Genre is a style of music or art that differs itself from other genres by the certain characteristics it has. For my A2 production we created a music video with the genre of Indie with a number of different themes used to emphasize this. This style of music is generally very in touch with the audience from the use of their lyrics and video's.
I have chose Steve Neale's genre theory to analyse my media product. This theory highlights the importance of repetition and difference to establish my genre to the audience. We have used this theory in our media product through the repetition of unknown, naturalistic locations which involved many scenes of filming in a river location with the band performing with boiler suits on for costume to help us link into our concept theme. These scenes of filming in a river link to this theme due to it being a unknown, dark location which are all themes of the dark Indie genre. Another location in our music video that uses repetition of a unknown location is shown through a mid shot of me as the lead singer barely clothed in a bath of blood, this highlights the theme of darkness which is important to this genre and relates to the audience as they would expect this theme in the genre of music. Nature is again followed in our video with inclusion of many underwater go pro shots. These varied from close ups showing the emotion of me as the singer's emotion in his face as the close up shows him screaming into the camera, this shows an angry emotion further linking into dark themes again.
Another instance of when Steve Neale's theory is apparent in our media product is when my group used inspiration from "Dry the river" music video. The idea came from a mid shot of the band laying on the floor with dark, serious looks on their face highlighting the seriousness and depth of the music video showing that the lyrics really are coming from deep inside them. We looked to replicate this in our media product through the same idea of the band laying on the floor with dark serious looks on our face. The mid shot of the band showed us singing the "lyrics" i think i'm falling, falling for you". These lyrics really build a relationship with our Indie audience as they can relate to these lyrics as love can sometimes be dark when the feelings aren't mutual. This shot is repeated numerous times throughout the video hoping to really get in touch with the Indie audiences feelings and create a relationship with them as these experiences may be relate-able to them in terms of our lyrics.
Our audience enjoyed relating to our genre as they felt our lyrics really related to the Indie audience through the dark themes shown and the dark, relate-able lyrics of a love story involving someone falling for a woman.
Friday, 12 February 2016
Thursday, 11 February 2016
Representation essay
'Locked up' is a documentary all about a young boy who has been locked away in a shed for a number of years and this documentary reveals his time in there and when he escaped.
This documentary follows Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites in the terms of the young boy who's been locked away revealing a huge underclass due to the fact him living in a shed with no food or drink, where the other characters are shown as regular working class people. Mid shots are used in the film when revealing the young boy named Josiah's living conditions, the shots shown a dirty, untidy shed with a small mattress where he would sleep. This would leave the audience thinking how the boy got there and how he survived this many years without any food or water which was used to follow Bartes 'Enigma' code. The difference in class and living conditions is shown clearly in the film from the long shot shown of the mans house who found the boy and the boy's shed.
When the boy is found in this shed the audience get an insight into his living conditions revealing the boy wearing ripped and dirty clothing showing no real sense of cleanliness. We used a tracking shot from the moment the door was opened on him which then follows into the boy crawling away from the light of outside due to him being trapped away for such a long period. This scene shows a strong trait from Todorov's theory as the boy was getting on with his normal equilibrium which is then disrupted when the door was opened on him exposing him to the real world outside of the shed. This scene also highlights the Binary opposites between the young boy and his finder, this is shown as the young boy is wearing ripped dirty clothing with no real healthy living conditions and the man is wearing a warm, clean coat showing a suitable habitat. The man is represented using regionalism through the use of his accent showing he is from a different area.
In this documentary the audience is opened up to the boy's real home through an interview with his mother shot in a normal house. This will then make the audience question why the boy ran away from these living conditions or had he been kidnapped? Someone would wonder why the boy gave up a large clean home for life in a dirty shed.
Another interview is later shown in the opening of the boy speaking to his sister for the first time. Through the boy's experience of living 'Locked up' for so many years we reveal how the boy is represented with a disability in his speech due to lack of communication with others. The boy isn't making any eye contact with his sister who is asking the questions, this really shows how traumatic his experience was as he can't even look his own sister in the eye.
This documentary follows Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites in the terms of the young boy who's been locked away revealing a huge underclass due to the fact him living in a shed with no food or drink, where the other characters are shown as regular working class people. Mid shots are used in the film when revealing the young boy named Josiah's living conditions, the shots shown a dirty, untidy shed with a small mattress where he would sleep. This would leave the audience thinking how the boy got there and how he survived this many years without any food or water which was used to follow Bartes 'Enigma' code. The difference in class and living conditions is shown clearly in the film from the long shot shown of the mans house who found the boy and the boy's shed.
When the boy is found in this shed the audience get an insight into his living conditions revealing the boy wearing ripped and dirty clothing showing no real sense of cleanliness. We used a tracking shot from the moment the door was opened on him which then follows into the boy crawling away from the light of outside due to him being trapped away for such a long period. This scene shows a strong trait from Todorov's theory as the boy was getting on with his normal equilibrium which is then disrupted when the door was opened on him exposing him to the real world outside of the shed. This scene also highlights the Binary opposites between the young boy and his finder, this is shown as the young boy is wearing ripped dirty clothing with no real healthy living conditions and the man is wearing a warm, clean coat showing a suitable habitat. The man is represented using regionalism through the use of his accent showing he is from a different area.
In this documentary the audience is opened up to the boy's real home through an interview with his mother shot in a normal house. This will then make the audience question why the boy ran away from these living conditions or had he been kidnapped? Someone would wonder why the boy gave up a large clean home for life in a dirty shed.
Another interview is later shown in the opening of the boy speaking to his sister for the first time. Through the boy's experience of living 'Locked up' for so many years we reveal how the boy is represented with a disability in his speech due to lack of communication with others. The boy isn't making any eye contact with his sister who is asking the questions, this really shows how traumatic his experience was as he can't even look his own sister in the eye.
Narrative essay
A documentary would usually include many interviews, eye witness reports and recreations of the event. We found this out through watching a number of documentaries with a similar story line of a character being kidnapped. Looking through and watching recreations of when Madeline McCann was taken gave us ideas on how to film scenes of when our character was taken and what sort of interviews to use when talking about the kidnapping.
Our film follows the theory of Todorov in the fact that the young boy Josiah who was taken as his equilibrium was disrupted when he was kidnapped from his home. The boy then goes back to his equilibrium through the many years of him living in the back of a shed, this is then disrupted again when he is found. We used a tracking shot of when the boy was found in the shed to show the audience his surroundings and what he had to live with for a number of years. This included a dirty mattress, no food or drink, no clean clothes and no heat. This shot was important when creating a documentary as the recreation showed the audience how he reacted when he was finally rescued. Sad and dramatic music played in this scene and through the majority of the film to show what a traumatic experience this would have been. This scene strongly followed Barthes code of 'Enigma' as it would of brought up many questions such as "how did he survive with no food or water?" "how long was he waiting to be rescued?". This was effective in making the audience question the Narrative and become interested in finding the answers.
To further enhance our narrative we used traits from Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites. We did this through interviews with female family members and Josiah our character who was taken. This makes it more interesting for the audience through including both male and females in the story. Another example of binary opposites used in our film was the dramatic change in Josiah's lifestyle from when he was growing up with a loving family in a nice house to living in a dark shed with no company or food and water.
In a scene of our film another effective tracking shot was used when the boy is finally found by a neighbor and he runs away to try a get help as quickly as possible, this scene follows our genre well as it is a recreation of what happened to give the audience an idea of what the whole experience was like, this scene follows Barthes action code as it highlights a sense of panic and distress to call help and rescue the boy after many years of living on his own. Through following ideas of similar documentaries our film mainly consisted of straight cuts and jump cuts from scenes of the rescue being recreated jumping to interviews with family members, a scene in our film goes from the recreation of the boy being found which then jumps to an interview with his mother and what her thoughts were during her disappearance.
When given feedback on our narrative they found it intriguing and also found that it followed the documentary genre well through use of recreation and interviewing. Many questions that the audience put to my group were on the lines of "how/where was he captured" "was he abused while living in this shed by the kidnapper".
Our film follows the theory of Todorov in the fact that the young boy Josiah who was taken as his equilibrium was disrupted when he was kidnapped from his home. The boy then goes back to his equilibrium through the many years of him living in the back of a shed, this is then disrupted again when he is found. We used a tracking shot of when the boy was found in the shed to show the audience his surroundings and what he had to live with for a number of years. This included a dirty mattress, no food or drink, no clean clothes and no heat. This shot was important when creating a documentary as the recreation showed the audience how he reacted when he was finally rescued. Sad and dramatic music played in this scene and through the majority of the film to show what a traumatic experience this would have been. This scene strongly followed Barthes code of 'Enigma' as it would of brought up many questions such as "how did he survive with no food or water?" "how long was he waiting to be rescued?". This was effective in making the audience question the Narrative and become interested in finding the answers.
To further enhance our narrative we used traits from Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites. We did this through interviews with female family members and Josiah our character who was taken. This makes it more interesting for the audience through including both male and females in the story. Another example of binary opposites used in our film was the dramatic change in Josiah's lifestyle from when he was growing up with a loving family in a nice house to living in a dark shed with no company or food and water.
In a scene of our film another effective tracking shot was used when the boy is finally found by a neighbor and he runs away to try a get help as quickly as possible, this scene follows our genre well as it is a recreation of what happened to give the audience an idea of what the whole experience was like, this scene follows Barthes action code as it highlights a sense of panic and distress to call help and rescue the boy after many years of living on his own. Through following ideas of similar documentaries our film mainly consisted of straight cuts and jump cuts from scenes of the rescue being recreated jumping to interviews with family members, a scene in our film goes from the recreation of the boy being found which then jumps to an interview with his mother and what her thoughts were during her disappearance.
When given feedback on our narrative they found it intriguing and also found that it followed the documentary genre well through use of recreation and interviewing. Many questions that the audience put to my group were on the lines of "how/where was he captured" "was he abused while living in this shed by the kidnapper".
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