Semiotics

Semiotics: The study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.
Key theorists: Barthes, Chandler, Saussure and Strauss

Roland Barthes researched how audiences interpret what they see and argued that "The audience look for signs to help them interpret the narrative... These deeply rooted signs are based on expectations the audience has due to their prior knowledge of old tales or myths". His theory of how we interpret is as follows:

Today we learnt about semiotics and discussed how we can use symbols/signs to represent a particular message or meaning within our music videos.

Examples of semiotics:

Narrative theory

A narrative is the way in which a story is told in both fictional and non-fictional media texts.

I created a presentation in Emaze.com to present my findings which can be viewed below:

Each slide shows nine screenshots taken from the different songs and they all tell a clear story which is the purpose of the narrative theme that has been represented within all the songs I have chosen.

BFI Trip Review

BFI Trip:

On the 25^th November, my class and I went to a media trip at British Film Institute (BFI) to gain more knowledge about music videos. I found the event very helpful especially because it was specifically targeted for Media A2 students whose project is to create a music video. It was also helpful because we had learnt things that were unlikely to be taught in class; for example, how many shots there are in 21 seconds of a music video by Whitney Houston called “I wanna dance with somebody”. This made me think about how I could help my group compose our own video.

At the very beginning of the event, the main speaker, Tom Woodcock presented to us some popular music videos trends throughout decades and I noticed that changes made to music videos have significant development that is supported by advanced technology. These music videos range from 1935 to 2015 and they were all different in terms of genre, which was interesting to have witnessed the vast difference between how music videos were made before to how it can be made now. From this, we have also learnt that to make your vision and aim for the music video to life, the consideration process will have to occur because the success of a music video all depends on budget and the facility availability such a high-quality camera.

We also learnt about Andrew Goodwin's theory in which he identified these key features:

1) Thought through beat (seeing what the lyrics mean or represent in your head)

2) Relation between the music and visuals

3)Relation  between the music and lyrics

4)Narrative and performance of the song

5)Star image (protagonist) - plenty of camera shots making him/her the centre of attention.

6)Technical aspects of a music video

Throughout this, Mr Woodcock showed videos to demonstrate these key features, and for us to understand better about what they really mean.

We also received some crucial tips about how to create a music video and the considerations that have to be taken into place, for example, budget.

Before we head out of the theatre for lunch, Mr Woodcock announced a task in which required us to analyse a song lyrics titled "Good to be alive" and come up with ideas of the types of scenes we would shoot based on this song. At first is was quite challenging because we only had the lyrics in hand, but with the help of technology; one of my classmate searched online on YouTube for the song. By having the lyrics to the side whilst listening to the audio has made it much easier for my group and me to distinguish the types of scenes that would be suitable. considering the lyrics (what the singer is actually saying) and the music that would match the scenery (supporting Andrew Goodwin's theory: relation between the music and visuals + lyrics).

Zeitgeist Theory

To further explore the idea of the zeitgeist in regards to contemporary perspective, I have analyzed a music video by an artist called Lady Leshurr who has published a song titled "Queen's speech 4":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyodeHtVvkA

I have presented my findings within an online presentation-maker called Office Sway (similar to Emaze and Haiku Deck) which I found during the research process of searching for different websites to present my findings in. It was really useful and easy to use because I only had to go through a few simple steps to insert titles, texts, images and a video.

Meeting minutes: choosing the song

Throughout this meeting, we discussed the representations which will be included in our music videos. During our research, we have all decided to go with the song ‘Faded’ by Alan Walker, the video will focus on youth (finding love). This decision was mainly inspired by the original music video and another song by Alan Walker ‘Sing me to sleep’, which portrays different narratives. These two stories are based around youth searching for something.

In our music video, we decided to portray a young male and aged 17/18. The narrative part of our music videos will include a few stereotypes which are associated with modern youth, the stereotypes are usually presented within this music genre. The modern youth are strongly associated with hoodies, balaclava’s, drinking alcohol and relationship conflict will be displayed in a form of narrative, creating the sense of freedom. The idea of youth being presented as emotional, questioning their sense of belonging as well as obtaining relationship conflict might be also interesting to interpret. This stereotype can be linked to the theorist Dick Hebdige as his theory shows the youth division into categorisation of fun and mayhem. We would like to focus on the contrast between what is right and wrong.

Furthermore, the music video has a fast beat which enables us to present the models in constant movement which could be associated with the modern perception of youth and the way they spend their free time, whether it is due to partying or education. This will enable us to reach a wide range of audience. Due to the fact that youth may be interested in the representation of their age group. Reinforcing the stereotype and challenging them will enable us to produce a sense of identification with our audience, as they are more likely to interact and engage with the given narrative.

Overall, we are currently in the process of deciding on the representations with our upcoming video, but we are sure that we want to link and go into the youth representation. However, this will also depend on the actor and actress as this we are planning to use one girl and one boy in our music video to help us represent youth. We will be going with this as our questionnaire results displayed a clear answer of 1 to 2 characters. The narrative will strongly depend on this aspect. Including two models within our music video will enable us to produce a contrasting narratives of going with and against the stereotypes. We believe this combination would work as it would tell the audience a story, not only that but it would also engage the audience more into the music video.

Summary by: Doaa Elmnayneh and Zacaria Elarichi

Meeting notes: choosing from narrative concept, performance and hybrid

As a group we have decided to go with the idea of hybrid of concept and narrative. We come up with this as we were influenced by the research we had done previously on EDM videos, such as codes and conventions, lyric, analyzing the entire video and more. While we were analyzing existing music videos we came across surreal concepts, which are involved in part of the music video narrative. Also, in some of the music videos there was a story telling however it was hard to tell what was being portrayed till the end of the video. We loved this idea and it was used within the electronic dance music videos. Therefore, we decided to include this which produce a hybrid of narrative and concept. In addition, we are considering to include surreal features within our own music video mainly through editing techniques such as, mirror reflections, mutilating exposure and adding surreal element to display speed.

Through our music music video we are planning to include a model which will follow the storyboard of our product. During our research  we noticed that electronic genre artist often don't appear within the video products, but once they do, they tend to play the role of the actress within the narrative where they blend in within the streamline. This is way we decided to have a male actor instead of  female performer, as he could represent the singer (Alan Walker).

The actor we have decided to go with represents the presentations of youth culture through different stereotypes but also modern perceptions/problems associated with young people. This is usually seen within this music video genre, as it displays the energetic and dynamic nature. These representations could be displayed within the original video of our chosen artist.

Summary by: Doaa

Permission letter

I have inserted an image below of the letter that my group and I sent to the record label 'No Copyright Sounds' who works with Alan Walker. The letter is ultimately a permission letter because it is essential that we ask them for permission before using Alan Walker's song in our music video (to avoid copyright issues). In the letter we made sure to explain why we would like to implement Alan Walker's song into our music video. We wrote it in formal language which is extremely necessary in the professional working world.