Genre Theory
Generic similarities between different films.
Political and historic elements to the contexts.
How texts become commercial products from an industry.
Auteur Theory
Individual ideas and features.
What the artist has done to produce a text which is determined by their creativity alone, and not from being influenced by the mainstream hype.
How it links to other texts that the same artist has produced.
Many auteur media texts: meant to be considered as products of individual creativity.
Many media texts: are only 'products.'
Auteur media texts: are more rare, but they are designed around the idea of 'art.' Auteur media texts are not simply just products, because they are not made for commercial purposes. They are instead made for the Auteur's to 'express themselves.'
For Example, (of genre theory) ...A Theorist - Identified No. of Key Features Which Define Music Videos:
Many auteur media texts: meant to be considered as products of individual creativity.
Many media texts: are only 'products.'
Auteur media texts: are more rare, but they are designed around the idea of 'art.' Auteur media texts are not simply just products, because they are not made for commercial purposes. They are instead made for the Auteur's to 'express themselves.'
For Example, (of genre theory) ...A Theorist - Identified No. of Key Features Which Define Music Videos:
Andrew Goodwin
The Key Features That Have Been Identified in The Majority of Music Videos:
Andrew Goodwin Theory on Prezi
The Key Features That Have Been Identified in The Majority of Music Videos:
- The music video is either illustrating (having a song about a break-up shows a video of people breaking up), or is amplifying (the video has an extra layer of 'in depth' meaning added to give another perspective on the meaning behind the lyrics - which would be targeted for more mature audiences). Both of these two music video classifications are based around creating a relationship between the music and the it's visual portrayal.
- The visual stays true to the representation of the genre.
- Many close-ups of the key, dominant artist(s)/vocalist(s) miming to song words etc...
- Voyeurism (which is the practice of obtaining sexual gratification) is a major concept in the music video, and is mostly associated with the women in the video.
- Iconography is present (which is in regard to the conventions and also how a person or group is being represented).
- Intertextual references - media texts present; either to films, TV, games or other music videos.
References:
- http://www.scribd.com/doc/21443985/Andrew-Goodwin-and-Laura-Mulvey-Music-Video-Feature-Notes
- http://books.google.cz/books?id=Gu0nsa2V-z0C&pg=PA45&lpg=PA45&dq=andrew+goodwin+theory&source=bl&ots=HgG5ARuV62&sig=_UKwjt51BhlPpXpThbH3BU67Wn0&hl=cs&ei=XWfNTNyrC8j3sgbx-PyWCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=andrew%20goodwin%20theory&f=false
Andrew Goodwin Theory on Prezi
Further Theorists That I Have Discovered:
Steve Archer
Steven Archer is a theorist who:
Claims that there must be a strong relationship between the music video's storyline and the performance of the band.
For example:
- Dancers would be around the band, expressing the feelings of the lyrics.
- Narrative footage would be incorporated between shots of the band singing and the storyline to accompany it.
Bordwell and Thompson
(DAVID BORDWELL AND KRISTEN THOMPSON)
(DAVID BORDWELL AND KRISTEN THOMPSON)
Bordwelll and Thompson had a theory about editing:
There are four elements to this theory...- Spatial - The composition of what is being shown on the screen
- Graphic - The images on the screen
- Temporal - The plot of the music video
- Rhythmic - The pace of the image in sync to the beat of the song
- The music video is often influenced by the arts; eg - photography, art, fashion and cinema.
- The performer in the music video can have more offered to them then a stage can.
- There are typically lots of close-ups and spot lighting on the main performer's face.
- "Incorporating, raiding and reconstructing." - Being something which the audience is familiar with but also has aspects which introduce new messages and values.
Vernalis had a theory about editing also:
- She believed that continuity editing was a popular way of editing music videos, but was limited by only a certain number of shot types.
- Montage editing is the other popular form of editing, but cannot express narrative in a music video as easily. However, it makes the shots be consistently abstract and therefore, more 'artistic' effects can be used.
_______________________________________________________________
Sven E Carlson
Sven's quote:
- "The performer embodies one of three mythic roles, commercial exhibitionist, televised bard and electronic shaman"
- http://www.imageandnarrative.be/inarchive/worldmusicb_advertising/peeters.htm
- http://books.google.cz/books?id=DjDIw2pxjiMC&pg=PT343&dq=Kristin+Thompson+and+David+Bordwell+and+thompson+theory+music+videos&hl=cs&ei=l07NTNGpIZuU4gbI6ZzcDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
- http://www.davidbordwell.net/
- http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/
- http://www.slideshare.net/
- Also, I researched information from the sheets that I was given in class time.
For Example, (of auteur theory) ...A Famous Auteur Producer/Director:
Spike Jonze
Spike Jonze is an American director and producer, who works on music videos, commercials, films and on television.
Jonze is a powerful man who is known for his auteur signature. He is the co-writer and executive producer of Jack Ass on MTV, and is most famously known for his collaboration with Charlie Kaufman (who is another American director, producer and screenwriter with an auteur signature) on 'Being John Malkovich' (1999) and 'Adaptation' (2002). But Spike has also directed films on his own, such as 'Where The Wild Things Are' (2009). These productions are what gave Jonze his reputation as a quirky auteur, and Academy Award nominations.
Wax - California (Directed by Spike Jonze)
The genre of this music video is rock, which would attract an audience who are mostly individualists. I find that this music video is individualistic in itself, and is definitely auteur. I think that this music video is targeted to more mature audiences, from the age of 17 to 30 - this is also because the lyrics would relate the most to this audience range, eg, "why did I move to Southern California?" There is no defined representation of social groups that it creates. There is not a lot that is very feminine in the visual context of this video, but the genre would be more associated with the gender of men.
The use of slow motion and expansion-of-time editing throughout the entire music video gives a ground basis to the Auteur style, because it is not like a typical music video where the audience would expect to see many different cuts to the music, different scenarios and a band miming to their lyrics. This music video was also clearly low budget. This entire music video is shot in just one take, with no cuts incorporated and no band involved in the visual portrayal of this song. This auteur music video is disjunctive, as the visual concepts do not match the lyrics; this video is based on abstract imagery and not on the lyrics from the music itself - however this is can be risky to do this if you're not recognized as an auteur because your target audience may not respond in the way that's hoped. The narrative function is not defiantly clear (as it's auteur), but could adopt the theory of Claude Levi-Strauss and his idea on binary oppositions. The binary opposites in this music video could be between the man being on fire and the girl in the car at the end of the video - because the man on fire could have gone to Southern California (as the pinnacle of the film is about) and messed up his life there, but the little girl could connote a new beginning, where she has the chance to not mess up her life. Therefore the binary opposition could be that of mistakes and new chances.
This video promotes an array of many open questions to the audience (which is a typical auteur convention), as we are made to question the reasoning for having a man on fire running through the street, where passers by don't even notice. The lyrics also contradict the song's purpose, of moving to California, yet the man on fire could connote something which a mature audience may look into and think about. The type of ideology for this music video is hard to describe because the purpose behind it (eg, the man running on fire) is hard to define into a category of which it is communicating - making this music video redundant.
Fatboy Slim - Praise You (Directed by Spike Jonze)
This music video is just as quirky and auteur as the previous, above.
Once again, the lyrics do not match what we visually see on the screen, making the music video disjunctive. It's low budget made to look home made (especially due to the dialogue at the start and the way the titles and editing is very basic). Yet again the band doesn't mime to the lyrics, however, Norman Cook (the singer of Fatboy Silm) appears sometimes. This video is not out of the ordinary, as it's realistic. The city backdrop is what makes it more significant (as it's of Manhattan) and gives more sense of location. This video is hugely entropic and there is no defined narrative to it. There is no narrative theory that I could apply to this music video, as there is no indication of story or binary opposites involved.
The difference between these two music videos is that this Fatboy Slim one has actually got a range of cuts, pans, short takes, long takes, close ups and midshots etc, but it is all filmed on a hand held camera which keeps it feeling auteur. However, 'The Wax - California' music video appeared to be filmed on a dolly camera to track the subject as he walked through the course of the song which is how a mainstream music video would be filmed, but because there are no editing techniques (because it's only filmed in one shot) makes it have yet again, more auteur features.
The representation of this music video changes in this video, because there are more conventions to it. It represents the social groups of both men and women and the target audience would include both genders too. The audience's age group for this music video would be around 19 to 45, as the visual input to the song does not relate to teenagers. The ideology as with the previous video is yet again hard to define, due to the auteur conventions being so significant, but residual ideology could be associated with this because it's simply of a group of people dancing - which are values that people in the past (and have always) agreed with.
Therefore... Spike Jonze's Auteur Signature Involves Music Videos Which Are:
- Low budget.
- Looks like a 'home video' or 'home footage.'
- Not too much out of the ordinary.
- Disjunctive.
- Visual does not back up lyrics.
- Band isn't in the music video.
- Band doesn't mime to lyrics.
- Leaves open questions to the audience.
- Entropic.
- No clear narrative.
- No clear representations.
- For more mature audiences.
- To alternative/Indie genres of music.
