Stereotypes

Preconvieved ideas to what we expect compared with the reality- Stereotyping
http://alcoholrehab.com/alcohol-rehab/stereotype-drug-alcohol-abuse/

There are many different stereotypes that are brought to mind when thinking about drug or alcohol addicts. The majority of these stereotypes make negative assumptions about lifestyles that include drugs and alcohol. People who abuse substances are typically deviants and don’t engage in society like the rest of the population. They embody different values to mainstream society: skirting the edges, unemployed, victims of bad upbringings, high school drop outs and prostitutes. They take drugs in dark, dirty alleyways or squats, rob innocent people, go on binges and engage in high risk behaviors. The reality of substance abusers is that the majority are just like everyone else. They are parents, children, friends, workmates, sisters and brothers. They hold down jobs, have friends, go to social functions and enjoy their weekends. Some fail to manage their addiction and do become entrenched in a lifestyle that the stereotypes embody, but many do not. An addiction does not discriminate between rich and poor, young or old.

Stereotyping substance abusers can lead to many difficulties in recognizing and treating people. Treatments and services for people who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction should not be used to make generalizations about who, what and why people have an addiction. There are many different factors as to why a person suffers from a substance abuse problem and being able to treat everyone should be the priority.

Some people may find that they make assumptions about people who are in high risk groups for drug use. People from low socio-economic groups, from broken homes, from particular suburbs or towns may find they are discriminated against for the perceived addiction. Additionally, some legitimate health conditions can cause people to exhibit behaviours that are similar to someone who is under the influence of drugs. 

This highlights my first inital idea. So therefore i have chose to follow this narrative as it is is more realistic and can actually create a message to the audience. This proves that most likely drug users put on an act to family friends and the outside world showing they are fine and happy however they are not.

Imagery collage within lyrics for carmen

Initial ideas

Carmen-Lana del rey

Idea 1

Showing 2 different lifestyles that girl has. Behind doors she is in depression dealing with many problems such as drugs etc. Whereas with friends and around people, in the real world she is different and shows hiding her problems well. I may choose to make the actress famous in the video, to show the REAL lifestyle behind a celebrity. To get a meaning across: ‘what happens behind doors, stays behind doors’ and also break the idea of stereotyping.  I want the audience to feel and sorry and to create empathy for the actress.

Idea 2

A lot of lana del rey videos is just a montage of random clips that have some but not a lot of relation to the song lyrics. I’d get different videos, old and new ones of when i was younger to present day and put them together. A bit like lana del reys video games. However I will make it have some link to the story line.

Idea 3

Another idea i thought about was the life of a prostitute. However i wanted everyone to feel empathy for the singer and not look at her in disgust. A bit similar to idea 1 about breaking stereotypes and the explaining the negative connotations that came from this.  

story board

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YzabSdk7Zs

Current heatlh issues

For my narrative about having 2 lives which were completely different to each other i thought it would be best to research some health issues which actually is based on true illnesses and events in peoples life to help get my meaning across. 

Bulimia

People who have bulimia try to control their weight by severely restricting the amount of food they eat, then binge eating and purging the food from their body by making themselves sick or using laxatives. As with all of the eating disorders, women are much more likely to develop bulimia than men. However, bulimia nervosa is becoming increasingly common in boys and men.

Recent studies suggest that as many as 8% of women have bulimia at some stage in their life. The condition can occur at any age, but mainly affects women aged between 16 and 40 (on average, it starts around the age of 18 or 19).

Alcohol addiction

According to Alcoholics Anonymous UK, who say they have no unique definition for alcoholism, it may be described as a physical compulsion, together with a mental obsession. Apart from having an enormous craving for alcohol, an alcoholic often yields to that craving at the worst possible times. The alcoholic knows neither when nor how to stop drinking.

one in every 13 people in the United Kingdom is an alcoholic, according to the NHS (National Health Service) statistics. Even among people who are not dependent on alcohol, a sizeable proportion drink too much.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/157163.php

Drug addiction

Drug addiction is a complex brain disease. It is characterized by compulsive, at times uncontrollable, drug craving, seeking, and use that persist even in the face of extremely negative consequences.

Drug seeking becomes compulsive, in large part as a result of the effects of prolonged drug use on brain functioning and, thus, on behavior. For many people, drug addiction becomes chronic, with relapses possible even after long periods of abstinence.

http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/drugs/f/drug_faq02.htm 

Self Harming

Self-harm is when somebody intentionally damages or injures their body. It is a way of coping with or expressing overwhelming emotional distress.

Sometimes when people self-harm they intend to die but often the intention is more to punish themselves, express their distress or relieve unbearable tension. Self-harm can also be a cry for help. 

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Self-injury/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Complication

I had a complication just before i began filming for my music video. The boy who was meant to be playing in my video unfortunately broke his leg which meant that i wouldnt be able to cast him anymore. This meant i had to change my storyline so instead of doing that i thought i would change song to which would help me create a new storyline. However i still made sure that it was from the same genre and the same artist, lana del rey so not all my planning will of gone to waste. Instead i chose to do carmen.

Stage name

I have decided the actress who is playing my singer in my video doesnt have a very fancy stage name 'lea broc' therefore I have decided to play around and the name on the front cover will be Lea Katerina instead her middle name to make it more professional and fancy.

First attempt at filming

I started my first day of filming however i realised once i uploaded the shots that i had done they had all turned out like the one below. Due to my narrative being a depressing story line i wanted the lighting to be dark to reinforce this therefore i began at 3'o clock in the day just when the sun was setting however when i looked at the video it was too dark and my character wasn't visible. I now know in the future its important to hire out some lighting for when im filming so i have enough light.

I also did a shot with the light on which is shown below. Again this made me realise that lighting is very important and can be shown by looking at the 2 videos.

Reception Theory

Stuart halls ‘Reception Theory’

Here Stuart Hall believes we are part of an active audience which actively engage in the interpretation of media texts. He believes in media one message sent out but more than one understanding is made from the text. Depending on who we are depends on how the media text can be consumed and what meaning we create from the text.

Stuart Hall studies ‘semiotics’ and the way we decode a text and how the producer has encoded it.

They are encoded by the producer and are full of ideologies, values and messages that the producer wanted the audience to perceive them on. However us as an audience will decode the text depending on what audience it is not all audiences will decode and react to the media in the same way, in some cases it may be different to the producers idea.

Preferred reading is meant when a text is encoded with a meaning that the audience should interpret from the media they are given. When the audience are consuming a text they will Recognise codes and conventions and draw upon their audience expectations. These are factors such as genre and use of mise en scene etc. The producers can almost kid the audience and consequently produce a certain amount of agreement on what the text means.

There are several different types of audiences, these are:

·         Dominator preferred who agree with the message and decode it how the producer has wanted them too.

·          Negotiated this audience may agree with parts however hold their own opinions on other parts within the text.

·          Oppositional they Don’t agree with the message the producer is trying to put across.

An audience will interpret the media in tersm of certain factors these are:

· Life experience

· Mood at the time of viewing

· Age

· Culture

· Beliefs

· Gender

Mulveys theory- Example in music videos

Strauss theory- Examples in music video

In both these videos 'we are never getting back together' and 'picking up the pieces' the most obvious binary opposite within them is the boy and the girl. Due to Paloma and Taylor being our main singers us as an audience automatically see them as the better character therefore we see the boy as the antagonist. We automatically make an assumption that the boy in both has done something wrong within the video which we soon learn is true.

Theories to think about

Flashback ideas from other songs

In my music video i have decided to go with a montage of flashbacks. I have chosen to put this in because a lot of lana del rey videos are full of flashbacks. Examples of these are video games,born to die, national anthem etc. To do this i decided i would research other videos that do this in the video so i could get inspiration for what i could do in mine.

Gabrielle Aplin- Panic Cord

Katy Perry- The one that got away

Angel- The world

Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball Video

When Miley Cyrus’s wrecking ball video was broadcasted it sent a panic around the world. People slated the video and used words like ‘slut’ to suggest the actress’s new persona. However hidden in the video showed a lot of connotations of why Miley Cyrus created the video the way she did. She says, 'Lets get something straight. You guys don't understand my music video. So let me explain it to you. I kiss the sledge hammer to show that i secretly still love the pain. I'm naked to show how Liam destroyed me. I emotionally became "naked and stripped" meaning im hurt on the inside. The wrecking ball symbolizes a destructive love, hence the song title. (the wrecking ball breaks the walls and im left laying in the remaining of it) so instead of calling me "slut" or "whore" realise im trying to tell a story of love that went wrong and destroyed me emotionally.' This could link to the concept of my music video as they are both related to the story of love and mourning over the fact that their lover is no longer there. This shows that i must put connotations in my music to relate back to the actual narrative that im trying to show like miley cyrus has done. 

Bad examples of existing music videos

Kanye west- Bound 2

I thought this video was bad because it was boring and had no story-line to it so it was quite repetitive. Also I thought the effect of the green screen was poorly done and looked very fake, what made it even worse was that it used the green screen all the way through the video which again made it look unprofessional. Another point which made this video poor was the lack of variation from cinematography and the lack of continuity by the fact that the actresses hair was blowing in the wrong direction compared to the way she was driving on the motorcycle. This video shows me things to avoid when making my video.

Beatles- Hello, Goodbye 

This video was created in 1967 which was when music videos were first discovered. It shows a lot of bad points and things i must avoid when creating my video. First of all looking at the cinematography, the shots were held for to long. For example one went on for 15 seconds which would bore the audience. It was also a cycle of shots, that just kept repeating itself so we knew what we was expecting all the time. In one shot it was shot from a side persepctive of the band. It looked messy from the curtain being visible in it. Also with a mid shot of the full band the drum players head was cut of which again made it look unproffesional.

Conventions of Lana del Rey videos

Lana del rey comes from an indie genre. In this genre it is typical for them to do live performances. This is presenting the performers doing what they love and it keeps the attention on the music itself. It takes a lot of personality for someone to play an instrument and still perform so the live performance option highlights singer’s talents in a good way and can consequently attract an audience. However now music has a narrative included in-between to break up the music video and make it more interesting for the reader. As well it supports them when competing with other artists from all genres who also do narrative videos that are based around a story to make it more unforgettable. A narrative uses a order of images and videos that narrate the song. This is made to makes sense to the audience so they can follow and link with the lyrics they are listening to. It is very popular with all genres as it leaves room for the imagination in their videos.  With a video an artist can make it as creative as they want and is a unique way of making a music video stand out from the rest and attracting more viewers due the many variations so you can make it as different as they want. Also with the development of new technology storylines can be created using special effects and after affects in post productions to make the video realistic but exciting. Narrative videos also keep the audience constantly entertained and can also relate more with the artist. Narrative videos are used throughout most lana del rey videos.

Mise en scene also helps with the creation of music videos in the indie genre. Indie artists like lana del rey have a retro look which is created through the sets, props and the way the singer is presented. This can be shown in Lana Del Rey’s – National Anthem where throughout we can see her posing around her glamorous and expensive house. Presenting the singer as a wealthy and well respected lady, it also shows us how she wants to be perceived from her music. Costumes give people their individuality which varies from other genres and artists. Even though Lady Gaga is not part of the indie genre elaborate choice in clothing creates herself her own personal identity. Makeup can also give us an indication as to which era the video is meant to be set in. A lot of lana del rey videos are meant to be set back a few years.  For example she uses very subtle make up in her videos with a pale face and red lipstick showing a similar look to the 50’s.

Sound is evidently important as the video is done to make us appreciate the talent. Many effects can be extra to the sound by creating effects like distorting it, fading it or even added more to it to present different emotions in the video. Diegetic sounds are also used throughout a lot of lana del rey videos by helping to set the scene at either the end or the beginning. An example of this is in Lana Del Rey’s national anthem as she ends the song with a small speech and it begins with the screeching of fans.

For cinematography close ups are generally used to introduce us to the characters or the. Some videos may also use Close ups to focus us on the artist singing or to make it clear to the audience what type of emotion they are trying to portray. In a lot of Lana del rey videos this happens because they are usually quite emotionally and always set an atmosphere for its audience. Full length shots are mainly used because it shows the setting of the video and shows us the artist’s outfits. This is important in lana del reys videos because she is a style icon and her music is very unique. Crane shots are used mainly in live performances as it allows you to get the artist from many different angles and also helps to keep the focus on them throughout. Tilts or pans make the setting clear and can move from left to right so we can see the full set and fully understand the story.

Post production helps the music video successful especially in the indie genre like lana del rey videos as she often has an old fashioned effect. Fast and slow cuts between each shot often show the pace of the music and make the video link well. This helps to put across the disposition in the video and also how they want the audience to feel. This interweaves with the editing used in the actual video, for example in some lana del rey videos a green screen is used like in Born to die to create a set behind and make the video look believable. Effects are often added over the top of videos to make them look old and worn like they are being played from old tapes, again this is a very big convention of lana del rey videos because her persona is meant to come from the 60’s. In blue jeans a black and white effect was used to convey this because it makes it seem more rural and raw.

Theories and how they can link to my video

Change of ending for lyrics- Ending 2

After discussing my storyline with my teacher we both agreed it would be quite complicated. Instead i have chosen to change the ending. Below is annotated lyric sheet like the last but with a different storyline to it.

40's makeup

Going with the conventions of lana del rey i have decided to look into the 40's makeup style to help me style my model for certain scenes.

Things needed:

• Hair rollers 
• Red lipstick
• Pale foundation
• Eyelashes
• Eyeliner
• Eyeshadow
• Hair piece- Flower
• Bandana
• Head scarf
• Sunglasses

Styles i'd like to recreate: 

History of music videos

Lana del reys audience

I believe from research Lana Del Reys music would be aimed at young adult girls between 16-30. She is a very niche artist and her music is very unique to everything out there as she combines several genres together as found from the quote of wikipedia.

he singer has described herself as a "self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra". Musically, she draws influence from what she deems to be the masters of each genre, including Elvis Presley, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Nirvana,^[7][8]Eminem, Bruce Springsteen, and Britney Spears,^[9] as well as from poetry and film noir.^[10]

Therefore she wouldn't appeal to every young girl due to this individuality. However depending on her song they each have a different style to it. Her song summer time sadness is very upbeat whereas some of her songs are slow therefore the target audience can be quite difficult to draw together.

For my video I will aim my audience for young people in todays society.

Costume Ideas

Why i've chose these settings?- In relation to my narrative linked with the lyrics shows on a previous post on my blog.

Bathroom

Is another place in the house to make my shots more varied. It shows her looking at her reflection in the mirror which is where a mirror is usually located within the house. To reflect back on herself.

Bedroom

This scene will be used throughout the majority of the song as the singer is currently in 'depression' therefore its likely she would want to be isolated from the rest of the world. Her bedroom can imply this by the idea of her boyfriends death causing her to become lazy. She also dies in this room, as she is meant to die of the overdose in her sleep.

Hessle Foreshore

I chose this setting to only be used in on place. This was the flashback of the boy and girl getting engaged, i will do this when when the sun is setting. The reason for this time and location is due to the atmosphere it will represent. It sets a romantic scene so the audience can emphasise about how in love this couple was and show why she is so distraught about his death.

Dining room

Is where people sit together to eat and drink with company. However in relation to where i choose to film the shot along with the narrative i have done it where the girl is getting drunk on her own and passes out. This shows her trying to live a normal life by eating at the dining room and drinking but it shows her taking the alcohol to far. I also used it to again show that she is in their old house again to emphasise were most of the song is set.. in the house.

Living Room

The word 'living' room is ironic because this is where people relax. This is only used once in a flashback of a boy serenading the girl with a guitar. This shows her being happy again while he is alive which is ironic to the name of the room. It also shows a room that people who are feeling normal will go in when theyre in the home so its showing back when she wasnt in depression.

Green Screen

The green screen is to be used to create the effect of an 'afterlife' and a 'fantasy' that this girl gets into with this boy and after her death. I have chose to do it this way because it need to be differentiated with reality and her dreams so i cant use a normal everyday setting.

Stairways

This is to reinforce levels of her being stuck at the top in the bedroom again isolated everywhere. Its also to show the boy carrying her up the stairs to give him the label of her 'knight in shining armour'.

Front door of house

I chose to use this location for the boy just after the girl has commited suicide. This shows a barrier stopping them from loving each other which is meant to symbolize the arguments they had that caused him to walk out shown after in song lyrics/narrative. It also shows him fighting to get to her to show that he actually did really love her.

Location idea linked to lyrics- Ending 1

Idea for narrative on lyrics- Ending 1

Lana Del Rey- Styles of the singer

Conventional Photos of Lana Del Rey- Style/Costumes

The singer of the music video im doing has a retro theme which she tries to portray through her style and music. She wears a lot of vintage clothes and uses vintage hairstyles within her videos. Also the style of her music is written like olden day american songs.

Key Definitions

How I can portray my idea in story?

I have researched some music videos where I can take ideas off for my own. They are shown below and an explanation of what i would use out of it and why:


Suicide
In this video I like the way the director has made the girl end her life. In this song it shows the girl dreaming of what would happen after she died. This could be an idea to put at the end of my story line where she wakes up and shes still alive. Or i could stick to the girl actually dying. It could also tell a full story not linking with the lyrics throughout the song but the chorus is the only part were the singer sings to the song and is imagining herself with the boy.



Memories with pictures
I like the idea that the singer is reminiscing about her ex boyfriend. Although the story lines different within this song i could still use it to my advantage where the singer is looking at all these good times with her boyfriend and looking in the past. I could even use them as the introduction to the abstract memory. With the photo being showed then the girls memory of the day it was took. The boy could also fade out the photo showing he is no longer there anymore. This would be good for my lyric 'even though your not here wont move on'. Then after this lyric the memory could come in.


Abstract Memories
Lots of lana del rey songs show abstract of memories, sometimes not even relating with the song. I could also do this with my music video but do memories of her in 2 lives, this way the audience will be able to emphasise more and see the contrast between when the singer is happy to when she is in misery. This will also make the video conventional too. I can also have parts where the singer is singing along with the song too.





Lyrics link
This video has a narrative slightly like mine where in the sence the boy gets killed. Here they have done shots and scenes where the boy is watching over the girl when he is gone and shows he is still their for her. It also shows the girls reaction to the boys death within the song. For lyrics in my song such as 'your soul is haunting, and telling me that everything is fine' i would choose to recreate certain scenes out of this such as when he is watching her in bed etc.

Skills Essay

When I first began my AS year in media studies I started of quite clueless to a few things whereas my starting year of A2, I feel a lot more confident and overall I believe I have come a long way with many aspects of media. My essay will  be comparing my skills from the beginning of AS media to present day.

In my AS year we had to design a magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. In order to do this we had to use digital technology in order to make it look as professional as possible. The main software we used was adobe photo shop. This was actually very complicated software as there was so much we could do to our photos and front cover to make it look professional. Before we began the magazine we had a starter activity to produce a perfume ad. This gave me the chance to play around and get to know the software before I began my final task. This helped me improve as it made sure I could correct any mistakes or problems I may have had with the software before designing my magazine. When I began my final product I would research on the internet tutorials on certain things you could do with adobe Photoshop such as changing hair colour, airbrushing face etc. This helped widen my skills in photoshop and has given me understanding of all the different aspects from when I first began up to my finished final product.

My creativity has also expanded from starting the course to present day. When we designing my magazine I had to stick to typical conventions such as headlines, main photo, barcode etc. However before I began my coursework I got taught about different styles of magazines, types of genre, the conventions within the genre. My magazine was an RnB magazine aimed at young adults in university and students. This gave me a lot of ideas on poses that my model could do and how I could arrange my magazine to give it its own style. Also because we had to do different drafts of our cover it meant I could experiment with the creativity of my cover.  

Before I even began constructing my final work I did a lot of planning and research running up to it. This really helped with the production of my magazine and really boosted my grade up as it taught me how to make my magazine match to existing other real life magazines but add my own kick to it. In my research and planning I did things like analysing existing products by looking at the mise en scene within the photos. This gave me ideas on who my magazine would be aimed at, with this in mind I built a questionnaire given to a few different age groups. This helped me to understand what genre matched with which age group and how I could reflect this in my overall product I also looked in depth at the genre I was doing and the type of celebrity’s that would be featured in magazines of this genre. This gave me my idea for my main celebrity ‘lea bee’ who was represented as glamorous with a fur jacket but contradicting with the revealing clothes underneath.  

The post production side was a lot more difficult to the planning and research and photo taking. As I have already said this was due to having to pick up the skills from internet tutorials for adobe photoshop. I began by arranging my conventional magazine features on a page seeing what worked best and what didn’t. I did this by using the layer tool making it easier to move certain things on the cover such as the headline. However this was quite difficult as I had a lot of layers I had to work with, at one point I had 47. I also used adobes tools to edit my photos for the magazine. Adobe photoshop helped me change the colour of my models hair, add accessories, cut out background images, changing the settings of the picture (such as contrast) and airbrushing my models skin. I also had to write an article for my double page spread on my artist. This helped me on my writing skills. I also wrote an evaluation on my final product. This gave me the chance to reflect on all the skills I have learnt and what I could of improved.

In conclusion I think I have improved and come along way from when I first began my media studies course to now. I hope to bring these skills I have been taught into my next year of media in order to get a good grade in my coursework this year.

Imagery within lyrics

Lyric Timing