Useful Camera/Editing Techniques

CAMERA TECHNIQUES

• Framing - where people, props etc are placed within the frame (the composition)
• Angles - high angle (birds eye view)- shot from above
• Aerial shot- filmed from a helicopter
• Low angle - filmed from below
• Movement Pan/panning - camera moves on a pivot left/right
• Tilt - Camera moves up or down on its pivot
• Track/tracking - shot attached to moving object to follow the action
• Zoom - camera moves in/out on an object
• Short Take - Shot lasts for a short time
• Long Take - Shot lasts for a long time

EDITING TECHNIQUES

• Quick cuts - Shot moves rapidly from one frame/ shot to the next
• Fade (fade to black)- One shot fades away to black and the next shot fades in
• Dissolve - One shot fades out as the next shot simultaneously fades in
• Wipe - A shot is literally wiped off the screen by another
• Slow motion - A sequence is slowed down
• Fast motion - A sequence is sped up
• Stop Motion - A series of still shots or drawings are taken with a still camera and mixed into a moving image program to create a digital animation sequence

Production Skills

• Reliable performance (Convincing performers)
• Good directorial skills (Assertive)
• Knowing and understanding the wants and expectations of the audience
• Time management (having a detailed plan)
• Thorough planning (Organisation)
• Good research
• Enthusiasm and motivation
• Camera skills (i.e. no shaky camera)
• Editing skills (e.g. Lip-syncing)
• Using suitable settings
• Utilising everyone’s skills
• Room for debate
• Being objective

Feedback

John, your textual analysis pieces are both detailed and interesting. Well done for meeting the deadline on this work. You should now work towards uploading your additional evidence of research and planning work i.e. work around your chosen track, storyboard sections etc.

Textual Analysis - "Golden" by Jill Scott

The video immediately starts with a smile from the singer in close up. Along with the light piano playing in the background this instantly indicates to the viewer that this video and song is going to be light hearted and easy to listen to (easy listening). The close up slowly cuts to a mid shot of Jill’s whole body revealing her costume to be entirely white. Of course white connotes purity implying her song has no negativety involved, it’s just pure soul. One could link her costume to post-feminist views as she is a female singer but isn’t going about staying true to your tradtional R&B female singer i.e. her clothes being too revealing and therefore you could say she is breaking the stereotype as she isn’t your usual R&B singer she’s different, she has class as white can also be seen to connote professionalism.

The camera again cuts to long shot of her singing in the middle. This shot now reveals the location of where she was singing. She seems to be on a busy street with loads of people rushing to get to work. She is the most visual on screen due to her costume and her basically being in the middle. This shot suggests that she isn’t letting the seriousness and harsh reality of life get to her. (e.g. 9 to 5). This could inevitably link to the lyrics as she is “taking my freedom, putting it in my car, wherever I choose to go”. She’s basically saying she’s going to ‘go to with the flow’ and let life take it’s course and not be bound by work and stress. A car is the prop she would probably use to escape that stress. Stop Motion is used here as a technique to make the people around Jill seem robotic; almost as if they're following their life like a schedule day in day out, never being able to breach this vicious cycle. They're all wearing black to further make Jill seem apart from the crowd, different, her own self not a ‘robotic drone’.

We cut to a low angle shot of Jill riding her bike. The shot makes the buildings around Jill seem to tower over her almost representing the authority in society trying to bring her down. Yet we zoom to a close up and she’s wearing a brigh yellow jacket with a matching yellow flower in her hair. We get a variety of close up shots her, some to her side, some in front of her. At some points she’s not even looking ahead suggesting she’s not bound by one path in life and she want’s to broaden her horizens. Of course her yellow jacket is a reference to song. Yellow or Gold can instantly connote happiness and glee which is how she appears while she is riding her bike. Also her bike is major clue to her happiness. Bikes are often identifyed with being carefree. One memory everyone has with a bike is learning to ride it for the first time which is probabaly how she feels everytime she rides it.

While riding her bike, we get a brief shot reverse shot with a little girl and Jill looking at the girl. The girl is playing what appears to be Lego or some kind of board game. She herself is wearing a very bright orange shirt also further referencing the song title. The little girl’s scene is filmed entirely in stop motion. This time the stop motioning is very rapid and not entirely robotic. This is probably to link with the little girl’s ‘bubbly’ attitude after seeing Jill on her bike and sticking her tongue out. A shot reverse shot is displayed of both of them sticking tongues out at each other. Then a zoom in occurs on the little girl’s lego with a CG image of a Jills faces animating in lego. This may be a refence to 70’s music as the colours used in the animation are very bright and ‘groovy’. 70’s music generally identified with these kinds of colours suggesting Jill gets inspiration from 70’s disco because she believes those songs made her happy.




We enter verse two with another stop motion scene with Jill and her mother or aunt looking at a photo album of Jill’s childhood. Sharing memories with a loved is often associated with good feelings and laughter – ‘remembering the good times’. We get images of her childhood to her teens all the way up to her early adulthood. I believe Jill has done this specifically as a way of interacting and inviting the audience into her life. She wants the audience to be able to relate to her on a comfortable level which is identifyable with most familes in society. After looking at the album we get a close up shot of Jill’s mum or aunt kissing her on the cheek to probably thank her for coming. Maybe she understands that not many children see their parents once they’re all grown up and left the home so after seeing this scene and listening to this song she wants to appeal to those sorts of people to change their ways and make their family smile once in a while instead of shutting them off.


The chorus begins again with Jill on her bike in a low angle shot waving at someone off screen. Again she isn’t not conforming to one path by only looking ahead but branching herself and giving herself more freedom. Near the end of the chorus, Jill’s bike riding scene finally becomes stop motion. Here we are greated with a low angle shot of Jill finally letting go of the handle bars and continuing to ride. The scene doesn’t show Jill riding forward but almost on the spot as if she was trying to balance. The spreading of arms suggests breaking free of constriction, the handle bars representing that constriction holding her back and she wants to break free of that. The technique with the stop motion by making her appear to be balancing of the spot is sort of refence to those tight rope walkers. They’re professional, they know they won’t fall. But the audience has that sense of distress and tension – “is he going to fall? Isn’t he?” and that sense of tension that sense of ‘don’t know know what’s going to happen next’ is another way to truely living your life or her life to the fullest. Never planning, just going forth and doing it not caring about the consequences.

As the chorus continues more stop motion scenes are depicted of various life situations in which people are ‘living their life like it was golden’. The first depicts a couple in an intimate close up. The man whips out a ring obviously indicating he’s asking her to marry him. Various close up shots are used to fully display the expression on her face. The stop motion enhances that as it quickly gets the point across without having to drag out the scene. Just a few shots are used to show her expression, and a few is all you need as you expect she is going to be happy because of the atmosphere of the song.









The next verse begins and we get a low angle shot of a kid getting a box of “Freedom O’s” cereal out of the cupboard. The colours on the box are again bright colours orange, yellow, red etc. to further emphasise the songs nature. Stop motion again is used here to demonstate the kid making the cereal. Cereal or breakfast is always associated with the line ‘the most important meal of the day’. Kids grow up with this line and generally come to love breakfast time making it their most happiest times of the day which could now link to the song.

The third installment in ‘a day in the life of happy people’ portrays a woman (in stop motion) finally finishing work. This is indicated with a close up shot of her looking her watch and a mid shot of her stretching her arms after a long day and with a generally happy expression on her face. She is shown in mid shot picking up her bag and leaving work. And then the screen zooms out seemlessly into a photo of the woman going to a ballet class and the words ‘Never Stop Dreaming’ written across of the bottom of the photo. The line probably suggests that she is living her life the way she wants and not just going home after work. She wants to be something more than your average office worker. Ballet is also associated by being a very elegant dance when you dance, you’re letting yourself go of all the troubles.





Next stop motion scene depicts a boy coming home from school to be greeted by a new bike from his father. A close up of the father hugging and kissing the child indicates how close they are to each other. The video shows the father then teaching the boy how to ride it which is often most associated with father and son gaining a closer bond. The photo image appears on the screen again with the words ‘My son, my heart’ written. The heart connoting love indicating he loves his son.











The next stop motion scene depicts several kids inside a car pretending to drive it. Kids at that age (7,8,9) always seems to look up to their parents and want to be like them. Again a generally happy moment in a childs life.

Jill is shown in the next scene lying on the beach in a high angle shot. And then again in a mid shot with her back to the camera but showing her looking out to sea with the sun setting. The sunset is used to indicate the video coming to an end. Generally sunsets are associated with warmth and beauty. People generally lose themselves when watching the sunset again. The sun is sorce for letting oneself go.

To conclude, Jill doesn't let herself conform to the convention of female R&B singers. She sort of let's the music sell her, not her image which is generally what most R&B females do - sell themselves to the record company. 'To get more money, you gotta be more sexy'. She subverts that making her a very independant and strong role model for females everywhere. The song is also used to further broadcast her message of basically 'living your life to its fullest and not letting life get you down' and I think this is clearly demonstrated in the video.

Well done for the research and planning work you have completed so far John.

Textual Analysis - "Paparazzi" by Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga - Paparazzi (Official Music Video)

Lady Gaga | MySpace Video
Released July 5, 2009
Directed by Jonas Åkerlund

The music video opens with no music at all. Instead it is sort of reminiscent of a classic Hollywood film opening sequence, like Casablanca or even Loony Toons. This can be seen as an example of pastiche or homage because she is imitating those films because she believes they’ve influenced her music and style and is therefore crediting them.
During the opening a slideshow of different images are played on screen. They are basically used to establishing the setting of the video. One low angle shot shows an image of several palm trees with the sun shining behind it and another low angle shot to display a mansion. This therefore suggests this music video was set in Los Angeles; home of Hollywood stars and the famous, iconic street called ‘Sunset Boulevard’.

The video continues to show more close ups and mid shots which contain mise-en-scene such as flowers and chandeliers. This all further suggests the location is Hollywood because Hollywood is the home famous celebrities who are very wealthy and can afford to buy such luxuries. The title finally displays and shows Lady Gaga’s name and the name of the song and who directed it. This implies that the music video is about to begin. The font also plays homage to 1950’s films here. We get several high angle shots of the room. Money on the floor, broken bottles, room in a state. This indicates to the viewer that something bad has happened, most likely a domestic problem because we’re in a bedroom, perhaps a problem over sex and the man got angry. Note how we can here a piano in the backround. This links well with some of the shots we see at the beginning (chandeliers, palm trees) because it’s often stereotyped that the wealthy enjoy classical music.
Don’t forget the ambience of the chirping of birds in the background while the close ups of the mansion are played. The two compliment each other and create a sense of realism. We makes it easier for the audience to understand.

We get our first piece of dialogue now as we see Lady Gaga and her lover on her bed. There is no sining yet, alternatively they are just speaking but they are speaking in Swedish and there are subtitles on the screen which again sparks familiarity with a film. They move to the balcony and start making out. While that is happening we get several clips in and out of their make out scene. For example there are jewels on the table, also theres money with her face on it. Now this may imply that she is narcissistic and slightly drunk with money believing she is so rich she can buy money with her face on it believing she is as important as the early presidents of the USA.

However hidden photographers are taking pictures of them from behind the scenes. Gaga realizes that her boyfriend has set the paparazzi to photograph her and tries to stop him. When it becomes futile, she tries to push him away and ends up smashing him with a wine bottle. The enraged boyfriend throws her over the balcony. She then enters a CGI state where she is simulating falling but instead of showing the ground, it shows spirals in the background. This is wear we can see what she is wearing. A white swimsuit almost. This is conventional of a Lady Gaga music video as you usually expect to her in very revealng clothing. She is shown falling using a birds-eye-view, her arms flailing about. This shot suggests her to be vulnerable and helpless.
Gaga lies at the ground in her own blood as the photographers continue take pictures of her bloody body. Newspapers fly across the screen reading headlines such as “Gaga is over” proclaiming that her career is over. This scene apparently pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo.

Finally the music begins! Gaga is shown getting out of a limousine, being carried by male dancers to a wheelchair. As the dancers spin around her, we are cut in and out of scenes with her alone singing on a grand sofa. She is wearing a rather saucy leather swimsuit, again conventional of style. As she is helped into the house, the carpet is purple instead of red. Purple implies luxury and pleasure. The carpet may suggest she is subvert the stereotype of the typical celebrity and that she is not your ordinary pop star, she is different.
What she wears in as she is getting pulled is rather clever as she looks like she would if she were living in 1950. Note how she opens one glass lens. This could be done to mimic monicles that are often stereotyped with the very wealthy. We get various close ups and mid shots of Gaga and Gaga with the dancers. But instead of an extreme close up of her eyes, we get one of her lips, maybe representing the sexual aspect of her videos, but can also used to reference the 1960’s womens movement where women because more independant and started wearing make up and miniskirts. Films during the time would have reference society at the time and there she is playing homage to that.

In a rather seemless editing technique where we get an extreme close up of Gaga to a zoom out to reveal a new costume with the help of a pair of crutches while wearing a metallic bustier and a matching helmet. She is now joined with more dancers siginifing the performance aspect of the video. She resembles the robot from Star Wars: C3P0 while she is wearing this costume and is therefore also a reference to it. In this costumes she now has broken the distinction between the difference between humans and robots, a binery blurring.

As the chorus begins to end and we enter the bridge to the next verse, these scenes are interspersed with scenes of dead models lying around the mansion. The second verse begins and we contniue with Gaga on the golden couch. During the verse we are continuously bombarded with clips of dead women (some dead in the bath, some even hanging themselves). Lady Gaga is seen making out with three rockers on the golden couch during the line "Loving you is cherry pie". This is apparently a reference to rock band Warrent and their single “Cherry Pie”. In my opinion I believe this was included because Gaga explores the ideas about the sort of crazy situations that people will go though in order to be famous. Most specifically, pornography or murder. This signifys why the man she was kissing wanted her to look at the camera and why she is wearing revealing clothing.

The second chorus begins. Gaga is now wearing a white body suit and a black skirt on her right leg.This may reference lolita style gothic fashion which may link to the dark scenes of death seen in the second verse. The video continues through the intermediate bridge with Gaga wearing a dress made up of film strips and a towering feathered Mohawk headdress. The screen flashes mimicing paparazzi camera. In this costume she seeks to show her vulnerable side. The close up of a dog occasionally pops up during the bridge. This could be interpreted as a “hungry paparazzi”. The paparazzi are animals, beasts that are relentless until they have the truth. Her wearing nothing but film strips suggests her vulnerable to the paparazzi no matter what. Her mohawk on the other could be seen as a simbol of strength as it makes her head look bigger. This may link with the line “Still. Have. Fun” Maybe she is split between think she is better than the press and doesnt care and people like the man at the beginning getting what they want, her real self.

We finally enter that last part of the song. A dissolve from black occurs and fades in with the servant serving the tea on the table. In this part of the song Lady Gaga is seen wearing a yellow jumpsuit and sunglasses with the lens opened out to resemble giant ears. This is an example of intertextuality where it appears as though Lady Gaga is mimicing Minnie Mouse while wearing this. This implies her sweet and playful side. Maybe she is willing to forget what her boyfriend did to her. HOWEVER. The yellow jumpsuit is used to forshadow the boyfriends death as it could be a reference to the Kill Bill films. The boyfriend basically reperesenting Bill. The extreme close up of her black lipstick can also be used to connote death. She stirs poison into her boyfriends drink and licks the spoon she stired it in. This may imply she is so evil, so venomous that even poison won’t stop her.

Time passes after the death of her boyfriend. She’s fleed the scene and forensics are examining the dead body. Lady Gaga is shown being bodyguarded back to her limo with the paparazzi all over her and flying newspapers reading: “She’s back!” and “She’s innocent”!. There is a blurring of fiction occurrance here where the blurring is her getting arrested. She hasn’t really been arrested. But the paparazzi is the reality as she probably goes through that sort of situation everyday. Her being arrested links to 1950’s film as it is black and white. Films didn’t have colour back then. And finally a the video ends just like Looney Toons used to with a circle zooming to show nothing but a black screen. Afterwards credits are shows also typically with 1950s film.

This music video is fully evident that it is post-modern. With references to 1950s film and contemporary features such as the robot suit and the lolita dress. She seeks to attract mainly young audience because of this however entice old audience as they may recognise some of the references within the video.

Post Modernism

MODERNISM

- Modernism is a characteristic of contemporary styles like art, music or literature which seeked to reject traditionally accepted forms and express individual representation. This era began to emerge after the industrial revolution during the late 19th century where we began to see films and scripts being created for the first time. The 50s saw a huge change to lifestyles for woman and children. Woman had more flexibility with their lives instead of just doing chores all the time and teenagers were having more fun going to dinner, dances and stuff like that.

POST-MODERNISM

- In Post Modernism on the other hand, interpretation is everything; reality only comes into being through our interpretations of what the world means to us individually. Therefore there becomes a sort of blurring on reality and fiction. We watch something on TV, we know it's completely fake but we like it because it's a complete change to what we're used to in reality.

Conventions of Post Modernism include:

Intertextuality - one media text referring to another e.g. Michael Jackson's Thriller containing werewolves and other scary things that were a credit to monsters movies back in the 80s.

Parody - Mocking something in an original way e.g. Alien Ant Farm's "Movies" where they mock 3D and several films that came out during the 80's and 90's like Ghostbusters or Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, the Karate Kid and Edward Scissorhands.

Pastiche - A work of art that imitates the style of another artist or period. E.g. Weird Al Yankovic's "White and Nerdy" imitating Chamillionairie's "Ridin'".

Bricolage - Mixing up and using different genres and styles. e.g. "Walk This Way" which was originally an Aerosmith song but Aerosmith decided to do a compilation with Run DMC to create a mixture of Rap and Heavy Metal which was unheard of at the time but truly revolutionised the genre bringing two completely different audiences together.

Homage - Imitation from a respectful standpoint. E.g. Michael Jackson's "Black or White" imitating Back to the Future and other films.

Textual Analysis - "Inner City Life" by Goldie

The beginning of the video enters with serveral establishing shots of the setting of this video. It shows councils flats and the long running stereotype with council flats is that they are considered poor areas. So already it's showing us that the "inner city life" isn't going to be a very good one.
The filter used on the camera throughout the majority of the music video has a golden tint to it. This could be used to signify that it is one of the artists': Goldie's music video. However it can also be seen to subvert the previous images of council flats. Gold is a colour that connotes wealth yet council flats aren't a wealthy area.

The singer is finally revealed as she is dissolved in quite a unique manner. She opens her hands has she is being transitioned from the previous scene almost as if she has direct influence on the video somehow. Also the transitioning seems to be mostly dissolves and fades to match with the music's calm feeling at this point in the video.
It then dissolves again to what appears to be a single mother washing the dishes then another close up of a BT bill. This clip implies she is struggling as we can only see her and the children we instantly believe that she is a single parent dealing with two kids, housework and the bills. Further implying that this "inner city life" isn't all it's cracked up to be.

We then recieve a High angle shot of a trolly to the ground and the singer is holding her note on the word 'free' as the trolly is falling. This could suggest suicidal thoughts are going through the single mum's head. She wants to be free of this harsh life.
It dissolves again to a close up of a young teen wearing a hoodie. Hoodies connote gang culture suggesting that this council estate is home to some criminal gangs because of this area being poor they have to resort to crime to live.

You get serveral low angle shots of the council estates within this opening sequence. This could suggest that this "life" is too big for them, that they can't handle the "pressure" of it.

Dissolve to another clip and you get some kids playing what appears to be football or basketball. It is a common fact that council estates do not allow ball games in the area for fear of damage to parked cars or windows, but these kids are doing it anyway. This suggests that these kids have no respect for the rules and are being rebellious, making life even harder to live in this estate.
The camera then tilts upwards to a high angle shot of the kids playing implying that they are vulnerable, vulnerable to the hard life that awaits them.

Now next we have a rather perculier shot as we see someone parked in a BMW. BMWs are generally expensive cars so to see one in the video after all the scenes before sort of subverts everything about this estate and the hegemonic control. But then it changes. The camera keeps tilting until we've done a full 180 degree and now looking at the car and what the car is looking at upside down. This may further emphasise that this car is just a dream of what the people in the estate could have but can't and therefore turns upside down. Or it could imply that something strange is happening or about to happen. Maybe revealing the true nature of this "inner city".

The colour scheme rapidly changes and is now a dark, purpley colour. This could be the "true nature" of the inner city life. The setting has now changed to a club. Clubbing usually suggests drinking and/or drug taking i.e. The true nature of the inner city life finally shown which in turn maintains the status quo if you will. When it appears to us as an audience seeing a close up of serveral people passing on something discreetly, it instantly suggests drug dealing, HOWEVER what appears to be drugs is ACTUALLY a CD or a mix tape.
The video is now starting to throw in a lot of subversions now, where the stereotype was drug dealing within the inner city life of crime, we're getting a completely different perspective. This "CD dealing" may imply that these people in the inner city are trying break free of the stereotypes of the inner city life and are trying to make something of themselves. By selling this CD they wanted to make money, become successful and perhaps turn that dream of a BMW into a reality. However they feel they can only do it in a discreet way because the pressures of the inner city life won't allow them to succeed.

The camera is spinning to mimic the DJ spinning the disc, then we get another dissolve (with the camera still spinning) of the single mum again, with the golden tint making its comeback. The camera spinning with the mum in frama may suggest her feelings of stress. The camera is also in a high angle shot exposing her vulnerability. The room is also a mess suggesting she can't handle cleaning up because she's handling too many things at once without her husband there to help her. This is further established in a clip with her washing the dishes and wiping her forehead. It's hard work and she is struggling alone.

To another dissolve and we get to see biker riding past the screen, however there appears to be railings in the shot covering up most of the scene. This could be used on purpose to suggest a prison lifestyle. That kids from this neighbourhood are going inevitably end up in prison after resortng to crime because of the harsh life withn the inner city.

The singer is again dissolved into the video by her opening her arms. This could not imply she is their change, their salvation. She is opening herself up to them.

The camera dissolves to the single mum a lot but this time she is with someone, the ex husband. and they're both sleeping together. Does this mean he has returned or is this just the woman's dream fabricated on screen of them being together again?

A dissolve once more leads us to a car on fire with the purple filter on the camera again. This could the suggest car theft in the neighbourhood and criminals are trying to torch the car for evidence. Further emphasising the darkness of the inner city life.

The words "life" and "pressure" are repeated now as we get closer to the end of the video. This part seems to tie all the clips together in a little montage to truely emphasise the harshness of the inner city life.
A small is shown to us of the woman without the husband again. This time, her child is dissolved in and out sleeping next to her. Then her ex husband is dissolved in and begins to have sex with her, but she's too tired. This could imply why they split up, the husband was using her for sex.

Finally, the woman and a guy in a hood, each in their own filters (woman in gold, hoodie guy in purple) start to burn something. This to me suggests that they are both tired of the inner city pressure and want to get rid of it or get away from. In turn, tying the two filtered scenes together.
Marxists would suggests that some of the messages in this video were realistic (council house, hoodies, single parents) so some audience could relate to it. The target audience being young people because they can relate and also, this seems like their kind of music (drum and bass).

The Marxist Approach

Karl Marx was the founder of the Marxist Theory. He believed that media messages should be used for good and not evil. The evil being the "dominant ideology", which can have quite a dangerous influence on the masses.

The Dominant Ideology can be described as ideological forces that pre-determine how our society should function. Marxists believe that powerful insititutions subtly control how we, the masses, conduct our lives within society. Dominant institutions include; the Press/Media, the internet, television, the music industry, tabloids, or abuse or certain social groups i.e. muslims and young people.

Marxists also believe that the media plays a significant in controlling the masses and some would say as an institution it has greater influence on society than religion, politics and the families (nature over nurture). This supposed subtle dominance with which control the masses is also known as hegemonic control.

Hegemony is an ideological concept which was first introduced by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. He believed that the media message culd perform a subtle indoctrination, influecing the manner in the which society viewed the world until the message becomes 'common sense', unchallenged by the masses. Hegemonic control is an acceptance of the 'status quo'.
Examples may include how the media portrays football as a huge sport and broadcasts more so than any other sport. This suggest it is a popular sport and the media is feeding the masses what they want.
Michael Moore the creator of such documentaries as Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11 can be seen to challenge hegemony as he questions certain conspiracies not just feeding the masses a bunch of lies to cover anything up.