Sexism

Laura Mulvey’s theory suggests that the male gaze denies women as a human with feeling, downgrading them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance sexually. Her theory suggests that woman can more often than not only watch a film from a secondary perspective and only view themselves from a man’s perspective.

A woman in mainstream film texts is something that is vital. Often a female character has no real importance herself, it is how she makes the male feel or act that is the importance. The female only exist in relation to the male. The male gaze leads to Hegemonic ideologies within our society that people follow. Hegemonic ruling or dominant in a political or social context.

Laura Mulvey argues for women that they are being represented in the media as sex objects through the male gaze. Which then leads women to be objectified by other women as they are used to mean also doing it.

In Visual pleasure, Laura Mulvey states that the role of female characters only have two roles in in a narrative. Number one as an erotic object for the characters within the narrative to view. Number two as an erotic object for the spectators within the cinema to view.

Mulvey also uses the term scopophilia, which means ‘love of watching’. As we sit in a darkened movie theatre, of people on the screen who are unaware that they are being watched. This comes from Freud’s study of the psyche.

Female objectification is related to the gaze when a person’s gaze are objectified, and treated as an object whose sole value is to be enjoyed or possessed by the voyeur. Objectified characters are devalued and their humanity removed.

A patriarchal society is where men dictate the rules over women. Mulvey argued we live in a patriarchal society in which men set the most of the rules and construct the visions,  that males are dominant over woman. The worry is a passive audience will be influenced by this representation of reality and copy it and it will actually become reality if it hasn’t all ready. 

This pop video created such an outrage as we were used to Miley Cyrus as the innocent Miley Stuart. As the world was used to seeing Miley in her hit TV show Hannah Montanna, who has a sweet innocent little girl, which is a huge contrast to the Miley in this music video. Wrecking ball has broken records with 38,000,000 views in only one day, this may be due to the fact that she is naked in the video. The lyrics of the song have a lot of meaning as it describes her hurt and pain, but the video makes it more sexual.  

The video consists of extreme close ups of her face as she cries, her facial expression represents her sadness after breaking up with her long term boyfriend Liam Hemsworth. The extreme close up is a  typical shot type for music videos.


The music video is very literal with the songs lyrics, as Miley sings ' i came in like a wrecking ball' in which she is on a wrecking ball as it swings in a medium long shot. Which does make sense with the lyrics.  


This continues throughout the video as Miley is no longer a innocent little girl, but now a broken women. This is shown through her being a sexual object, which gets her message across. As her clothes were white, which represented purity, has now been taken off and she is naked.


Sinead O’Connor warned Miley not to let them 'prostitute you', although it seems like she is being exploited.  Which agree's with Laura Mulvey's theory of women being sexualised. 



Lily Allen's hard out here video is meant to be seen as a feminist video as she is tired women being seen in a certain way and being sexualised, but the video appears to be a parody pop video.  

The video starts with her being operated on as it shows how many women try to make themselves perfect throw plastic surgery in order to please men.  In which she disagrees with as women shouldn't have to exist only for men. 


Her lyrics are in direct contrast with the rest of the music video. As her lyrics state that she 'dont need to shake my ass for you cause i've got a brain' although throughout the music video. Her back up dancers are shaking their bums. 


Some of her lyrics does represent her and the music video, as she states she isn't a size 6 but she doesn't care. She is fully clothed and she is still gaining attention. 

The whole song and music video is a contradiction but with meaning. 

Animatic

 This is my groups Animatic for our music video project. Which will help us plan exactly what we want in the video. 

Alex Southam

Agile Films describe Alex Southam on their website as:

‘Alex Southam is an exciting new talent, working in a dizzying variety of styles across live action and animation. Entirely self-taught, his inventiveness and creativity have caught the eye with a series of diverse promos for the likes of the Walkmen, Alt+J and Lianne La Havas. Alex joined Agile in August 2012.’

He is a one man band, where he does all the camera, lighting, editing by himself, but now he uses a Director of Photography.

He likes to arrange his music videos as a way that, ‘you can try new techniques and can have real artistic freedom’. This is why he isn’t keen on commercials as they don’t allow his freedom. He uses Vimeo to showcase his videos, this is becoming an increasingly important platform for him. As it is seen to have a ‘higher status’ than YouTube.

His discovery came with the Tesselate video for Alt J, which had the budget of £10,000. The video was shot in one day and it had a large cast, it also contains the special effect called AfterEffect. 

The whole video is a recreation of the 'School of Athens' painting.






The video starts starts with 4 extreme close ups of  two pairs of eyes, a t-shirt and fingers. Which the 5th close up being a bit faster with the girl standing with two boys. 









The video seems to be showing young people in a negative light, as it shows clips of boys fighting, girls in dancing in a sexual way and images associated with gang members. 









The lost and found video, by Chase and Status had a £50,000 budget and was shot in Los Angeles using a Steadicam. It had 36 frames per second which was then slowed down. Its influence is Massive Attack’s Unfinshed Sympathy that went for an early 1990s VHS video look. 






Unfinished Sympathy was filmed on Pico Avenue in Los Angeles 1991. It was the first ever promo music video to be done in one take. The original ending of the video was to do a, wide angled camera shot, that would slowly crane over the hosuing levels of the street. Although the cameraman was too tired and it became a quick fade-out instead. 

Emil Nava

Emil began his career as a runner for the film production company, Blink Productions. Now he freelances for OB Management. After working as a runner graduated to Assistant Director (A.D.) where he would manage the video shoots.

He was signed to Academy, who are the biggest music video production company, then worked for Between the Eyes. Now currently works mainly for Pulse.

Emil’s first budget was for the band Kid British and the track Our House

•Budget - £20,000

•Location – Manchester

•Cast – local people

•1 day for filming

•2/3 days for editing

•10 days pre-production

•Demonstrates the very tight timescales involved

Our house is dadless, is a indie song made by Kid British is a unique song. Which is shot in england. 

The busiest for Emil has been that he has made 24 music videos in one year. When he staring shooting videos for independent labels, the budgets would be £5,000 to £10,000. His most expensive video to date has been for Jessie J and the budget was £160,000.

Wild by Jessie J is a dance flow song, which starts off slow which shows the calm before the storm. The beat kicks it when Jessie J looks into the camera. This is a wide shot of both her and the camera.




The next shot is of Jessie starting to lose herself, which fits with the lyrics, as she is feeling alive. This is a medium shot of her facial expressions and hands which relates to this.




Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze, is seen here as Jessie J is naked with only leopard prints covering her skin. This is a medium long shot which shows her sexuality, but maybe even her vulnerability. As she is slightly covering herself, with her head down. 



 Emil began to make adverts which have higher budgets and production values but didn't allow creative freedom. This maybe due to the fact that the advert only lasts 20 seconds and has to focus on the hair, as well as the hair product. 

Lego house was filmed in the University of Hertfordshire, which features Ed sheeran himself and the actor Rupert Gint who is his stalker. 

Rupert Gint starts off by lip syncing with Ed Sheeran's voice which makes it seem like its him singing. The fact that they they look similar is uncanny too. He becomes apprent that he is actually stalking Ed Sheeran and wants to be him as he starts to write songs and starts playing the guitar. 


The music video ends with Rupert meeting Ed Sheeran after being kicked off the staged by security. As Rupert is no longer stable and thinks he is Ed Sheeran. 

Emil's top tips for production were, use ‘Extreme Close Ups on faces wherever possible’ and ‘Do not shoot whole of video in medium shot/long shot'.


An example of this in the Sinead O'conner song nothing compares to you. Her face alone made this song recognisable, as she is bold. 
The lyrics present the feelings of longing from an abandoned lover's point of view. Which fits with the music video, as it sad and gloomy.

Audience Research

For my audience research I will be asking a lot of different questions.  These could be some of them.

What genre of music do you like?
What makes an artist memorable?
Do you watch music videos?
Why?
How often do you watch music videos?
What makes a good music video? 
Name an artist?

There I may present this information by using a:

• Survey 
• Vox Pop
• Focus Group
• Questionnaire 
• Interviews

Artist use their music video as a way of promoting their song. Especially if they are a new artist and want to create a fan base and have more publicity. 

An example of synergy would be the artists Ariana Grande and the weeknd collaborating, as they are two different types of artists. Although they came together and made this song, to connect their fan bases together and for higher youtube views.

A model of the media

Gaining Permission

Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves is a director who made short films when he was at university. He has been awarded for his short film Calling card, as he wants to get a 'foot in the door' with the video production company factory films. Jamie started by shooting three music videos that cost about £5,000 each.

Many directors in the business know how risky it is, as their livelihood is based on each commission. He tried his lucky by entering his top two videos and then made it.


Radio head Just, was shot in three days with a £100,00 budget. 

The band picked Jamie to do their music video band after they saw a couple of his experimental short films. The music video was shot near Liverpool Street Station in London, with scenes of a middle-aged man who lies down in the middle of the pavement outside a flat. This is shown through a wide medium shot.

People start to notice and gather as they think something is wrong with the man. The band are in the flat looking down at all of this happening. Then in subtitles the man begins to explain himself to the crowd, "Yes I'll tell you, I'll tell you why I'm lying here... but God forgive me... and God help us all... because you don't know what you ask of me". This is all shown through the extreme close up of the man's face. 

When the man answers them, the subtitles have now stopped as it leaves the viewer the option to decide what he said. When the camera zooms out the pavement is now covered with the crowd of people. They are all lying down just like the man. This is shown through a wide shot and a crane. 

The Scientist was popular for its reverse narrative, which employed reverse video. The same idea had been previously used for Spike Jonze's 1996 music video for The Pharcyde's Drop. The Scientist was made in three days with a £200,000 budget. In order for Martin to appear to be singing the lyrics in the reversed footage, he had to learn to sing the song backwards.

The music video begins with the camera looking down on Martin who is singing, lying on a mattress. As the camera shot pulls back, the mattress is seen to be outside. A cyclist cycles past in reverse and Martin leaps up from the mattress. He starts to walk in reverse throughout the city. This is shown through a low angle crane shot. 

He then crosses a railway line and into woods, to pick up his suit jacket as he carries on with his journey. When he gets to his car, he passes out for a bit. The pieces start to fall into place, as the viewer starts to realise what has happened. This is shown though a wide shot tracking shot. 

A woman is shown lying unresponsive on the ground in front of the car. As the video rewinds backwards, she is shown flying back in through the broken windshield of the car. The car rolls back up a hill in the woods and through a broken fence, which as the car goes through it fixes its self. The car ends with both of them driving back up the road, and the passenger had removed her seat belt to put her jacket on, causing her death.  This is all shown through a tracking shot in medium. 

Jamie’s top tip is that you should use the lyrics but try not to be too literal in the music video. Also you should go with the emotion of the lyrics.

Katy Perry

Katy Perry is an American singer, actress and songwriter. She started her career as a gospel singer. However now she has switched her music genre to pop and her target audience, are young girls aged 14-17 years old. She has to mirror the same worries that her young female audiences have and be like an older sister to them. As well as appearing slightly sexy for the girls who admire this. 




Richard Dyer's Star theory does apply to Katy Perry as an artist. As a child Katy Perry grew up with strict christian parents who had tight control on her life. Then when she was successful she become a sex symbol, in which she was then later on labeled a 'full-on male fantasy'. She does also appeal to the male audience. Katy Perry's fashion sense is one another things that is always remembered and talked about, as it always shows a variety of colours and food related  themes. 

It could be argued that Katy Perry had copied her fashion style from a cartoon comic 'Katy Keene' which Katy Perry denies. Although there is a lot of similarities.  

In Katy Perry's 'Hot and Cold' music video, it tells a story if a girl who is in a unstable just like her relationship.
The medium shot of Katy looking nervous, shows that she isn't actually sure that this wedding will go to plan, but she hopes it does. This is where she starts to portray herself as a victim. 

The crazy and bipolar side of her starts to come out as she is left at the alter and starts to become angry at her ex. This is shown through a medium running shot. 
There's one part of Katy that is mad that he left her and she doesn't care anymore, in which she throws many insults at him. The close up of her wearing blacked out shades and a red leather jacket, represents a rebellious rock star.  


Then the other part of her is just so upset she is unstable, with her mascara running down her face. This gives her a crazed heart broken girl look. Which you could laugh at, as the audience. 



Record labels will demand close ups of Katy Perry and she would have to have her own motif. An example of this may be Fireworks, which is a visual style. The music video actually reflects the lyrics of the song, which creates a bigger affect and makes the song memorable. It each different scene in the music video makes it more relatable to a larger range of audiences. Firework represents being different, which is a positive things, as it is empowering. 

Creating an image (Mood board)

This are the pictures of my group creating our mood board and sharing our ideas for our music video.  It was decided that our location would be the London eye and Winter wonderland. Our Mise en scene will be Christmas themed jumpers and black jeans. 

Treatment