Word Cloud- Genres of Music

Here I have created a word cloud on 'Tagul' with many different genres of music that I may use for when creating the music video.

Textual Analysis of a Music Video- Madonna 'Like a Prayer'

The beginning of the video opens with an elegant lady running towards the camera in panic as the technical diegetic sounds of sirens convey how she has done something wrong instantly letting the audience in on the action and not leaving them confused. The symbolic darkness with the contrast of the burning barrel show how this lady may be rebelling but does not want to reveal herself to an audience. Non-diegetic technical electric guitar is playing as she plummets to the floor to convey the lady rebelling against something as the sound of guitars is stereotyped with rock, misbehaviour and rebelling. We then see the slamming of a door followed by the burning of a cross instantly making it a controversial music video by playing with peoples beliefs. Fast paced editing reflects this, however, the cross is still made obvious to the viewer. The symbolic references continue as it shows Madonna heading into the church where she stumbles across Jesus, who in this video is of the black ethnicity. This is offending christians and subverting their beliefs that Jesus is of the white ethnic group. 

From the video we gather that Madonna is heading to the church for help and to send a prayer to God after what she has just witnessed, such as the symbolic scene of white men beating up a lady. However, Madonna is wearing a thin black dress sporting a sex appeal while she sings to Jesus. A slow zoom is used as she sings ‘I hear your voice, like an angel sighing’ to show her love for Jesus. However, she is then shown to be kissing his foot whilst dreaming of landing in heaven by being met by a black angel, once again subverting beliefs of christians. Furthermore, we are then shown that Madonna has set Jesus free from the gate, where he kisses her and then leaves the church. This suggests that Jesus does not want to be kept in the church and is happy to have been set free, once again subverting stereotypes and beliefs. From this a pan is used to reveal an upbeat black choir, shown to be happy, which is suggesting that this choir is happy and relieved that Jesus has been able to leave the church. 

The video then moves on to see what we were teased with at the beginning of the video which is the fight scene. White men are pictured beating up a white women, subverting the stereotypes of white ethnicity being heroic. A black man then jumps down and tries to save the girl from the men but he is the one who gets arrested by the police adhering stereotypes of black ethnicity being criminals. Straight cuts progress the video further revealing Madonna singing in front of five burning crosses. This may suggest that she doesn't believe in religion and thinks that it may be fake concluding in the fact that the video is so controversial and offensive to many people.  Additionally, Madonna is dressed in a black lacy dress pushing a sex appeal which contrasts the religious approach. During this she is shown by parallel editing singing with the black choir promoting a family approach and unity as they all celebrate Jesus’ departure of the church. Furthermore, Madonna is pictured kissing Jesus which will offend many christians and create controversial comments. Parallel editing is used at this point during the up beat part of the song as a technical term to remind the audience of the burning crosses, the black choir and the kissing of Jesus to further promote the controversial factors of the music video. 

It is then revealed that Madonna was dreaming of Jesus and her kissing as its shown with him behind the gate with the non-diegetic sound effect of a gate closing despite the fact the black choir are still in the church singing. Furthermore, Jesus is then pictured behind bars in a police station with Madonna looking very happy with herself speaking to the police guard, suggesting that Jesus shouldn't have his say and is worthy of jail, once again pushing controversy and beliefs. The final part of the video reveals that all of the stunts were just acting pulled in this video as the cast take their bows with a large red curtain behind them resembling a theatre, putting a light hearted approach on it. The curtain then falls and writing shows ‘The End’ to show the telling of a story. 

In conclusion, Madonna’s video of ‘Like a Prayer’ has used technical and symbolic approaches to deal with beliefs and stereotypes through camera, editing, mise-en-scene and sound. 

Little Mix and Metallica- Music Video, Album and Website Comparison

My Favourite Music- Ed Sheeran

Introducing my A2 Year

Evaluation Question 1- Comparing and Challenging Coventions

Falter

Falter

Saw

This is the very beginning of the scene in Saw 1, where the man who has been caught is trapped. Comparing this convention to our thriller (Falter), we have used a similar technique by revealing just one character at the very beginning of the thriller. The reason we have used this is to create tension by leading the mystery further than say using a wide straight away revealing the whole room. However, we used an extreme close up on our actors face compared to Saw as we believed the less revealed about the characters built the most tension for the viewer. Also, lighting wise, we decided to use the convention similar to Saw by having the lights off and then show the lights being turned on, however, we decided to have the audience know who our main character is straight away by turning them on at the beginning compared to Saw turning them on after about 30 seconds. The camera angles and framing of Falter shows much less mise-en-scene compared to Saw. However, Saw used the contrast of dim lighting which doesn't show much which builds tension, however we decided this would not work as well for Falter, so we used the letterbox technique to remove the pink flicker lines and do an extreme close up on his face.

Falter

Saw

In Saw 1, the victim is able to get out of the area they are sat in very easily. I believe that Twisted Pictures have done this because it creates more action for the audience as this is featured part way through the film. However, as ours is an opening title sequence, we felt it would build more tension to let the audience in gently with the action that is about to unfold. Additionally, our lighting is much brighter than theirs as we thought that having the lights off for just a split second would be more effective for an opening title sequence than it would if the lights were off for longer as the audience may think that the film is not working. 

Saw

Falter

In the sequence from Saw they have turned the lights on for a much longer delay than our thriller. The makers of Saw have done this as the symbol of the beginning of their ‘game’; the lights turning on as it then reveals the next main character and the dead body. However, with our thriller, we did not need to use the symbol of the lights turning on to begin the game as we used a phone instead of a dead body as we felt that would create more tension as our characters are much less vulnerable then in Saw as they know why they are here due to the non-linear opening.  The phone ringing is the beginning of the game as this is where the action starts to take place, likewise with Saw where the lights turn on.

Saw

Falter

Both thrillers then reveal the problem in which the characters have to overcome. In our case it is a phone and in Saw’s case a dead body. We decided to use an extreme close up on the phone as we felt this lead to more mystery by not giving away much of the rooms surrounding, where Saw has done the opposite by revealing the whole bathroom. Moreover, our characters both know they are fighting over the phone as they have been there for a long time, comparing to Saw’s confused characters. The mise-en-scene in the screenshot from Saw is more visible due to the wider angle.

Falter

Saw

In both thrillers a second character is then revealed, both at a mid-shot. However we decided to challenge the convention of our character being asleep/unconscious as opposed to Saw’s awake and scared character. We thought this would add more tension that the characters were both brave, athletic and heroic as opposed to Saw’s scared and deluded characters. Once again, the mise-en-scene is much more revealing to where they are in the Saw screenshot compared to ours where we just show a brick wall due to the fact it is an opening title sequence and we don’t want to reveal too much to the audience. Similarly we used a mid shot to focus in on the character himself rather than a long shot which may have broken the tension that had previously been built. Additionally, we decided to use LED lighting but from under the characters faces which make them look much more tired and drained compared to Saw’s over head lighting. We also thought that the floor lighting would give the audience the idea that the person who has set the characters to do this is not someone to mess with, instantly engaging them into our thriller.

Falter

Alien Isolation

The text from the video game thriller ALIEN ISOLATION is similar to ours in which both thrillers use a black background with white writing to make it clear to the audience what the text states. Black and white is also a connotation of boldness and helps engage an audience. However, we have used a slightly different font to Alien Isolation as our spacing is much closer together as it is called Falter so therefore there can be no mistakes. Whereas Alien Isolation maybe referring to the word isolation in which they are ironically adhering by spacing the letters far apart from each other. I believe that both of these are effective as they both reflect what the film/video game is going to include.

Evaluation Question 2- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social groups have been represented throughout my thriller through mise-en-scene, camera angles, sound and editing. To begin with mise-en-scene has been used representing males as quite a dominant gender. Despite the fact they are bruised and cut, they still show will power to wanting to get to the end of the mission, by retrieving the phone. Additionally, during the fight scene, Mike is able to kill Adam which shows a huge range of masculinity and adhering stereotypes to men being masculine. Also, it adheres to the theory 'survival of the fittest' as each man is willing to kill of the other to get what they want. Despite both characters looking drained and warn out through the mise-en-scene of cuts and bruises and sweat stained shirts, both characters are willing to fight one more time in order to receive the item that both characters seem to want, which is unknown to the audience why they want it, the phone. The sweat stained shirt suggest that both characters have been there for a long and that they are in a hot environment, underground. Additionally, the cuts and bruises suggest that they have both previously been beaten but, by once again, it is unknown to the audience why. As the two characters are between the ages of 30-40, it suggests that they are mature enough to handle what they are doing and are willing to fight for what they think is right.

Camera angles have also been used to influence the different social groups in 'Falter'. For example, the camera shots are originally slow but once the fight starts they are quick and fast pace giving an action vibe and creating suspense. As both of these men seem to be on equal terms, we used lots of mid shots but did not choose to make one more powerful than the other by using high/low shots as it would have given the concept away before it was officially revealed. Despite the fact we used high angled shots during the fight, we used a on level shot with Adam, the victim, to show his perspective whilst getting strangled which made Mike seem more powerful and of a higher status.

The editing was used to show the different social groups in the thriller too. For example, the quick and fast paced editing during the fight scene helped build tension but also showed the masculinity of the two characters, as typically men get into fights and who that they are the most powerful. However, at the beginning of the thriller, we used slow paced shots of Mike. The reason we used this technique is so the audience could get to know that character and feel sorry for him as we originally think he's tied there and there is no way of him escaping. Also, this helped build suspense. The fact we used slow shots at the beginning and fast shots during the fight emphasised the contrast between relaxation and tension and really helped build an tense atmosphere as it was a shock for the audience.

Sound played a large factor in helping create suspense and represent our social group. For example, the diegetic sound of the train at the beginning instantly supported the fact the characters are sweat stained, suggesting the fact they are underground in a hot environment. From the beginning we then started to feel sorry for Mike as we were led to believe that he is the only character there due to the editing. The reason we chose diegetic sound over non-diegetic sound is because we wanted this opening sequence to feel as tense as possible and a soundtrack may have broken this and put the audience at ease which is not what we wanted to do. Additionally, the sudden diegetic sound of the phone ringing made the audience jump in some cases as we were unaware of a phone being there, which once again comes down to the successful editing. Especially as the sound of the phone was louder than it may have been in the real world, to emphasise to the audience that this is important, it contributed to shocking the audience. However, once the characters has reacted to the trigger sound, we were unaware which character held the most power as it was a question to who could break free the quickest which built a large amount of tension keeping the audience grasped and engaged.

However, despite adhering many stereotypes about masculinity, we also subverted stereotypes by having the victims as males. Stereotypically, males are usually the heroes, however we decided to use males because we felt this would shock our audience, especially as our target audience is males, to show that males are not invincible and can get themselves in unfortunate situations too. This therefore supports the title of the film 'Falter' showing how men lose strength and momentum which is contrasted in this scene as both men battle using all the strength they have left to fight for the phone. In conclusion, I believe that my media product represented our particular social group using mise-en-scene, camera angles, editing and sound.