Paramore - Playing God

Genre is used to refer to the type of kind in which something is. We use these type of classifications to determine the target audience of a specific product or text.
Paramore are an alternative rock band, because all the music is created by members of the band using instruments. This gives a sense of passion and appreciation for what they do, it suggests to the audience that they have a real talent which have they have worked for. Rock videos usually use this convention within their videos, to suggest to the audience that they take their life as a musician seriously, and what to perform at all times.
The band appear performing a number of times during the Playing God video. In one scene the band are locked away in the basement, along with the lead singer, who is the protagonist of the video which revolves around her and the idea that she has a secret locked away in her basement. The band are down in the dark basement, performing to the song, they also have thick rope around their bodies, this could suggest to the audience that music controls their life and the basement is used as a metaphor for the way the emotions are locked away, while the band tour around the world. Emotions are usually portrayed within rock music, this is a typical convention of the genre, in comparison to hip hop's materialistic lyrics.
Towards the end of the video, the lead singer and protagonist in the video leads the band with the rope, up the stairs to the exit, this could be used to represent the lead of rock lyrics, and imply to the audience that this genre of music is about finding a path for the artist, as their music is progressive and about their emotions. However the protagonist, leads the band members and the teases them by closing the door infront of them. This could suggest that even when musicians think they are on the right path, they are lead astray or obstacles are put in the way of their goal. This iconography implies that this genre of music is about the singers goal, and is used to make the audience sympathise with them, rather than envy them, like that of a hip hop genre. This represents the progressiveness of rock music.
The video begins with a close up of the profile of the lead singer, Hayley Williams’ face, the camera has an old fashioned home video feel for the beginning, with flickering lights and shots, while the camera itself looks quite old, to give it a tarnished look. The protagonist is portrayed in an almost perfect way, as she strolls towards the house, the camera tracks her movements, she sings directly at the camera suggesting a connection with the audience. A further connection is made when the camera flips to a point of view of the protagonist walking towards a basement door, which almost looks like a coffin which creates a slightly eerie look. As she enters the underground basement, this builds up the crescendo to the chorus and also creates the climax as within the basement as a group of men are revealed to be tied up, these are also members of the band which creates familiarity within the audience, this creates a sense proairetc code as the audience wait in anticipation as to whether anything happens or anything is revealed as to why the men are trapped down there. The room is badly lit creating mystery, which creates an enigma which intrigues the audience to why the protagonist is acting in almost a psychotic manner. The scene then fades out and back in again to reveal the protagonist to be perfect again, the light is back up and shows her to be having a dinner party with friends, and everything seems fine, until there is a shot of her looking towards the camera looking extremely worried, the protagonist is out of focus, while rope and scissors are in perfect focus. This creates questions within the audiences mind as to why the protagonist feels a sense alienation and isolation within this group.
After this the use of episodic narrative is used, to flashback to a similar scene where the protagonist is sitting having lunch with the men trapped in the basment, this scene reveals her to have poisoned the men and they collapse, followed by another flashback showing the protagonist putting the poison in their drinks.

Genre And Theory

What Are Music Videos For?
-Promotion
-Entertainment
-Portraying the artist in a positive light
-Directors interpretation of the song

How Do They Reflect Culture?
-Based on reality
Portrayal of an idealistic world
Focus' on the audience's relation

Hedgemonic = Leading ideas

Broad Typologies (Firth 1988)
-Performance
-Narrative
-Conceptual
They describe the form and content and convey direct and indirect messages.
>Act as ads and popular art forms.

-Performance

Firth believe that performance videos are the most common. They convey a sense of concert experience and legitimise the artist.

Gow (1992) suggests the predominance of performance and indicates that music videos define itself chiefly by images of artists singing and playing.


-Narrative
Presents a sequence of events
Love stories are the most common narrative pattern

Schwichtenberg (1992) "Action in the story is dominated by males who do things and females who passively reacts or wait for something to happen.

-Conceptual

Firth "Conceptual videos do not tell a story in linear fashion, but rather create a mood, a feeling to be evoked in the experience of viewing.
-The possibility for multiple meanings as the metaphor is interpreted by the viewer.


Goodwin -"Dancing In The Distraction Factory"
-Music video demonstrates genre characteristics
-There are relationships between lyrics and visuals
-Relationships between music and visuals
-Demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and may develop motifs which recur through their work
-Frequently reference to notion of looking in particular at the treatment of the female body (reference to voyeurism, the idea of pleasure of looking)
-There is often an intertextual reference post modernist perspective (relying on cultural knowledge)


Goodwin (1992) "The essential narrative component of a music video is found in its ability to frame the star. 'Star-in-text'

Post Modernism relates on how we have been exposed to the media of our culture and how we relate, understand and make sense of the world. It is recognisable in part through the use of intertextuality.

Media Conventions

Media Conventions: These are the rules that direct how you write or shoot a media piece. They talk about the techniques, angles, language, patters, colours, etc.

Artists and musicians are represented differently in indie music magazines, than those in other genres of music.

Photos used on the front cover of Indie magazines are unconventional in the sense they are not as ‘posed’ or edited. Many covers of magazines in this market feature photos of artists taken from live performances. This reflects the indie music genres pro-independence and less ‘produced’ and recorded electronic music. In some ways, it is a more human view on musicians than, for example, a Hip Hop take on them, hip hop artists rely on their looks therefore the way the magazine portrays them is very important.

Photos tend to be unconventional compared to a hip hop magazine. Whereas a hip hop magazine might display a rapper or mainstream artist, showing off his wealth and materialistic interests, an indie magazine cover might show an unusual close up shot of a emotionless singer, in a simplistic background and not surrounded by material goods. This can be seen as an idealistic approach – as apposed to the money-orientated approach of hip hop music. Indie music magazines are also considered a step towards a progressive move. Many bands featured are wearing a unique style of clothes, e.g. Skinny jeans, converse, retro items. Male singers also take more time in their personal presentation – usually with slightly more

sophisticated hairstyles and long hair. Despite being more of a progressive movement, male singers still dominate the indie music industry, making it patriarchal. Most popular indie bands consist of an all male group, or at least a majority of them. Artists are represented as more down-to –earth people, rather than rich, powerful media moguls. It is true, that the hip hop or pop music businesses may pull in higher profits and this is reflected in how they are presented. Their god-like appearance makes them respected for their musical and financial success, whereas indie musicians have a more romantic and nostalgic view on music which is less oriented around money.

All of this had to be portrayed within my magazine so that it was a successful magazine of its genre, allowing it to compete with existing magazines.

Post Production

Post Production: can part of the filmmaking process. It occurs in the making of motion photography and digital art.

The post production of my work included me recording the process of my final piece within a documentary.

In this I had to talk about all the research and planning that went into my production and why I made certain choices. I did all of this on Adobe Premiere. The evaluation allowed me to see the process of my work developing and how my skills developed through practicing and maintaining all of my skills.

Research and Planning

Research and Planning: The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions and the process of making plans for something.
Research and planning is important when creating anything, it is essential that you know what you're dealing with and to think about the obstacles you may have to overcome. It is essential to be prepared so that you can complete what you aim to complete.

This is why before I started my project I completed detailed research into existing magazines which would be similar to the product that I wanted to create, so I looked at magazines such as NME and Kerrang! and with this I analysed them in great detail, allowing me to be influenced for ideas for my own magazine. I also did research into institutions, representation, audience and the codes and conventions of my music magazines, this allowed me to develop a proper understanding of what we would be found in a typical magazine and allow my magazine to compete with existing magazines of a similar genre.

I also had to conduct planning into my research, I did things like names brainstorm and masthead designs to decide on for my final magazine product, and decide on a colour scheme which would be suitable for a magazine of my genre, I had to go with bold colours as this was typical for my target audience.

I also had to plan my photoshoot, and plan things such as props and costumes which were suitable to my target audience, this meant that I had to use my research to find out the sort of things my audience could relate to.

I then also had to create paper and draft copies of a brief plan of what I wanted my magazine to look like, this would come to help me when I actually moved on to start the real version of my magazine.

Planning also came when I had to create my Final Evaluation as I had to produce an essay of my overall work, but this had to make sense when it was read out and recorded for my video, I then had to produce images and videos to go along with this, planning was essential to this because it all had to link and make sense to what I was talking about in the voiceover.

Creativity

Creativity: The use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work.
Creativity refers to a persons mental process of ideas and concepts, creativity can be portrayed in any way, and sparked by the most random things and influenced by anything.

During the project we had to stick the codes and conventions of music magazines, this meant that using stereotypical conventions would make my magazine successful. By using similar conventions to other magazines it meant that my creativity was influenced by other magazines, and my creativity had to appeal to both males and females. I used a theme of mainly red and black and although this targeted a majority of males it could attract certain females who are aware that males would go for this type of magazine, this is a use of intertextuality. I produced all the pictures myself and designed all the graphics within the magazine, as an attempt to portray my creativity and make my magazine look extremely professional.

Digital Technology

Digital Technology: Digital electronics are systems that represent signals as discrete levels, rather than as a continuous range.
Technology is advancing rapidly to the point where all modern technology isn converged to allow us to interact, listen to music, play games, take pictures, catch up on tv and so much.
While creating my coursework, I had to work with multiple forms of media. We started by taking a photoshoot using models, and for this I used an SLR digital camera, and also used professional lighting to create a standard of images which were likely to be found within in a magazine. This then helped when editing my photos in photoshop as they were of a higher quality.

After creating my magazine, I voice recorded my evaluation and then Adobe Premier to edit it, this form of technology allowed me to edit out all my mistakes while I documented the process of creating my magazine. With this I was able to create effects to make my videos more interesting to watch.

Skills Development

Skill Development: Any work-related learning or training activity that results in enhanced skills, knowledge and ability to perform a job.
Skill Development refers to the art of mastering an art form, and perfecting and mastering it to a point where the skill can be maintained through practice and persistant hard work. With maintaining a skill development of that skill must be able to be applied, to improve the skill to make it the best it can be.
When I originally started the AS course, we had to produce a Preliminary Task. This had to be a school magazine and was extremely basic. I didn't attempt to learn new skills, I just used the ones I was already familiar with.

However, when I began to develop my magazine, I started to experiment with different tools to attempt to perfect my magazine. I started with the magic wand tool to cut around the images I had taken, and then moved on the feather tool to smooth these images. This was not something I did in the preliminary task, and by doing this it made images look more professional, like those in a real magazine.
I also experimented with tools such as the blur tool and the sponge tool to take out darker and lighter areas, for when the spot healing tool was too harsh on certain areas.

I also tried to experiment with vanishing point to create a page which had a 3D effect to look like a room, and despite being able to maintain this skill, I wasn't very keen on the effect afterwards, and for this reason I did not use it in my magazine.

Another tool I used, which was actually successful, was the Liquifying tool, this allowed me to manipulate my models face to slightly alter their appearance, after some practice I was able to do this successfully and used it in a range of my images including the cover image.

I also developed skills within Adobe Premiere when I created my Planning Documentary and Final Evaluation. I was able to edit my voiceover and piece in images and videos on me creating my work, I was also able to edit the way these faded and the effects that were in the video. This was extremely hard but as I practiced I was able to extend my knowledge and maintain this throughout the project, these skills will also help me throughout the A2 coursework.

AS Media Coursework

Audience

Definition: The assembled spectators, listeners or consumers of a public event, such as a play, movie, concert, or meeting, or of a certain media.


Audience is the basis for any form of media, the producer must be able to engage with the audience and create a response, by evoking some sort of emotion or creating a relation between the audience and the media.
The Hypodermic Needle Theory and Two Step Flow help to explain audience theory.


>The Hypodermic Needle Model suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciouness of the audience unmediated, ie the experience, intelligence and opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that, as an audience, we are manipulated by the producers of media texts, and that we are easily influenced by producers through our passive nature, and need to be accepted through conformity.


>The Two Step Flow suggests that the information does not flow directly from the text into the minds of its audience, like the Hypodermic Needle Theory, but that we are influenced by "opinion leaders" who communicate it to others, over whom they have influence. The audience then take in the information received directly from the media with the ideas and thoughts expressed by the opinion leaders, therefore they have been influenced by a two step flow. This suggests that the media do not hold power, but that "opinion leaders" such as iconic figures that the media portray influence us, this leaves us to conclude that social factors are important to consider when we talk about the audience being influenced by media texts.

Representation

Definition: The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature.


The media presents certain ideas to us, using something called the hypodermic needle theory, which suggests that the media inject information to us in certain represent in a certain way. Producers feed us with the information they want to give us to, exposing us to only certain bits of information, restricting our knowedge and experiences, and giving us a bias view. We accept many views we are given as they are portrayed as the norms, and it is said to be dangerous if we are not exposed to all elements of the truth in the media.

• >Who produced it?


• >What/who is represented in the text?


• >How is that thing represented?


• >Why was this particular representation (this shot, framed from this angle, this story phrased in these terms, etc) selected, and what might the alternatives have been?


• >What frame of reference does the audience use when understanding the representation?

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Stuart Hall : Representation & The Media
"Representation is the way in which meaning is given to the things depicted."

Narrative

Definition: refers to the way the story of a film is told, as well as the story itself. Also refers to the order in which the action takes place.

Narrative is the organisation of a series of facts, connecting events to produce a beginning, middle and an end. Each texts links to the last, creating a relationship between the beginning middle and the end.

"Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, order returns), while narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time there was a princess...)" (Key Concepts in Communication - Fiske et al (1983))

-A Circular Narrative is ones which begins at the end then proceeds to tell the story through a series of flashbacks, or one large one, before returning to here it started (the end).

-Episodic Narrative is comparable to how fictional books break up a story into chapters. These chapters often follow on sequentially but sometimes different viewpoints or aspects of the story are told in different chapters and these interrupt or disrupt the chronological flow.

-Linear Narrative is the most simple and commonly used narrative structure. It refers to a story that is told in the order in which the events happen. These are sometimes referred to a 'cause and effect' narratives as the consequences of one event have an effect on something else and things and move along in the linear fashion.

-In a Restrictive Narrative the audience only know as much as the characters do. This way the audience are as confused as the characters, and have to work out the same amount as the characters, allowing the audience to relate.

-In Omniscient Narrative we see events that the characters do not, and we are aware of others plotting against certain characters. This creates suspense rather than mystery because we know lots of aspects of the narrative, resulting in us being left in suspense about how the main characters will find out.

Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL – we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. Levi –Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Science Fiction films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are created by the narrative:

Earth / Space

Good / EvilHumans / Aliens
Past / Present
Normal / Strange
Known / Unknown

Vladimir Propp referred to eight main character types, which all had a specific role

-The Hero

-The False Hero

-The Princess

-The Father (Of The Princess)

-The Helper

-The Villian

-The Donor

-The Dispatcher

Todorov's Theory

The Proairetic Code - this refers to the action that take place in a narrative.

The Hermeneutic Code (Suspense Code) - this refers to enigmas or questions that are reposed throughout the narrative. A story will often throw up questions which won't be immediately answered.

Symbolic Codes - refers to the wider and grand themese at play. Good Vs Evil, Strength Vs Intelligence - they rely on opposites.

Semantic Code (Character Code) - refers to the connotative meaning of the micro elements, which are the deeper meanings of what you see.

Cultural Code - refers to the wider context of the narrative and is based on our existing knowledge, beliefs and values. This also refers to the wider knowledge of genres and perhaps when intertextual references are made.

Genre

Definition: "A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterised by similarities in form, style, or subject matter."


The word genre originates from the latin word for class, and is used to refer to a distinctive text. It is important to categorise texts for both production and analysis. Texts are categorised by the identified key elements and iconography of the texts.


http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=genre

G325 - Post Modernism

Post Modernism relates to ideas that exist simultaneously. The post modernism movement incorporates a sense achievements and technological advances, and recognises the benefits as well as drawbacks of life in late twentieth-century society.
It includes theories and ideologies about art, philosphy, film, literature, history etc.

Post Modernism relates on how we have been exposed to the media of our culture and how we relate, understand and make sense of the world. It is recognisable in part through the use of intertextuality.