"Writings on the Wall" By Plan B

Textual Analysis "Writings on the Wall" By Plan B

Genre;

What is the Genre of the video?	Pop
What is the genre of the artist?	Pop/Rap/Soul
Is there a typical narrative?	Guy and Girl live together. Guy goes out and cheats on her.
What is expected in the video?	Performance Shots.
What is unexpected in the video?	The affair within the video.
Intertextual references?	Stevie Wonder lyrics- “there is superstitions, writing on the wall”.

Narrative;

What is the storyline of the video?	Man Has an Affair.
Is there a theme?	Strickland Banks & Love/Trust
Is there a recognisable structure (TODOROV- Equilibrium 5 stages)?	Equilibrium- Man & Wife Disruption- Meeting one-night stand Recognition- Women putting phone down
Are there recognisable characters?	Male Artist, female protagonist- one-night stand.
How does the video reflect the lyrics?	Yes, it reflects the lyrics that the man and wife relationship is over.

Visual Codes;

Where is the video set? Connotations of this setting?	Nightclub- Mo town 1970-80, traditional silver microphone, Dark Clothing = Sinister
Dominant colour used ion the video? Why? What is the effect?	Black/Darkness in nightclub Colourful in house= Happiness/contentment
Written Iconographic? Typography? Why?	Strickland Banks written on venue header- Sold out Performance.
Shot compositions that stand out?	ECU- Wife/girlfriend at home Faces ECU- At the meal- the importance of the meal.

Representation;

What issues of representations are evident?	Women- Domestic in the kitchen making the dinner for the two Male- Worker/Celebrity = More Power
How have these been represented? Stereotypes?	Girlfriend/ Wife in the Kitchen = Stereotypical.
Look at the artist as a star- how have they been constructed?	Plan B- Strickland Banks, Successful & popular. Potentially being held back by the girlfriend/ wife?
Do they have an anonymous role in the video or are they there as celebrity?	Male is the fictional Celebrity- seen as a big star in the night club that he is performing at.

Technical Codes;

Camera angles? Interesting ones? What effect is created?	Extreme Close Up of the guitarist Close up - sauce bubbling and rising connotations of love building and rising. Long shot of the pan- the pan burns her which could have connotations of being burnt in her own relationship. Tech
Does the way the camera moves help to tell the story?	POV shot- showing Banks moving around- gives the perspective and allows the audience to see his performance.
What is the editing like? Type of cuts etc.?	Lots of fast cuts during the video to different shot types, keeping up with the pace of the video.

Audience;

Who is the target audience for the video? How does the video target this specific audience?	Teens to early twenties Young characters are used within the video- audience can link and relate themselves to the characters within the piece, as clubs are associated with the younger generation.
Demographics?	Social Classes E & D

Institution;

What role does the record company play in the music video?	679 Warner Bros music group- Record company for Strickland banks.
What is the brand image of the star is sold? How is the star marketed and promoted?	Fictional Character is promoted as the celebrity, getting everything he wants e.g. selling out of his nightclub performance.

How will this help me when making my own music video?

When it comes to making my own, this analysis will help me as I can see the elements that are included within this music video "writings on the wall" and what makes it successful. from this it could potentially help me come up with some good and effective ideas to use within my music video, overall making it a better music video.

Goodwins Theory

Goodwin's Theory;

Andrew Goodwin, is a director of music and noted how music videos feature certain elements. Goodwin expresses these six steps in his book ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ to bring it to the audience’s attention as well as assist music video directors when creating a music video.

Andrew Goodwin's most memorable quote;
"Music videos ignore common narrative as they are essentially advertisements. As consumers, we make up our own meaning of a song in our minds: a music video can anchor meaning and gives the record company/artist a method of anchoring meaning

Goodwin explains his theory by six different conventions within a music video.

1.      A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.

2.      Thought beats: seeing the sounds (the relationship between the music and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the music.)

3.      Genre-related style and iconography present.

4.      Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist: the creation of a star image to promote a recognizable brand image.

5.      Voyeurism often plays a major part, especially in relation to females.

6.      Inter textual references to other media texts may be present, especially in humorous videos.

Music Video History

History of music videos;

Why music videos were created?

Music videos were first created to help visualise the song or give a visual to the song that it has been created for. In the modern day, music videos are created so  that artists can be heard on a global scale, to promote the band and give a visual representation of them and to ensure people remember the song and video. They were also created to create a reaction to the song, helping the artist become more recognizable and provokes the audience to see them live.

The first music video was released in 1929 by Bessie Smith singing a song called Saint Louis Blues.

1930 Experimentation- A man called Len Lye used a tool called kaleidoscope in front of his camera lens to create a unique effect to a music video. He first introduced this for a Royal Mail advert.

1940- Walt Disney released fantasia, which was an animation of Disney characters with music over the top of the piece.

1964- The Beatles released a defying piece of motion picture called "A Hard Days Night".

1975- Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 studio album A Night at the Opera. this was the first proper music video realised for a specific song.

TOTP 1970's- TOTP made its first appearance on live TV showing musicians performing their songs to the general pubic. If an act wasn't able to attend there spot on TOTP's, the song would be played whilst different dance groups would perform dance sequences to the song.

MTV 1980's- MTV was launched and the first video that was aired on the show was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by Buggles. this was also the first 24hr TV Show Time.

1983- Thriller was released by Michael Jackson which was a short film directed by John Landus and cost around $500,000.

1985- VH1 (Video Hits 1) was released. This was a show that was aimed at the older demographics as it was a softer music channel.

1986- Channel 4 created the 'The Chart Show', which consisted of solely music videos.

1986- Pater Gradiels song "Sledge Hammer", which used special effects and animation techniques developed by the British Studio Aardmand Animation.

1995- Janet Jackson song "Scream" cost around $7million, which was the most expensive music video to date.

1991 to 2001- Napster, a Peer to Peer file share service was introduced.

2005- YouTube was launched, which made viewing videos online quicker and easier than ever before.

2009- VEVO was launched.

Most Expensive Music Video of all time;
 

Artists	Song Title	Release  date	Production Value on release date
Michael and Janet Jackson	“Scream"	May 1995	$7,000,000
Madonna	"Die Another Day"	October 22, 2002	$6,100,000
Madonna	"Express Yourself"	May 17, 1989	$5,000,000
Madonna	"Bedtime Story"	March 10, 1995	$5,000,000
Michael Jackson (Featuring L.T.B.)	"Black or White"	November 14, 1991	$4,000,000

Most viewed Music videos on YouTube;

Video name	Up loader/ Artist	View count (15.07.16)	Upload Date
"Gangnam Style"	PSY	2,607,721,719	July 15, 2012
"See You Again"	Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth	1,877,337,668	April 6, 2015
"Uptown Funk"	Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars	1,727,545,803	November 19, 2014
"Blank Space"	Taylor Swift	1,667,197,956	November 10, 2014
"Hello"	Adele	1,632,726,237	October 22, 2015

 

Textual Analysis- "Im Not Afraid"

"I'm Not Afraid" By Eminem 

Technical Codes;
An effective shot during the piece was the close ups of him looking into the camera. This gives the shot the effect that Eminem himself  reaching out and relating himself  to the audience. This could have  been  done to make the audience feel closer to him and want to aspire to become Eminem. Another camera shot which was effective was the mid shot of him standing over the city. This is an effective shot as it has connotations of  him taking over the city and being in control. It could also connote that he is a more dominant figure and that people  look up to him. The tracking of the camera during the music video helps tell the story of the song. The camera tracks him walking through certain periods of his life from  where he started to where he is now . Slow paced editing has been used it enable the audience to really take into account the progress of his life. Also Fast paced editing is then used when flying through the city to make him seem to have superhero like powers. This may imply that what he has achieved to come out of the dark place that he was previously in required hard work which has been represented by the use of his ‘superpowers’.

Narrative;

The story line of the video is showing the progress of his life. He is showing how he was in a bad place but has now overcome this and has come out as a better and also  stronger person. The lyrics reflect the video as they are performed by the artist. For example, near the beginning of the video he says. "You can try and read my lyrics off of this paper before I lay 'em". During the period of him saying this, we see Eminem screwing up the paper and throwing them at the Camera.

Audience;    
The audience for this music video would be teenagers. This is because he was a young boy when he was in that bad place and is showing the target audience how to come out of it. The demographic status for this video would be a E, due to the fact young teenagers are known to be students and they are categorised as an E. The video targets the audience through the lyrics rather than the video. It is easier to understand what message he is putting across through the lyrics rather than the video. The audience will most likely access this video trough YouTube and social media. YouTube will be the best way to access this film as it's free and easily accessible. All target audience have technology such as computers and smart phones which are able to access YouTube very quickly  whether it be at home or out in a completely different location. To make more people watch the video, the audience are able to post the video on social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. If their friends are interested in the video, they can like, share or re tweet it causing more people to interact and watch the video. This makes the overall  video more viral and popular and also helps to promote the song, which at the same to makes the song more popular..

Representation;
Representation of a younger audience is shown as he is a young male artist reaching out and trying to teach people a lesson. The bad place he was in would be seen to be a big event in his life and he wants to be able to share his previous experience with his fans and audience. It stated issues that occurred to him which his audience members will be able to relate to and is located in a  major city where he grew up and also included the  use of drugs which were easier accessible. The stereotype shown is a young male boy, also seen to be part of a gang, doing drugs from a young age. During the video we see him mature as an artist and come out a better man and also as a role model. Eminem is seen to be a celebrity and his fans and audience should follow in the footsteps of him.

Organisations;
The record company has a role of making the video unique and relate able to the song produced. As they song is about how Eminem coming out of a bad place, they what to be able to show the audience what he achieved through the video. If Eminem was able to achieve it, it means that other people can. The star is promoted through radio and video but is marketed on social media and posters. Eminem's music is distributed over a variety of media products. For example, CD's, Videos and chat shows. This opens the opportunity of many of his target audience to access and listen to his music causing his fan base to grow and become and bigger artist.

How will this help me when making my own music video?
After analysing this music video, this has helped me visualise what a professional music video should look like and also what elements need to be included with one to make it look effective. This has also helped me with a coming up with a few ideas that could be incorporated into my own music video to make it look effective.  

The Purpose of a music video

What is the main purpose of a music video?

The purpose of a music video is to;

• Sell the song, and invoke a reaction so it leaves you remembering the song
• To give the listener a better understanding of the song. (If the video is narrative)
• To entertain (to show off other talents the musician may have, for example dancing or acting).
• To sell CDs and DVDs to viewers. Creating a memorable visual for the song increases its chances to sell
• Marketing for the purposes of exposure and expansion of the artist's profile despite all of these being factors in why a music video is important, some people argue that the end result still has to serve one purpose: promotion. The music video is a promotional tool for the artist. It sometimes serves as a conduit to attention from a label, but more often it is a catalyst for CD sales or artist song downloads.

Why musicians use music videos;

• They are a great way for artists to get their music out to people who would never care for actively looking into new music.
• It's a form of content marketing beyond the music itself; and visuals find their ways easier into the consumer’s brain. This content can be spread along all the social platforms, where the artist has set up a profile and as such, also function like an ad.
  
• It can and should be part of the branding: the video is part of the world of experience that an artist creates. It evokes emotions and sets a specific tone, which can be described with certain keywords that should become connected to the brand.

How will this help me when making my music video?

When making my music video, this will help me as it will enable me to check my video to see weather it has the elements that are needed to achieve the bullet points above. Elements such as will it sell the son, does it entertain the audience and also is the video part of the overall branding of the song.