First part of film whereby the tone is set, and the film has a happy upbeat start.
-Disruption
The small problem leading to the main disequilibrium disrupting the happiness.
-Realisation
Part where the problem is addressed and the chaos begins/
-Restored Order
The issue is resolved whereby characters attempt to fix the issue
-Repeated Equilibrium
When all happiness is restored and the film returns to how it started but obviously with a different happiness scene.
Todorov is a useful theorist to have, he can be applied to both films and music videos and he is someone I may choose to follow for ideas in my music video. It is helpful as If I do ever peruse film making I have that knowledge with me as through research I can learn that many famous directors have applied Todorovs Equilibrium theory to their texts.
Strauss applies binary opposites, where the codes and conventions of one of the ideas is challenged throughout the text, and is well resembled clearly.
Idea that the opposites are the significant structure in the film.
Barthes applies 'codes' to his theory. Question codes - enigmas to engage the audience. Semic - Image connotation, Action - how much action has been chose to show and referential - applies to knowledge (based on true events etc. e.g.; Jackie).
He claims texts are like a ball of threads and that they need untangling to discover a wide variety of meanings and codes and that the different codes can create different viewpoints
Barthes has 5 codes in his theory
-Enigma
How the story avoids exposing itself, it does this by dropping small little clues to create the mystery of the given text and engage the audience.
-Action
How the tension is built up asking questions to the audience.
-Semantic
Can be anything, small little clues that can give off certain meanings depending on how the audience connotes the object by the way the story presents it.
-Symbolic
Similar to Semantic, more depth paid attention to though, particularly mise-en-scene, where new meanings are made through opposing and conflict ideas.
-Referential
Looks at the wider knowledge - the way the audience interprets morality and ideology etc.
Andrew Goodwin applies 3 ideas to his theory, in that the relation between the music , lyrics and given images. To where they can be divided in to 3 categories, for my piece I aim to follow Disjuncture but slightly challenge it at the same time.
Not only but he also has 5 other key conventions -
-Thought through beat
How the audience sees the images and hears the lyrics
-Lyric and Visual relations
The compatibility between images and lyrics - refer to image
-Narrative and song performance
Goodwin felt by using the actual singer it would give the piece verisimilitude, gives a better understanding and helps define the piece as a music video.
-Technical aspect
The lighting, mise-en-scene etc. Structuring the text to make it stronger, the beat also helps as it allows the editing to be in sync.
-Star image
Vital in Goodwins theory, gives an appealing aspect and a unique styling, it helps promote the video and give the artist a reputation, for example Sia - has her own avatar (Young girl in her pieces).
Researching Goodwin is vital, as he is the main theorist I will follow and potentially challenge, he is a music video theorist, and is noticed by all top music video directors.
This helps me as it allows me to refer to him as I blog and plan for my Music Video.
Laura Mulvey takes the female side of media and talks of the 'Male Gaze' made by the representation of women in music videos.
She claims the drama is always positioned in a way it can portray a heterosexual man's perspective of the scene to objectify women.
She also believes women can only be portrayed one of two ways, either a 'virginal innocent' or a 'sexy whore' in terms of how they are displayed on screen. This is the Virgin/whore Dichotomy
This first chapter of my blog will overview, reflect and reference a fair few media theorists who have applied their knowledge into film and music and come up with several conventions for the texts. They will be useful to me as I will be able to reference them throughout my course work and apply their theories to my work.
My name is Aidan Walker,currently studying media for a second year. Media for me is a real fascinating topic me, something I wish to pursue in the near future when I (hopefully) dash off to southbank London tostudy at Escape Studios where I will study game production/design. I find media an interesting subject becausegrowing up, media has been rapidly growing with me, and is now the backbone of today's society, which startles me into how in less than 10 years, we can communicate with anyone so easily. About me however, I tend to feel I'm verypassionate and hardworking, a huge sports fan particularily of the NFL such as the Seattle Seahawks, a team/sport ive grown to like thanks to todays media. I also study history and politics something of which im heavily interested in also.
For me the first year of my media course was a good one, I adapted multiple new media skills. And enjoyed my time creating a opening sequence. However, reflecting on the final piece for me could have been improved, particularly the narration aspect of the piece, which i decided to post, but not submit. For me how i can really improve my media game this year, is by planning a lot more and more frequently, perhaps even my consistency, as last year i had a period in Jan-Feb where my consistency levels drop and I found myself with heap loads to do come the final period of the AS coursework.
Review of last year
Prelim and Final
Learning to edit and experiment with audio
Working in a group
Planning and consistanccy
Last year I made a final and prelim task, the prelim for me was a huge positive, not the prduct but what it taught me. It taught me huge groups just dont work as there was a clash of ideas, role deciding was hard,a dn there were only 3 key roles for 4 of us. It gave us an insight as to planning and how key it really is, it taught us that locationing and tripods are key to a successful production.
My final was much better, I became more independant of Liam (submitted different finals as we had divide opinons) the framework was strong I enjoyed the editing, and having to learn editing and audio in the final few months of the course, went well. My knowledge wasnt maximised, but it helps me for next year when I edit alone as I'm going to be on my own for my work. There were few improvements possible for my final product such as planning better storyboarding and pitching etc. All of which I can look back on and prepare for this year.
Learning premiere for me wasnt as hard as learning Audacity, simply beacsue of temrninology with the two, and the knowledge from other people. As in Audacity alot of had terminology which if you didnt understand you had no success with. Which led me to view Youtube videos for help to improve my key knowledge. Reflecting on these skills, is helpful as it allows me to see my strengths and weaknesses and where I can improve on next year, not only but it allows me to work alone and not have the fear of not knowing one of the key three aspects (Cinematography, Audio and Editing).
Working in a group seems all jolly, but in reality there are more than one person(s) in the group, whereby there willl be clashes of ideas, this helped me as both me and Liam were divide on whether to use narration in our piece. There was also the issue (for me) where I never got to see any of the editing in process, so after filming, I had no input on what the film loooked like as Liam had all control over the editing and clips. This led me to go further independant adn submit a copy I thought was strong, and is why I have chosen to work alone. I do feel being in a group could be better so there is less stress with workolads, communication and several ideas. But i've decided it is best for me if i were to persue the final task alone.
Last year, my planning was poor. Much like consistency. I started the year keen as a bean, and throughout the heart of the course, lost that. It wasnt until the final few months I found myslef vigoursly working hard in the media room catching up and editing my piece. What I need to improve on is maintining my consistancy by using Blogger no less than 5hrs a week (excluding lessons) to focus on my blog and coursework planning, where it be posting, editing posts or doing some research towards my course. Planning will be included, even if I did storyboard last year, however I found we never stuck to the storyboard, or had a routine filming planner, it was all last minute (and our actor Felix was never available) which led to induction of Ruben few months before the course was to be finished. Luckily people enjoyed our piece and thought it was good. BUT I need to achknowledge this for my A2 in order to fully succeed with my course.
Todorov follows a simple cliché, happy start happy ending type style, also applied in English (books). This theory best suits Americans who believe happy endings are crucial. There are many films that follow the equilibrium theory, in to which is a happy story with issues throughout the piece.
First part of film whereby the tone is set, and the film has a happy upbeat start.
