extra ideas

another idea we liked, was this cartoon style look. Like shown on Examples video above. We thought this would give the video abit more creativity. It may be tricky to do, but still achievable. As we like the projector idea, adding this in may make the video too complicated. So it is something we would have to decide when we are in the process of making it. As simplicity is usually the key to success.

Inspiration (The White Stripes - Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground)

Here is a clip out of The White Stripes - Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground
which we loved the way the past has been prjected into the present we are going to try and use this in our own video

Class feedback

After we pitched our ideas to the class we were asked questions on our video ideas to see how well we had thought them through. We were asked questions such as, how are we going to percieve the idea of drinking and drug taking in a safe way. We could easily answer this as there are many ways around not actually drinking or taking the drugs. For example we can fill up empty alcoholic bottles and make our actors/actresses look like they are taking the drugs. Also we were asked how we would control such a big group of people, as we will be using a vast amount of people to fill the house. We answered this by explaining that we will be selective about the people we choose to be in our video. As all four of us have different groups of friends we will easily be able to round up lots of volunteers to take part in the video. Having this discussion with the class has helped us to confirm some of ideas, and to also think more thoroughly about others.

25 word pitch

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Change of song

As a group we had a discussion and decided it would be best of we changed our song as none of could come up with ideas of how we could make a video contrasting and pursuing what we wanted to.

Madonna - Justify My Love

For my final video analysis, i have chosen Madonna - Justify My Love because it was also banned on MTV (like 'Like A Prayer) but this video was banned for being too 'raunchy' and caused a lot of controversy. Even though this video is way more sexual than our video will be, i have chosen it because i like the way Madonna is a victim of the male gaze, yet she is in control of them looking at her.

Voyeurism plays a huge part in this video, because there is an obvious reference to sex throughout. Within the first minute of the video the audience see Madonna is wearing suspenders and a bra with just a big long coat over the top. This is a huge example of the 'male gaze'. The way the whole video is in black and white and really slow so it looks almost as if it is in slow motion, makes the whole thing a lot more sexual than it actually is, because it's all slowed down so the audience can see sexual references in more detail.



The way in which Madonna has a man on top of her obviously in a very sexual way but has a man at the side watching, lusting over her, is almost perverse. This also is an example of the male gaze because a man is by the side watching, but Madonna isn't innocent because she turns and looks right into the mans eyes which shows us she wants men to look at her like that, which has worked all over the world.

Thsi video is aimed at men, because of the obvious references to sex. Women would watch this though because Madonna is someone every woman wants to be, a role model for women. Because even though she is being sexual in an obvious way, she has control over the men watching her, she's not being victimised.



Once again, Madonna uses blasphemy in one of her videos. This is done purposely throughout her carrer to draw attention to herself which made her a very successful artist. We see that along with her underwear she is wearing necklaces, and the one that stands out is one with a big crosss on it, sggesting she culd be religeous and the way she acts throughout the video is a form of rebellion.

Throughout the whole video, the lyrics are illustrated throught the images used (sex) which then creates a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. They are then amplified which is why the video is so sexual throughout, to constantly show the meaning to the audience. There could also be intertextual references, but not with other music videos, film or TV, but with porn because of the obvious, crude reference to sex throughout the video.

Pink- So What Analysis

Pink is a very strong character and has a hard front to her. She can appear to be intimidating and also fairly violent and boisterous in her songs and videos. Most of her songs seem to be quite controversal and have a deeper meaning behind them as if she is trying to get a certain message across to her audience. This is one of the reasons I like her and her music as it has a true meaning to it and projects to the audience in a powerful and emotional way. In the video that I have embedded below Pink is singing about getting over an ex and how she is better off without him and still has her career. I think Pink is similar to Amy Winehouse as they both seem to speak their mind through their music which not all artists do. They both tend to involve themes such as alcohol and drugs, with pain in their videos. This reflects on their lifestyle and how they view themselves and society. The lyrics in their songs also shows their true feelings. In the video below that I have embedded we see Pink very angry and she chops down a tree with her name and her loves written on it, this makes her look powerful and also distressed. You then see her on a quad bike riding down the ride, people in the video are getting angry as she is the way and causing trouble, this shows her character off. In our video I want the character to also seem distressed as this is part of the song. I also love Pinks style of clothing and the makeup she wears. It highlights her character and the way she is. I like the idea of showing emotions physically in the video as it goes with the lyrics of the song.


In the video we see different visuals of Pink getting into fights and generally causing trouble.If we look at Pinks video using Andrew Goodwins theory we can identify that some areas are amplified, and the lyrics are related to the visuals. This adds emphasises and creates a clearer image in our heads when they link. here is an example of this.

Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own

I've chosen to analyse Amy Winehouse - Tears Dry On Their Own because, obviously it's the same artist we are using for our final video, but also because there are several elements in the video we are going to use in ours.



I've used tubechop to cut this section of the video because i feel it's the most significant part. I really like the way it's so simple the way Amy Winehouse walks down the street but the mise-en-scene stands out. And it's the same in the hotel room, she's just sitting on the edge of a bed singing but we can just see bottles of whiskey and some smoke probably from a cigerette.

Because of the place this video set, Soho, the treatment of females is quite one-sded and apart from Amy we only see three other women leaning against the wall when Amy walks down the street, two are prostitutes and one is wearing very provocotive clothing.



This camera angle as she walks down the street has a intertextual reference to The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony's video. In the way she is just walking down the street completely oblivious to everything thats happening around her. As the video progresses the people around her become more hectic and outragous, this represents what it's like in Soho. The camera doesn't once go away from her body or face, it just changes from the street back to the hotel room. This video has disjuncture because what Amy Winehouse is singing about has nothing to do with what's happening in the video.

Kesha- Your Love Is My Drug Analysis

I watched this video the other day on the music channel and for the first time I found the video really interesting. I've never been particularly found of the song but after I watched the video closely I enjoyed. This backs up the fact that the music video always makes a difference to a song. If you enjoy the video you have more chance of enjoying the song as you don't mind watching it and listening. I enjoyed the wildness aspects of the video such as the animals and the way Kesha is presented. She comes across as an adventurous character the way she dresses and the types of surroundings she is featured in. This makes her seem powerful and appear to the "Male Gaze" (Laura Mulvey) as a strong, independent woman who is fearless. The animals in the video give a great feel to it by making it interesting and fun.

The clip below, I thought really highlighted an area of the video that I loved. The animations that are in the video make it almost seem magical and appeal to a younger audience as well. The effects are fantastic to watch and make the video different. I especially liked the animations of the fish underwater and the mermaid. This really broadened my own imagination and thoughts for my own music video and the different effects and features that you can include to improve your video and make it relevant for the audience.

Another important thing is the title, although the word "drug" is in there, it is used as a metaphor to describe her addiction for her lover. I thought this was very convenient to look at because it has some relations to Amy Winehouse "Rehab", which is also about an addiction but to real drugs. Both of their music videos are completely different but are both fantastic. I would compare Kesha to Amy in some ways, as they are both very wild and different to other people which makes them stand out. I have gathered some good ideas from this video and will consider some of the elements for inspiration.

By identifying Andrew Goodwin's theory, we can say that there is no link between the visuals and the lyrics in the video, which is called disjuncture. There are no certain images that represent the meaning of the lyrics yet the video does feature a male of which we assume to be her lover. Throughout the video we do see a variety of shots varying from close ups and long shots of Kesha singing, which fits in with the pop genre.

In the song there is an inter textual reference to the Beatles Children Film, which was called the Yellow Submarine. Which has been associated with LSD and other drugs. In the Beatles video we see animations which are like the ones in the Kesha video. I think that there was some inspiration from the music video by the Beatles.

Video analysis

I have chosen to analysis the video Listen by Beyonce. I have used Tubechop to cut to the certain bit of the video that i like. I really like the opening of the video as the shot of the theatre sets the scene and then as the doors open we can see Beyonce lip syncing the words to the song. I feel like this grabbed my attention as she was focusing on the camera which made me feel involved in the video. We could also feel her emotion by her body language. The way she looks away from the camera yet still singing shows a sense of fear, and sadness. Also the mise en scene in the video, for example she is wearing plain, simple clothes which tie in with the slow/plainness of the song. She has her hair down, with lose curls, and she is wearing little makeup. This all reflects the slow song that she is singing. When the scene changes to photos of herself in a room, this leave you with a question as to what she is trying to portray through her song, because you don't know why this is included in the video. I really like the way shes shown two different images of herself. Shes used a simple, plain look where shes expressing herself to the audience. Then shes also used a shot of her where she appears very classy.



Another video i have chose to analyse is Can't hold us down by Christina Aguilara. This video is classed as disjunctive as the action going on in the video is nothing to do with what Christina is doing or singing about. However i feel it works really well as it gives the audience an idea of where its set and who the character is in her video. We can tell its set in a less privileged part of America, where most of the people who live their know each other. We can see they have included stereotypical on goings that occur in America. Such as the skipping, the break dancing and the big boom box. I like the outfit Christina is wearing as her song is about boys harassing girls, however she is wearing very little in the video which is going to attract the attention that she is dismissing in the song. I also like the way she is singing to the male, as if she is speaking to him! This works effectively as we can see that her song is a message.



The last video Ive chose to analyse is Somebody to love by Jusin Beiber. I love the opening to this video as the spotlight puts the attention on the action that the dancers are doing. Street/break dancing is a very popular interest of teenagers, which is the main target audience of Justin Beiber. I also like the way Justin dances too as it doesn't then look like he is getting all these dancers in his video yet he cant dance. It grabs their attention as the moves and lighting work really well together. Also the way a girl stands behind Justin and he then looks and shes not there is symbolising the meaning to the song. He's looking for someone, who he is there, but he cant see her. I also love the way she dances off to the music and it then carries on with two more boys. It looks so creative and really appeals to me. His hair style and clothes are modern and appealing. This attracts his target audience of teenagers (mainly girls). His outfit portrays his image of who he is and what he's about. It shows he is a young lad, with charisma. The dust coming up off the floor also adds extra detail into the video and makes their dancing looks more effective as it looks like there creating dust to arrise off the floor.

Mood board

As part of our research and planning i put together a mood board to show some ideas and features we may include in the video. I took pictures of scenary, clothes, props and people to give us a basic ideas.

Rihanna- Shut Up and Drive Analysis

This is "Shut Up and Drive" by Rihanna, we chose to analyse this as some aspects of the video inspire us for our own video. Rihanna is a very confident character and comes across very powerful in her videos. She is very attractive and could definitely be seen as an object of the "Male Gaze". Rihanna is portrayed as an independent woman in her videos by her body language and posture. As we chose to do the song "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse, we thought Rihanna would be a good comparison as they are both confident. Amy is confident in a different way to Rihanna and doesn't seem to appeal to the Male Gaze as much as Rihanna does. Amy is more masculine than Rihanna although they are both portrayed as fairly tough.One part of the video that inspires me is that you do not see Rihanna singing constantly, she tends to move around and do other things while the song plays. I think this is vital in a music video because it makes the video look more realistic and interesting to viewers. I love Rihannas unusual style because that's what makes her such a good artist.

For Rihannas video there are general conventions of the R&B genre where she seems to dance around and have some sort of routine, By using Andrew Goodwin's theory we can see that there is a illustrative relationship between the lyrics and visuals. As some areas of the song, the lyrics do link in with the visuals. Such as when she sings "Shut Up and Drive" and the cars drive off which we can see in the clip above.

Gabriella Cilmi - Sweet About Me

I have chosen to analysis Gabriella Cilmi - Sweet About Me because its the same genre of our chosen song.




tube chop

Lady Gaga - Alejendro

I have chosen to analyse Lady Gaga - Alejendro because it's quite a controversial video in the way it uses blasphemy in a sexual way.



I have chopped this part of the video because the song is about rape, and this is shown in reverse with her tieing a man up and pulling at the rope, this illustrates the meaning of the video through because it gives the woman power whereas a woman is powerless in rape. She also uses blasphemy throughout this video which is used in a sexual way how she is wearing full make-up dressed as a nun singing a song that is about rape.

I have chosen this video because of the controversy it has brought into the music industry. Because we are doing Amy Winehouse - Rehab as our video we are looking at other controversial videos to gather ideas together.



The red and white custume Lady Gaga is wearing has connotations with religeon and the fact she is weaaring it but has changed it look more sexual and revealing makes it more modern and mocks the religeon. She also has beads with a cross on the end and places the whole thing in her mouth in slow motion which again leads to sex.

Voyeurism is present in this music video but it could be argued that it's reversed, the male gaze is for women becase Lady Gaga is the only female present in the video but it surrounded by male dancers with their tops off.

Our Music Video Choice

To decide on the music we wanted to use for our music video we had a large discussion between the four of us. This took some time as we all had different ideas and all like different music. We decided we only wanted one or two people in the video and that the other two would film. After going through many artists such as Rihanna, Pixie Lott and Lady Gaga, we decided that we wanted something more extreme and unusual compared to other artists. Although Lady Gaga is very extreme we decided we wanted something realistic that showed life as it is today instead of the extreme being with the costumes and the song. We came to the conclusion that we would do "Rehab" by Amy Winehouse, as this covers the themes of drugs, alcohol, and views on society's and stereotypically young peoples lives. As the song is called "Rehab" we said that we could really explore this title and include various things in the video related to the title. As a lot of programmes on television like Skins and Shameless show us what teenagers lives can be like we thought this video would be appropriate and appeal to a large audience just like Skins and Shameless do. For inspiration we have looked at other artists like Eminem for example, as he tends to be fairly adventurous with his lyrics but is very to the point although this can sometimes be too much and inappropriate.

Between the four of us we discussed that myself would play the main character and lip sync the song. For my outfit, of which is still undecided, we have chosen to make me appear hungover. We will achieve this by using a selection of face makeup to make me appear this way, to have messy hair and ripped, dirty clothing.

Here is a sample of the song to show the sort of inspiration we have gathered from this and the song we will be using. I have sent an email to Amys record label to ask for permission to use her song. I am unable to embed the video as this has been disabled but here is the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LTPRJqt2z4