Week 1:
Essay plans
Genre:
Intro: To get genre across to an audience, it is important that they can be easily identified however if challenged, it can still be perceived by its audience. My music video identifies its generic conventions however still challenges it in a sense that it could be classed as a different genre aspect.
Paragraph 1: Jason Mittell argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate with industry, audience, and cultural practices as well. Basically, he says that media texts use genre to sell the media to their audience. This could be argued we use genre to create something for audiences to follow however because of postmodernism it could be argued what is genre? How is genre identified as a selling point of a media production?
Paragraph 2: Nicholas Abercrombie- suggests that the boundaries between genres are shifting and becoming more permeable. I agree with this because as time is going on, it is getting harder to identify and pinpoint media texts to one genre which also can be said for our music video, the conventions used especially with the editing and mis en scene there could be more than one genre.
Conclusion: overall, Genre is something that has evolved a lot since post modernism has taken a virtue.
Narrative:
Intro: Narrative is the ground structure of all digital media productions e.g. film, music video giving us that sense of a beginning, middle and end.
Paragraph 1: Torodov 5 different stages of how stories are structured equilibrium, disruptive, recognition, action and restoration. This could be said for our music video because it follows exactly these stages without us intentionally acting on this.
Paragraph 2: Tim O’Sullivan argues that all media texts tell a story. This is potentially arguable as seen in Radiohead music video, they try to create a non-narrative however the human mind still creates a story behind their reason of creating the music video. This is why I think our music video follows this theory, because no matter how much you try to create a music video with no narrative, the human mind creates as everything must have a meaning.
Conclusion: Our music video follows these narratives however there are other theorists we can look at that we can argue against.
Audience:
Intro: Audience is the key to every media product. We target media products to an audience in which we expect to entice them. My partner and I from the beginning to after the production of our music video, we always ensured that our audience played a part and knowing what our audience wanted
Paragraph 1: Julian McDougall suggests that in the online age it is getting harder to conceive a media audience as a stable, identifiable group. This theory is correct in the sense that before you could give out questionnaires and receive your target audience so simply. However, as postmodernism has evolved, something so simple as genre is cannot be pinpointed to one genre as conventions are so mixed. The audience evolved adapting to the changes in this postmodern society however they still make sense and give meaning to media products.
Paragraph 2: John Hartley- We have to create a fictional audience to aim our campaign to. This theory is still used in today’s society which we used consistently throughout our campaign. We used a fictional audience to create the campaign producing an invisible relationship to communicate across what we expected our real audience to react upon.
Paragraph 3: Frankfurt’s school theory a modernist theory this idea of a hypodermic needle injecting you with its ideas a message you send directly to audience through our music videoà makes the audience have no choice but believe it. à This theory is passive and therefore it could be argued that what we deliver to our audience is postmodern being that the different challenges of conventions gives the audience the opportunity to make their own definition and idea of our music video. The audience is unknown.
Conclusion: Overall, I think that the audience is perceived as unknown because theories like Hartley prove that during a media production we are still unknown of who we actually intend to aim it at because postmodern is so largely conceived and erupted the idea of one tied and simple audience to our music video.
Representation:
Intro: Media shows us things about society which sometimes is over exaggerated yet still true in a sense. For it an audience to “recognise” and be represented with these ideas, there needs to be a shared recognition of people e.g. situations that they can relate to. In our music video, recognition is thoroughly exploited and challenged.
Paragraph 1: Feminism Laura Mulvey- argues that the dominant point of view is masculine. The female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasure for male. Our music video challenges this but also perceives this theory because the male character is dominant over the female in the music video however the girl is not dressed or characterized as seductive for males to gaze at.
Paragraph 2: Representation of reality Julian McDougall “in a media saturated world, the distinction between reality and media representations become blurred or invisible to us.” This can definitely refer to our music video because we have edited our music video to clearly show the separation it has with reality even though the representation of the situation is still shown through.
Paragraph 3: O’sullivan et al (1998) details that a stereotype is a label that involves a process of categorisation and evaluation. Stereotypes are specifically shorthand to narratives because representations define our understanding of media texts e.g. binary oppositions (good vs. evil) we instantly identify that there is a binary opposition in our music video good being the girl, evil being the boy however our music video can be out looked in different perspectives therefore this is when we have the idea of media being represented as “blurred”.
Conclusion: Overall, my music video production challenges representation however still keeps within theorists perspectives of representation and follows the key aspects of representation in a media production.
