Media A Level

Monday 18 June 2018

In the single album is Let's Dance, Fame and Kooks, all created by David Bowie. This helps create a wide variation of music for the artist to build a more believable backstory for the artist.

This is my artists logo.

This is the website.

https://zoealexsanders2001.wixsite.com/johncassidy

Plan Statement Of Intent

Let's Dance

Artist Name

John Cassidy.

Genre

Dance-Pop.

Music Video Plan

Combine both traditional filming and rotoscope animation.

Narrative

A person leaving school and dancing their way through life.

Conventions

Begins with a fade from black and also a title screen for the music video.

Filming

It's just a boring old day in Lutterworth with nothing really happening.

Rotoscope

All of the colours show up and a new, bright scenery is used.

Actual Statement

Let's Dance is the title-track from English singer David Bowie's 1983 album of the same name. It was also released as the first single from that album in 1983 and went on to become one of his biggest-selling tracks. I have chosen this song because it perfectly encapsulates the attitude that dance music has, as it says 'Let's leave life behind and just dance!' In the music video, I plan to show the renegade running away from life, as a student jumps over the fence of their school and leaves dancing away from his awful school life. The difference in this music video is the media types and how I implement them. The plan is to have the type of media change every other time the song says "Let's Dance" or "Let's Sway". The difference in the film and the animation is that the film looks like boring England, whilst the animation turns into a wonderland of colours and expression, as the teens normal looking clothing turns into extravagant fashion. The idea is that in the chorus, the person walking joins a band as the singer with all of them looking the same in both real life and in animation. This will express the self expression that dance music wants from people and will also create a visually appealing video. The mise-en-scene will change with each style of animation, showing the inner hope and joy the teen has in head even though he can't fully express it in real life. Beginning with a title card and the album cover will show that the artist is well established and has more songs than just this. The title card will have a space theme, as will the whole album cover. The rotoscope style will be realistic, with the colours being the only thing cartoon-esque about it, this is because the animation is drawn over the film to create a smooth transition between the animation and the filming aspect. The direct juxtaposition between animation and filming will create a unique effect seen in the video by A-ha called Take On Me which is actually similar to the style of animation I want to do, except with colour. To conclude, this will be effective because of the diverse use of animation and real life filming to encapsulate teenage life, much like MGMT's Time to Pretend music video, which was a big influence in the music video including Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster and Girls and Boys by Blur.

These are the looks that inspire the artists fashion style.

For this I'm going to have to dye my hair multiple colours, to do this I will have to bleach blonde my hair and use hair chalks to dye it to all the different colours. I also want to capture the gender bending style that David Bowie has created, as all of the songs are alternative in style. In the music video, however, it will change from casual mens clothing when inside the school and leaving it with blonde hair to the female style of clothing when he meets the band and a yellow orange hybrid hair colour.

I will have to take 11 pictures with 7 different styles, including glam rock, soul, swing, etc.

Tuesday 10 April 2018

Representation of Radiohead - Burn the Witch

Radiohead are a classic of the alternative genre and follow each convention in different albums, such as grunge in Pablo Honey and Art Rock in The Bends. A Moon Shaped Pool is their latest LP and follow songwriters Thom Yorke's perspective on life and society in the modern era. Burn the Witch is the first single and song on the album and represents this. In this essay I will analyse both the music and the music video to show the beauty and terror of the song and the video and how, although drastically separate, how they both follow the same meaning.

First of all, an analysis of the music of Burn the Witch, the chords chosen and the instruments used, and to what effect these certain things have on the audience. Now to begin heavier, the key chosen for the songs. Looking at it, it would seem quite simple, F Sharp Major is used. However, the chords used do not follow F Sharp Major, and instead follows the chords of F Sharp Minor but all the chords are major. This technique is hard to explain but easy to explain the effects it creates. As a listener to the song, you have a sense of creepy happiness, out of place happiness. The instrumentation changes the feeling of the song, and emphasizes this weird choice of musical theory, as the full orchestra sounds more horror than the happy major sound of the chords. This, as an audience, enhances the effect of the songs choices. However, as a critic, I prefer the live version, as the light instrumentation creates a sense of subdued foreboding I haven't seen a band do ever. The lyrics of Burn the Witch perfectly fit the instrumentation, showing and creating parallels of a hidden happiness which seems odd and out of place. In my opinion, the song shows the alienation of British culture and the fear of standing up to injustice seen in our modern society.

It is therefore interesting that the music video creates a clear link between the song and The Wicker Man, a film entailing the demise of a man who was alienated by a community of crazed fanatics. However, this music video isn't all connected by theme. A huge juxtaposition of the music video is the use of animation seen in the video and the content this music video explore, such as religion, alienation, surveillance and hatred, as the video shows graphic material from the Bible and satanism with a bright, childlike animation style. This form of animation actually refers to the Trumptonshire Trilogy, a childhood series at the time of Radiohead's singer Thom Yorke. This could be to market to a certain audience for Radiohead. However, I see it more as an oxymoronic style of animation the songs content and context that really shows Radioheads style of plain old bizarre. The colours used with the disturbing imagery also show a drastic juxtaposition in the video, with the bright colours and hue tinted filter on the video leaving a sense of oddness and leaves an uncomfortableness much like the music. This video, and its representation, appeals to the interesting demographic of Radiohead, which enjoy a weird and bizarre adventure that is psychedelic in nature, seen in other videos like Paranoid Android. The fact that you can tell it's Radiohead without having Radiohead in it says something about the music and the video that accompanies.

Overall, the music and the accompanying video represent the new type of music Radiohead are trying, depressing ambient art rock. This is done successfully throughout the whole song and leaves the audience with a sense of learning something that they lacked before.

Monday 22 January 2018

REVIVAL is a brand focused on the "revival" of the punk movement. We want the true morals and ideology of punk to be "revived". Because in our current culture, punk attitude is lacking and this has created a stagnant approach that the people in our modern world have adapted. Our main idea is to unite and spread a message more incline with our modern society. To ignore the past of punk and move on to a new individual style for people to rally under. We want a progression in the culture and ideas and a new sense of DIY and freedom.

Brand Font:

Brand Logo:

Brand Slogan:

Ready to make change...

Photo Mock:

The idea is to show a group of people wearing the clothing as they are resting after a protest for a fair trade and eco-friendly world.

The idea is to show band playing music to with a fair trade poster and a vegan poster in the background.

Wednesday 20 December 2017

My Favourite Films

2001: A Space Odyssey
Donnie Darko
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Shining
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
Kimi Na Wa
Edward Scissorhands
Perfect Blue
Blade Runner
Labyrinth

Yes, this is different to my previous list. I realised that human taste always changes, with the growing amount of electrical impulses in my Brain that can suddenly die off, I decided to instead choose classics of cinema that will be loved in my Brain no matter my changing tastes because these films are masterpieces... personally anyway. So here's the ratings of the films from an objective perspective

2001: A Space Odyssey -- 10/10 (Wish I could rate higher).
Donnie Darko -- 10/10 (Again, wish I could rate higher).
The Man Who Fell to Earth -- 10/10 (Not a conventional 10/10 but still is).
The Shining -- 10/10.
Star Trek II -- 9/10.
Kimi Na Wa -- 9/10.
Edward Scissorhands -- 9/10.
Perfect Blue -- 9/10.
Blade Runner -- 10/10 (I'll explain why this is here).
Labyrinth -- 8/10.

And that's it. Enjoy the list. As it stands these can be seen as quite unconventional films as most aren't entertaining like other films and need the viewers attention. Hopefully I'll turn you around on these films with no spoilers. Hope you like the list.

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Monday 18 December 2017

Explain how the political context in which newspapers are produced, influences their ownership and regulation.

1. Explain the political significance of the concept of 'press freedom' and its relationship to representative democracy. Why do you think freedom of the press is important? How much influence do you think the government should have about the things reported in the UK press.

I personally feel that the use of a free press has both positives and negatives, and therefore shouldn't be totally self-regulated. The invasion of privacy of those in the public eye is becoming more common, with reporters taking stories too far and gaining private information. This is happening due to the demand the readers give, responding well to stories that seem exclusive. However, I feel that when a scoop is no longer I the publics interest then it shouldn't be printed and hence should be regulated, as reporters are gaining both unwanted information and information which is too invasive. The concept of 'press freedom' has political significance as newspapers are able to support any political ideology, printing stories backing this ideology. Due to this, even though the government has little control of the press, politics remains one of the most covered topics. This relationship between 'press freedom' and its political significance helps to represent the democratic society in Britain; allowing readers to chose which ideology, and therefore newspaper, they follow and buy, without any regulation against them. Just as everyone is entitled to an opinion when voting for the future of the country, with the majority gaining power. I also feel that the government should oversee what is covered within the press, though shouldn't be able to control; what can and cant be published. The press should be covering stories and events with the publics interest as a priority, and I feel that I the government had control over the press the this would be forgotten.

2. How are newspapers regulated and why do you think this is necessary? Can you refer to an academic idea we have studied in class?

The main organisations that regulate newspapers consist of: Editor's code of practice, Press Complaints Commission (PCC), and the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). This is necessary so that newspaper companies are protected by these organisations so that stories are checked to make sure there is no obligation to those stories which could harm the company involved if there was a problem with story coverage.

3. What examples of editorialised content would not fit 'impartial' television news (e.g. social or political opinion) from The Guardian and The Daily Mail print or online editions

Editorialised content means that its not advertising based in the act that they pursue direct sales intensions. This is the reason in which customers purchase or subscribe to these news outlets. News outlets of this type manipulate and distorts news values in order to broadcast impartial judgments of peoples beliefs and what they want to hear.

4. What examples of ownership models, e.g. The Guardian’s trust ownership and The Daily Mail’s proprietor model, could show the opportunities offered by the latter model for control by ‘press barons’.

The guardian is run as trust where they regular each other the daily main is a capitalist paper that writes whats makes them the most money. This is similar with Rupert Murdoch who runs the The Sun, and many other news outlets in the UK. This is the capitalist ideas of people as owning the most media in the UK means that he can control people views and exposure to what they actually see. This is called a monopoly and it is what the Trust behind the Guardian was setup to avoid.

5. How much power does the press have to shape political debate, e.g. the influence of proprietors on politicians to support policies promoting cross-media ownership or holding back from regulation.

The press can develop power through ownership of newspapers which consequently can shape political stances due to their ideologues and therefore political debate through the widespread circulation which has the power to influence politicians in their debates. The owners of newspapers can influence the editorial stance of a newspaper. Newspapers will also attempt to influence how the public vote in elections. It is important that newspapers stick to a code of conduct or rules set out by independent organisations in order to avoid this. If one large business or one singular man owns a company their ideologies can filter down into the papers. This relates to Hesmondhalgh's theory on cultural industries as DMGT (owner of the Daily Mail) also owns multiple other companies. This therefore shows the integration and conglomeration of cultural industries which follows the normal capitalist patterns seen in Hesmondhalgh's theory.

6. Explain the political affiliations of the two newspapers, e.g. The Daily Mail as a right wing newspaper is partly defined by its support for the Conservative party, The Guardian as a centre-left newspaper is partly defined by its support for Labour or the Liberal Democrats, and how this is clear from an example you have studied.

To begin with, the Daily Mail is a clear right wing (capitalist) newspaper, which evidently portrays these views through its stories and layout. The Daily Mail tends to have a great focus on money and prices in modern life - even when not especially relevant to the story. The Mail does this because of its political affiliation, due to the wealthy being interested in the price of things. Another point, is that the Mail favours right wing people and the wealthy, which is clearly shown in their bias to some stories. An example of this, was the paradise papers coverage, which involved the queen being under fire for not paying tax and also for the elites dodging tax. In this, the Mail back up the queen and made it as if those lesser off were wrong, and the queen was simply a victim.

In contrast to the Mail, we see the Guardian adopts left wing (socialist) ideologies because of its support for labour. The Guardian is very much a hard news paper, and so what it conveys tends to be less biased and more factual. Despite this though, there is a slight lean in what it has written towards the socialist side of things, and so the rich tend to look worse. Interestingly, the Guardian also says a lot about tax at the minute, though what it says is how the rich should really help the poor, and so they should be taxed a greater amount.

Monday 23 October 2017

Explain how representations in music videos are chosen to promote the artist(s) - Massive Attack & Radiohead

Explain how representations in music videos are chosen to promote the artist(s) - Massive Attack & Radiohead...

Radiohead. A classic of alternative British music, maybe even said in the same breath as other alternative greats. Massive attack. A legacy of British hip hop and post punk attitude to music. Each represent each in different ways, each being better for the different bands. Here is my interpretation of each bands music video, Burn the Witch by Radiohead & Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack.

First of all, an analysis of the music of Burn the Witch, the chords chosen and the instruments used, and to what effect these certain things have on the audience. Now to begin heavier, the key chosen for the songs. Looking at it, it would seem quite simple, F Sharp Major is used. However, the chords used do not follow F Sharp Major, and instead follows the chords of F Sharp Minor but all the chords are major. This technique is hard to explain but easy to explain the effects it creates. As a listener to the song, you have a sense of creepy happiness, out of place happiness. The instrumentation changes the feeling of the song, and emphasizes this weird choice of musical theory, as the full orchestra sounds more horror than the happy major sound of the chords. This as an audience enhances the effect of the songs choices. However, as a critic, I prefer the live version, as the light instrumentation creates a sense of subdued foreboding I haven't seen a band do ever. The lyrics of Burn the Witch perfectly fit the instrumentation, showing and creating parallels of a hidden happiness which seems odd and out of place. In my opinion, the song shows the alienation of British culture and the fear of standing up to injustice seen in our modern society. It is therefore interesting that the music video creates a clear link between the song and The Wicker Man, a film entailing the demise of a man who was alienated by a community of crazed fanatics. However, this music video isn't all connected by theme. A huge juxtaposition of the music video is the use of animation seen in the video and the content this music video explore, such as religion, alienation, surveillance and hatred, as the video shows graphic material from the Bible and satanism with a bright, childlike animation style. This form of animation actually refers to the Trumptonshire Trilogy, a childhood series of Radiohead. This could be to market to a certain audience for Radiohead. However, I see it more as an oxymoronic style of animation the songs content and context that really shows Radioheads style of plain old bizarre. This video, and its representation, appeals to the interesting demographic of Radiohead. A weird and bizarre adventure that is psychedelic in nature. The fact that you can tell it's Radiohead without having Radiohead in it says something about the music and the video that accompanies.

Next, an analysis of the music of Unfinished Sympathy and what effect it has on the audience. To make it easier, the production of the music is quite effective and simple, taking queues and ideas from American hip hop and its sampling. Using samples from Jazz &C. genres. This style of production, whilst using quite classic and old fashioned samples, creates a weathered and aged feeling. This is also supported by the mixing of the song, having quite an aged and crackling sound. The way the song is made seems quite modern, especially the use of orchestral backing, seen in other hip hop music like Eminem, Plan B, etc. This unique instrumentation creates a huge weight to the music that might not be there if traditional hip hop production was used. Next is the lyrics, to some it seems quite plain and simple... a love song. But from my perspective, due to the over flood of love songs, there is a kind of cliche attitude towards any love song and the emotion. However, there is a kind of hate to this song that makes me think it's not a love song but instead a song of hatred that leads to obsession, the title also seems quiet supportive of this not being a love song, with Unfinished Sympathy having a sense of cut off care, maybe due to an abusive relationship or even an unrequited love? Once looked into deeper, this song means so many things from different perspectives. An interesting thing about this video is the realistic background to the surrealist main lead, an impossible forth wall lead with a quite average normal day life. This makes it so the people you see seem more realistic but the lead Shara Nelson doesn't. It helps the lead stand out. The way the band mates are represented is quite minimal because you don't really see style of them.

Overall, I believe the representation of each music video and song is drastically different, with Burn the Witch oozing stylistic choices only Radiohead would make, whilst Unfinished Sympathy is quite bland in the way it is shot, the colour scheme, and the style. However, both have different aims, with Radiohead wanting to be as Radiohead as possible, whilst Massive attack wanted a more real video. It's my opinion though that representation is so much better in Burn the Witch because it's so weird only Radiohead would do it. Whilst Unfinished Sympathy seems cliche, not at the time, but as a viewer now, most viewer have seen a better executed version of this.