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The male gaze occurs when the

camera puts the audience into the

perspective of a heterosexual man. The camera lingers on the curves of the female body, and events which occur to women are presented largely in the context of the mans reaction to these events". (1975) In a world ordered by sexual

imbalance, pleasure in looking has

been split between active/male and

passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is stylised

accordingly”. (1992). Within our own music video, we identified that our genre enforces the male gaze theory so we decided to support these common conventions. Without trying to make our music video too sexual, we focused on features that came across as not so taboo. We identified that the lips are a feature that is considered by the male gaze. For this reason we made the imagery of the lips a synergistic quality that would brand our artist appearence.

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Laura Mulvey is a feminist film

theorist. Her education in this field

began at ST HILDA’s college, oxford. She is currently a professor for film and media studies at BURBECK University.

music videos we can expect to see some sort of representation of women usually Hip Hop, R&B, POP and Rap. These types of genre are well known for creating an imbalance between male and female. The females are often the back up dancers and they

wear very little clothing (have a lot of cleavage skin on show). These genres clearly portray the female

character to be passive.

However, in the present day of music, a lot of these

representations of gender have been changed. A lot

of hip hop and R&B artists have started to challenge

these stereotypes and revolutionized the music media. A few artists I can think of off the top of my head are;

ADELLE, PINK, LILLY ALLEN, and AMY WINEHOUSE. I still feel that this stereotypical representation of

gender still exists in the present, they just do it in different ways. We still capture features like the

sexualized back up dancers that were used in music videos ever since Biggie, nas, and 2 pac shakur.

Task 3

We were given a task during lesson. This task was all

about the lyrics compared to the pictures created

on screen, and how they both tell different or the

same stories.

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Carol Vernallis studied cinematography which allowed her to look a camera work closely. She noticed that the edits and cuts appear more frequently in music videos rather than film. These edits and cuts have a rhythmatic structure and often compliments the rhythm of the beat of the music.
Continuity edits often refers to seamless editing. The fact that the more conventional continuity editing is broken allows for the audiences attention to be drawn more to what is on screen. It catches their attention and the audience are intrigued. an example of this are swipes and transitions. We responded to this in our won music video by inserting a custom swipe in one of our choruses. I does seem quite seamless and you can barely notice which i believe makes it better. The gif below presents this example.

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Andrew Goodwin is a Theorist that is well known for his theory on the conventional structure of music videos. Tzvetan Todorov, another theorist, developed an assumption that all narratives follow the same structure. Apparently, this structure is split into three equal parts. There is the beginning, the equilibrium where everything is balanced. In the process, an event occurs that disturbs the equilibrium, and at the very end they find a solution to restore everything back to how it was at the very start.
Goodwin strongly disagrees with the theory and states that this conventional theory doesn't apply to music video's in narrative. Its not that music videos sre trying to be different, its just that they have a completely different approach.

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Why are music video conventions different from conventions of other narratives?

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Why are music video conventions different from conventions of other narratives?

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The most obvious reason for why music videos have completely different conventional narratives is because the story is based around a song. Alternatively the structure may be re-ordered or parts extracted from the sequence (normality - distruption - resolution) For an example; J Cole, "she knows", The resolution stage of the narrative is the one that appears missing. This happens in the form that these two main characters now have this deep secret. Even thought we see them all eating a meal together at the very end, things have'nt gone back to normal or there is no resolution to their problem. The boy now knows that his step mother is cheating on his father.

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Why are music video conventions different from conventions of other narratives?

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Why are music video conventions different from conventions of other narratives?

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The artist tends to play an important part in his/her music video, but this does'nt mean the music video has the be about the artist. For one, the artist can be the an observer and narrator. This is where the artist sings about the life or lives of other characters that feature in the video. In these circumstances, the artist often tends to sing to the camera and is in an isolated location, (as if in a studio). But more conventionally, the artist will sing about his/her life and feature as themselves in the music video. This is one of the main reasons why we chose to follow this convention in our won music video. The song we chose is about the artist and her journey to fame and riches. The artist also features in our music video, singing to the camera about herself. An example of a real media product that does the same, is the music video of "what goes around comes around", Justine Timberlake. IN this music video, Justine plays himself therefore he is an participant. A feature that picked up on is that in these cases, the chorus often features the artist singing to the camera in a rather inside or isolated setting. Comparing these conventions of my own music video to Justine Timberlake's music video, i can say that we were successful.

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Melia, chorus conventions of singing at the camera

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Melia, chorus conventions of singing at the camera

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Just like in the Justine Timberlake music video where he sings to the camera in his chorus, we have carried over these conventions in our own music video. This is an example of music-hall performance . This is used to create a better connection with the artist to the audience and invites them to be a part of the experience.

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Just like in the Dua Lipa "New rules" song; we also used the technique of repeating the master shot throughout both our choruses. This came in handy because i meant that we didn't have to film a lot more unnecessary scenes.

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Disjuncture referes to little connection between the lyrics and the images seen on screen, or alternatively where the images contradicts the lyrics. An example of this is the song Man in the mirror. The song is about self realisation yet the images on screen presents radical world events. The gif below presents this exapmple

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It is very common for music videos to repeat shots and scenes throughout the video, in the exact same way the song may repeat a line. This happens more common in the chorus of songs. The technical name for this is "the master shot". The intertextuality of these songs allows us to become familiar with the genre. I notice popular culture repeated throughout these genres, by analysing the mise-en-scene we are given an impression. A perfect example for repetition in the chorus of a song is Dua Lipa "New rules". In this imbedded gif, we see the same scene in the first chorus and later on in the second chorus. The reason for this is because it shadows the lyrics. The lyrics in both the choruses are the same and therefore, the video in both the choruses are the same.

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Some are autonomous from the music they spring from. The music video may go beyond the original meaning. The video will not contradict the lyrics, rather add new layers to the narrative.

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Often music videos do have a form of closure at the ending. The music video will tell the exact story that the lyrics are saying. Often it is built to high climax or constant repetition before fading away. For example; if the song is about loving someone and someone being there for you, i will expect to see a couple that hold hands and support each other within the images of the video. I believe our music video is an example of illustration because our song is about an artist making it to fame in london. We responded to this by filming the entire location in London and at the main london attraction sites to show this clearly. We also filmed the Chorus in an inside location which had slightly surreal and artificial lighting. This abnormal look reflects the dream like state and compliments the meaning of the song that the artist is singing about her dream.