Props for video

Equpiment being used in production of video

My vox pox questions

1.     Why do you watch music videos?

2.     Do you prefer to listen to the track before watching the music video?

3.     Do you prefer the music videos adhere or subvert genres?

4.     From listening to the track, what do you expect to see in the music video?

5.     What channels do you expect to see this music video in?

My vox pox

Music channels which may distribute the track

MTV



MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1; 1981.The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs. MTV launched in 1999 in the UK. Mostly shows music videos from the genres Hip Hop, RnB, Grime, reggae and Soul. MTV Base is available in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, the Republic of Ireland, Kenya and South Africa. The channel was previously available in the Netherlands, Germany and other European countries but was replaced by MTV Dance in some territories from March 2009.

KISS

Kiss is a UK radio station broadcasting on FM and Digital Radio, specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky and TalkTalk TV.

VIVA

VIVA has recently changed its name in the UK from TMF to Viva. It also shows entertainment programmes. It is famous for showing UK top 40 every week. In the UK the channel was launched in 2009. They show music videos of all genres especially pop, R&B and Hip Hop videos. The channel is available on Freeview channels in the UK and originally the channel came from Germany where it was launched in 1993.

4music

4music is limited to the UK and some Ireland digital TV providers. It is owned by Box Television Company, who also own channel 4 in the UK. The channel is free to own as it is shown on Freeview television. The music shown on the channel is predominantly Hip Hop, pop, Dance, RnB and rock. They are a relatively new channel having only been launched in 2008. There slogan is “music and more”, and there sister channels are 4 channel, E4, more 4 and film 4.

AKA

Channel AKA (formerly Channel U) is a British digital satellite TV channel, owned by Mushroom TV Ltd. It is a music channel, focusing on playing upcoming UK urban/hip-hop music and has helped the breakthrough for acts such as Tinchy Stryder, Tinie Tempah, Chipmunk and N-Dubz.

Willow Smith- Whip my hair

"Whip My Hair" is a song sung by American recording artist Willow Smith. The song was written by Janae Rockwell and Ronald "Jukebox" Jackson, with the latter producing the track.While attending events, Smith received media attention for her extravagant outfits compared to Rihanna, whom she later credited as a musical influence.

The video begins in a futuristic cafeteria with a long shot of kids sitting down at tables wearing all white. The kids look almost robotic; they are not individuals. The colour white connotes peace; contradicting the fact that they are not at peace with themselves.

Willow then enters the room in colourful attire, including a blue vest, orange pants and a belt with her name on it, while donning rhinestones on her lips and extravagant nail tips. This is a key iconography of an R&B artist. Willow Smith acts as a reality shock to the audience due to her flamboyant, outgoing costume, make-up and hair. It also shows a level of post feminist readings because in this video willow has all the influence and power amongst all the other students including the males. The fact that she has Rhine stones on her lips suggests that she is not the typical innocent girl you would expect a 9-year-old to be, subverting the typical view. This also links with the theme of the song as she says ‘I’m just trying to have fun’ showing that she is rebelling against authority from such a young age, when you would expect a teenager to do this. Her appearance acts as an indexical signifier for what these ‘robots’ need in their life, love, colour and most importantly individualism, this is the videos linear narrative.

 As Willow walks into the room, everything is quiet and it’s videoed in slow-motion. With her braids shaped to form a heart, she carries a boombox filled with paint and plays it while undoing her braids and dipping them into paint inside the stereo, using her hair as a paintbrush and enlivening the atmosphere with colours. The fact that Smith has coloured the atmosphere could suggest that the younger generation is what makes the world fun again liking with her going against authority.

 

When Willow whips her hair and out come different coloured, bright paints; bringing colour and excitement into their lives. This is when the music starts. Everything livens up, leading to an upbeat, fast melody depicting the relationship between the music and visuals.  This reinforces why the name of the song is called ‘Whip my hair’, linking to the idiom of letting your hair down, meaning let go and have fun. These paints literally bring colour into their lives, as the white changes to bright colours connoting happiness and individualism.

She alternates between different hairstyles, and then walks down a hallway with her backup dancers, donning a cotton candy hairstyle. She further whips her hair to give colour to the lockers and students' attire, before performing extensive choreography with the hallway students. This refirms that she is the main focus of the video as she is surrounded by people. it also could be referencing to the fact that young girls feel the world revolves around them and so are self centered. This is a stereotypical view of a 9-year-old and is very interesting to see it incorporated into a actual music video.

The last scenes involves Smith with puff braids and in a yellow jumpsuit with her backup dancers in a different classroom trying to get them to dance, which is intercut with previous paint-splashing scenes, as the students, including her brother Jaden, teachers, janitor, elderly lady, and toddler dance. This could show that no matter how old you are or what what occupation you have, you can still have fun. 

It is typical of an R&B music videos to have a stage performance and dance routine, which is included in this video, at the point of the lyrics, ‘shake ‘em off…’, where she is referring to haters. These close-ups have proven to be beneficial with feminist, as the camera shots have not been used for the effect of voyeuristic treatment of female bodies; instead they are used to establish how much fun they are all having. They are also in favour how the lyrics and music relates to the visuals, instead of a song solely based on female sexualisation.

Rihanna- Russian roulette

The song is about being in a relationship and being afraid of getting hurt in the end. The music video is primarily narrative-based, featuring Rihanna, who plays Russian roulette with her lover.  This can somewhat reflects an incident that happened with Rihanna and her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown.

At the beginning of the video we can hear diegetic sounds such as the fan turning and something beeping, possibly from the controls. The sounds are echoing and becoming louder as the cutting gets faster.

The video starts off with Rihanna in a gas chamber, being watched by three guards through a window. The scene then moves to another room in the prison in which Rihanna and her lover sit at a table. Between them on the table is a gun. The room is dim lit with two lamps on the walls.

Another scene in which Rihanna is standing alone in a deserted wood, where a car is approaching toward her at high speed running her over. The scene has been shot at night, and so it is quite dark.

This is another shot of Rihanna in the gas chamber lying on the floor. The way the lighting has been done in this shot is really clever, with it shining through a hole in the wall focusing on Rihanna, enlightening her. In this frame the spotlight slowly moves as she gradually lifts her head up. The chamber looks dark and claustrophobic adding to the sinister atmosphere of the video.

Here we see blood dripping out of her chest as though she has been shot. At this point these lyrics are sung:
'And you can see my heart beating
Oh, you can see it through my chest 
Said I'm terrified, but I'm not leaving...'
This emphasises that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.

During this point in the video there is a change in the tempo of the song changes. The cross-cutting becomes faster. This is an example of where frames have been used on top of other frames, to create a complicated effect, which could portray Rihanna's emotions. There is also a relationship between the music and the visuals.

Throughout the video, Rihanna makes jerky movements as though she is twitching. She looks confused and troubled. These fast movements have been created using fast cross-cutting between different frames.

In this shot Rihanna is floating in the water, and we see her getting shot with blood pouring out. There are three ways in which she dies, getting run over by a car, bleeding in a chair and getting shot in the water.

Lady GaGa- Paparazzi

Paparazzi is a music video directed by Jonas Akerlund and was released in 2008. The video starts with a long opening with no music in the background. The opening is a pastiche/ homage as it shows conventions of a Hollywood golden age movie.

The video begins wiping in slowly from a circle from the centre. The next scene is a long shot of a white mansion with a circle balcony on the top floor in the centre. There is a gate around the mansion with plants and flowers surrounding it. These two scenes reveal the location of the music video to be expensive and luxurious. The first thing that the audience hears in these opening shots is the sound waves, which lets the audience know that this video is located near the sea. The audience then hears soft piano music which sets the scene of a peaceful, happy home. The shot which follows this is a close up of a pink flower with ‘starring Lady Gaga’ written in bold white font next to it. It is significant because most women see flowers as sources of power. It can also make Lady Gaga appear feminine. “Lady Gaga in Paparazzi” is written in large font, informing the audience of the song and the artist. The look of the opening does not look like a music video but a movie instead which can show this music video is narrative based music video.

We see Lady Gaga and her lover in bed speaking Swedish; the video not only plays homage to subtitled foreign films, but also lets the audience know that the couple are saying to each other. As the couple kiss, there are cuts to objects around the room. The first is what looks like a dollar bill, but instead of the American figurehead, there is a picture of Lady Gaga. Written on the top right hand side of this bank note is “The United States of Lady Gaga”. So it makes Lady Gaga the figurehead of America. The next cut is to a fictional newspaper called Evening Star with the headline “Lady Gaga Reaches the Top Yet Again, with a picture of her and three men.

As the couple continue to kiss, they start to notice the cameras. Lady Gaga tells him to stop and tries to push him off of her, but when he continues to kiss her, she smacks him in the face. A mid shot is used to show her hitting him and a close up is used to show his reaction to her outburst of violence. As he continues to try and kiss her, she grabs the champagne bottle which is lying next to her and hits him around the head with it. Furious at her actions, the boyfriend pushes Lady Gaga off of the balcony which is caught on camera by the paparazzi. After he pushes her, the camera looks up at him from below, showing the power he has after trying to murder his girlfriend.

An example of a post-feminism method was in the beginning of the video when Lady GaGa was wearing a tight corset. The corset allowed her to show off her figure and shows a lot of flesh to make her look sexually attractive. However, the colour white shows innocence and pureness but she also has on black leather fingerless gloves, which makes her look less pure. The way that the colours swirl against one another and the way that Lady Gaga moves slowly gives the illusion that she is falling. The hypnotic background is homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller, Vertigo. The background draws the audience’s focus towards Lady Gaga because she is in the middle. As she falls, the audience can hear her ragged breathing and the sound of a heartbeat.

The next scene is a long shot of Lady Gaga lying in a pool of her own blood with men in black standing around her taking photographs. I think this really shows the wickedness of the press as they continue to take pictures of her instead of helping her. There is another cut to six men crowding around the camera looking downwards and taking photographs. This shot is told from the point of view of Lady Gaga, looking up at the paparazzi. There are then two more newspapers which appear one after the other. The first saying “Lady Gaga is Over” and the second saying “Lady No More Gaga”. These headlines, along with the fist newspaper which appeared, which said “Lady Gaga Hits Rock Bottom” could infer that she has lost her fame.

When Gaga was shown getting out of a limousine being carried by male dancers to a wheelchair, it is during this scene, that the song starts. When one of the male dancers lifts her out of the car and sits her down on the wheelchair, there is a high angle shot revealing Lady Gaga to be wearing leopard print tights and high heeled shoes. The way the camera is looking down on Lady Gaga makes her appear vulnerable; due to the fact she is being carried and put into a wheelchair. As the dancers gyrate around her, she starts walking down the purple carpet with the help of a pair of crutches while wearing a metallic bustier and a matching helmet. The metallic outfit is a reference to the film Metropolis.  The colour purple is constant in this particular scene. It is the colour associated with royalty. The colour purple also associates with power and wisdom.

The following scene is a long shot of Lady Gaga and her boyfriend sitting on a white sofa. He reads the paper whilst Lady Gaga, also reading a magazine, watches the house maid leave a tray of drinks and ice on the table at the far end of the room. The boyfriend is wearing an eye patch over his left eye, which it could be due to the fact that he was hit in the side of the face with a champagne bottle and some of the glass might have gotten into his eye.

Another method that is used is the colour purple that is often used throughout the video which can portray poison as she did towards the end of the video. Lady GaGa is shown wearing a ‘Minnie Mouse’ and this is used to enforce the irony in the situation, as Lady Gaga is just about to poison her boyfriend and commit a sinful deed, which contradicts the sweet and cute innocence of the Disney character.

The next scene is of Lady Gaga being taken by the police and being hounded by the paparazzi. Mimicking the scene from earlier on in the video, super imposed newspapers appear with the headlines “She’s Back”, “We Love Her Again” and “She’s innocent.” This makes the audience believe that the press didn’t care for her after she had her accident, but now they know that she killed her boyfriend, they want to have her.