Theorists that apply to my piece

Doing a music video I need to follow the conventions of some media theorists.
Some of these theorists include -

• Andrew Goodwin - Narrative theory 
• Roland Barthes - Enigma theory

I am using those two as they fit the codes I wish to follow.

Roland Follows an enigma code by which the director purposely builds a puzzle within the set text in which the eagle eyed audience connote and pick apart to answer these codes left by the director. What these do is allow the audience to remain engaged - so your video doesn't lose its interest. Enigma codes I will use I will explain in a newer post when I have filmed (partially) my text. However as Barthes is a film theorist, his conventions aren't necessary for me to follow, but something I wish to follow.

Andrew Goodwin is the most crucial theorist for me, as he is the one I can relate to the most, that and he is also a music video theorist. He states that there is a lot of intertextuality (film inspiration), mine is more Youtube inspiration. He also follows ambience, whereby lyrics and visuals relationship match. This means say the song was about a boat, you'd expect the visuals to be of a boat or something of the same correlation. I wish to challenge this however, this is called a disjuncture, where visuals dont match their lyric counterparts, this is very common in electropop/indie songs of which I have intensly researched (Lady Gaga) to inspire my piece. Goodwin also believes in a star image - of which I will persue and represent my character in a bright way, similar to Katy Perry in roar. He claims this is vital as it engages this audience and keeps the star in good light. These main conventions of Andrew are crucial and must follows for me, I will post updates soon where I research other videos who apply Goodwins theory to help with my planning.

Costume idea for Actor | Mise-en-scene

 Mise-en-scene is important in music videos as it gives it an added effect.

In my piece I wish to dress my actor in a casual indie kind of way, with similar clothing to the pictures.

I chose the glasses as you see these a lot at festivals and they are often associated with indie songs. They also look really good and can give any person the look/feel that there a band member/singer - something I'm attempting to do.

The black jeans simply because they take attention off of the lower part of the body (despite the whole of my character going to be on show), but it takes away attention so the audience focus on the more representative areas of my character, such as the brighter jacket and glasses. The more indie aspects.

The jacket because its not fully indie but with Rubens hair and the glasses I opt to give him will look really strong, I've seen him in the outfit before and he definitely fits the indie-like stereotype, something I'm aiming for to fit the tone of my given song.

The shoes simply because they're old school and very popular today, obviously doesn't have to be them exact, but similar, as they are associated with the indie stereotype and create a strong look for my archetype.

What this post helps me with, is how important costume planning is in any text. And that it impacts the text as being an star image its is important to make my character representable in a recognisable way that fits not only the song, but the on going frames. I can learn from this, as last year costume planning was last minute and we told our actor to where something skate-like, whereas with pre planning, my actor will be well informed and everything will be ready to be filmed earlier.

MOVE STA Travel | Music video idea

Here is a video I found after ages, It previews a guy walking towards a camera in multiple different places, to the beat, it just looks really cool and creative and will work fantastically well to my choice of music. It could be possible to fly to locations and take shots rather than green screen however it will cost lots and I will need to take my actor Ruben (with permission and fund him aswell).

This is the exact Idea I want, except i will have lip-syncing and different scenes, another thing is that the angles change and he walks towards the camera, I however will have the camera moving as well, and only have two angles from my character (in front and behind). this video helps as it allows me to refer to it and obtain motivation to plan how to do my shots. I will ensure my actor has the same outfit on at all times however to create a better effect. Thankfully as its not a music video I can take small ideas away from it to utilise on my text, watching it I am more motivated to try and film the shots for real (something Ill consider if possible). It also helps as if trying to describe my idea I can pitch this and it sums it up perfectly.

Learning Audio | Audio review in film

In our lesson we have been looking at an experimenting with audio.

A favourite audio of mine particularly is from Star Wars Episode I. It's not a small bit of audio, it is a full scene of audio which I enjoy. Mainly for 2 reasons;

1. There is a strong contrast of diegetic and non-diegtic audios
2. The visuals are backed well by the audio and the scene works really well.

The non-diegetic sound in the piece is the overplaying of the score: 'Duel Of Fates' - John Williams. This is good use of audio because the audio fits the scene well and is a crescendo as it signifies something is about to kick off as its cued with the introduction of a antagonist.

There is little dialogue used in the set scene, but this adds to the atmosphere of the fight. The variety of sound used contrasts all together well, and makes it one of the best fighting scenes in the Star Wars saga. It is also one of my favourite bits of audio simply because of the various sound techniques used;

• Sound Bridge
• Diegetic/Non-Diegetic sound
• Crescendo 
• Dialogue
• Ambient
• Synchronous sound
• Score
• Incidental/Sound Motif

This evaluation and audio knowledge helps me have a better understanding of audio in film, and with help of audacity I can create my own sounds even if I'm not doing a short film. Having tried to use narration last year and playing round with audacity, I have already developed skills that I don't need to consume time with to learn them, as I already have last year. This is useful however as it allows me to further improve my knowledge and evaluate audio in texts. (Pratical audio task to follow)

Conventions of an Electopop/indie song

Electropop definition-
-a style of popular music characterized by the use of electronically created sounds, with a synthesizer as the primary instrument.
Examples -
-Lady Gaga
-Passion Pit

Video conventions-

• Fast cut montages
• Unique and Bold/creative mise-en-scene
• Concept or Narrative
• Modern and Bright/colourful
• Lighthearted and Relaxed
• The use of bright colours
• Videos tend to be experimental
• The editing is to the beat
• Very little lyric reference (lip-syncing)
• Little lyric-image relation (disjuncture)

These fit my plan well, as I wish to use a disjuncture piece (Andrew Goodwin theory) unlike some electropop songs. It also requires the use of creativism and boldness. Of which I wish to do to my full potential. These conventions are all ones I wish to follow and will do witgh (I hope) success. I will furthermore blog about how I will follow some conventions of the genre in a pitch (soon to come).


How researching the music conventions helps me, is because it gives me an insight as to what is expected from different genres. And whether my video idea would suit the given genre.

Passion Pit - Take A Walk (Song choice)

The song I have chose is an Indie song. I first heard it playing a video game and from that I decided to speculate t as a choice of music for my project. I particularly wanted a video game song as I am always hearing them that way they're easier to plan with.

The lyrics to the song are;

All these kinds of places

Make it seem like it's been ages

Tomorrow's sun with buildings scrape the sky

I love this country dearly

I can feel the lighter clearly

But never thought I'd be alone to try

Once I was outside Penn Station

Selling red and white carnations

You were still alone

My wife and I

Before we marry, save my money

Brought my dear wife over

Now I want to bring my family state side

But off the boat they stayed a while

Then scatter cross the course

Once a year I'll see them for a week or so at most

I took a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Take a walk, oh-oh-oh

Take a walk, oh-oh-oh

I take a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Practice isn't perfect

With the market cuts and loss

I remind myself that times could be much worse

My wife won't ask me questions

And there's not so much to ask

And she'll never flaunt around an empty purse

Once my mother-in-law came

Just to stay a couple nights

Then decided she would stay the rest of her life

I watch my little children, play some board game in the kitchen

And I sit and pray they never feel my strife

But then my partner called to say the pension funds were gone

He made some bad investments

Now the counts are overdrawn

I took a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Take a walk, oh-oh-oh

Take a walk, oh-oh-oh

I took a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Honey it's your son I think I borrowed just to much

We had taxes we had bills

We had a lifestyle to front

And tonight I swear I'll come home

And we'll make love like we're young

And tomorrow you'll cook dinner

For the neighbors and the kids

We could rent the Wart of socialists

And all their ten taxes

You'll see I am no criminal

I'm down on both bad knees

I'm just too much a coward

To admit when I'm in need

I took a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Take a walk, oh-oh-oh

Take a walk, oh-oh-oh

I took a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

I took a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

I took a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

Take a walk, take a walk, take a walk

The Highlighted Orange texts are how my video applies to the song. But for the verses, my video will be a disjuncture. I will have some lip syncing involved but not fully. I also like the song, because there are a lot of beats in which I can edit to. Not only, but it will allow me to be fully creative as its an indie song - to which you associate creativeness etc.

What I can learn from viewing the lyrics is planning of the song, obviously I will need to learn the timing of the lyrics to help me fully understand the song.

Briefing ideas for my music video

At this current time, I am unsure fully what frames I wish to include in my piece, I am tempted to make the video perhaps historic, and by the lyrics - take a walk - could suggest take a walk back through time, as its a positive song, and could reflect this. If I do, it is most likely to be chronological, from the early 1900's onwards. Obviously I don't have a time-machine so therefore the piece would be majority of green-screen, not an issue, just a new skill I would have to develop suiting.
The reasoning is because I took history as an A-level subject, which I am heavily interested in, this could help me as I will be more motivated for the piece and with the knowledge I can make it effective.

Here are a few examples of potential shots (will have to be green screened and maybe have archetypes mise-en-scene change with the frames). With obviously Ruben walking in front of the moving frames to ensemble 'take a walk'.

 The first car 1912
(Will be a short clip of perhaps the car driving or under production)

 Mahatma Gandhi 1869-1948
(Possibly a street march shot with Gandhi to make it seem as if character is really there)

 The Berlin (Nazi) olympics and Jesse Owens (Black Americans huge upset) 1936


(Maybe have the archetype on the field if possible)

 The Spanish Civil War Communism V Fascism 1936-39
(Have character walk through streets of 'destroyed' Spain

The Nazi uprising 1924-(1933-45)
(archetype walking in front of Nazi march)

 One of histories worst and most upsetting religious slaughters 1944
(Have character walk on the train tracks)

Little-boy and Fat-man (atomic bombs) dropped on Japan
1st and last ever use of Nuclear weapons 1945
(Have character walk on frame shown)

 The JFK assassination 1963


(Have character walking in front of car, wont use the actual assassination footage or will have to change age rating, could be an option however)

Black Civil Rights Movement and MLK 1950's-60's


(Have protagonist in front of the march or at MLK speech)

The Vietnam War 1961-71


(Use iconic clip, have character walking through shrubbery or famous photo of the young napalm victims)
















What this reviewing allows me to do is plan more than one idea for my pitch and have a back up plan if all else fails. It gives me chance to pitch to the audience, and experiment about. It would require a new set of skills (green screen) as I have never used it before so It would be a new experience for me.