Evaluation Question 1

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop and Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products

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Green Eyed Monster Montage: OneTrueMedia

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is a montage of pictures from the 'Green Eyed Monster' video, digipak and advert. Its just a bit of fun but looks really good :)

Postmodernism and Our Music Video

Postmodernism is very hard to define and has many characteristics. These characteristics include:

• No meta-narratives
• Non-linear storylines
• Borrows from past texts
• Blends genres
• Lack of morality
• Nothing is new

Our music video adopts many of these characteristics, and can therefore be seen as proportionally postmodern.

Firstly, and perhaps the most postmodern aspect of our video is the character of the detective. Where have we seen a clumsy, disorganised, trouble-attracting detective before? Oh yeah, Pink Panther! Borrowing from this attracts a whole new audience, which is outside of our target audience. Most of our target audience may not have seen the original Pink Panther set of films, but an older audience will almost definitely have seen them. By linking back to a brilliantly and iconic character such as Inspector Clueso (played by comedy genius Peter Sellers), it helps us attract viewers outside of the target audience, which is always a bonus!

Our video also draws many parallels with other music videos of the indie genre. The best example is Kasabian's 'Vlad the Impaler' which uses a single character out of his time, just like our detective.

Our music video is also postmodern as it blends genres. There are very few 'funny music videos' but we think we may have stumbled across one here. By combining comedy and the music video, we are crossing boundaries that are rarely crossed, and this is postmodern.

Our music video also has non-linear storylines. A normal storyline follows one person through a series of events, and ours does this until you find out the detective is undergoing these events at the same time as the band is playing, and us displaying these at different times makes it non-linear. The fact that the events the detective goes through are not 'one-after-the-other' also shows non-linear characteristics. One minute he is in a library, then one minute he is in the snow, giving the effect he has been walking for a very long time. This is also typical of a non-linear timeline.

Representation in Our Music Video

There are numerous things that could be represented in a media text, these include:

RACE

GENDER

DISABILITY

CLASS

AGE

Representation In our Music Video

In our music video we decided to have me as the detective and Matt as every other character. This meant that variation was very very very limited.

Gender

Our video is all males, except for one character who is seen as desirable, until she turns around and it is Matt. This means that for a couple of seconds our video present a women as sexual objects, which is a very stereotypical view. However, she is not made to look feeble, weak, or inferior in any way, and the fact that she turns round and it is in fact Matt detracts from the negative view on women that the video seems to be portraying.

Race

Our video uses all white males between the ages of 17 and 19 so leaves very little room to see any race in a positive or negative light. Seeing as the video does not give a distinct message at all, no conclusions can be drawn to a particular standpoint on race. The absence of racial variety is something that has been common amongst indie bands, but luckily this is becoming weaker and weaker constantly.

Disability

At one point in our video an elderly man gets in the car and runs over the detective. He has trouble walking and takes a while to get to his car. This could be interpreted as an offence to disabled people saying that they are slow and perhaps inefficient. It could also be interpreted that they are inferior.

Class

The only time class differences are shown is in the cinema, which is filled with lower class 'Chavs'. This was purely for humours sake and so as viewers can connect with the video, as 'chavs' are a very contemporary issue. This could reflect as us saying that all lower class cinema-goers are disruptive, vandalising chavs. Seeing as we're not exactly upper class, I wouldn't consider this to be much of an issue.

Age

The only age boundary is the old man who runs over the detective about half way through the video. The old man firstly goes to the wrong car, showing they are stereotypically forgetful, showing them negatively. Next the old man runs over the detective, perhaps saying they aren't very good drivers. We used the old man as we wanted Matt to play a diverse group of people, for comedic value, and unfortunately the old man drew the short straw on driver.

Suture

Suture is "classical Hollywood narrative and editing 'sutures' or positions the audience in certain ways making only one reading possible, however uncomfortable the audience is of that position.

This is closely linked with Laura Mulvey's feminist theories, and correctly so on many levels.

For example, many films are about murderers and criminals. Sometimes these characters are the focus of the story, and we sympathise with them because of this. However, they are criminals and in normal society they would be imprisoned and dealt with through a punishable system, but we do not side with them in real life.

Take for example the film 'I Love You Philip Morris' starring Jim Carey. He commits fraud and steals numerous times, gets out of jail on several occasions and we as viewers will him to do so. This is Suture, the audience being in a fixed position where it is hard to take an alternative view on what is shown.

Again, this does not relate heavily to our video as it is light-hearted and does not deliver a deep philosophical message. It uses surface level humour and is there for pure enjoyment, nothing deep is to be taken from it and nothing is heavily expressed throughout. This means that suture does not relate to our video.

Reception Theory and Our Music Video

We, as producers, according to this model, have encoded our music video with a message for the audience to decode and receive. The audience will either agree fully with that message by receiving it as preferred or dominant, receive it partially by being negotiated or reject the message by being opposed to it.

As the producer, the message of our video is simple. The song and its lyrics speak of a woman, connected to the singer, who also talks to other men, and perhaps the man's misinterpretation of what she is doing, coming off as jealousy. Therefore, with the semi-serious but upbeat song combine with a jolly light-hearted video, the message is basically:

"Being trusting is better than being jealous, so reserve judgement and be light-hearted about matters for a happier time'

I know it doesn't sound too philosophical, but that's the message :)

This, as the theory says, could be taken one of three ways.

The audience could...:

Receive it as Dominant

This means the audience will agree with this message, perhaps even change their current

behaviour to suit it. This makes the video, in my eyes, more successful as it has been received light-heartedly and perhaps had a positive effect on someone.

Receive it as Negotiated

This means that the audience could refine the message to suit their own views. For example,

someone could pay more attention to the lyrics, or pay particular more attention to the video and receive either the upbeat or the aggressive message more strongly.

Receive it as Oppositional

This means that the audience will totally disregard the message due to cultural, political or idealogical reasons. For example, if a Muslim man heard it, they would most likely be disgusted at the thought of a woman talking to more than one man as their culture forbids it. He will most likely then disregard the message of the whole video.

Reception Theory

Reception Theory addresses how texts are ENCODED by a producer and then DECODED by the audience.

The theory suggests that when a producer constructs a text that it is ENCODED with a message or meaning and this is received and understood by the audience upon its use.

However, sometimes the audience may misunderstand or reject the message given by the text and its producer.

Stuart Hall (the theory's creator) identified three types of Audience Readings (or decoding) of a text:

1. Dominant or Preferred
2. Negotiated
3. Oppositional

Dominant is where the audience decodes the message as the producer wants them to and broadly agrees with it.

E.g. Watching a political speech and agreeing with it.

Negotiated is where the audience accepts, rejects or refines elements of the text in light of previously held views.

E.g Neither agreeing or disagreeing with the political speech or being disinterested.

Oppositional is where the dominant meaning is rejected because of cultural, political or idealogical reasons.

E.g. Total rejection of the political speech and active opposition.

The Uses and Gratifications Model and Our Music Video

This has much more in common with our music video. Our video is much more likely to inspire someone to do something positive than go out and terrorise due to the upbeat and positive nature of the video and the music.

The audience would watch our video to feel better about themselves and to bring a smile to their face, perhaps make them be a bit more light-hearted. Its something you might watch in a family setting for a bit of a giggle. It fulfils this need and will be watched for this purpose.

It helps people to escape their normal everyday lives for 4minutes and 13seconds at a time. Similar to this, I watch a band called 'Ok Go'who make really inventive videos that bring a smile to my face. Below is an example of one of their videos.

I think we would have an affect on audiences the same way as Ok Go does, both videos are imaginative and fun and take you away from what you're doing for 5 minutes to have a breather.

Although our video cannot be used to compare relationships or sexually stimulate a person (unless you're into cross-dressing?) it can be used for other reasons.

It can be used to relax for a short period, or fill up some time if you have a period of waiting at all.

It can help to emotionally satisfy a person; if someone is feeling particularly down a quick view could bring a cheeky smile to a persons face.

Also, and perhaps most crucially, it deals with themes of personal and social identity. The detective is a character that is out of his depth in modern settings and could be described as a social outcast. However, in this video he is cheering up all people who watch. If a person could draw parallels between themselves and the detective, that is a positive attribute that they could apply to themselves. Its an uplifter, and in my opinion is the best part of our video, its uplifting.

The Uses and Gratifications Model

The Uses and Gratifications Model is the opposite to the Effects Model.

The Audience is ACTIVE and USE the text and not the other way round.

The Audience uses the text for its own Gratification or Pleasure.

In this model, the power lies with the audience and not the producers, and it focuses on what audiences do with the text and how and why they use them.

The audience is free to REJECT, USE or PLAY with media meaning a they see fit.

Audiences therefore use media texts to gratify needs for:

• Diversion
• Escapism
• Information
• Pleasure
• Comparing Relationships and Lifestyles with one's own
• Sexual Stimulation

Consumption of the texts helps peoples issues with:

• Learning
• Emotional Satisfaction
• Relaxation
• Help with Issues of Personal Identity
• Help with Issues of Social Identity
• Help with Issues of aggression and violence

Controversially, the theory suggests that the consumption of violent images can be helpful rather than harmful. It also suggests that audiences act out their own impulses through the consumption of media violence. The audiences inclination towards violence is therefore sublimated, and they are less likely to commit violent acts.

For example;

The theory suggests that if a person is feeling especially angry with a colleague, instead of going and hitting them, they could watch 'Die Hard', watch Bruce Willis 'cook a few fools' and their anger would have decreased as they have relinquished their anger by watching the film. This is the total opposite to the Effects Model which suggests they are more likely to then go and give their colleague two black eyes a busted nose.

The Effects Model or Hypodermic Model and Our Music Video

Does this Model relate to our Music Video at all? The answer is Yes, but not by a great deal.

The purpose of our music video is to promote the song by 1984, and we've done this by creating a light-hearted humorous video, and hope that this transfers to the song so as the audience feel the same way and will enjoy it. The Effects Model focuses largely on the negative effects that a media text could have, and ours is simply humorous and fun and doesn't require much deep thought. However, the only way that the audience could receive our video wrongly, and take any of it negatively, is if they took humour too far.

For example;

In our video, the detective is chased by a dog, only for about 3 seconds, but it does happen, and it is meant light-heartedly and to be humorous. This could, however, backfire. If a child with a pet dog saw this and found it really funny that a man in a stupid costume was being chased by a dog, he may try to re-enact the event. The child could perhaps set his dog on a friend simply because he finds it 'fun'. This is the only plausible negative effect that our video could have, in my eyes. Who knows, if it becomes a huge hit we may find out more.

The Effects Model or The Hypodermic Model

This model tells us the consumption of media texts has an EFFECT or INFLUENCE upon the audience.

It is normally considered that this effect is NEGATIVE.

Audiences are PASSIVE and powerless to prevent the influence. They are MANIPULATED by the text.

The power lies with the message of the text.

Also known as The Hypodermic Model as the messages in media texts are INJECTED into the audience by the powerful, SYRINGE-LIKE media and the audience is powerless to resist.

Therefore, the media works like a drug and the audience is DRUGGED, DOPED and DUPED and the audience can become ADDICTED.

Key Evidence for the Effects Model

1.The FRANKFURT SCHOOL theorised in the 1920's and 1930's that the mas media acted to restrict and control audiences to the benefit of corporate capitalism and governments.

2. (DOMINANT THEORY)

The Bobo Doll Experiment

This is a very controversial piece of research that apparently proved that children copy violent behaviour.

Conducted in 1961 by Albert Bandura

In the experiment:

• children watched a video where an adult violently attacked a clown toy a Bobo Doll
• The children were then taken to a room with attractive toys that they were not permitted to touch.
• The children were then led to another room with Bobo Dolls.
• 88% of the children imitated the violent behaviour that they had earlier viewed. 8 months later 40% of the children reproduced the same violent behaviour.

THE CONCLUSION REACHED WAS THAT CHILDREN WILL IMITATE VIOLENT MEDIA CONTENT

(Criticisms of Bobo Doll experiment:

-does it really prove that children imitate violent media content?

-all children were from the same American nursery in a time of racial and class division; so it is hard to generalise the results

- children seemed to be encouraged to hurt the bobo doll

-children were enticed and made more aggressive by putting them in a room with toys they could not touch)

3. Murder of James Bulger in 1993

Two children aged roughly 10 took 3 year old James Bulger from a shopping centre to a railway track whilst torturing him (e.g. stuck batteries into his anal cavity, cut him and threw stones at him). They then put him on the tracks and waited for a train to run him over. The cause of this was put on the film "CHILDS PLAY 3" (featuring the famous Chuckie Doll) as the children were said to have watched it.

4. The Murder of Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 by his friend Warren LeBlanc

The murderer was said to have imitated practices from the obsessive game "Manhunt".

5. The film "A Clockwork Orange" (1971) apparently had influence over a number of rapes and violent attacks.

6. The murder of Simon Everitt is said to have been related to the film 'Severance' (2006)

In each of these cases there was a media and political outcry for the texts to be banned. In some cases laws were changed, films banned, and newspapers demanded the burning of films. Subsequently, in each case it was found that NO case could be proven to demonstrate a link between the text and the violent acts.

Other Examples include...

The effects of media advertising; Go Compare, Compare The Market, We Buy Any Car, Shake and Vac, Cilit Bang, Money Supermarket.

The Effects model contributes to MORAL PANICS whereby:

- The media produce inactivity, make us into students who wont pass their exams or 'couch potatoes' who make no effort to get a job

-The media produces violent 'copycat' behaviour or mindless shopping in response to advertisements.

The Effects model (backed up by the Bobo Doll Experiment) is used by politicians, some parts of the media and religious organisations in attributing violence to the consumption of Media texts.

Audience Theories

There are three theories of audience:

1. The Effects Model or The Hypodermic Model
2. The Uses and Gratifications Model
3. Reception Theory

These help us to answer:

Why do audiences choose to consume certain texts?

How audiences consume texts?

What happens when they consume texts?

We can apply these to a media text to help us come to a better understanding about the relationship between the texts and the audience.

Critical Theory: Levi-Strauss - Narrative

Levi-Strauss also proposed a theory on narrative. His theory says that a narratives structure is dependant on BINARY OPPOSITIONS. These are pairs of opposite values that reveal the structure of media texts., and it is the conflict of these values that drive the narrative.

For example;

Male <-> Female

Old <-> Young

Fat <-> Thin

The most common of these is gender, due to stereotypical values that conflict. This is particularly used in the 'Rom-Com' genre of films.

Masculine Stereotypes: Strong, Heavy, Hard-Working, Competitive, Dominant.

Feminine Stereotypes: Weak, Light, Passive, Emotional, Co-operative.

In relation to my music video, this theory has practically no relevance, but this is only due to the fact that there are not many opposites. There is only one main character and he works alone, without help. Meaning that no parallels can be drawn between him and someone of opposite stature. Other characters have very little emotional effect on the detective so we do not necessarily side with any one person, although we do want the detective to succeed. Due to this, this theory has little relevance to my music video.

Critical Theory: Tzvetan Todorov - Narrative

Todorovo also proposed a critical theory for narration. Unlike Propp's theory it relates to the time and events that occur and does not related directly to the characters, just the events and actions they undertake.

Todorov's theory suggests that all stories and narratives follow the same structure:

To begin with there is EQUILIBRIUM. This means that all is good, usual and no problems face the protagonists or people we are following in the story.

(For example, the sun is shining GoodTown and all is well and happy)

This is then DISRUPTED by an event, often caused by another character, usually the antagonist. (e.g. Suddenly, the Evil Lord BadGuy says he is going to take over the village with his rabble of henchmen)

This causes an ENIGMA. This means questions are asked, why is this happening? what do we do? why do we do it? who should do it? The answer to these questions often lies with the protagonist.

(e.g The lowly Stable boy Harry steps up to the challenge with his steed, to win the heart of the beautiful princess)

These enigmas are then solved and overcome, resulting in REVOLUTION.

(e.g Stable boy Harry defeats Evil Lord BadGuy and wins the heart of the beautiful Princess)

This all results in a NEW EQUILIBRIUM.

(e.g. Harry and the Princess get married, Harry becomes King and everyone lives happily ever after. Or at least until the next disruption)

This theory is cyclical, which often results in the production of sequels to stories, using the same characters again, with different antagonists and some new people to help along the way.

In relation to my music video, this theory holds a lot of valid ideas. in fact, it relates perfectly!

The detective is walking along happily in equilibrium when he becomes disrupted, when he trips over the wire. Enigma then occurs, why is this wire here? where does it lead? what should I do? The detective the honourably steps up and follows the wire to answer these questions. He overcomes barriers such as being chased and run over, until he eventually comes to the band practice where he is thrown out, leading to a new equilibrium of the band finishing out the song.

Critical Theory: Vladimir Propp - Narrative

Propp's theory was produced after Propp himself read 100 folk tales, and came across a link that bound them all. He found that across all the stories there were only 8 character types and these characters fit into all other stories.

These characters are:

The Protagonist

The Antagonist

The Donor

The Helper

The Father Figure

The Dispatcher

The Princess

The False Hero

The purpose of our music video was to promote a song, so unfortunately doesn't give us anything near a tale of grand proportions, but it does have its own small narrative.

The Protagonist (or The Hero) in my video is clearly the detective as he is in the spotlight for most of the time and we follow him on his journey. He provides the video with a focal character and we feel for what happens to him, which tends to be humour and happiness due to the type of video we have produced. The band members could also be seen as protagonists as they are providing us with the pleasure of listening to their song with which the video is promoting.

There are a few antagonists as the only constant character is the detective. We could say that the wire itself is an antagonist as the detective trips over it, and it leads him through troublesome areas that see him chased, run over and thrown out. The dog, the security guard, the old man, the cinema viewers and the golfer are all antagonists as they hinder the detective along his journey.

The detective could also be called a false hero. This is because he eventually gets to the band practice and prevents the other protagonists, the band, from playing their song for a period of time. This in turn would make the security guard "The Helper" by removing the detective from the bands practice.

Unfortunately our video does not use all character types, but in the future we hope to make more that fit these profiles in other productions.

Critical Theory: Laura Mulvey - Feminism

Laura Mulvey argues with feminist views, which means that the production somehow detracts from being a woman. She argues in her theory that the camera is that of the "Male Gaze", which is active. The narrative is male directed in which they gaze towards female characters. So in many cases, females are simply used as a love interest or sexual desire for either those on screen or those in the audience. She believes that the narrative or plot/storyline of a production follows males, are influenced by males and flows mainly because of male participation.

This can be applied to our music video both positively and negatively.

Our video partially agrees with mulvey’s feminist theory as all of the cast are male and there is only one ‘woman’ in the whole video, but this is played by a male, and ‘she’ is very stereotypically shown in a red provocative dress. The woman figure is used for pure humour sense, so it could be said that we simply used a female to poke humour at. This is largely true but is also true for all of the characters in the video, most of whom are men. Either way, the view of women in our video is quite derogatory as for a few seconds she is supposed to be seen a sexually desirable, and is then poked fun at.

Audience Feedback: Survey Monkey

Yet again we used the trusty survey monkey to create a survey for our audience feedback; below are the questions we created and we should have the answers back in about a week, they will be shown in my evaluation.

Question 1: What Is Your Gender?

Question 2: How Old Are You?

Question 3: On a Scale of 1 to 10, How much Did You Enjoy The Music Video You Just Watched?

Question 4: What Was Your Favourite Part Of The Music Video?

Question 5: Does This Video Seem Professional or Amateur?

Question 6: In One Word, Could You Describe What You Thought Of the Video?

Question 7: Was There Any Point Of The Video You Didn't Like or Found Ineffective?

Questions 8: Finally, Would You Purchase The Song or Music Video?

Magazine Advert Finished

I've finished the magazine advert, below are two pictures of it, the advert itself and what the advert would look like if featured in UNCUT magazine.

In the UNCUT advert we're right next to a page featuring Foo Fighters . . . I'm especially happy about that :D