Vladimir Propp

Propp believed there are 8 key character roles:
1) Hero (protagonist)
2) Villain (antagonist)
3) The donor (provider)
4) The helper (assistant)
5) The father (gives advice)
6) The dispatcher (sends hero on mission)
7) The Princess
8) The false hero

To test this theory i did some research and found that films such as; Die Another Day, Golden Eye, Batman The Dark knight and The Matrix all follow this structure and as you can see these are mainly mainstream Hollywood films.

Now lets test the theory on Batman The Dark Knight
1) Hero - Batman
2) Villain - Joker
3) The donor - Morgan Freeman
4) The helper - Alfred
5) The father - Alfred
6) The dispatcher - Commisioner Gordon
7) The Princess - Rachel
8) The false hero - Harvey Dent

As you can see the Dark Knight fits the structure, however not all films do this such as, Blue Valentine and Momento, which toally go against this structure.

Wordle

This wordle comprises of my enitre blog from the very first post to the very last. the two most dominant words are 'music' and 'video' which was no suprise

Evaluation Question 4

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In the process of construction, research, planning and evaluation I used many new technologies, i also used them to illustrate my work and to show how and why i used them. For example in my research I print screened / screen grabbed pictures of videos I analysed for aspects I liked in order to show a sample of the music video I was looking at and why I looked at it. Here’s two examples of the screen grabs I have used during my research.





I also used allot of the internet to pretty much do everything in between filming and editing on the imacs. For example I used allot of networking to get in touch with different artists requesting to have permission to use their song.

New Media Technologies I Have Used

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Evaluation Question 3

3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I’ve learnt a considerable amount of information. I began by creating a questionnaire for 60 candidates to fill out soon after reviewing our advertisement, digi pak and viewing our music video. Here’s 1 of 60 filled out questionnaires.




We then decided we wanted more results so we created an additional survey online with the same questions using http://www.surveymonkey.com/ by doing this we are allowing all candidates who was not able to fill out our questionnaire an opportunity to do so online. We distributed the survey very quickly and efficiently via http://www.facebook.com/ in the same way we did with the survey we had created in the earlier process of our coursework. We sent this survey to a further 60 candidates to fill out. Here's what it looked like

Click here for the link to the survey



After collecting all the data from both our questionnaires and online surveys we were left with very positive feedback from the 120 results, which had exceeded what we were expecting. The results below reflect the feedback we received.

Only 26 people wasn’t interested in the album after viewing the advertisement, however the remaining 94 people were, which meant the advertisement did its job in grabbing people’s attention making them interested in the album.

82 people agreed the album lived up to the advertisement, which is more than double the people we had asked. It’s not the best feedback however it’s still positive and reflected that we had created a successful advertisement for our album.

We made our music video so that it fitted under the genre of RnB and Hip Hop and from the feedback we got back everyone agreed it was either RnB or Hip Hop, which was a good response because no one got the genre of our music video wrong, which meant we had accomplished our task of creating a music video for this genre(s).

The music video did have a storyline to it and with 100% of people agreeing it did, is an excellent response as we now know that the storyline was effective enough for 100% of people who watched it to have noticed.

This was an excellent response with 116 people enjoying the music video and only 4 people who didn’t, which was a very positive feedback. We wanted to make the music video enjoyable and fun to watch to keep the viewers interest and from the feedback we had successfully achieved this.


This again was a very positive feedback, we had 4 unconvinced people, which was disappointing to see but 4 out of 120 is very minor. 21 people said no, which again wasn’t a great response however the remaining 95 said yes they would buy the album, which in my eyes is a success. There are more than three times as many people who said yes that both who said no and unconvinced put together, which was nice to see.

Evaluation Question 2

2.) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts (DVD Digipak, Magazine Advert)?

I think the combination of our main product and ancillary texts if very effective. One reason why I believe his is because from our feedback 94 of 120 people agreed the advertisement we produced made them interested in the album. This was very pleasing to see because the feedback proved it was a successful advertisement, which done the job we intended it to, which was to make people interested in the new album and over three quarters of people we asked agreed. Another reason is the digi pak, it’s full of love with the words 'I love you' and a love heart beneath the tracking list. The music video matches the digi pak as it’s also love related, which I think worked really well as they both have things in common.

Here's the finished advertisement and the process that took place in producing it.

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I printed off the advertisement and took it away with me. I then placed it in a magazine next to another advertisement to see how ours went up against it. After asking for people’s opinions I received a great response that the advertisement looked good inside a magazine and worked well next to another advertisement. Here’s what it looked like with a very rough copy of the advertisement.





This is the finished digi pak including all 6 completed sides.

Evaluation Question 1

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My music video uses develops and challenges many different forms and conventions of real media products.

We decided to use different locations in our music video as we didn’t want to bore the viewer of just one location and to also make the most of the music video and so we decided to use various locations to keep the viewers interest and keep.

Our first location was Danielle’s living room. This was a chance to introduce the artist showing the viewer what Danielle looks like and just a chance to reveal the environment in which she lives.

The second location was Danielle’s bed. This shot set the theme of the music video of a teenager's life, locking herself away in her room doing her own little thing and in this case she’s missing her boyfriend while on the phone to him.

The next location was in Erron's bedroom. This can relate to a typical boys teenage life of associating with girls, having girl problems and finding ways to resolve the situation so that they are back together by the end of it.

Our last location was Central Park, Dagenham. Here both Danielle and Erron are just having laughs together, which represent teenagers just having a good time over the park with each other a part of growing up as a teenager by spending time with the opposite sex.


the shot we have of danielle in our music video was inspired by a real text Keri Hilson - Knock You Down ft. Kanye West, Ne-Yo the real media text presents keri hilson simply laying on a bed with her eyes looking away from the camera and we decided to duplicate this idea but with a much closer shot.

Our song fits under the RnB/ Hip Hop category and so we decided to keep things that way by producing a music video to match the songs genre.

In the planning stage of our music video, from the shot list and locations I didn’t really see a story line for our music video, which was going to be a challenge because it wasn't going to have a storyline to follow but just a load of random shots edited together, however as we progressed I began to see one. Our music video is basically about a teenage couple who are having problems in their relationship and they haven't seen each other for a while. The enigma of the music video is that us as the viewer does not know what’s going to happen next, are they getting back together? Are they not? Are the questions the viewer should ask themselves? As the viewer may have guessed they are both obviously missing each other and so Danielle the female character decides to call Erron. They talk and talk and soon there physically together to sort things out face to face and before you know it there are having a great time and have finally back together, which solves the enigma earlier in the music video.

Finished Music Video

Here's our finished music video... ENJOY OUR POLYSEMIC TEXT!! (:

Click here for the YouTube link

Further Editing

Here’s the last piece of editing to our music video. this consisted us mainly reviewing the music video making sure the lip syncing in particular was as on time and in tune as possible to make it look like Danielle was actually singing the lyrics.

More Editing

We then added lyrics in the music video towards the end, which would appear as the lyrics were being sung, abit like subtitles. We added this to add that little bit more effect and to also really emphasize the meaning and passion behind the lyrics being sung.

Editing

We inserted a text title at the beginning of our music video to make it appear more professional to the viewer and to also provide information of the artist, tracking title and the name of the production team.

Digi Pak

Here’s our finished digi pak. As you can see it fits in with its release date, Valentine’s Day, consisting mainly of white and red colors, relating to the theme of Valentine’s Day and love and passion as well as images of the artist herself and content information. The words 'I love you' take up 3 of the 6 sides of the digi pak, really emphasizing these three words with a font big enough to take up a side per word. Also with the single coincidently being called 'therapy' it would make sense for use to release it on Valentine’s Day because it is a love song and therefore relevant to the release date. Releasing a love song on Valentine’s Day should appeal to consumers allot more than any other day of the year because it’s just the right present/ gift for the right occasion.

Music Video Advertisement

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Final Piece of Filming: Central Park

The last piece of filming took place in Central park where we filmed shots of Danielle and Erron having a good time and making up with each other. These last few shots are going to end our music video solving the enigma, which was created earlier on in the music video. we decided to film these shots towards night time because we thought it would be more romantic for a couple to make up with each other under the stars glaring down on them, however we did not included the stars in our music video because they did not show up very well on the camera even when zoomed in. the shots included, Erron swinging Danielle on the swing set, Danielle lip synching in the park, them both laughing on the play area, them both walking away holding hands, here are some screen grabs of the filming we had done.

Filming: Close Up Of Danielle Lip Syncing

Here we got close up shots of Danielle lip syncing. The reason why we done this shot in close up on Danielle's face is because we intended to add lyrics onto the screen while Danielle was lip syncing so that all we could see was the lyrics on screen and mainly Danielle's lips through the gaps of the letters. We thought by adding this would make the music video more interesting to watch and really emphasize the lyrics that are being sung. Here is a screen shot.

Filming: Danielle Lip Synching On The Sofa

the next piece of filming that we did was danielle lip synching on the sofa. we took the sofa shot in a birds eye view shot where the camera was filming from above her

Laura Mulvey's Theory

What is 'Narrative'?

What is ‘narrative’?
- Story
- Plot
- The way the story is organised

Elements of a Narrative:
- Time - chronology

Linear Time - an example of a film with linear time is 'High Noon' where the film is the same duration as the film itself, which is otherwise known as a film shown in real time.

Non Linear - this is basically the opposite where for example the film in real life was 2 hours long however time inside the film could have covered days, weeks, months, years and sometimes even thousands of years.

Memento - this is a film where it starts at the latest time and finishes at the earliest time, the films starts at the latest time and gradually jumps back to the start of the film and ends there, kind of like its being shown backwards.

Pulp Fiction - Pulp Fiction starts just over halfway of the film and ends just after the start before the action is happening and jumps all over the place in between.

- Closure
- Enigma

What enigmas are created in our music video?
enigmas in our music video are the flash backs the couple have of when they were together, which makes the audience think whether they are going to get back with each other or not, that’s one enigma, which is created during the music video.


Classical Hollywood Narratives:
- Linear
- Few, if any, sub-plots
- Tendency towards closure

Theories of Narrative: Todorov
- Equilibrium
- Disruption
- Resolution
- New Equilibrium

To test this theory I had watched the beginning of the film 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' to see if the film did include any of Todorov’s theories of narrative, here's what I analysed.

1) Equilibrium - Everything’s in balance, Clint Eastwood and his son are happily working on the farm with their horse

2) Disruption - Clint notices birds flying out of the trees, followed by him seeing horses behind the trees and a cloud of black smoke coming from nearby, he then hears gun shots and soon discovers houses on fire.

3) Resolution - after the death of Clint’s son he is going to avenge his death

4) New equilibrium - whatever the new equilibrium Clint cannot return to where he was at the beginning of the film because that is where his son had been killed.

Research: Audiences and Audience Theory

We have so far studied 3 theories of audience:- The effects model
- The uses and gratifications model
- Reception theory

We will now go on to consider:
- Suture
- Feminist film theory and audiences

Suture:
classical Hollywood narrative, editing and music 'sutures; or positions the audience in certain ways making only one preferred reading possible, however unconscious the audience is of that position

Feminist film theory and audiences:
- Laura Mulvey
- Visual pleasure and narrative cinema (1975)

Cinema reflects society therefore cinema reflects patriarchal society. how does a patriarchal society manifest itself in cinema?

An example:
- Patriarchy and phallocentrism are linked
- The phallus is the symbol of power
- Note how guns are used in films
- Guns = phallus = power

The male midlife crises and phallocentrism

The Gaze:- The 'gaze' of the camera is the male 'gaze'
- The male gaze is active, the female is passive
- Within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters
- The spectator is made to identify with the male gaze because the camera films from the optical, as well as libidinal point of view of the male character
- Thus 3 levels of the cinematic gaze, camera, character and spectator that objectify the female character (the triple gaze)
- Therefore the audience is constructed as though everyone was male
- Women are forced to look as though they were a male audience member

Agency:
In the classical Hollywood cinema the male protagonist has agency, he is active and powerful. he is the agent around whom the dramatic action unfolds. The female character is passive and powerless and she is the object of desire for the protagonist and the audience.

Erotic desire:
Mulvey argues that women have 2 roles in film:
1) As an object of erotic desire for the characters
2) As an object of erotic desire for the audience

Research: Reception Theory

Given that the effects model and the uses and gratifications have their problem and limitations a different approach to audience was developed by the academic 'Stuart Hall' at Birmingham University in the 1970's. This is considered how texts were encoded with meaning by producers and then decoded (understood) by audiences

The theory suggests:
- When a producer constricts a text it is encoded with a meaning or message that the producer wishes to convey to the audience
- In some instances audiences will correctly decode the message or meaning and understand what the producer was trying to say
- In some instances the audience will either reject or fail to correctly understand the message

Stuart Hall identified 3 types of audience readings (or decoding) of the text:
1) Dominant or preferred - where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to do and broadly agrees with it. E.g. watching a political speech and agreeing with it.
2) Negotiated - where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in the light of previously help views e.g. neither agreeing no disagreeing with the political speech.
3) Oppositional -where the dominant meaning is recognised but rejected for cultural, political or ideological reasons e.g. total rejection of the political speech and active opposition

Audience decodes meaning and message:
Producer -> Dominated or preferred
Encodes -> Negotiated
Meaning -> Oppositional

Research: The Uses and Gratifications Model

- The uses and gratifications model is the opposite of the effects model
- The audience is active; they use the text and is not used by it
- The audience uses the text for its own gratification or pleasure
- Here, power lays with the audience not the producers
- This theory emphasises what audiences do with media texts - how and why they use them
- Far from being duped by the media, the audience is free to reject, use or play with media meaning as they see fit

Audiences therefore use media texts to gratify needs for:
- Diversion
- Escapism
- Information
- Pleasure
- Comparing relationships and lifestyles with one’s own
- Sexual stimulation

The audience is in control and consumption of the media helps people with issues such as:
- Learning
- Emotional satisfaction
- Relaxation
- Helps with issues of personal identity
- Help with issues of aggression and violence

Controversially the theory suggests the consumption of violent images can be helpful rather than harmful. The theory suggests that audiences act out their violent impulses through consumption of media violence. The audience’s inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated; they are less likely to commit violent acts.

Research: The Effects Model

I did some research on the Hypodermic Model also known as the Effects Model.

Experiment:
- Children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy called a Bobo doll
- The children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch
- The children were then led to another room with Bobo dolls
- 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children produced the same violent behaviour
- The conclusion reached was that children will imitate violent media texts

Key examples sited as causing or being contributory factors are:
- The film 'Childs Play 3' in the murder of James Bulger in 1993
- The game 'Man Hunt' in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlane
- The film 'A Clockwork Orange' (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacks
- The film 'Severance' (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt

People are clearly influenced by media texts, however because you watch violent texts doesn’t mean that you’re going to act out violent acts.

This is a very controversial experiment, which depicted that children who viewed violent media texts would then go and act violent behaviour but because there were many flaws in this experiment the conclusion is still just a theory.

- In each case there was a media and political outery for the texts to be banned
- In some cases laws were changed, films banned and newspapers demanded the buring of films
- Subsequently in each case it was found that no case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and the violent acts

The effects model contributes to moral panics whereby:
- The media produces inactivity, makes us into students who want to pass their exams or 'couch potatoes' that make no effort to get a job
- The media produces violent 'copycat' behaviour or mindless shopping in response to the advertisements

- It is still unclear that there is any link between the consumption of violent media texts and violent imitative behaviour
- It is also clear the theory is flawed in that many people do watch violent texts and appear not to be influenced
- Therefore a new theory is necessary
- This is called: The Uses and Gratifications Model

Research: Bobo Doll Experiment

Experiment:
- Children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy called a Bobo doll
- The children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch
- The children were then led to another room with Bobo dolls
- 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children produced the same violent behaviour
- The conclusion reached was that children will imitate violent media texts



Key examples sited as causing or being contributory factors are:
- The film 'Childs Play 3' in the murder of James Bulger in 1993
- The game 'Man Hunt' in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlane
- The film 'A Clockwork Orange' (1971) in a number of rapes and violent attacks
- The film 'Severance' (2006) in the murder of Simon Everitt

People are clearly influenced by media texts, however because you watch violent texts doesn’t mean that you’re going to act out violent acts.

This is a very controversial experiment, which depicted that children who viewed violent media texts would then go and act violent behaviour but because there were many flaws in this experiment the conclusion is still just a theory.