1) Genre stereotypes - For example with grime music; videos may often display themes of gangs and violence. Alternatively, a female pop group are likely to include things such as preppy dance routines. The genre of our song 'Without You' by Lana Del Rey is classed under 'alternative/indie' and so in our planning we have focused primarily on including things we consider to be alternative, e.g. retro effects and bohemian/edgy types of clothing, this obviously links well with Goodwins theory as we are trying to represent our genre through our music video.
2) Voyeurism- this is the act of looking (especially secretively) at a male or female who is being portrayed seductively for your own personal pleasure.
Goodwin suggests that voyeurism is mainly used in order to help sell the artist's music or gain popularity by sex appeal. Voyeurism can be portrayed in multiple ways, even through the use of props. An example of this is the scene in Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball' music video in which she seductively licks a sledgehammer, making it appear sexual whereas usually we would not associate a sledgehammer to this type of behaviour.
In relation to our own music video, we plan on keeping voyeurism to keep a minimum as we feel that within the music industry females are already frequently objectified and we want our video to be different to those already out there. In addition, our artist is a young female and we want her to be able to be seen as a role model for the younger generation. Our artist is sophisticated yet edgy at the same time so sex appeal is not really needed as it does not match up to her character.
One aspect of voyeurism that we are planning on including within our music video is direct eye contact with the audience. We feel that eye contact is very personal and including it within our video will enable the artist to almost build a relationship with her fans which is something we feel is very important in the music industry. Similarly, by including direct eye contact, the '4th wall' is broken, meaning that the sensed divide between the artist and the fans is broken, they appear on the same level.
3) A relationship between the music and the visuals - The implication of this is that the lyrics of the song should match what is going on within the video. We agree with this rule of Goodwins theory as we feel having the music and visuals matching makes the video run smoother and it looks generally more pleasing on the eye. Although we do want a majority of the video to match with the music, we do not feel it is necessary for the entire thing to match. We feel that having a bit of a juxtaposition between the two creates a contrast which will appeal to the audience and keep them involved. In addition, having something a little bit different within our music video fits well with our alternative genre.
4) The demands of the record label- a large majority of record labels have certain demands in regards to how their artist should be represented. For example, female artists are often made to appear 'sexy' in the hope of attracting a male audience. As a group we personally don't feel it necessary for our artist to be represented as over sexualised, instead we would rather focus on the actual quality of our video and ensure that it looks the best that it can possibly can. In a majority of Lana's videos she looks extremely glamorous rather than particularly 'sexy' and this is something we would like to interpret into ours.
5) Intertextual References- These are references to existing forms of media such as television, films and even books. Goodwin infers that the audience like being 'in' on the reference and it generally makes the video more likeable. We don't plan on using intertextual references in our music video as the song we have chosen has no particular link to any other form of media.
An example of an intertextual reference is Plan B's 'Ill manors' video which makes direct links to the london riots which obviously were reported on heavily on a mass range of media platforms, e.g. television, the internet and the newspaper.
An example of an intertextual reference is Plan B's 'Ill manors' video which makes direct links to the london riots which obviously were reported on heavily on a mass range of media platforms, e.g. television, the internet and the newspaper.
6) Performance based, narrative based or concept based? A narrative based music video focuses on telling a story. A fragmented narrative is when the story has no particular set order, showing both flashbacks and flash forwards meaning that the audience would piece it together themselves. We decided to go for a more linear narrative as although we want our video to tell a story, we aim to show it in chronological order. We feel as though this would be more successful as it shows consistency. A concept based video is where a certain theme or idea is presented. This sort of base is what I would say we are most likely to go for, however ours is set to have a more vivid story so wouldn't fit exactly into this category. Performance based videos have less camerawork, normally featuring closeup and wide shots of the band/artist playing. Although this sort of video gives the viewers a very raw, truthful type of video I don't personally feel it is the most appealing nor interesting and feel as though the artists talents could be showcased in a variety of other ways. It also doesn't enable the lyrics to be given much meaning as not much is represented within the video.
Marina and the Diamonds 'Forget' video is a great example of a performance based concept.
In conclusion, I feel as though my group has been influenced by Andrew Goodwins theory and we certainly will be applying some of his recommended structure to our music video as we feel a majority of the rules will make for an almost perfect video in technical terms. However, we will not be applying all of these rules to our music video as we want to break free from the stereotypes of alternative music videos and make our video individual.
Nicely summarised and presented with good examples.
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