A2 Media Hub

Wednesday, 5 August 2015

Tuesday, 4 August 2015

Richard Dyer’s Star Theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial reasons and are built to target a specific audience or group of people. Dyer’s theory can be broken down into 3 sections:

■Audience and Institutions

■Constructions

■Hegemony (Cultural Beliefs)

Audience and Institutions:

Stars are made to make money for that purpose alone. The institution then modifies the stars image around the target audience, for example Rihanna.

Constructions:

The star is built for an audience and is not an actual person (as audiences are made to think). The star is built specifically with something signature to them that differentiates them from other stars, for example Lady Gaga’s outrageous fashion or Katy Perry’s bright hairstyles.

Hegemony:

We relate to the star because they have a feature that we admire, can relate to, or that we share with them. This develops from an admiration into an idolization. Some people may attempt to replicate what they like about the star, but this can be negative as even though stars are seen as role models, some abuse hard drugs and alcohol which can lead to people who worship these stars copying their actions.

Dyer states that ‘stars’ are constructed, artificial images, even if they are represented as being “real people”, experiencing real emotions. It helps if their image contains a designed audience so that they can be copied to the interests of that audience. Their image may be made over a single item or characteristic e.g. Katy Perry’s hair colour. Pop stars have the advantage over film stars in that their constructed image may be much more consistent over a period of time and is not dependent on characters or the films they choose as star vehicles.

Dyer proposes that “A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed out of a range of materials”.

Stars provide audiences with a focus for ideas of what people are supposed to be like (e.g for women, thin/beautiful) they may support hegemony by conforming to it (thin/beautiful) or providing difference (plus size/still beautiful).

Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and promote a certain ideology. Audience interest in these values enhances their ‘star quality’ and it is through conveying beliefs ideas and opinions outside music that performers help create their star persona. A star may initiate a fashion trend, with several fans copying their hairstyle and clothing. Ideologies drawn upon include materialism and sexuality.

Sunday, 2 August 2015

Example planning paperwork from real movies

Tuesday, 21 July 2015

Analysing digipaks and magazine adverts

Tuesday, 7 July 2015

Analysing a music video- prompt

We are in the research period now- the more videos you analyse at this stage, the more informed you will be when planning your own music video.

Below are the 5 key concepts in Media Studies, which you can use as a platform to undertake your own music video analysis:

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Andrew Goodwin's theory

Prompts for analysing music videos with Andrew Goodwin's theory

· Which video are you analysing, who is it by and, if you know, who directed it?

· What genre does the music belong to and what broad characteristics of that genre does the video have?

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?

· Find the song lyrics.

· Work through the song and identify ways in which the lyrics are illustrated or amplified or even contradicted by the visuals.

· Pick out some specific examples to back up your argument.

What is the relationship between music and visuals?

· Does the video cut to the beat?

· Are solo instrumental bits illustrated by the video?

· Does the video change pace with the music?

· Give examples to support your points.

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?

· How is the record company looking to sell this track?

· What image of the artist/band is being offered?

· How does this video relate to previous videos by the artist?

· Are there motifs which have been used previously? Or does this video represent a change of image? Is there a ‘message’ is being communicated in this video?

Is there reference to the notion of looking?

· Do you get the sense that the artist is on sexual display or that other people in the video are used in this way?

· Does the camerawork, costume, dance or something else imply sexualised display?

· Are there references to 'looking' such as screens within screens or binoculars, cameras etc?

· Give examples and consider why these features have been chosen

Are there intertextual references?

· Do these relate to other music videos, to aspects of the star's image or to completely separate texts such as programmes or films?

· How are they used?

Is the music video perfomance-based, narrative-based or concept-based

· How much of each?

MEDIA LANGUAGE ANALYSIS OBSERVATIONS:

- MISE-EN-SCENE: what do you notice about the design decisions made and their effect on the video: costume, hair, make-up, casting, lighting, set and location, props, choreography/body language, framing and positioning etc…

- CAMERAWORK: noticeable camerawork and effect? Shot types, shot distances and movement?

- EDITING: noticeable editing for effect? Including effects added in post-production