NEA RESEARCH PART 7 - Producers and Directors Research

NEA Part 7 - Directors Research 

In this post I will be researching several media directors relating to my music video brief, focusing on the layout and use of media conventions in the music videos these particular people have directed. Also, I will be including some of their existing products and this will give me a slight idea as to how I can produce my own media music video and website as I can gather inspiration from these existing music videos. By gathering a greater understanding about directors of music videos, I will be able to produce a media music video that reflects and follows music video ideologies more accurately.

HYPE WILLIAMS
Hype Williams (born July 1970) is an American music video director, film director, film producer and screenwriter. Williams has received several awards for his video work including the billboard music video award for best director of the year (1996), the BET award for best director (2006), the Jackson Limo award for best rap video of the year (1996) and several other awards.

Empire State Of Mind - Jay-Z feat Alicia Keys

Beyonce - Drunk In Love feat JAY Z

A lot of Hype Williams' music videos feature a black and white colour scheme - this creates a serious atmosphere in which the music video is set, and also makes the music video seem very old fashioned and classic, much like popular old movies like 'it's a wonderful life' and 'a streetcar named desire.' Perhaps Williams uses the black and white feature as a common theme in his music videos in order to channel older movies that people already have an appeal to (due to their popularity and timeless style). 

Williams also uses a variety of shots including wide shots, long shots and close ups throughout his music videos but this varies depending on the theme of the music video. For example, within the Empire State Of Mind music video more long shots are used than in the Drunk In Love music video because the theme of the music video is New York and therefore the setting has to be more established for the target audience than in the Drunk In Love Music video because in this video, Beyonce is the focus point.

SPIKE JONZE
Spike Jonze is an American filmmaker, photographer and actor whose work includes music videos, TV commercials, films and television. In 1994 Jonze directed the video for the Weezer song "Buddy Holly", which featured the band performing the song with clips from the well known sitcom Happy Days. This video became very popular and was shown on MTV very frequently - a 2013 Rolling Stone readers' poll ranked it as the tenth best music video of the 1990s.

Sonic Youth - 100%

The Breeders - Cannonball

A lot of Spike Jonze's music videos are performance videos (or perhaps feature elements of performance videos) - this is where the music video features the artist or band performing to the song of the video. It is common for genres such as alternative rock to include a performance within their music video. 

      Close ups are a very common type of shot used throughout Spike Jonze's music videos - especially those that are performance videos. This may be because Jonze perhaps aims to capture the artists emotions in order to create a particular atmosphere for the music videos; for example, happiness. This idea also creates a connection between the audience and the artist where the audience understands how the artist may think or feel and these emotions may help the audience gather a better understanding of the song. 

     

     HANNAH LUX DAVIS

     Hannah Lux Davis was raised in Washington until she left at the age of 18 to move to Los Angeles where she enrolled in the New York Film Academy, and the Los Angeles Film School a year later - Davis graduated from the Los Angeles film school in 2006 and went into makeup production, and from then on she began making music videos in her spare time, paying the budgets with her own money. 

Little Mix -

Power 

                                     Ariana Grande - 

                                         Side To Side

Within a lot of Hannah Lux Davis' music videos, females are used as the staring roles, perhaps this is because feminism is a big theme throughout the music videos that are directed by this particular director. Hannah Lux Davis is a female herself and therefore may wish to reinforce gender equality by using females, very famous ones, often throughout her work. 

Hannah Lux Davis often uses close up shots within her music videos in order to show the audience a close look at the actors and actresses / artist's appearance (i.e their makeup).

In conclusion, this research is beneficial because I am now more educated and aware of the different types of music videos - this means that I am prepared to branch out into different styles of videos when it comes to my own work. 

NEA RESEARCH PART 6 - Institutional Research

Institution Research: 

Within this post I will be researching the SONY (music) media institution which is included in our brief - I will be focusing on the type of products that this particular company produces. I will also be researching how the SONY ethos is incorporated within their products, and this will give me inspiration as to how I can include this in my own variations of the website and the main task. By gathering a wider understanding of the SONY institution, I will be able to produce a product that reflects the media institution's style and ideologies.
The Sony Music mission statement is: "to inspire the world to do great things through the influence of music by promoting inspirational melodies and lyrics." I personally think that this mission statement is reflected within the Sony company through the wide varieties of music produced and the diversity of the artists. 
To conclude, I will be incorporating this mission statement from this company into my own music video by using a song with particular lyrics that are considered to be 'inspirational' - examples may include modern pop music that involves current issues and events (such as feminism or perhaps romance). 

The name of the company that I will be making my media product for is Sony Music - this American Record Corporation was founded in New York, United States in 1929 and the CEO of this company from the 1st of July 2011 - present is Doug Morris. However, the chairman and CEO of Sony music UK is Jason Iley.

Sony Music Entertainment is a global recorded music company who is the home of both small, local artists and international and successful artists - it is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. In the UK, labels such as RCA, Columbia, Commercial Group, Red Essential, Relentless, Black Butter, Ministry of Sound and Insanity all make up the Sony Music Family.

Sony Music's current revenue is at 7.27 billion USD - Sony's global recorded music operation generated $3.92 billion in revenue in the last year. The Sony company estimated that the total net gain in value of its Spotify holdings to be around $1 billion, this is purely based on the Spotify closing share price on the 3rd of April. Sony Music’s streaming revenues climbed 8.2% in the three months to end of March 2019, the company’s total recorded music sales reached $946.3m.

NEA RESEARCH PART 5 - Media Theory Research

21/05/2019

For this particular task, I am going to conduct media theory research in order to broaden my knowledge on the subject and decide on what theories will be suited to my own music video.

SUCKER - JONAS BROTHERS

Narratology - Todorov
Within the 'sucker' music video, this particular theory has been carried out through the presentation of a transition between an original state of equilibrium to another state of equilibrium. This music video describes a story of three males (the Jonas Brothers) and their three female love interests (their real life wives) who originally start off in a calm setting with a performance by the males and throughout the music video get almost targeted by the females, before a resolution is made at the end with all of the characters coupled up.

Feminist Theory - Van Zoonen
Van Zoonen's feminist theory can be applied to this music video because both the men and the women in this video are established as males and females through their clothes, coordination and behaviour. For example, all of the women within this video are presented as very feminine with expensive dresses, styled hair and a lot of makeup; the men in this video are presented as masculine through their suits and their dominant stances (particularly when they are on the stage, performing for the females that are below them).

BLURRED LINES - ROBIN THICKE AND OTHERS


Gender Performativity - Butler
Within this music video, the theory of gender performativity is used through set gender roles. For example, the females in this music video take on the minor roles where they are objectified by both the men in the music video and also the audience (Laura Mulvey's male gaze can be applied here through the females being displayed as objects in very little clothing with a lot of men finding this attractive).

Feminist Theory - Bell Hooks 
Bell Hook's feminist theory can be applied to this music video because the women featured are all dressed is revealing clothing and placed in positions where they are portrayed as 'less important' - for example, in the above image, the females are shown behind the men, making the males appear to be more superior to the females.

NEA RESEARCH PART 4 - Media Language And Representation

26/04/19

SHAWN MENDES - THERE'S NOTHING HOLDING ME BACK



TAYLOR SWIFT - ME!

SHAWN MENDES WEBSITE

LAYOUT
The layout of this website is very simple - the Shawn Mendes name is displayed at the very top of the page and his most recent single's name is displayed under it. These words are presented in a very plain and basic font which matches the single cover's font, this creates consistency throughout the Shawn Mendes brand and creates a recognisable layout for audiences to notice. In the centre of the page a circle is placed with moving images of different patterns, occasionally with the figure of Shawn Mendes himself displayed as a brief shadow every few minutes. This is in order to create a main display for the website and make the page look both appealing and attractive. Below this two buttons are displayed, both in long rectangular  shapes in order to make their purpose obvious, and at the very bottom of the page a button labelled 'enter site' is displayed which brings audiences to a further page with links to merchandise, songs, and other promotional brand aspects. Finally, at the bottom of the page several links are displayed for all of Shawn Mendes' social media.

NAVIGATION
The official Shawn Mendes website has a very straight forward display, with most of the important and main links to other pages displayed in the centre of the page - this is in order to make it easier for audiences to follow the page's links and tabs that lead to important pages. The website's creators have purposely displayed the circle with a constant loop of moving images (which, may I point out, is very similar to several examples of Mendes' album art in order to continue this previous consistency within his brand) in the centre of the page in order to create a main attraction and make the page look very appealing to Mendes' target audience.

LANGUAGE
The language used throughout the Shawn Mendes official website is both basic and simplistic, this was purposely done in order to make it easy for all of Mendes' younger and perhaps less educated audiences to understand. In addition, this would also allow a universal audience to be able to visit Mendes' website and understand both the english language and grammar that is displayed. The specific command 'listen now' is displayed underneath the looped images, this imperative is used in order to make audiences feel the need to select the button and listen to his latest music.

IMAGES / TEXT / AUDIO / VIDEO
The use of one moving image (perhaps considered a looped video) is displayed very obviously in the middle of the website's page in order to make the website's page look more attractive. The specific use of light, pastel colours makes the website more appealing to female audiences because stereotypically females find lighter colours like pink and purple appealing. Furthermore, the use of pastel colours (in particular the baby pink which is also used as the website's main background colour) again creates consistency within the Shawn Mendes brand because many of Mendes' album covers and merchandise feature these soft, muted colours.


Conclusion:
In order to create my future text I am going to use similar media language to Shawn Mendes' - this means that I am going to take on a very basic and simplistic approach in order to allow mass audiences to understand my work and appreciate the purposes of the examples used of the linguistic code.