


Rhythm:
A generic song from the pop genre will typically have a noticeable rhythmic element. This element changes with time and since the 2000's, the typical rhythmic element found in most songs are dance orientated.




An example of this is the 2012 song "Scream" by Usher.
Its rhythm is very dance orientated. This is further reflected by the video which uses bright lights and dance to accompany the dance oriented rhythm.




Gaze:
This refers to the gaze theory and the objectification of a man/woman to gain the audiences attention. This is often used in pop videos to increase appeal and re-watch ability however this forces the star image of the artist to be associated with gaze.

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory

Male gaze theory (now commonly known as just gaze theory) is the idea that women and men are used as objects; usually in a sexual fashion; to attract the viewers attention.

This theory was thought up by Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" where she states that the male gaze occurs when the audience is put in the perspective of a man. She also stated that in can be put in three different ways:

1. What men think about women
2. What women think about themselves
3. How women look at other women

Features of male gaze:

Mulvey quotes that the main feature of male gaze is that "the camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of a man's reaction to these events."

She also states that it "relegates women to the status of objects. The female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily, by identification with the male." 

Audience profiles

Demographic
Gender: I believe that the main gender interested in pop is female. This is because there are more female artists associated with the pop genre than there are male artists associated with pop.

Class: An ABC1 audience is the audience we will aim for because we plan for our video to be more about narrative than performance and this will appeal more to an ABC1 audience then a CDE2 audience however we want to make it as universal as possible to appeal to as much as the CDE2 audience as possible because they account for a majority of the United Kingdoms population.

Age: 9-29. Even though this age range may be restrictive, I believe that the modern pop audience would range from an older kid to a young adult.

Religion: We don't plan on appealing to any specific religion however, we may make use of religious imagery and symbolism to build our narrative.

Education: Since we would be aiming at an ABC1 audience, peoples levels of education would need to be higher than that of the general population to best appreciate the video, however we will still try and not seclude those with a lower level of education.

Marital: I believe that this will be of no concern.

Income: This wont be of too much concern because our target audience's income will range from high to not earning at all.

Nationality: I believe that the nationality of our demographic will be mostly British because we will be using Great Britain as the shooting location.

Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow is a physiological researcher who pioneered his theory about the needs of people which need to be met to further motivate them. He developed his heirachy of needs theory in the 1950's.




It is built upon multiple base levels where the next level up isn't available without the lower levels being fully actualised.

Media industries use this theory because it can be applied to have the media industry have to acquire an audience for a product. This is because when it is applied to a narrative, it allows the audience to connect with what they are watching. This makes it possible for a narrative to be targeted at a specific audience.

NRS social grade and Audience readership

The general audience can be split into multiple sections.
These are ABC1 and CDE2.

ABC1: This represents the more intelligent audience who like to find the hidden meaning behind pieces of text because they have highly knowledgeable occupations and are considered wealthy compared to the rest of the population.

CDE2: This represents a majority of the UK’s population. People in this group don’t have an interest in the sub context of text and will often take its message at face value. 

This table goes into detail about the Social grades which make up each audience group.

Social Grade	Social Status	Occupation
A	upper middle class	higher managerial, administrative or professional
B	middle class	intermediate managerial, administrative or professional
C1	lower middle class	supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional
C2	skilled working class	skilled manual workers
D	working class	semi and unskilled manual workers
E	those at lowest level of subsistence	state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers

Hurts Like Heaven (Coldplay) Narrative Textual Analysis*

Hi miss. Hi sir. this post will be finished before the 15th





One journey many perspectives)

Goodwins Theory

Music Video Camera Techniques Textual Analysis:*

Music Video Textual Analysis: This is Love (Will.i.am ft. Eve Simons)

Will.i.am’s and Eva Simons’ This is love is a pop single released in May 2012 accompanied by its music video.

(C) 2012 Interscope Records

Binary Opposites - levi Strauss

Strauss studied many stories from myths to modern literature. He identified that most narratives use polar opposites to tell a story.

Examples of Binary Opposites:
Good vs Evil,                                                             This theory can be applied to our narrative
Black vs White,                                                          because our artist will be experiencing time flow
Boy vs Girl,                                                                differently to the rest of the world.
Peace vs War,                                                            
Civilised vs Savage,                                                   

Democracy vs Dictatorship,
First world vs Third world,
Domestic vs foreign/alien,            
Articulate vs inarticulate ,
Young vs Old,
Man vs Nature,
Protagonist vs antagonist, 
Action vs inaction,   
Motivator vs observer,                      
Empowered vs victim ,
Man vs Woman,
Good looking vs Ugly,
Strong vs weak,
Decisive vs indecisive,
East vs West,
Humanity vs technology,
Ignorance vs wisdom,
God vs Mortal.

There are many examples of Strauss' theory in film such as Harry Potter using the good vs evil; Terminator uses humanity vs technology; Snow White uses young vs old; Independence day uses domestic vs alien; Django Unchained uses Black vs White. As shown above, there are many examples of this used in cinema throughout the ages.

Roland Barthes Theory of Narrative Codes

Music Video Textual Analysis: I Love It (Icona Pop ft. Charli XCX)

"I Love It" is a song by Swedish DJ duo Icona Pop featuring vocals from British recording artist Charli XCX. It was released in May 2012.
Genre: Electronic Pop

Music Video Textual Analysis: Nashville Grey Skies (The Shires)

Music Video Textual Analysis: Shoop (Salt-N-Pepa)

"Shoop" is the lead single released from Salt-N-Pepa's fourth studio album; Very Necessary. It was released in the UK during early 1994 where it achieved moderate success. 
Genre: Hip-Hop; a sub-genre of rap.

Music Video Textual Analysis: The Pretenders (Foo Fighters)

"The Pretender" is a song by the American alternative rock band Foo Fighters. 
Genre: Alternative metal

This video follows many conventions of the rock/metal genre. This image showcases a shot at the beginning of the video. The props and setting are standard in the genre with an electric guitar and microphone which are being used to perform with remaining conventional at the beginning of the video. This helps to set up the audience for the video because it inst something out of the ordinary.

The shot focuses on the colour red which is there to suggest the feeling of anger which is present throughout the song. The use of a colour, whether that be through a filter or an item, to convey an emotion is conventional for the genre.




This shot shows the setting of the video which is in a sporting arena. This is quite unconventional with most video's setting being a rock show. This also symbolises the theme of the song which is order verses chaos.




This shot represents the relationship between the music and the visuals because as the music ramps up so does the action on screen. this relates to Andrew Goodwin's theory about how this helps to promote the song.

 This image is an indication to the viewer, that along with the red background, the artist is the embodiment of chaos. This represents the artist as a rebel who doesn't fit in with what is expected by society which is a conventional image for this genre.

Camera Technique Research

Here are some examples of videos showcasing camera techniques which will hopefully boost the quality of our music video. These are particularity effective pieces of research because they cover everything from shot composure and lighting to types of camera and their effects. 

1. This video showcases how to hold and move a camera, to replicate the shots achieved with complex gear such as cranes and dollies. Rather than going for the wobbly handheld look, it states that you can combine pans and tilts with height changes and pushes, to create complex camera moves. This approach adds life to scenes, without requiring a time-consuming setup.

2. This video goes into detail about all the different elements of inexpensive film making by showcasing tricks and techniques which create unique and powerful shots and effects.

Production Elements Of A Music Video

The Process of Making Music Videos

Star Profile: Jamie Thraves

General Audience Research: Quantitative Results

General Audience Research: Qualitative Results

What is your favourite music video?                                         Why?

Mute Math - Typical                                                                Each member of the band had to learn
                                                                                                   their parts backwards.

Fatboy Slim: Weapon of Choice                                            The performance elements are                                                                                                                               awesome.

Radiohead - Just                                                        Its a mystery what the man says.


 Drake - Hotline Bling                                                             The video is colourful.


Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody                                                    There is a good use of lighting.


Katy Perry - Firework                                                               The firework imagery is powerful.


Calvin Harris Ft. Example - We'll Be Coming Back                 There is a strong narrative behind the                                                                                                                      lyrics.

Ludacris - Act A Fool                                                                The video is exiting.


Nelly - Just A Dream                                                                 Visual metaphors which illustrate the                                                                                                                       message of the lyrics.

General Audience Research Questionnaire

Exhibition Platforms

Youtube is an online video sharing platform which allows allows users to upload, view, rate, share, add to favourites, report and comment on videos for free. These features get utilised by record labels to help promote their artistes by releasing their music videos onto the website.

I-tunes is an application used in Apple products to sell music, music videos and other forms of entertainment media. This platform is the most prominent music sharing application that doesn't stream songs and I-tunes allows for the exhibition and promotion of music videos making it an ideal candidate for an exhibition platform.

MTV (Music Television) is a satellite television network that presents music and music videos as well as relevant information.

It is the biggest network of its kind and is a very effective way to release a music video that people will watch, due to the video always being played to accompany the song. Furthermore it has separate channels relating to different genres such as indie and rock.

The ability to directly target our audience is an effective way to share.

Evidently, our choice will have to be Youtube due to it being a free service with a large potential to promote from.This also allows us to keep control over the exhibition something that would be much less possible with MTV and I-tunes.

Our Influence

In our group, we are all fans of different types of music which has influenced our choice of genre. I am a fan of most music however my favourite genres are dance and rock. They have influenced our decision because there is conventionally a clever use of colour in their videos.
Charlotte's favourite music mainly consists of songs from the pop genre. This has influenced our group decisions because she has been our window into the world of pop and the conventions it brings as well as how it is so appealing to a mass audience.
James taste in music is more indie and niche which has had a large creative influence over the direction we are going to take our video. This is because it allows us to think abstractly and more freely.

History of the Music Industry

The modern Music Industry came to fruition in the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Ever since there have been massive changes due to major events and varying trends from decade to decade. The Music Industry is now one of the biggest media platforms, creating many celebrities and icons every year.

Most prominent genres:

Most prominent musical artists:

1940's:

Vera Lynn

Rosemary Clooney

Glenn Miller

1950's:

Tommy Steele

John Dankworth

Guy Mitchell

1960's:

The Rolling Stones

Elvis Presley

The Beatles

1970's:

David Bowie

ABBA

Elton John

1980's:

Queen

Duran Duran

The Police

1990's:

Spice Girls

Take That

Oasis

2000's:

Amy Winehouse

Adele

Coldplay

2010's:

One Direction

Jessie J

Sam Smith

History of the Recording Industry

In the 70's and 80's when the importance of record labels grew, 6 stood out and where considered the big 6 of music labels. These were: BMG Entertainment; EMI (Electronic Music Industry); MCA; PolyGram; Sony Music; Warner Music Group. Universal later acquires PolyGram and Universal Music group becomes one of the big 6.  In the year 2000 EMI and Warner Music Group merged, leaving it the big 5. And in 2004 Sony Music and BMG merged creating the big 4 music labels (Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Warner Music Group, MCA).