Carol Vernallis - Music video Theory

Carol Vernallis is  music video theorist who specialises in interpreting the roles that editing, narrative, meaning and continuity play in a music video. She also specialises in the way that sound is project through a music video to make it look like the sound is diegetic to keep the continuity running and how thinks are done such as editing with transitions and camera shots to keep a piece of text continuous. Carol Vernallis' theory goes into more detial about the key aspects that she finds important, shown below.

Editing Continuity:-
Edits are created and certain camera shots are used to show importance of a certain scene that is taking place in-front of the audience such as a close up of a gun and a shot then the person lying on the ground to show the audience that they have been shot.

Edits:-
Allowed to be used and not pointless due their special effects used such as a fading out for example.

Jump Cuts:-
These are used to speed certain things up, to keep the story moving. The use of jump cuts is often very frequent because a lot is needed for a music video and the audience will get bored of seeing the same scene over and over again.

Camera:-
The camera is used in synchronization with the music so as that it all has a certain rhythm and that nothing looks out of place .

Editing
 is often shown "Cutting to the Beat" this is to keep it intact with the music so as that nothing looks out of place, the phrase is used and shows certain glimpses of the music video and what's going to be in it without revealing the full story in it such as a story about love and showing hand holding to not give anything revealing away. Camera movements are sometimes done to show the illusion of an edit, an example of this is panning the room to a number of people at a party moving from place to place continuously to show the continuity of music video and to also set the scene.

The Fourth Wall
The fourth wall is a fairly modernist term as it says that there are boundaries within a piece of text that should not be broken, the best example of a modernist text where the fourth wall remains intact is FRIENDS. Friends especially the scenes in Monica's apartment very rarely showed the "Fourth Wall" the camera shots often set the scene but we never see the other side of the camera mainly because it shouldn't be any different when it matter of fact the fourth wall is the TV set where the camera are filming from.

Framing

Carol Vernallis states that one of the key and most important camera shots used within a music video is the establishing shot, this is because it makes a music video seem more distinctive and also sets the scene for us to having something to relate it to such as Seeing a skyline with a certain light and recognising the time of day. This can be shown in the music video for The Fray- You found me as they constantly use Establishing shots to set the scenes they use it at least 3-4 times within the music video. 

Andrew Goodwin analysis

"Music videos ignore common narrative as they are essential advertisements. As consumers, we make up our own meaning of a song in our minds: a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning"

Basically iconography makes up what an artist is about as it shows key things about the artist they make them who they are. an example of iconography is shown below with the make up used by the band KISS they perform in black and white make up which is extremely iconic and well known to the world. 















In most music videos the meaning in the video is similar or is in contrast to the lyrics where they play against the story in the music video. JLS uses iconic things in their music video such as showing their chest to reveal their muscles. Iconography can be shown in many ways not only with props and mise-en-scene but with also the cinematography used in the camera shots such as lots of camera shots and camera shots such as lots of close ups and long shots. Britney Spears' music videos uses lots of close ups to show her emotion and focus on the fine detail involved. 
The music video below is an example of iconography as they reveal their muscles, by wearing tight tops and or taking their top off.

In my music video that i am creating i shall plan to include something that will be iconic, such as a key scene or a facial expression. This theory will come in useful when producing our music video as it is very relevant to what we are trying to produce, after giving this theory some thinking i have come up with a couple of ideas such as the facial expression whether that be angry or sadness of every character involved. 

Semiotics

(Morris) the main person behind semiotics stated that there are 3 stages in which semiotics happen they are:

Perception Stage- This means to become aware of object and or sign
Manipulation Stage- This means that the person interprets the sign and has decided how to respond to it
Consummation Stage- The person responds to the sign

Denotation
The denotation of something is the literal meaning involved,  an example of this is if you find the definition of car it states:

An automobile. A vehicle that runs on rails, esp. a railroad car.

 This is the denotation as it gives the direction meaning of something and tells you what it is

Connotation 
The connotation of something is the meaning behind something rather than the actual definition of what it is, an example of this is:

A woman in white in a music video, this connotes that the woman is pure as the colour white represents purity.

The signs is this video are extremely touching and significant the transferring back to his past shows his happiest times, the slow music between his music awards and achievements show his importance

Album and Interests

I am not a huge music fan but my interests in music are spread about between a number of different artists through different genres. Such as i enjoy music from Swedish House Mafia, The all american rejects, Wiz Khalifa and Eminem. My music interests tends to develop from the genre most popular in the UK top 40 as my music is probably influenced by social influences on me such as my peers.

I dont really have a favourite album cover but there is a number that I admire such as

This is a album cover by Aphex Twin called window licker this Cd cover stands out to me due to the sheer level of comedy they have included in it, its not typical and its not representing the band in any way but it just shows the band have a sense of humour and stands out from the crowd due to the humour involved. It will appeal to the target audience of teenagers who also find it funny and comical.

it was created in 1999.

Intertexuality

Intertexuality is a serious homage to a certain piece of video, an example of this is Marilyn Monroe's music number "Diamonds are a girls best friend" is repeated in a homage by Madonna- Material girl. it is different to a parody as it is a serious video rather than a mock of it.

Shania Twain's homage to Robert Palmer's - Addicted to love is a true homage as it is a serious music video and not a comedy or a parody. Shania has adapted the same type that Robert has created and has added a gender reverse/twist with the dancers in Robert's music video being women while in Shania's music video they are men. Other examples of intertextuality include, Taylor Swifts' love story which was a homage to Romeo and Juliet and included serious parts rather than a parody.

In my own Music video we will look at intertexuality as we plan to feature two main characters in our music video story such as a man and a woman we may plan to include a homage to a music video that has featured an argument between a couple such as a Britney Spears music video. The theme we a re going for is delicate so we cant create a complete replica we need to keep our music video our own as the band is still well known and the themes may conflict.

Group music video blog

We have created our groups for our music video production and we have also created our group blogs the address is below, I may not post all the time on this blog but i shall post on the group blog frequently as will my partner. Please check our our group blog below which will include up to date step by step guides about how we created our music video and what our aims are.

www.chchsmediagroup4.blogspot.com

Album Covers

Wikipedia's definition of an album cover is, "An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album".
 This is true as it is done as a marketing scheme and technique to attract an audience with their own design of the album cover but i think they have a a much deeper meaning as bands cannot carelessly design an album cover without any thought processes or planning. Album covers are the last of the "olden technology" that we have outgrown its one of the only things in music that we can actually touch as most is done by technology through electronics. An album cover and cd's replaced vinyl records and their packaging while computers and Itunes look set to over take cd's unless they already have.

History
Before 1938, album covers had just a brown envelope rather the pictures and letters now it shows how much times have changed. They were created by Alex Steinweiss who created the first proper cd cover 1939 he designed the first major cd cover for a collection of songs by Roger and Hart. Alex was the first person to come up with an illustrated design for a cd cover and his design and idea was patented shortly after.

A good example of an album cover that I personally like is the Album cover from Funkadelic called Maggot brain, although not the type of music i particularly enjoy the album artwork makes me enjoy it because of its humour. The album is done very comically with an image of a woman coming out of the ground...like a maggot or worm does, but the woman keeps in touch with the Funkadelic name as she is smiling, happy and has a cool afro whcih is what we tend to associate with the word Funky.

I enjoy this album artwork as it doesnt tell us anything about the music inside and is rather pointless which ties in to a theory of Post Modernism covered by Moe Syzlack that states that "Post modernism is weird for werids own sake" meaning something does not have to have a meaning it can just be weird because it is. Either way i enjoy this cover as its comical and mocks the albums name in a parody style way.
 

Summer Blog post 5

In the music video Naughty Boy ft Sam Smith-La La the music video tells a story to the viewers rather than performing on a stage at a concert to as the video is based on a old folks tale similar to the wizard of oz. The music video itself is very strange to some if they have no understanding of Bolivian stories. The story plays along with the lyrics itself to keep in line with the story adding emotion to the music video. The camera movements shown sync up with the emotions shown from the factors in it, such as zooming in to the main characters faces such as the angry father figure at the start it zooms in to his house to show his anger. It does this again when the man is in the gym and he realizes he is a free to leave it does a close up to his face showing him smiling this connotes his happiness.

The song itself is rather childless which does make sense seeing as that it is a children's story that the music video is based on, and that the main actor in the video is a child. To others this video could be very creepy and disturbing without a little insight into the background of it. The lyrics especially this specific part:
"When you spit your venom, keep it shut I hate it, When you hiss and preach About your new messiah 'cause your theories catch fire"
This shows the adult part of the song but it almost contradicts itself as it uses the very childish action of covering your ears and saying "la la la" which seems to conflict between who the song it aimed for but it does this cleverly as it shows men performing the action and basically gives off the message that even a child understands that not everything everyone says is true and that you have to listen the way the lyrics are written is in a very playful way regardless of the unrealistic acting.

The music video is very upbeat in the song despite the video being rather dark at the very beginning and at the very end, the happiness comes from the happiness distributed from the child to others in the music video it keeps itself together and makes you feel emotional about the leaving of the child at the end but if you understood the story you would understand the reasons behind this and that its still a happy song regardless.

Summer Blog Post 4

Nirvana Come as you are basically tells the audience not to be someone your not as the title itself explains, it shows that we should not be afraid to reveal our true identities no matter how other people feel about us. The music video itself does not show Nirvana the actual band members as they truly are as their faces are either shown behind water or their faces being mismatched so as that we never get a clear image of who they truly are. The music video tries to do this to show that this is the world we live in were people no matter how big they are usually have to hide their true identities Nirvana in this music video tries to send off the message that this is what needs to change, not our identities but our attitudes. They do this by revealing their true faces at the very end of the song.

The lyrics in the song contain and repeat the same lyric "I don't have a gun" this is done to show that there is no physical danger as they represent no harm to anyone else. The song seems to try and show what we as people are expected to act like in society as one line says "Take your time, Hurry up" this is contradictory as it says that we are only half doing that we are meant to do as in "Taking our time" an then following what society wants us to do which is "Hurry up".

The camera shots used connote lots of madness as they are quick and there is a lot of them, there is a lot of things in the video that have coded messages and meaning behind them such as the man swinging from a bar, this connotes madness and that we should let loose from our typical selves rather than lead the laid back lives that were expected to follow. The dog with an Elizabeth collar (the big lamp shade type collar around its neck) would normally connote that a dog has a medical condition but in this video its tied to a chain and its used to stop the dog from biting others the message behind it is that we are all tied up not allowed to be let loose from society.

Nirvana's music videos always contain very subtle message as Kobain once stated that he wants people to look at his music videos in extreme detail to make sure they pay attention. Nirvana give off a good message overall in nearly all of their music videos this is to show that they are good role models for other bands to take after.