Richard Dyers theory of star image is constructed from a range of materials. I used a range of mediums including a Pop promo, Digi Pack and poster to construct The Hunky Dories ‘star image’.
* See blog post on Richard Dyer's theory for more information
The singers are young and attractive and appeal to both men and women. Women want to be them and men want to be with them. The singers have rhythm and look like they are enjoying themselves which make them entertaining to watch.
The band is inspired by The Andrews Sisters, the burlesque circuit, Bob Fosse and musicals such as Chicago. The Hunky Dories style has remained the same and they have struggled to get noticed in the past few years. The band appeals to a niche market audience because they are original and unique. Their genre is becoming more popular with the modern audience through multiple areas of the entertainment industry and the media. For example in 2010, Burlesque starring Cher and Christina Aguilera won a Golden Globe award for best musical film. The Hunky Dories jazz/showgirl image is evident in the music video, Digi Pack and poster.
The Hunky Dories make direct eye contact with the camera in the music video, Digi Pack and poster. This consequently creates a paradox between the band and the audience. Also, there is an incoherent relationship formed between the artist and the fan. We achieved this by using close ups of the stars with eye contact so that the audience feel wanted by the stars. A wide shot would follow a close up to distance and tease the audience and make them want more intimacy with the band.
The Hunky Dories use popular songs and reinvent them in their unique style to appeal to a modern audience. Cover songs are enormously popular and may be more successful than the original. We chose to make a music video of The Hunky Dories cover of Beyonce’s 2003 release Crazy in Love. The original genre of the song was R&B and featured Beyonce and rap star Jay-z. The music video’s unique selling points are Beyonce’s attractiveness and sex appeal. In contrast to The Hunky Dories music video, Beyonce’s original video lacks narrative. The original video has artificial computerised backing, which is popular in mainstream clubbing music. In contrast, The Hunky Dories use string instruments such as violins and the pace is varied which makes the lyrics sound more sensual and sophisticated.
The Hunky Dories appeal to the older generation who will recognise the jazz style of the song. In turn, our target audience will feel modern and up-to0date with today’s music. We tailored the Poster to appeal to our older target audience. We used symbolic images associated with the jazz genre such as the red curtain and silver microphones. Our aim is to encourage our target audience to listen to new songs in the style in which they grew up with. If we are successful, it would encourage our target audience to become fans and follow The Hunky Dories.
We dressed The Hunky Dories in sophisticated 50’s style dresses to associate them, with the jazz genre. Our costume choice was modest to appeal to our target audience. However, the girls compensated this with their body language and facial expression to emphasise the unique selling point that they are sexy. We consistently featured the costume on the digi pack, video and poster to obviously relate the products to The Hunky Dories.
We featured ‘feminine touch’ throughout the music video. Feminine touch is common in advertisements because it makes the product handled seem more desirable. The use of feminine in The Hunky Dories music video makes the band more alluring. We emphasized feminine touch by using images of the girls holding their microphones on the poster.
The band is implied to have murdered three men in the music video because they are ‘Crazy in Love’. This act of rebellion is to some extent a sexual fantasy for men and female fans respect The Hunky Dories daring act. The dangerous aspect of The Hunky Dories is featured on the digi pack because it emphasizes that they are naughty girls; this appeals sexually to the male audience. We used images of guns, roses and hearts in a red and black color scheme which was inspired by the opening sequence of Casino Royal.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Monday, 28 March 2011
What is representation?
Target audience
• Mirror society
• Feel normal
• Inverted stereotype – we are normal
• Stereotype usually negative
• Archetype – positive – reflects change in society
• Authenticity – trustworthy
Laura Mulvey
Women objectified
Subordinate in narrative
Sexual angles
Assuming things about gender
Subverting traditional gender assumptions has become a key attribute of star image if wanted.
Goffman has categorised these messages under six rubrics.
Relative size
Feminine touch
Function ranking
Ritualization of subordination
Licensed withdrawal
Media ‘whore’
Gaze theory
How we look at image and how image looks at us
Notion of gaze
Mutual gaze
Extra diegetic – Richard Dyers Paradoxes of the star image fit with this
Inter diegetic – Richard Dyers Paradoxes of the star image fit with this
Female gaze – territorial kinship
The male gaze
Narrative
Discuss the relevance of Narrative in relation to your second year product Strong narrative – reinforces the star image Could reinforce: Everyday and normal or Unique (out this world) Sometimes there is a cross over. Traverse ability so exists in both worlds – traverse JIM KITSES • Worked on the structural anthropologist (Levi Straus) • Sources worked a set of myths. Legends standed down. Over time their meaning changes. Connects with Katza blumler • Diversion • Surveillance • Personal relationships – reflecting society • Self identity – affecting society • Limited number of narratives. Use different structure 50% of Hollywood’s films are remakes • What pop stars use big romantic narrative Katz and Blumler equilibrium 1. Equilibrium 2. Force is introduced – upsets equilibrium (standard Hollywood) 3. disrupted equilibrium 4. restored equilibrium Act mass western products Narrative image digipack – poster – inlay
TASK 4 - Directors Commentry
Directors Commentary Video opens with a wipe which is iconic for the time period, it draws the attention to the 3 girls on the stage, another element that draws the attention to the girls is the spot lights on them. We needed this type of lighting to re-enforce the girls star status. The girls are also lit from behind creating a halo like feel to them, meaning the audience look up to them. The girls are placed in the background of the shot, distancing them from the audience to again enforce star quality; they are also shot from a low angle which does the same job. We have a close up of Nico in a mugshot, which makes the audience question why she is there and what she has done in order to get there. The shot of the club juxtaposed with the mugshot creates impact through contrast. The girls are shot from a low angle which re-enforces their star status and makes the audience look up to them literally and as a sex symbol. The fact we could create a digital in order to help us cut our shots to the beat of the track helped us get it in time. We filmed the stills of our paper storyboard on the Sony HD camera and then cut them in time with the track onto a timeline in Final Cut Pro. We used web 2.0 technology to help us research am develop our bands institutional context. We also used this technology to contact the record company for copyright permission. We used the blog as a creative filter Construction We lit the greenscreen flat so that no light reflected on to it – as we saw from previous student projects, using a blue curtain makes the images foggy.
TASK 1 - In what ways do your media products use, develp or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Music Video
Visually stylish – ‘artistic’ mise-en-scene
‘Rhythmic’ montage, fragmented style
Intercutting
Experimental use of camera/editing
Fast pace
Conspicuous lighting and cinematography
Often break the rules of continuity editing
Current ‘threats’ to the Music Video
In many respects the pop video is becoming defunct and irrelevant
Internet – downloading
Manufactured programmes with live feeds
The vidvert or i video (Robbie Williams)
Music television becoming more mainstream – MTV?
Can you think of any other threats to the pop video?
What is the future of the Pop Video?
• Some basic conventions
• Direct address by performers
• Significant shots of band playing instruments/singing
• Significant shots of bands attractiveness
• Significant shots of bands key USPs
• Back lighting
• Significant shots of promos key concept
Some basic conventions
• Visually stylish – ‘artistic’ mise en scene
• ‘rhythmic’ montage, fragmented style
• Inter cutting
• Experimental use of camera/editing
• Fast pace
• Conspicuous lighting and cinematography
• Often break the rules of continuity
TASK 3 - What have you learnt from your audiance feedback?
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Collect a variety of feedback for your product from members of your target audience and from other audience demographics on your blog, via YouTube or other sources.
Discuss how this feedback relates to your own view of the strengths and weaknesses of your product and use it to demonstrate Hall’s concepts of preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings.
Create comments that can be left on Hurtwood media channel – quick promotion – form a focus group – 6/7 second year students – questionnaire – feedback of varies point of video – confirmation that the audience get what they expect – mise en scene (genre) – key aspects of production – organic/authentic – does what they see match genre/break genre? – would it convince them to download album or song?
www.surveymonkey.com
redefine target audience – briefly what they wear/where they come from/gender – crucially what other media do they consume? What other bands do they like? Spending power?
How I am going to shape my blog
Theorist - Roland Barthes – audience’s expectations – what are target audience expecting? How? Based on audiences fore knowledge (what they already know) – how do you capture it? Questionnaire (background) show them still images (poster/digipack) ask the audience to predict what the video is going to be – do you think this band has a serious message to give? Put together by Simon Cowel? Genuine?
Looking at this picture, what do you think the genre of the video is?
Do you think this band is on an independent label?
Do you think this frame represents our genre?
What elements of the image confirm your choice here?
Do you think the costume represents the historical context well?
Do you think that fans of The Puppini Sisters would like this band?
Katz and Blummler – do they think its going to be entertaining or preach to you? What are your target audience using it for? Diversion/personal identity (awakening in teenage years) provoke thought (fantasy) – surveillance – older members of target audience – keeping in touch with popular music – historical perspective – diversion – entertainment
Stuart Hall – suggests audience receives coded message – how we read the video (preferred reading/aberrant reading (doesn’t match genre)/ negotiated reading (come up with something completely different – not negative –alternative)
Theory bank – audience – casual
¾ sets of closed questions – multiple choice (lickert scale) – direct answers – (quantitative data)
Set of open questions (someone can give their opinion)
Fore knowledge-genre-stardom-star image-authentic/organic-attractive-rebellious-do you think this star is rebellious/sexy/innocent/drug users (expectations) how? Creates diversion from different parts of audience – carve up audience – retired female (fantasy – escape – girls performing fantasy) younger girls (fantasy of being a ‘bad girl’) older me (fantasy of young girls in fishnets) – irony (not positive to investigate relationships – jaded)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
