Music VideoForms, Conventions & Intertextuality

What have we learned so far?

Forms & Conventions

Can you think of 5 conventions of music video?

Andrew Goodwin identifies a number of key features which distinguishes the music video as a form…

A relationship between the lyrics and visuals (illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics)

A relationship between music and visuals Particular genres may have their own

video style and iconography A demand from the record company for

lots of close-ups of the main artist Artist develops their own star iconography

in and out of their videos Reference to voyeurism (screen within

screen, binoculars, cameras…) Intertextual references

Camera Work

Shot movement, angle and distance all need to be analysed

Camera may move alongside the artist as they walk but could also be used to create a more dramatic feel to a stage performance

Camera Work

Close-ups predominate partly because of the size of the screen but also to create a sense of intimacy

Editing

Mainly fast cut montage making most images impossible to grasp on first viewing

Some may have a slower, gentler pace with gentler transitions to establish mood, thus appealing to a wider audience

Editing

Shot-reverse-shot Cut-away Cross cutting Match cut / continuity editing Montage

Editing

Digital effects offer different kinds of pleasure

Split-screen Green- screen CGI Colourisation

Intertextuality and Cinema

Many film directors started as music video directors

Jonas Akurlund Michel Gondry Spike Jonze John Landis Sofia Coppola Michael Bay

More intertextuality!

Intertextuality

Influences mainly from fashion, film and art photography

Specific catwalk references Now video games to appeal to a

younger demographic

Intertexuality

John Stewart description of the music video “incorporating, raiding and reconstructing” is essentially the essence of intertextuality

Why do directors use intertextuality?

Voyeurism – The Notion of Looking

Sigmund Freud Erotic pleasure

gained from looking at a sexual object who is unaware they are being looked at

Screen within screens

Webcams/CCTV/Binoculars

Theorist: Laura Mulvey

The Male Gaze Argues the main

viewpoint is male Women sexualised in

the media A powerful controlling

gaze at the female on display

She is passive

Exhibitionism

Sexually provocative and in control of it Inviting sexual gaze

Is the female flesh on display simply a cynical exploitation of the female body to increase (largely) male profit margins, or a life-enhacing assertion of female self-confidence and sexual indpendence?

Today’s task

In pair you are going to analyse a music video of your choosing

Individually you are going to write up a 1000 word report on your findings