Uses and Gratification Theory (Blumler and Katz) Tanaka Bonde

Why do people consume media?

• Information
• Entertainment
• Personal identity
• Integration and social interaction

Stuck In The Middle With You (or not, as the case may be.) James Hedgecock

Good day to you all.

This is a post about how the people in a song we've decided not to use as our music video.

We'd considered making a video of Stuck In The Middle With You by Stealers Wheel although we decided against this in the end - although certainly more than 5 years old, it is a very famous track and has other connotations, such as being used in the Reservoir Dogs scene in which Mr Blonde is seen to be dancing to this song around the policeman he has held captive wielding a straight razor before slashing at his face and severing an ear.

The following images are photographs of whiteboards with drawings of how members of our class (and group) would imagine the artist of the song to appear, without seeing the original video - we only heard the audio and tried to construct a representation based on this. So, here are the results (don't expect anything hugely detailed and realistic, we were issued with drywipe board markers, not oil paints and canvases...)

Hall's Reception Theory Codes and Conventions Sarah Butler

The lean, mean, green screen. James Hedgecock

Good afternoon to you all.

This post is just basically to show you what we've been practising in the last couple of media lessons - working with our newest technological asset, the green screen.

Below you'll see some screenshots of the results of our green screen photography and editing sessions on Final Cut, with a few evaluative comments on the task.  



Here's Tanaka looking remarkably calm for someone who's being chased by an avalanche. As you can see on the left, there are still some green stripes which proved difficult to edit out, even after extensive tinkering with the options on the 'Chroma Key' effect - adjustment of the hue, saturation and luma helped to get rid of most of the green screen, although some bits are slightly visible. In the final image with the background replacing the green screen, however, these areas are less obvious.

Now here's Gabriel joining a scene from 'The Great Gatsby'. Again, some areas of green that proved tricky to edit out are visible, but are less obvious in the final image. One reason the green screen proved tricky to edit out was due to the colour of Gabriel's green hat - if we didn't widen the spectrum of green that would be removed enough then the green screen would show too much, but if we let the tool remove all greens then Gabriel's hat would disappear - so we had to reach a compromise with these.  

This is me on set with the sharks from 'Finding Nemo', including Bruce in the middle. This one came out pretty well with some tinkering, save for a very small green halo about my head. It had been quite noticeable but after having a fiddle with the luma and saturation its visibility had been minimized. we also cropped my bottom half to give the effect that I could either be just treading water or swimming with my body behind me. So now it looks like I'm swimming with sharks. In a hoodie. Looking unusually dry.

Here's...Gabriel, believe it or not, although obviously not as we know him, doing a spot of kung-fu fighting, with a kung-fu fighter. Except we kind of took half of him, then inverted that and put it on top, using the 'mirror' effect. And the end result is a headless human four-legged spider thing, that wears jeans and skate shoes, because that's completely normal. This also worked quite well with the green screen, the only slightly dodgy areas being around his footwear.



This is a screenshot of when we had the task of acting as though we were members of a band (with me pretending to be the lead singer, oh dear...) in front of the green screen, with the idea then being to put the background of a stage setting behind us. The purpose was just to test out what advantages/disadvantages there would be of using the green screen for band shots in the final video, and what problems we ran into. So, as you can see, we left a fluorescent tube light on above the top of the green screen we were using which made the colour much brighter at the top, meaning it was hard to edit out and it's still sticking out like a sore thumb at the top - so we'll need to make sure only the lights level with the camera with umbrella diffusers are turned on. Also, the green screen didn't completely fill the shot so you can see on the left edge that there's a bit of wall visible by Tanaka's head. We'd also need to plan the shot more carefully in the real thing, as you can see that Tanaka's right side is not in the shot, and we're only viewed from the waist up - so we'll need to take the shot so the whole of us can be seen, and we can make it look as though we're actually standing on the stage. Also, some more tinkering with the colour/saturation/hue controls needs to happen, as each of us in the shot has a small yet noticeable bright green halo.

So there you have it, some of the results from our fooling around - no, sorry, highly constructive yet enjoyable green screen sessions!

Will be back with you on the next post!

James, on behalf of JTS Productions

Music Video Genres James Hedgecock

This post is basically to introduce the genres that music videos can be classed by, and what types of music video would generally suit which genre of music.

So, the main genres of music video are as follows:

• Performance
• Narrative
• Spectacle
• Image
• Personal.

In a performance music video, the video will be centred around the artist or group performing the song, with focus on each of the performers as they play or sing. You'd often expect rock bands and such like to create music videos of this genre.

Narrative music videos have a story that runs through them, often with footage of the artist or group where they are characters in the story.

Spectacle music videos will make much use of special effects and postproduction techniques, particular style and flair in a performance, or reference to cultural intertextuality to reach an audience.

In a music video with a focus on image, the purpose is to present the artist/group in a particular manner, creating an aesthetic or image for the performer(s).

A personal music video is designed and directed on the whims of the artist/group and/or the director.

Is it always easy to discern the genre of a music video?

David Bordwell argues that it's the audience, rather than the directo that decides ofn the genre of a music video.
Mark Reid argues the genre of the video changes ased on what the audience is told; he analogizes this concept with the idea of tomato purée - if you were to find tomato purée shelved in another part of the supermarket to where you'd expect it to be, would you perceive it to be any different?
Barthes states that as an active audience we decipher what the genre of the video is through semiotics - the study of signs.

Genre Screenshot Photographs

Narrative

In this shot the actor/performer in the shot is shown to be peering around a tree, with a cheerful expression. The idea of a game of hide-and-seek implies that this shot is part of a storyline, and therefore that the video will be of a narrative genre. The kind of hand-drawn effect that has been applied to the shot also makes it appear as an illustration, pointing towards it perhaps being a part of a comic strip or picture book.

This is a shot from Coldplay's video of 'The Scientist'. The focus is on the singer walking down a street in reverse, although his mouth is in sync with the lyrics, which produces an interesting effect. The whole video is in a kind of slow-motion effect, and the storyline runs backwards so the events develop in the opposite order, with the last part of the video focusing on what happened to trigger all the other events that happen during the video.

Image



This shot has had a duplication effect applied, so the artist appears four times in the same shot. This kind of pop-art effect, with a different colour tone effect applied, presents the artist as individual and alternative. The positioning of the singer in the centre of the shot with the camera at a low angle also presents the artist as being independent and having a strong character.

This shot, from Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Dani California' presents the band as very alternative, out-there, unusual and eccentric. There is a sense of rebelliousness as the singer is shown to be running around the stage in a random way and swinging his microphone stand around. Throughout the video the band are shown to represent different styles of rock through the ages through the use of costumes, props and effects, and the way that they present the different styles shows them as also being versatile and being able to change their image easily.


Spectacle

 Effects have been used in this shot to create a superimposition effect - two separate shots have been taken - one with two girls jumping up in the air, and another with one boy. The two shots have been taken at slightly different angles, and an unusual, perhaps slightly disorientating effect is produced when the two shots are layered on top of one another. The action of jumping connotes joy, exitement and fun.

 This is a shot from the video for Lady Gaga's 'Applause', which is of the spectacle genre. Similarly to the still we created, a duplication effect has been used of the same person with different facial expressions, doing different actions. The style, acting and make-up used in this video are unusual and wacky, and confirm it as a video of this genre.

Performance

In this shot the performer is playing a bass guitar with amplifiers in the background - the image is black-and-white, having been desaturated. This makes the shot appear as though it would be from a kind of goth or emo-style music video as with the colour effect and the props this would be typical of the genre.

This is a shot from the video of 'Perfect Weapon' by Black Veil Brides. Similarly to our shot there is use of dark tones, and the guitarist, guitar he is playing and the amplifier stack on the left can all be seen clearly, and are the main focus of this shot.

James, on behalf of JTS Productions  

Representation Stills Tanaka Bonde

During the lesson we were given stills from music videos and asked to annotate them on how they represent the artist in the video and how this effects the perception of women and how men have changed over the years.

This is taken from a music video were we see multiple men and women (dressed formally) watching a woman in a silver dress and based our annotations based on the theorist Laura Mulvey.

This is taken from the One Direction music video related to the theory by Berger - ways of seeing.