NARRATIVE
Narrative in music videos are fragmented or even at times have no narrative at all. There are fast edits in a music video, therefore continuity is not always present or there may not be any need for it. There is never or very rarely a complete narrative. The video entices the viewers and gets them wanting to view the video again and again. Parallel editing is also used to present the artist and show them off.
Some music videos are very good that it helps make the song memorable even if the song is mediocre. Technical codes are used to construct both the video itself and the representations inherent within it.
Realism is created from the depth of field, where the focus changes from one thing to another. Also, everything needs to fit to the iconography of the genre in order to help with the realistic look of the video.
The women-body is common in musics videos, exhibiting body parts all the time and portraying themselves to being provocative. Acknowledging the camera is also common as it helps to interact with the audience and connect to them.
CAMERAWORK
How the camera is used and how images are sequenced will have a significant impact upon meaning.
The camera movement, angle and shot distance all need to be analysed carefully to construct the right meaning.
The close up predominates because of the size of the screen and also because of the desire to create a sense of intimacy for the viewer. It also emphasises the selling of the artist, song and album sales.
Carol Vernallis suggests that a video must provide a flattering depiction of the singer lip-synching the song. The grammar of music video makes us aware of the edge of the frame and the meaning behind it.
Music videos often frame the body inappropriately e.g. in kylie monogue.
Fast cut montage are common forms with the music promo. Multiple viewing is ensured through rendering many of the images which are impossible to grasp upon. Slow pace and gentle transitions to establish mood.
Laura Mulvey (Male gaze)
Laura Mulvey came up with her theory of the male gaze in 1975. She believed that the audience had to view the video from a hetrosexual male. The camera focuses on the curves of a female body. Women are represented as an object and some women enjoy being 'looked' at foe example beauty pageants. The gaze could also be directed towards same genders for many reasons, not all being sexual, for example comaprison of body image or clothing.
Roland Barthes (Enigma code)
1. Proairetic code (the voice of empirics): The code of actions. Any action initiated must be completed. The cumulative actions constitute the plot events of the text.
2. Hermeneutic code (the voice of truth): The code of enigmas or puzzles.
3. Connotative [or Semic] code (the voice of the person): The accumulation of connotations. Semes, sequential thoughts, traits and actions constitute character. “The proper noun surrounded by connotations.”
4. Cultural or referential code (the voice of science [or knowledge]): Though all codes are cultural we reserve this designation for the storehouse of knowledge we use in interpreting everyday experience.
5. Symbolic code (voice of the symbol): Binary oppositions or themes. The inscription into the text of the antithesis central to the organization of the cultural code.
The codes are complicated by partial delays and interruptions.
1. Thematization: emphasis on object which will be subject of the enigma.
2. Proposal of enigma: questions in the text.
3.Formulation of enigma: frequent supplementation of the enigma as the text progresses.
4. Request for an answer: facilitates narrative movement.
5. Snare: types of deception
a) deception of one character by another.
b) deception of the reader by the discourse.
c) character deceived by self.
6. Snare and truth: A statement which might be taken two different ways.
7. Suspended answers.
8. Partial answers.
9. Jamming. An apparent failure of the hermeneutic activity, usually because of the exhaustion of all available resources. Death of writer, destruction of evidence.
10. Disclosure: a discussion or uttering of the irreversible word, closure, the end of signification.
No comments:
Post a Comment