Formation

Formation by Beyonce

• A single is a song which is released by itself in it's own album
• A load of songs is an album 
• Was released without any announcements, a surprise release
• Was a one hit wonder
• Beyonce was apart of destiny's child
• Got a lot of profit due to Beyonce's popularity
• Formation, lead single for the album Lemonade, was released the day before Beyonce's performance at the SuperBowl final in February 2016. The formation music video, directed by Melina Matsoukas, was released with the song
• This music video one many awards including a Clio Award for innocation and creative excellence in music video at the 2016 awards, and has been nominated in the music video category at the 59th
• Video is deliberately controversial as it's message is bold about black people with links to oppression and slavery
• Video is highly Atypical, the unique selling point is the setting

Encoding: When the producer puts meaning into something
Decoding: When the audience is trying to understand what the producer has encoded
Colonialism:

1. We see the world as a binary opposition by comparing the UK to the world, foreign vs familiar

• The master shot (beyonce on a car) involves ordinary people and the police, the ordinary people is suggest by the mise-en-scene of what she's wearing, (a stereotypically working class dress) Conflict between calm and rebellion, Beyonce on a police car is illegal but she is calm
• There is conflict between the police and the people
• Another example of the police business is the young black kid acting like a threat to the police
• There is a big amount of conflict due to the low-key lighting and a lot of political ideology of oppression being encoded
• A conflict between civilisation and the weather, there is a huge amount of apocalyptic setting.
• Rich and poor opposition: Wig shot transitioning to Beyonce in a posh antebellum victorian room
• Mise-en-scene is set in the Antebellum Era
• Many different Eras in the video such as Antebellum, 80/90s and modern, it's Atemporal
• Her movements in the antebellum house were very aggressive and powerful and foot stamping is symbolic of power
• her sticking up her middle fingers shows her disrespect and lack of hegemonic norms in society
• Examples of sexualisation include the antebellum house when Beyonce is wearing revealing clothes
• Makes Beyonce relatable to everybody in poverty, it reinforces stereotypes to make money

David Gauntlet: Pick and Mix theory

• Audience and people pick certain parts of ideologies and create their own identity
• Things that influence the way you are
• Sexuality
• Gender
• Ethnicity
• Class
• Culture
• Race
• Religion
• level of education
• Location
• Nationality
• Age
• These are all demographics: a simple way of categorising audience groups

Lisbet Van Zoonen: Feminist Theory

• Gender is encoded through media language
• men and women are encoded in different ways
• Assumes that every audience member is a man
• Ballet on ice is symbolic of women's stereotypical elegance

Paul Gilroy: Ethnicity & Post-Colonial Theory

• 
  
• Formation is:
• Unique
• Subversive
• Atypical
• Experimental
• Different from a conventional music video
• Establishing racial hierarchies is a way of establishing hegemonic control
• Adding binary opposition can help make sense of the world

1. White, middle-class teen boy, 13
1. Vouyerism towards Beyonce
2. Wouldn't understand the racist themes
3. Would enjoy the dancing
2. Mixed race woman, working class, 21
1. May particularly enjoy the representation of women being powerful, direct mode of address from Beyonce
2. Personal identification
3. Black, middle class professional man, 25
1. Far more interested and identified with the themes of racism

That B.E.A.T: Abteen Bagheri (2012)

• Got a genre thats underground as its breaking copyright law
• Bounce music has a big gay aspect within it
• Genre is aimed towards gay, black, working-class people from Louisiana
• Allows Beyonce to explore an aspect of black southern American culture, but is it just cultural appropriation?
• What we are seeing is a black commercialisation, as Paul Gilroy says

1. Establishing shot of southern american house sinking in the water
2. Men twerking
3. Tracking shot from moving car filming dilapidated Louisianans houses
4. Police and neon lips, nightime handheld shot of black boy on bike with strobing police car, binary opposition between black youth and opposition
5. Iconographic shot of ceiling fan connotes  a run down and poverty striken enviornment
6. Under the bridge shot, covered in graffiti and signifies gang violence and crime

Intertexual reference to bounce music, a typically underground, non-mainstream genre of music.

Gives the video to formation a unique selling point (USP)

Allows Beyonce to target a wider audience, specifically southern state audience

Creates awareness of a genre which may otherwise be overlooked

Gives Beyonce an 'edge' dangerousness, a threatening feeling

Gives video a sense of 'realness' and authenticity, a representation of black, working class people

However completely ignores any representation of gay people, which is fundamental to the bounce genre

Removing the representation of gay people ensures the song's financial success

Riptide

Riptide by Vance Joy

• Is Vance Joy's first single to be released in the USA
• Nearly has 300 million views on youtube
• Directed by Dmitri Basil and Laura Gorum
• Vance Joy is Australian
• His music is indie-folk pop

• Very atypical for a music video
• It is deliberately difficult to analyse
• It has a lot of hard-cuts (no smooth transitions)
• A lot of binary opposition
• Master shot of the 'singer' singing into the camera
• The chorus and the verses is very structured
• The video is Atemporal
• Objectification of women, being vulnerable, we are positioned uncomfortably in the video
• Made for heterosexual men: Lisbet Van Zoonen, Male Gaze
• low-key hinting towards being feminist
• Sexualisation is used
• Voyeurism
• Scopophilia: Scopophilic pleasure, taking pleasure at watching someone
• The video is very polysemic
• Bizarre, creepy and can promote word of mouth advertising
• Its very contrapuntal : When the song doesn't match up with the video
• One ideology perspective of the video is that women are weak and vulnerable
• video is very sadistic 
• Video may be a criticism to a patriarchal society

Structuralism: Claude Levi-Strauss

• Is about and underlying meanings in signs and symbols
• Strauss argued that we make sense of the world through Binary oppositions. This is to say we can only understand something through what is not
• You can also call binary oppositions, Diametric opposition
• Producers uses Binary opposition because of:
• Entertainment
• Comedy
• Horror
• Grabs the audience's attention quickly and easily
• Emphasises one side of the binary opposition
• Makes it easier for the producer to construct ideologies

The muted colours creates sadness and misery, the first person male gaze as well             >

<Her gesture makes her seem like a statue, this objectification suggests that she is more of an object than a person

< Pastel pink blouse connotes to the stereotypical girl colour

< Low angle shot makes her seem powerful

<The dark side shot, the female hands in this posture suggest that females are weak, the lighting is low-key and there is proairetic code

Mise-en-scene of her eyes signs that she is afraid, suggests manipulation, and the purple suggests its creepy                       >

How the video could be seen as feminist:

1. The use of women's bodies being used to sell media products
2. Low angle of woman on balcony connotates power
3. Woman injured but carries on singing
4. mid-shot of woman in graveyard and low-key lighting connotes death, misery and darkness
5. Mid-shot of women removing swimming costume is critical of the sexualisation that is common in music videos
6. Preferred reading is that people are supposed to enjoy the video
7. An uncomfortable moment is the master-shot of woman singing and losing her makeup between shots. The fact she is bleeding is important it is symbolic of how women are treated in the entertainment industry. According to Van Zoonen, women are used to sell the product.
8. Intertextuality
1. Close-up shot of screaming woman face, shrouded by darkness
2. Colourful dream-like quality that echoes through out
3. Woman who is terrorise by men's pleasure
4. highly emotive use of colour
5. Use of cowboy iconography links to "A fist full of dollars"
6. 
   

Introduction to Music Videos

A music video is an advert for a song

The 2 songs we will be analysing for Music videos are:

1. Riptide: Vance Joy
2. Formation: Beyonce

MTV: Music television

• They used to only show music videos
• But in our days they now play just tv shows

Convergence: When different media industries combine, such as music and video

Synergy: when 2 things work together really well

Celebrity: The attribution of glamorous or notorious status to an individual in the public sphere

What is a music video?

• Have only one song contained in the video
• a lot of short shot-takes
• a lot less dialogue
• Is an advert
• Mise-en-scene is more bold and over the top
• A lot more emphasis on movement
• The person singing is famous, and is him/herself 
• Edited in time with the music

What is cinema?

• Fully developed plot-line
• long-shot takes
• have multiple songs, can be used for background music too
• Can have sequels/prequels 
• Is the product
• A lot more dialogue
• Budget is way greater
• The actors aren't themselves, they are characters in the movie

Paul Gilroy: we are living in a post-colonialism society so we still view certain people groups in certain ways such as black people

Stuart Hall:  heavy amounts of tv can help reinforce hegemonic norms in society

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Baby pop: France Gall

• Shot duration is surprisingly long (long take)
• very few locations, exterior and interior shots
• Very repetitive
• Gall looks awkward and unconfident  

Vanity Angel: Rebecca

• Very 80s
• shot takes left, right and centre
• very colourful and all over the place
• many, many locations
• Intertextuality: American Car
• Excessive uses of primary colours
• Binary opposition with bright primary colours and black leather jacket, is symbolic of how wild the 80s were
• Mise-en-scene of the costumes, no one looks normal and standard

Babies: Pulp

• Cheap production that makes it feel authentic
• unconventional use of transitions
• mid shots
• strange costumes
• Font: title cards/inter-titles
• Done in a cheap chabby way
• Working class identity
• mocking other music videos
• Simple bland and boring

Da funk: Daft Punk

Applause: Lady Gaga

• Constantly looking at the centre of the video, eye-line match
• very sexualised throughout
• Close-ups of here emphasise her status
• Gets people talking a lot, controversial or what she wears
• Strobe lights connotes to celebrity
• Black and white connotes to that the video and lady gaga is classic

Who Dat Boy: Tyler the Creator

Twerk: City Girls

• A majority people in the video are black, mixed raced and other ethnic minorities (BME) in America
• Video is focussed on more larger women and extreme close-ups (ECU) of the women's posteriors
• There is a homogenised representation of women. specifically women with larger body types
• Explicit example of sexualisation
• Fast paced editing
• Presenting an ideological perspective that all women are the same
• Reinforces a stereotypical representation that black and ethnic minorities posterior are large
• Mise-en-scene of the yacht, money and power reinforces the anchorage that these women are dancing for money
• Target audience for Cardi-B is teenage girls but also appeals to heterosexual men
• This is hyper-sexualised
• This cultivates hegemonic-ally acceptable ideology about the representation of women
• Colonisation

Gucci Gang: Lil Pump

• Bright psychedelic colours and editing present what it feels like to be on drugs
• Explicit use of drugs, particularly lean and cannabis 
• Emphasises his status as rich because of his intent to sell drugs
• Tiger is connotative of aggression and Lil Pump's determination to cause harm. And reinforces the stereotype that BME can cause harm
• Behaves disruptively and disrespectfully, this reinforces the stereotype that BME disrespect authority
• Breaks hegemonic norms such as:
• Face tattoos at a young age
• Smoking in school
• Stereotypes come about when theres an imbalance between different people groups
• The reason lil pump acts like this is because he is a minority and is in a position of little power

Billy: 6ix 9ine

• hand held shaky camera connotes to being threatening and chaos
• uses n-word a lot and isnt black
• shouting and threatening connotes anger and violence by black people
• use of police creates binary opposition with the performer
• explicit references to murder and sex reinforces stereotypical ideology that BME people are criminals
• locations used include: chicken shop, can be associated with black people

Compare and contrast the ways in which viewpoints and ideologies are encoded in Woman and Adbusters.

Compare and contrast the ways in which viewpoints and ideologies are encoded in Woman and Adbusters.

Woman and Adbusters are both magazines but both have completely different and contrasting ideologies. The ideology for women is that the producers believe all women should be housewives, this can be seen encoded on the front cover of their Woman magazine (published 1964).  Women magazine are aimed towards heterosexual women. Since their ideology is that of housewives, whoch are stereotypically are straight.

In the title, the hegemonic norm during the time is that women belong in the kitchen, we can see that the mise-en-scene for the mid-shot woman on the cover is that her dress code includes shoulder length hair, and is a brunette which is stereotypically the average colour hair of women during the time of the magazines publication. Also brown eyes and she is an attractive, supposedly middle age woman. The bold text at the top “WOMAN” reinforces this ideology the producer are trying to show, that the hegemonic norm of women of 1964 was the woman in the picture. In addition the way she looks at the audience with her pearly white teeth and fake smile suggests that she is relatable. Being relatable could suggest that the target audience is that of middle age housewives, which the ideology of the producers is trying to reinforce onto the target audience. That all women should be housewives, to further reinforce this ideology on the cover it say at the bottom “seven star improvements for your kitchen”. This not only shows signs of exaggeration on how great the magazine is but also reinforces the stereotype that women should be in the kitchen. This is further reinforced by David Gauntlett’s theory about pick and mix, in that audience select which ideologies suit and ignore the elements of the product. And in this case, middle age, heterosexual working class women select the images of the beauty of the women on the cover and would start acting and looking more like the hegemonic norm.

For Adbusters, their whole ideology is that their anti-consumerist, anti-capitalist and has a hatred towards adverts as they are so called “Adbusters”. The way they introduce their ideologies through their magazine is by having an ad of a very rich and expensive product and then using Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory on binary opposition in that everything in a magazine or product has an opposite to contrast it, in Adbusters the binary opposition is that of contrasting the rich and expensive product for higher classes with that of people in poverty and near to death. One such example of this is their 2016 publication of Adbusters, in it we have a Zuchetti Tap, mid/ high-angle shot, with “him” as a masthead of the advert contrasted by a (assumed) women (as the stereotype of skinny legs and smooth skin indicates that is could be a woman) (mid/high-angle shot also!). She seems to be in poverty as the mise-en-scene is that she is supposedly sitting in a poorly cleaned bath tub naked, with the wrinkled hands suggesting that she is in a position as if she’s a beggar, and is symbolic imagery of poverty and misfortune. Also her tattoos and her wrinkled hands highlight that this is what magazines don’t want you to see as this (such as Woman) is no the ideal woman as tattoos is stereotypically seen as rebellious or rather not seen as beautiful as many fashion magazines of soaps and conditioners shows women with “perfect” skin which is smoothed and is blank with no tattoos. With Adbusters contrasting this with the Zuchetti tap shows clearly their anti-consumerist nature as it shows that people would rather spend money on rich useless items rather than help the poor. The poverty page is also rough as the text is unaligned and badly printed, whilst the image itself looks like as if it’s trying to get covered up by the white, which is symbolic imagery of Ads trying to cover up the bad side of them selling their products, the lack of effort for both the rough edges of the image and the text symbolizes division between the rich and poor in society.

Adbusters here is trying to subvert Gerbner’s cultivation theory, wjhich is about heavy exposure to too many brands and products on the TV reinforces ideology and stereotypes of certain people groups. Adbusters tries to be subversive of this theory, by bringing up the woman in poverty shows that Zuchetti is more of a money grabber, which Adbuster’s ideology is trying to explicitly trying to say. Woman on the other hand follows Gerbners theory a lot as it believes it’s audience/ target audience follows societies rules that all women are housewives, Woman Magazine is also helping cultivate the hegemonic norms of the British society.

Magazines and Audience and Revision

You can talk about representation in audience/industry

There are 2 types of audience question

1. How does the audience respond to the product?
2. How does the producer target/position the audience?

Explore the different ways adbusters and woman target their audience through content and appeal

Media language: shot type, camera angles, font, mode of address, theorists

Bonus theory: Audience pleasures, uses & gratifications (a pleasure)

what is pleasurable about tv shows?

• Social-interaction: after a tv show ends you can discuss about it to others                                
•  Escapism: want to leave the outside world as it is boring
• Voyeurism: Taking pleasure in someone elses actions
• Relating: feeling an intimate connection
• Entertainment: Because it's fun
• Sexual Gratification: being attracted to someone

• Aspirational
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Hegemonically attractive
• Direct mode of address
• Advert tells women they must use the product and stay clean, it would solve their life
• Voyeuristic hyper realism

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Stuart Hall: Reception Theory

Preferred: Audience agrees with the ideology of the producer

Negotiated: Audience partially agrees with the ideology of the producer

Oppositional: Audience fully disagrees with the ideology of the producer

Aberrant: When the audience totally doesn't get it

Ideology of this advert: anti-consumerist --------------------> 

1.  Preferred: We need to help the poverty in Africa, Africa are unable to help themselves
2. Negotiated: There are issues in Africa, but they can't hate on Louis Bouton because it's not their issue
3. Oppositional: Corporations help society, Africa need to sort themselves out
4. Aberrant: Audience thinks they should buy the shoes

Audience positioning

• Shot types
• Intertextuality
• Direct mode of address
• Pull quote pulled directly from a text

• Close-up shot of Alfred Hitchcock
• pull quote- "they're like snow capped volcanoes"
• stereotyping women in a magazine about women
• Hand gestures suggest affirmation
• The way he looks directly at the audience creates a controversial atmosphere 

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What are Adbusters?

• Anti-consumerism, consumerism is making society poor
• Anti-capitalist
• non-original
• anti-advertisement
• anarchist
• Culture Jamming
• Environmentalism
• Subversive
• lacks anchorage
• Atypical
• Anti-authoritarian 

Adbusters and Women are very different

• Anchored in such a way that is criticising the ad (zucchetti), because they're manipulative and spreading ideologies that people have to buy the product
• Close-up, high angle shot of the tap,  to say that we are in the room with the tap
• The transition from the image of the (assumed) women (as the stereotype of skinny legs and smooth skin suggests that it is; to the white background makes it as if  the advert is trying to cover up the actual poverty caused by this, which adbusters is trying to address, that it's subversive
• the mise-en-scene of the wrinkly is symbolic code of poverty and misfortune
• The close up shot of the model on her knees in this positions is deliberate way to not sexualise her, it's to prove a point
• Suggesting the target audience is educated and knowledgable 
• Binary opposition between rich and poor
• Suggest theres a division between people who can afford luxury items and everybody else

Messages and values of woman magazine

• buying certain products will improve your life
• women should be housewives
• published in 1964- sociohistorical context
• reinforce hegemonic views of women
• Specifically tells the audience how to be attractive
• women must be family orient 
• Singular

1. Trying to friendly by showing fake smile and the close up shot enforces that the audience is in the room with the woman
2. The colour purple is symbolic of