Theories

Jean Baudrillard

 

Talks about hyperreality, ‘a condition in which “reality” has been replaced by simulacra’.

Simulacra is when a sign loses its relation to reality, it then begins to simulate a simulation.

Simulation: the process in which a representation of something comes to replace the thing which is actually being represented. The representation then becomes more important than the ‘real thing’.

Hyperreality: division between “real” and simulation has collapsed, therefore an illusion of an object is no longer possible because the real object is no longer there.

 

Fredric Jameson

 

Jameson is best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends - he once described postmodernism as the spatialisation of culture under the pressure of organised capitalism.

 

Genre

Genre does not rely simply on what's in a media text but also on the way it is put together (constructed). A media text is said to belong to a genre, as it adopts the codes and conventions of other texts in that genre, and lives up to the same expectations. Texts from different mediums may belong to the same genre (e.g. a tv programme like Dr Who and a comicbook like The Incredible Hulk can both be categorised as Science Fiction.)

The genre of the song being dance and pop illustrates that the video itself is most likely to be happy and colourful fitting with the lyrics. My video doesn’t have a main character but instead is something that is more of a journey and not performance based. In turn the video doesn’t focus on males nor females, allowing there not to be a male or female gaze. Pop music tends to be happy and uplifting which fits well with the video as it’s a flight to another country that portrays everyone captured on screen as beautiful. The lyrics represent the narrative of the video. As the video is fast paced, the shots are less likely to be long prolonged shots but those of fast cuts. As no one is lip-synching the song its self is non-diegetic. The video connotates realism as nothing stages but instead what the director saw (me) as interesting, meaningful footage is what is seen on screen. No planned or specific costumes are used as the video is a realistic interpretation of society.

None of the theories apply to my music video. The video doesn’t follow the stereotypical aspect of videos which theorists such as Domaille talk about the fatal flaw, the indomitable hero or the dream comes true. Nor does the video follow points Todorov makes, such as the 5 stages of equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition, action and restoration. Like stated before my video doesn’t have a story line, it’s merely following real life. Nothing is staged.

To conclude the audience feel jubilant about themselves. Both video and lyrics are uplifting.

Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.

“Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.

The music video I’m making isn’t based on any music video in particular. The video is a journey of my holiday, going from country to country showing beautiful people around the world. There isn’t a story of sorts but merely a voyage that allows audiences to realise, no matter where in the world and the goings on of what happens around us for example war and suffering everyone is beautiful. It doesn’t matter if you’re homeless, working class, rich or whatever race, the concept still applies. Together with the beautiful people I also capture beautiful destinations and scenes.

None of the theories apply to my music video. The video doesn’t follow the stereotypical aspect of videos which theorists such as Kate Domaille talk about the fatal flaw, the indomitable hero or the dream comes true. Nor does the video follow points Tzvetan Todorov makes, such as the 5 stages of equilibrium, disequilibrium, recognition, action and restoration. Like stated before my video doesn’t have a story line, it’s merely following real life. Nothing is staged.

As the video is not one of performance it’s one that follows the lyrics of the son ‘Beautiful People’. The use of long shots allows the audience to see the scenery and the culture that beholds Zambia and London. People would be interested to see what a country in Africa is like. For those who live in hyper-reality and believe all they see in the media would assume there’s only poverty and wilderness, when a matter of fact it’s advanced. The video allows people to step out of the bubble of hyper-reality and see the bigger picture…it’s not all doom and gloom.

The video I’m making is linear; the video refers to a journey being told in an order of events, in addition to being omniscient narrative. The message is more or less what is seen on the screen. The meaning can be perceived in many different ways. The meaning is left open to the audience. What is provided in the music video is the simple meaning; everyone is beautiful, the lyrics to the video illustrate this alongside. The audience is left to perceive the video in anyway and mainly based on what they want to believe they are seeing. The video uses verisimilitude which is that the quality of appearing to be real or true and follows the rules of continuity. As Pam Cook argues that the Hollywood narrative structure includes: “linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution” and “a high degree of narrative closure”. My video goes against this and allows the audience freedom to have their own understanding. Not following conventions of typical videos I’d like to think my video is postmodern. It’s not restricted. There are no rules. Laura Mulvey – argues that cinema positions the audience as male. The camera gazes at the female object on screen. It also frames the male character watching the female. Once again the video ignores this and doesn’t exploit women but instead shows men and women as equal.

Video Narrative

Chris Brown - Beautiful People (My Video) Narrative

The narrative is how beautiful people are around the world are. I travel from London to Zambia filming the people and the culture. The story shows how no matter what people are going through, what race and what culture; everyone is beautiful. It’s not just what’s only on the outside but what’s on the inside. My video shows the scenery and people being happy in their own right. I mainly use long shots to show the background as people might be interested in seeing what Zambia looks like for those who have a pre-assumption of what Africa is like. It’s not all doom and gloom. My video is linear which means the video refers to a story that is told in the order in which events happen - from beginning to end.

My video is an omniscient narrative. The message is more than just what is seen on the screen. The meaning can be perceived in many different ways. The meaning is left down to the audience. What is provided is the basic meaning that everyone around the world is beautiful. The scenes captured are left to the audience’s perception and what they want to believe they are seeing.

Postmodern/Postmodernity VS Modernism/Modernity

Skepticism of idea of progress, anti-technology reactions, neo-Luddism; new age religions. Vs Master narrative of progress through science and technology.

 Sense of unified, centered self; "individualism," unified identity. Vs Sense of fragmentation and decentered self; multiple, conflicting identities.

Subverted order, loss of centralized control, fragmentation. Vs Hierarchy, order, centralized control.

Rhizome/surface tropes. 
Attention to play of surfaces, images, signifiers without concern for "Depth". Relational and horizontal differences, differentiations. Vs Root/Depth tropes.
Faith in "Depth" (meaning, value, content, the signified) over "Surface" (appearances, the superficial, the signifier).

Hyper-reality, image saturation, simulacra seem more powerful than the "real"; images and texts with no prior "original". 
"As seen on TV" and "as seen on MTV" are more powerful than unmediated experience. Vs Faith in the "real" beyond media, language, symbols, and representations; authenticity of "originals."

I am a postmodernist. Post modernism allows for more imagination and freedom. I believe in the sense of hyper0reality as sometimes representations aren't seen as more important as the original.

Lyric Narrative

Katy Perry – This Is How We do Post Modern video essay

The video starts off with a long shot of a man looking at an art piece of Katy Perry with his back to the camera. The start of the video allows the audience to note that the video is most likely going to be artistic due to the reference to many pieces of art and pulp culture. As the director zooms in more into the picture, the picture starts to show more colour. As camera gets closer the audience can see the wig Katy Perry is wearing is similar to one of Beyonce’s many wigs. From this the audience can foreshadow that the video will make references to many well known celebrities. Pastiche/homage to the 70’s fashion and colourful style is immediately noticed in the first scene by looking at the large earring in Katy’s right ear while she doesn’t wear one in the right ear which is bizarre to do in this day and time. Male dancers dressed in grey suits with white shoes and red bow ties pays homage to Pee Wee Herman, who served as inspiration for Joel’s video for “Water Fountain” by tUnE-yArDs. The video pays homage to modern pop art through colourful pieces that visually represent the lyrics of the song. For example when she sings “Playing ping pong all night long, everything's all neon and hazy” the audience can see a neon ping pong table in the middle of the screen with people dressed in neon outfits with neon stars to represent that its night. Neon colours were popular in the 70’s making the video more post modern. As the video goes on a mid shot is used to shot Katy Perry Surrounded by Fake Chanel which illustrates that many people who cannot afford Chanel buy fake channel ‘if you can’t have fake Chanel’. Emphasising pastiche using an explosion of pop art, vintage fashion. What was worn in the early days is now being called vintage, the video is made more post modern by using a wide variety of vintage clothing. Ice cream truck and high ponytail is like the ice cream truck used in the Iggy Azalea “Pu$$y” video. The video takes even existing videos and pays homage to them through making the post modern just by the use of the bright colours on the truck and vintage clothing that is now back in fashion. The red, blue, and yellow squares reference the De Stijl Dutch art movement from the early 1900’s, going back to the point that the video references many pieces of art and pulp culture. use of the openly gay NBA player Jason Collins illustrates that it’s ok to be gay while Katy Perry sings “this is how we do” bringing forth the idea that being gay is normal more now than it was years back.

Reference to world famous Italo Disco, Pizzarina di Bellesima while Katy Perry wears everything from the Yves Saint Laurant Mondrian dress to a pepperoni pizza swimsuit to green hair extensions. Connotating that anything goes, people go with the flow and weird is part of our everyday life; people are allowed to express themselves in more ways than ever. She cruises around in a convertible with her hair teased out the way Fran Fine had in the hit TV series The Nanny, wearing similar clothing and colours the character would wear. This makes reference to an old TV show that people now wouldn’t have heard of. This part of the video is more like ‘you had to have been there to understand’. The video plays both references to topics relevant now and was relevant then. The director zooms out of the shot where the audience can see Katy Perry getting her nails done while sitting on a large hand. This mise-en-scene makes reference to Miley Cyrus’ foam finger in 2013 at the VMAs. There’s interetextual reference to Mariah Carey. This seen is merely a parody and mocks the well known singer as the celebrity double in the long shot wears and extremely tight dress that reveals her dress and her figure while she poses for the camera trying to look ‘sexy’. Nicki Minaj’s iconic bright hair colour is used on one of Katy Perry’s wigs while she sits on Lorde’s table-tennis. She makes references to well known singers in one take. In the scene where Katy Perry is on the floor singing Karaoke the audience can make link and the hair references to FKA twigs who’s an old singer born in the later years. The video as a whole is s sequel of sorts to both California Girls and Last Friday night which are both well known party songs by Katy. The strutting ice cream treats are a reference to the famous 1957 “Let’s Go Out To The Lobby” movie theatre snack promo. Intertextuality to Last Friday Night. A close-up of the singer is used to reference Brooke Candy who is Tumblr’s favourite rapper by the use of the hair style. Portrait of singer Aretha Franklin. A prince charming reference is used when an image of a shirtless man with a 10 on his face is shown where next a frog appears on the screen. This in turn references to princess and the frog as she ends up kissing a frog thinking it was her prince. This is shown by the putting on of the glasses when the ‘hot’ male is on screen and when the glasses are on the male turns out to be a mere frog. The twerking ice-cream makes renefrence to the singer Miley Cyrus as she recently brough back the trend of terrible twerking which in turn had a snowball effect leading to more twerking video on the net.