Friday, 12 June 2015

Goodwin's Narrative Theory.


Goodwin's narrative theory consists of three categories; Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture.
Illustration; the video tells the story.
Amplification: The images amplify the lyrics as a narrative may be used to covey a deeper meaning that would not be picked up from the lyrics alone. The artist(s) may take on fictional roles within the narrative.
Disjuncture: There is little connection between the lyrics and video or where the video contradicts the lyrics.

Beyonce's video Pretty Hurts is an example of illustration.
 
In the video, we see her getting ready at a pagent and perfecting herself and the lyrics are;
'Pretty Hurts, we shine a light on whatever's worst
Perfection is a disease of a nation, pretty hurst, pretty hurts
Pretty Hurts, we shine the light on whatever's worst 
We try to fix something that you can't see
Its the soul that needs the surgery'


 Here, we see the title of the song is reinforced in the video by being printed on a sash which illustrates the fact they are at a beauty pagent. 

 In this shot we see the girls are getting ready to go on stage, showing the competitiveness of the pagent. 
 She is being measured, this shows the pressure she is under to be skinny to fit in with the other models. 
Here we see that she has lines round her face suggesting she is having surgery- this illustrates the standard of perfection they must be 








Finally, we see all the girls dressed up on stage at the pagent. This concludes the video as we have seen them from the start, getting ready and this is the end result. 









An example of Disjuncture would be Lady Gaga ft Beyonce- Telephone.












None of these images have anything to do with the lyrics, in the video we see Lady Gaga dressed up in several different strange costumes and we see her crawling round half naked in a jail, next we see her with Beyonce in the car and then they poison some people in a diner, which has got nothing to do with any of the lyrics in the song. 

Finally, an example of Amplification would be Judas- Lady Gaga.



 The video opens with an extreme long shot of 12 men on motor bikes and her at the front. The song is called Judas, who was one of Jesus' 12 disciples. Therefore, the 12 men could represent the disciples and she could be Jesus.
 We then see a close up of her necklace, which is covered in crosses and through out the video we see a lot more crosses, this could be highlighting the fact that Jesus was put on the cross to die.
Next we see Lady Gaga on a bike with a man who is wearing a gold crown with what appears to be thorns on it, which is what Jesus was wearing when he died.
Finally we see her dressed in this Blue headdress/outfit, which conveys her as Mary, Jesus' mother. Therefore I think this video has more of a deeper meaning compared to what we see on the surface of the video. 


















Thursday, 11 June 2015

Annotating my website.

The front page of my website is very simplistic with a little biography of Rihanna's life, this is so that it will draw fans in and people who maybe don't know her as well will want to look in more detail at the website. The technological convention of the blue theme across the website will help attract an audience, all though Blue is seen as more of a masculine colour, I think using baby blue appeals to both a male and female audience, I also chose it as I felt it fitted the theme of her i-D magazine shoot, which I chose an image from to use as the header on the home page of the website. 


  As Rihanna's target audience is teenagers both male and female, I used a twitter widget to show audience can follow her on there and keep up to date with her, as they are always on       social media.

The gallery allows fans to look at recent images of Rihanna, whether it is at the latest event or of day to day life shopping or having something to eat. This reflects on of the paradoxes of Dyers Star Image, She is ordinary, as we can see from pictures of her wearing no make up and shopping in the supermarket, but also extraordinary as we see her at events such as the Met Gala and her Movie premiere wearing couture gowns. Rihanna presents herself as an 'Island Gal' so in the gallery, we can also see images of her in Barbados, where she is from, having fun which I also think is one of her ideologies, to not care too much and have fun- which is reflected in her pictures. This also supports Dyers Star Image that she has been presented as an ideology. These images are also symbolic conventions as she looks beautiful in every image, boys will find this attractive and girls may aspire to be like her and I also thinks it puts across the message 'always be the best you can be' or 'make the most of your self' which could be seen as other ideologies.  I laid the images out like this as it makes it much easier and clearer for the viewers to see.

The store is another way of attracting the fans to the site and it is also another way for the star/label to make money, this fits into Dyers Star Image as she has been constructed as a commodity, to make money for the label, we can also see that she has featured on the cover of Harpers Bazaar, which supports this theory. Again, I laid it out very simply to make it easier for the viewers to purchase.
The tour page shows a header of Rihanna with 'Diamonds World Tour' written on her arm, it then lists her American tour dates, so fans can check to see what date she will be in their city etc and then get buy tickets. This is an example of how she has been constructed as a commodity by her label, to make money.


The news section of the website shows articles that have been published recently about Rihanna, This helps keep the fans up to date with her and what she is doing. It also features images of Rihanna at recent events and talks about achievements she has achieved. In one of the articles it also talks about her being on the front of Harpers Bazaar, which reinforces Dyers Star image.

Monday, 8 June 2015

Madonna - Like A Prayer








Madonna’s music video ‘Like a Prayer’ was set and released in America in 1989, it is seen as one of

the most controversial music videos known to date.

We first see an establishing shot of a church, this tells us where the video is set and it is also represents Christianity. It is an extreme long shot and shows us that it is in the middle of nowhere and lonely, which may be why Madonna has turned to religion as she felt lost. However, we can also see an orange light coming from inside the church and it looks like it is on fire, which is not something we associate with church/heaven, we normally associate it with hell. However, once it cuts to inside the church, we can see it isn’t burning and in fact, religion is reinforced with props such as candles and crosses.










We then see a high angled shot of her kneeling down praying, which makes her look small and because she is praying, we assume she is going to be religious. However, we can see from the high angled shot that she is dressed provocatively as she is wearing a low cut red dress, revealing her boobs. This is illustrating her as a sexual object and it is extremely controversial as she is in a church and it is seen to be extremely disrespectful to be in church dressed like this. Also suggesting the fact this is why her music is selling; sex sells. This is also reinforced when she starts kissing the Black Jesus, later on in the video we also see her kissing his feet, showing she worships him and he has more authority than her, the fact he is Jesus also reinforces this.  The high angle also connotates how weak she is and it makes her look vulnerable.









The lighting used within the Mise En Scene, is also Red, which illustrates danger, provocativeness and love, all of which are conveyed in this video.


The editing used within this video is also synchronous; it uses lots of fast cuts, which cut in

time with the beat of the music, which illustrates action.


We see a group of White men that have been involved the raping of a White woman, which is once

again objectifying women and showing them to be weak, once again, when the police show up, they run away, and we see a low angle of a Black man running down the stairs, the low angle allows the Black man to look powerful and caring, which subverts the Black Stereotype of being uncaring, However, the police turn up and arrest him for the rape. This highlights the amount of Racism in America at the time that this video was released; these issues are still ongoing, such as the Baltimore Riots currently happening. This is also reinforced later on in the video when we see a long shot of Madonna dancing in front of burning crosses which were used to warn of celebrate when the Klu Klux
Klan had or were about to kill a Black person. So when we see her dancing and happily singing in front of them, it is seen as extremely disrespectful, which again causes a lot of controversy. The cross is also a symbol of Catholicism, which will again be seen as disrespectful.














Towards the end, we also see a group of gospel singers, dressed in Red, a colour that has appeared

many times in this video, the gospel singers are also seen as a convention of the Christianity religion, which has also been an issue within this video. However, all though Madonna is on her knees in front of them crawling along the floor, showing a more sexual side, it could also represent the fact that she is
free and has no worries and show the fact that because the gospel choir celebrate when they sing, they could be leading her to go and set the other Black man free from prison which once again subverts the stereotype of Black people being unkind and uncaring.


At the very end, we see a Red curtain come down, which gives it the sense of a show, indicating
they may have put this whole thing on to make the audience realise ongoing issues in society that are even still going on today.